New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-19
WHAT KNOW OF FARMING.
VII.
VIII.
z .-.u.ING TIMRER- TREE-pLANTlNG
by HORACE GREELEY.


proftably increased to one-half. ! am thinking OF
such a. are in good part specifically rugged ana
rocky or sandy and sterile such as New Engiahu'
eastern New York northern New-Jersey with oo'n
slopes of the Alleghenies, rs well as tine "es'e'"
third of our continent abound in. 1t may DO tna'
Is advisable 10 be content with smaller propoi'o"
of timber in the Prairie States and the oroad' ici'
interyales which embOsOm most OF our great l''oi'
for at least part of their course; but l uouo' It,
And there is scarcely farm in the whole country
utside of the great primitive forests IN when oPe"
incs have but recently been MADE III "no" SUNNI
tree plantine is not urgently required
"Too ,uuch land" you will hear assigned on every
.de "a a reason for poor farming and meacer crops
Al AN average farmer in New-England, in Virginia.
in Kentucky or in Alabama. why the crops OF MS
section are in the average no better and the answer
three tunes in four will be, Our farmers have TOO
much land"-that is. not too much absolutely nut
100 much relatively TO their capital, stock and gen
era ability to till effectively The hamtual grower
OF poor crops will profer this explanation quite as
freely and frequently as his more thrifty neghbot.
And what every one asserts must have basis OF
truth
Now | do not mean to quarrel with the instinct
which prompts my cOuntrymen to buy and hold to"
much land They feel as / do. that land is still
chcap almost anywhere in this COuntry-cheap. II
not IN view of the income derived from IT. Ger
talny in contemplation of the price 1t must 500"
command and the income 1t might, under oe'to'
management be made TO yield Under thiS cohN''
tion-nr. if vou please, impression-evcrY one Is
intent on holding to more land than ne can lio"'
nbIy flI II not more than he can promptly pay i"'
Wilt do object TO il simply this-that thousands
who have more land than they have capitai 10 "o'N
rr,Gtahly will persist in half-tilling many acres,
instead al thoroughly farming Onehalt or Ohe-thiu
80 many aud getting the rest into WOod so iaSt 'S
may be- J am confident that two-thIfd' OF All our
farmers would improve their circumstances ana III
crease thcir incomes by concentrating their EFFORTS
their means, their fertilizers, upon half to twohIHs
o the area they now skim and skin ana giving Tue
residue back TO timber-growing
In nv own billy rocky, often boggy' NcS'chcSter-
p,o,b.y within six of being the oldest Agricultural
County in the Union-I am confident that ten tnou-
sand acre, might tomorrow be given back to forest
with oro.it 10 the owners and advantage to all lts
iul,,jt,rts Ii is a fruit growing, milk-producing
truck farming county, closely adjoining the greatest
city OF the New World; hence. ne%herein lana can
b. cultivated as profabiy as almost anywhere else
vet am satisfied that half its surface NAV he more
adyaptageouslv devoted to timber than to grass OF
tIllanc Nay: doubt that one acre IN hundred OIL
rocky lnl-that Is land ribbed or dotted Win IochS
that Ac bar or the rock hook cannot lift from theif
beds and which it will not yet pay TO blasts
found advisable to clear them utterly OF stone break
iny thrnagh or rising within two feet of the surface
The tip,e will doubtless arrive in which many fields
will p,y for clearing of stone that would not to-day
these. urge should be given mp TO wood now. ana
kent wooded until the hour shall have struck Tor
,,dJ,n, then, of every impedimcnt to the steady
progress o. both the surface and the subsoil plow
We're all the rocky crests and rugged activities of
this County bOunteousy wooded once more ana Kept
So for generation, our floods would be less iDjur-
ons onf springs uufang, and our streams more
constant and cquable: our blasts would he less bit
ter aud orr gales less destructive to fruits we should
have vastly more birds to delight us by their melody
and nd us i'm our not very successful war with de
vourus Insects we should grow peaches, cherries,
aud other delicate fruits which the violent capnceS
of our seasons the TemOrseess devastations OF our
visible and invisible insect enemies, have all but an
initiated: and we should keep more cows and make
more milk on two thirds of the land now devoted to
grass than we actually do from the whole OF 1t. And
what * true of WeStchester is measuraby true OF
every rural county in the Union
have said that believe in cutting trees as well
a, ia growing them | have not said, and do not
mean 10 say that l believe in cutting everything
clean - you 20. That was proper III Wcstches-
ter il 4, still advisable in fOTeSt-coyered regions.
where 4l. sun must be let in before crops can bo
grown. but M nine cases out OF ten, timber should
be th,uucd cuicd ont rather than cut off anu for
every tree taken away, al least two should be planted
81 set ont.
We have pretty well outcrown the folly of letting
every appc-tree bear such fruit il will; though in
the orchard OF my fathers little farm in Amherst,
n H. wherein / was born, tree had ever been
grated when i babe adieU to il in 1870; and pre-
sumo none has been to this day By this time almost
every farmer realizes that he can afford 10 grow lit
tie gnafly. villainOusly or detcstaby bitter
sweet apples when, by duly setting graft at a cost
of two dimes, he makes that identical tree yield
tirecuuc> or Pippns at least as bounteously. pre-
sumo The cumulative experience OF fifty or sixty gen
Grafton, Of appe-growers has rpened this conclusion
WHY do they not infer readily and generally that
growing Indifferent timber where the best and most
valued would grow rapidly, Is a stupid, costly
bluuder' 1t seems to that whoever has attained
tue conviction that appletIees should be grated
ought 10 know that it is wasteGul to grow Red Oak
Beech White Maple. and Alder. where White Oak
Hickory Locust and White Pine, might be grown
with equal facility in equal luxmrrnce, provided the
right seeds were planted, and little pains taken TO
Keep down, for year two the shoots spOn-
taucou,ly sent up by the wrong ones.
NORTH OF the Potomac and east Of the Ohio and
II presumed in limited districts elsewhere, rocky,
sterile woodlands costing g. TO so per acre accord
lug Ia location &C. to-day the cheapest property
90 be bought in the United States Even though
nothing were done with them but keep ont fire and
cattle aud let the young trees grow as they will
money can be more prOhtaby and safely invested
IN lands covered by young timber than in anything
else. The parent who would invest few thousands
ioi tho beueft of children grandchildren still
young. may buy woodlands which will be worth
twenty tunes their present cost within the next