New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-02-12
WHATIKNOW OFFARMING.
gY HORACE GREELEY.

Observation-Disclosures.


,ernal ancestors came to America in 16iO ana NY sen
engaged for three wears in and-cearing realize
that trees exist for use rather than for ornament
and have no more scruple az TO cutting timber VI
forest than as to cutting grass in meadow. CuI'y
"a the reason and end Of all vegetable growth-ol
q b,ctorv's no less than a ccrnStalkS always
considered "Woodman spare that tree just "oo"'
the most mawkish bit of badly vcSihed prose III our
language and never could guess how II shouid touo
Tho seosiblities of any one Understand then' Vn"'
prge the planting of trees mainly because believe
:. Iii MN and the preservation improvement, and
extension. of forests for precisely that reason
W, ON, NOT insensible TO the beauty and grace
lent by woods, and groves, and clumps OF rows OF
trees 70 the landscape they diversity leel 'he
force of Emersons avernent, that beauty Is i'S
own excuse for being and know that homeSteau
embowercd in, belted by. stately graceful ems,
,,aples and evergreens is really 'roHh more ana VIII
seI for more than If It were naked held ana meadow
consider it one positive advantage Ito balance many
d;sadyaptages) of our rocky hilly. rugged Eastern
country. that it Will never in all probability be so
lenuded Of forests as the rch facile praires and
.wales Of the Great Valley may be. Our winds are
Iess percng. our tornadOes less destructive than
those Of the Great West ! doubt whether there is
another equal area Of the earth's surface whereon
90 many kinds of valuable trees grow spontaneously
and rapidly, defying eradication, as throughout
New-Enpland and on either slope of the AleghenleS
and tins profIsion of timber and foliage may well
atone for, or may be fairly weighed against, many
deficiencies and drawbacks. The Yankee, who has
been accustomed 10 trees spring up spontaneously
wherever they were not kept down by AK, or plow'
or scythe. and to cross running water every hall
mile Of q Summer days Journey may well he made
homcsick, by two thousand miles of naked, dusty.
wlnd-swept Plains. whercOn he finds no water for
fifty to hundred miles. and knows 1t impossible to
cut an axhelye. much more an aXe-tree in the
course of a wearying journey. No Eastern farmer
ever realized the blesSednesS of abundant and eX-
ccllent wood and water until he had wandered far
from his bOyhOod'S home.
No one may yet be allie fully to explain the inter
dependence of these two blessings but the fact re-
mains All over the Palms. there is evidence that
trees grew and lOurished 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 that his party travelled for
days IN the bed of what had once been con-
siderable river but in which it evident that no
water had flowed for years. And have heard that
since the Mormons have planted trees cOnsidera
BILE sections of Utah. rains IN Summer are no longer
rare, and salt Lake evinces. by a constant though
moderate increase of her volume of waters. that the
equilibrium of rainfall with evaporation in the
Great Basin has been fully restored-Or rather that
the rainfall is now taking the lead.
have a firm faith that all the great deserts Of the
Temperate and Torrid Zones will yet be reclaimed by
irrigation and tree-planting The bill which Con-
gress did not pass, really consider, whereby it
was proposed, years SINCE TO give a section of
the wOOdless Public Lands remote from settlement
20 every who in separate township, would
plant aud cherish quartcrseCtiOn of choice forest
trees, ought to have been passed-with notifications,
perhaps, but preserving the central idea. Had ten
thousand quartersections in many different town.
ships Of the Plains been thus planted TO timber ten to
twenty years ago, and protected from fire and devas
atOn til now, the value of those Plains for settle
ment would have been nearly or quite doubled
capital mistake, it seems to me, is being made
by some of the dairy farmers of our own State. One
who has hundred acres of good soil, whereof
twenty thirty wooded, cuts off his timber en-
trcy, calculating that the additional grass that he
may grow IN its stead will pay for all the coal he
needs for fuel so that he will make net gain of the
time be has hitherto devoted each Winter to cutting
and hauling wood. He does not consider how much
his soil viii lose in Summer moisture how his springs
and runnclS will be dried up, how the sweep of
harsh winds will be intensified by barring his hill
tops and rayines to sun and breeze so utterly. In
my deliberate Judgment a farm of one hundred
acres viii yield more feed with far greater uniformity
Of product from year TO year, if twenty of its
rdge-cTeSs, ravine-sides and rocky places. are
thickly covered with timber. than if it be swept
clean OF trees and all devoted TO grass. Hence i'll
sist that the farmer who sweeps off his wood and re-
solves to depend on coal for fuel hoping to increase
permanently the product of his dairy makes sad
characterization.
Spain Italy aud portions of France are now suffer
ing from the imprOyIdencc that devoured their for
etS leaving the future to take care of itself pre-.
.nme the great empires of antiquity suffered from
the folly. though to a much greater extent.
The remains of now extinct races who formerly peO-
pied and titled the central valleys of this continent,
and especially the Territory of Arizona, probably
bear witness to a similar recklessness, which is par
aeled By our fathers and our own determination of
the magnificent forests of White Pine which, barely
acentury ago, covered so large a portion of the soil
o. our Northern States. Vermont sold White Pine
abundauuy to England through Canada within my
DAY: she Is now supplying her own wants from Can
ada at cost Of not less than five times the price she
sold for and she will be paying still higher rates be-
fore the close OF this century entreat our farmers
not 70 preserve every tree good, bad or Indifferent
that may happen TO he growing on their lands-but,
outside Of tie limited districts wherein the primitive
forest must still he cut away in order that land may
be obtained for cultivation to plant and rear at least
hoo better tree foi erag one they may be impelled to cu
a1'R. How tins may, in the average, be most Judi
cously done, will try to indicate in my next.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE FARMERS CLUB.
Session OF Tuesday, Feb s.-The Hon. Nathan C.
tiy IN the chair John w. Chambers. Secretary
For a rarity some seats in Room No. "A were I'M
nied. pitliess storm ragged all day without; muffs
nus ana hdla rubber were not sufficient protec-
ton from a sleet that was like Mrs. Bannerbossot,s