Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1870-03-31
FAYETTEVILLE, TENNESSEE
Thursday MOrrlug, hIarch 81, 1870
What I know Of Farming.
Trees-wood Land-Forests.
BIZ HORACE GREELEY.

4reeS-WOOO AduU-r OISStss
/ am not sentimental--much
less spooney-regarding the des.
truction of trees. Descended from
several generations of timber-cut-
tiers flor my paternals came to A.
merica in l640) and myself engag.
editor three years in land-clearing,
I realize that trees exist for use
rather than for ornament, and have
no more scruple as to cutting tim
Der in a forest than as to cutting
grass in a meadow. Utility is the
reason and end of all vegetable
growth-of hickory's no less than
a cornstalk's. have always con-
sidered "Woodman, spare that
tree, just about the most mawkish
bit of badly versi6ed prose in our
language, and never could guess
how it should touch the sensibili-
ties of any one. Understand, then,
that I urge the planting of trees
mainly because l believeit will pay,
and the preservation, Improvement
and extension of forests, for pre-
cisely that reason:
Yet I am not insensible to The
beauty and grace lent by woods,
and groves, and clumps or rows of
trees, to the landscape they diver
sify. feel the force Of Emerson's
ayerment, that "Beanty is its own
excuse for being" and know that
a homestead embowered in, belted
by, stately, graceful elms, naples,
and evergreens, is really 'OOrth
more, and will sell for more, than
if it were naked field and meadow.
I consider it one positive advan-
tage Ito balance many disadvan-
tages) OF our rocky, billy, rug
ged Eastern country, that it will
never, in all probability, be 80 de-
nuded of forests as the rich, facile
prairies and swales of the Great
Valley may be. Our winds are
less piercing, our tOrnadoes less
destructive than those of the
Great West. / doubt whether
there is another equal area OF the
earth's surface wherein so many
valuable trees spontaneously and
rapidly, defying all eradication,
as throughout New England and
on either slope of the Alleghenies,
and this profusion of timber and
foliage may well atone for, or may
be fairly weighed against, many
deficiencies and drawbacks. The
Yankee, who has been accustomed
to see trees spring up spontaneous.
ly wherever they were not kept
down by axe, or pillow, or scythe,
and to cross running water every
half mile of summer days jour.
ney may well be made homesick,
by two thousand miles of naked,
dusty, wind.swept Plains, where,
on he finds no water for fifty to a
hundred miles, and knows it i'm.
possible to cut an ax-helve, much
more an axle.tree, in the course
OF q wearying journey. No East
ern farmer ever realized the bless
edness OF abundant and excellent
wood and water until he had wan
dered tar from his boyhood's home.
No one may yet be able fully
to explain the inter.dependence
OF two blessings; but the fact re.
mains. All over "the Plains"
there is evidence that trees grew
and fourished where none are
now found, and that springs and
streams were then frequent and
abiding where none. now exist
A prominent citizen of Nevada,
who explored southwark from
Austin TO the Colorado. assured
me that his party travelled for DAYS
in the bed of what had once been
a considerable river, but in which
it was evident that no water had
flowed years. And ! have heard
that, since the Mormons have
planted trees over considerable