Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1870-01-11
For the Spectator.
TIMBER OF EVERY KIND.

From Dayton to Staunt0n, no section o
country can boast OF greater variety of tim
Der, IN close proximity to the road, embracing
all the oaks, pines, walnut, hickory, locust, &C.
Besides, the nearnesS OF the North Mountain
presents an unlimited supply, and very great
variety. All timber suited to any wants of the
company tor any use whatever, is abundant.
In the next chapter, we propose to say some
thing on the lumber question.
When the facilities of reaching market are
brought to our doors by this Valley Road, we
will discover incentives to economise the use of
our timber In thousands of ways not dreamed
Of now, even by the most intelligent among
u.s. When cur people learn that the stumps
of number OF cur oak trees, can easily be
pulled up, aud turned to most valuable ac-
count in being sawed into knees for ship build
ing, and that walnut stumps are quite an ar
tlcle OF commerce, to be converted into veneers
for he most costly cabinet-making. they will
cease to burn and destroy them. If they are In
formed that not piece Of timber, whether
spoke, ieloe, hub, axle, or what not, that en-
ters In to the construction, of every vehicle, of
every kind soever, that is used in California,
has. OF necessity, to be shipped from the At
lanlc States, they will waste burn aud destroy
the forests with far more caution, to get the
land ready tor the pillow. For years before the
war 1t was the habit Of certain manufacturers
IN the North, to come down to the swamps of
| the PanIunkey and Chickahominy, and cut and
| forward to their homes the incest maple that
| grew so abundanty around Richmond and
send them back presently in all kinds OF tubs,
pals, buckets, piggins and what not, to glut
the Richmond and Petersburg markets. Not
many years ago the writer saw four horse
load OF beautiful maple poles a neighbor cued
out of a little plat of wet land tor 6rewood,
that In the hands Of shrewd Connecticut
Yankee would have made more money, in
shoe-pegs, than this same nelghbor had cleared
off his little farm in FIVE years.
So much for an introduction to the value of
the forests of timber not alone along the
route OF this road On the farms thro' which it
will pass ani near to it, but the invaluable tim
Der lands of the mountains, are a source of un-
dreamed of wealth, If they could only be prop
erly cared for. The shingles, hoop-poes,
slaves, stocks, consisting of enough slaves and
heading to put up West India ugar-hogs
head, the beautiful hickory for chairs, spokes,
buggles, felloes axles, helves for axes. hatch
cts, scythe snaiths rakes forks, &C. Then the
dogwood, invaluable in bobbins, spoos, &C.,
for the cotton and wooen factories of the coun-
try, worth forty dollars per cord in the rough,
and sixty when turned into spools, bobbns, &c.
Now take the bark of the oaks and spruce for
tanning and tor coloring. Then the manufac-
ture of pot and pearl ashes from the burning
up the brush and leaves. Then the hydro
ca oric and other acids from The distillaton of
wood. Then take the common pitch pine OF
our mountain spurs, regarded as almost worth
less, because OF its knotty and gnarled appear
ance, and carry it through process described
IN the following paragraph, treating OF an In
ventlon lately patented, to make turpentlne on
exhibition at the State Fair at Wilmington, N.
T.. The process seems to consist Of charrlng
pine wood In a retort, and the production from
nf tO hp UoI of
tine, worth 81; eighty gals. of oil, $2S; fif-
teen gals. OF black va nlsh, 81 So; one hun
dred gals wood acid, s. 90 and forty bus of
charcoal, besides considerable inhammable gas;
bat beside this the product has market value
of $4S so, all of which is obtained at cost for
wood aud labor Of $40. This is Wilmington
invention, and it will be seen to have wonder
ful claims. Of course people will think it has
Yankee look, but it must be remembered that
since the war, Southern men have been turn
ing into Yankees, and they make sharp ones.
Who will be able to fix measure of value up
on our mountain pine, after carrying them thrO
such process?
We have only to reflect seriously, on the facts
set forth in these statements, which are truth
ful as tar as they go, and we find source OF
wealth to our people and revenue to the road
not dreamed of heretofore in our philosophy.
Ask John W. Garrett what this sort of traffic
over the Bait. & o r. Road, through the AL
eghanies as far as Grafton, has been worth as
an item in the revenues OF his road, and you
will be astounded at the figures.
MILLS, SAW-MILLS, DISTILLERIES, CARD-MA-
CHIMES, &C., ON THE NORTH SIDE.
There are thirty Touring mills, about sixty
saw mills, twenty of them with circular saws,
one large steam distillery, one paper-mill, one
oil-well, two card machines two iron-foundries,
one wooen- ailI, one fulling-mill, several pot
Il fad cod
power, permeating an agricultural region, un-
equalled in fertility in the entire State, on this
North-side, and yet cut off, remaining in, pent
up, tram meled, restricted. inconvenienced and
taxed, at a rate Of thirty per cent, to get its
products to market for the want of this Valley
Rail Road. CLINTON.
The Temperance Cause.
Vice President Schuyler Colfax delivered an
address, few nights ago, at the fair at Mary
land Institute, Baltimore in aid of the Asylum
for Incbrates, an Institution which has been
recently founded Mr.. Coliax address was
very powerful and eloquent, and concluded with
the following remarks, which We feel sure will
address themselves to the admiration and ap-
proval of all friends Of the temperance cause
He said:
"He who stands in the pass between sobriety
and lntemperance, and turns back his fellow
man IfOm the pathway 10 VI uukaru grave,
restores him clolh he'd in his right mind to
worse than widowed wife and worse than or
phaned children, shall win greater glory than
the peans of victory running TO Caesar, the
acclatnations that hail the mightest of the
earth, or even the world wide fame that clus-
| ters around the name of Leondas, the hero of
the Thermopy@a pass. For he may save not
only life, but undyiug soul However
narrow or wide your sphere IN lite may be, there
is work for all. And 1t will bring its rewards
| to your own heart, as well as memories that
| will survive long after the funeral church flow
ers have blossomed over your grave George
| Peabody, your honored townsman for many
years. when he died he had the whole civilized
world mourners at his tomb. (AppIause 1t
was not brilliant talent, nor heaped up wealth
| for which he was honored, and for which ma
ticnal vessels are bearing his remains across The
ocean to be inferred in his native land. But it
was because he sought to make those less for
tunate than himself happier tor having lived in
the world. 1t Is a noble example, worthy to be
| followed by all to the full extent of their pow
er And it is in spirit akin to this that this
noble charity was conceived.
Il will not detain you longer, except to quote
an aegory Of Mahommed from the Koran,
who, though false prophet, left behind him
many teachings far In advance of the barbaric
age In which he lived. Said Mahommed =
When man dies, the people, as they cluster
around his grave, will ask : What property
has he left behind him ?'-and they do so to
this day. 'But the angels, as they bend over
| his grave will INQUIRE What good deeds has