Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1870-04-08
farm, 6arden 4 AonsrIiOld.
From the New York Tribune.
WHAT / KNOW or FARMING.
Wiz Growing Timber-Tree Planting
- noeAcE aegrlrY

NIii.-GroNfnE EtmDcF-- AFee E4hAt1hS'
In my Judgment, the proportionof small
farm that should be permanently devoted to
trees (other than fruit) is not less than one I
fourth; while, OF farms exceeding one hum
dred acre, in area, that proportion should be
MOI less than one.third, and may often be
pro6tably increased 70 one.baIf / am think
ing Of such as are in good part specifically
rugged and rocky, or sandy and sterile. such
as New England, eastern New York, northern
New Jersey, with both slopes Of the Allegha-
MES, as well as The western third Of our con
tineni, abound in. 1t may be that it is ad
visable TO be content with smaller proper
ton Of timber in the Prairie States and the
broad. fertile intervals which embosom most
-four great rivers for at least a part Of their
course; but doubt II. And there is scarcely
8 farm in the whole country. outside OF the
great primitive forest "a which openings have
bat recently been made, which some tree
planting is not urgently required.
TOO much land, you win hear assigned
on every side as reason for poor farming
and meager crops. Ask an average farmer in
New England, in Virginia, in Kentucky Or
10 Alabama, why the crops Of his section are
in the average no better, and the answer three
times ia four, will be, '0ur farmers have too
much land is, not too much absolute
ly, but too much relatively to their capital,
stock, aud general ability to ill effectively
The habitual grower of poor crops viii profer
lais explanation quite as freely ard frequent
iy as his more thrifty ueighbor. Aud what
every one asserts must have a basis Of truth.
Now, do not mean 70 quarrel with the in
stinct which prompts ny couatrymen to buy
and hold too much land. They feel, as | do,
that land is still cheap almost anywhere in
this couutry-cheap, if not iu view Of the in.
come now derived from it, certainly in con
temptation Of the price it must soon command
and the income ii might under better man
agement, be made to yield. Under this con
yiction--or, if you please, pression-every
one is intent on holding on to more land than
he can proGtably till, if not more than be can
promptly pay for.
What l do object to is simply this that
thousands, who have more land than they
have capital to work proftably, VIII persis
in halftilling many acres, instead of thor
oughly farming one-balf or one third so many,
aud getting the rest into wood SO fast as may
be- am confident that Lwo-lhirds Of all our
farmers would improve their circumstances
and increase their incomes by concentrating
their efforts, their means, their fertilizers, up
on half or to two thirds Of the area they now
skim aud skin, and giving the residue back to
i.mber growing.
In my own billy, rocky. often boggy, West
chestey-probably within six Of being the old.
est Agricultural County in the Union-I am
confident that ten thousand acres might to-
morrow be given back to forest with profit to
the owners and advantage to all its inhabi.
tauts. It's fruit-growing: milk producing,
truck farming county, closely adjoining the
greatest city Of the New World hence, one
wherein land can be cultivated as proftably as
almost anywhere else-yet am satisfied thai
half its surface may be more advaatageousIy
devoted to timber than to grass OF tillage.
Nay / doubt that one acre in a hundred of
rocky land-that is, land ribbed or dotted
With rocks thas the bar OF the rock hook can
not lift from their beds, and which it will not
as yet pay to 6last--is now TILED to profit, or
ever viii be until it shall be found advisable
10 clear them utterly of fstone breaking through
or rising within two feet of the surface. The
time viii doubtless arrive in which many
fields will pay for clearing OF stone that would
not do SO to-d day; these, urge, should be given
mp to wood NOW, and kept wooded until the
hoursball have struck for ridding them of
egeryimpedimert to the steady progress of
both the surface aud the subsoil plow.
We're all the rocky crests aad rugged ac.
eIivities Of this County bouuteously wooded
once more, and kept so for generation, our
floods would be less injurious our springs
unlailng, and our streams more constant and
cquabIe our blasts would be less bitter and
our gales less deetructive 10 fruit: we should
have vastly more birds to delight rs by their
melody aud aid US 10 cur not very successful
war with deyouriug insects; we should grow
peaches, cherries, and other delicate fruits.
which the violent capriees Of our seasons. the
remorseless deyastations of our visible and
invisible insect enemies, have all but an,.ibi
lated and we should keep more cows aud
make more milk on two thirds Of the land nov,
devoted to grass than we actually do from the
whole Of It, And what is true Of Westebes.
ter Is measurably true Of every rural county
10 the Union.
! have said that believe in cutting trees
as wen as in growing them; have not said.
and do not mean to say, that believe in cut.
ting everything clean as you go. That was
once proper in Westchesler; It is still adyisa
ble in forest covered regions, where the sun
must be let IN before crops can be grown
but in nine cases out Of ten, timber should
be thinued or culed out rather than cut off
nud, for every tree taken away, at least two
should be planted or set out
We have pretty well outgrown the folly Of
letting every apple tree bear such fruit as it
wills though in the orchard Of my fathers
httle farm in Amherst. n. II, wheFeon / was
born, no tree bad ever been grated when |
bade adieu to It IN 1920; and / presume none
has been 10 this daY. By this time, almost
cTery farmer realizes that he can't afford to !
grow little, gnarly, yillainously sour or de.
testably bittersweet apples, when, by duly
setting graft at cost of two dimes, he |
makes that identical tree yield Greeninrs or
fippins at least as bounieoasly / presume /
tue cumulative experience Of fifty or sixty |
generations Of apple-growers has ripened this I
conclusion Why do they no, infer readily |
and generally that growing Indifferent timber
where the best and most valued would grow
as Fap'dly' as stupid, costly blunder? It |
seems to me that whoever has attained The
conviction that apple.trees should be grated |
ought to know that it 10 wasteful tc grow Red I
llak, Beech. White Maple, and Alder, where
White Oak, Hickory, Locust, aud White
Pine, might be grown with egisl gac;I;ty !,