Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-07-05
Rotation Of Trees, and whence Came
the Hickorics Practical Lessons

4 w Hltn GAGlltb, nOE Wilhonb AO4oOhi
the surprise o. every one who sees II
for tho first time, and tho true cause
Of which is iraperfectly understood
The trees cleared away were full
grown pinos, Pinus AgStraIlS) OF
which she surrounding wood consists,
and which might have gone on for
centuries, one generation after an
other, if their growth had not been
interfered with. But now they are
succeeded by crop of young oaks,
and we naturally ask, whence came
the acorns, and were they sown here
in such numbers. 1t seems that the
Jay, (GdrruIuS Cristatus,) has n pro-
pensity to bury aoorns and various
grains in the ground, forgetting to
return TO devour them. The rock,
also, (COrUuS Americanus,) or common
crow, does the same, and perhaps
some other birds. The squirrels and
other Rodentia bury in the earth
their winter stores of nuts and seeds,
and often plant them so deep that
they will not shoot unless the suns
rays can penetrate freely into the
soil, as when the shade of the pine
trees has been entirely removed. 1t
must occasionally happen that many
birds and squirrels fail from one
cause and another to return TO feed
on their hidden stores, perhaps are
killed or wander abroad. But as the
seeds of the pines are infinitely more
abundant than the acorns, we have
still to explain what principle in veg
etable life favors and insures the ro-
tation. Liebig adopts De Coudalle's
theory, rs the one most probable
that the roots Of an old forest absorb
or imbibe all the soluble matter
from the soil capable of supporting
the healthy life Of their kind of trees,
with sorts Of nutrition also which are
unwholesome, and which are ex-
PEELED from the roots and replaced
in the soil Now, as excrements can
not be assimilated by the plant
which elected them, the more Of
these matters the soil contains, the
less fertile must il become for plants
of the same species. These exuda
tions, however, may DO capable of
assimilation by another perfectly
different kind or family of plants
which would flourish while taking
them up from the soil, and render
soil, in time, again fertile for the first
plants. The ex0rementitious mat
tiers of cleared forest are soon con-
verted by the heat Of the sun into hui
mus, or vegetable mould, restoring
fertility"
/ copy the above from book of
foreign travels, Published some years
ago, by gentleman who has since
contributed much in the way OF
practical observation in science. /
have very often listened with atten-
ton to the discussions of country
people upon the subject, whence
came the young hickories and other
trees, which flourish on the prairles
as soon as the fires are kept down
Also, why is it that the young red
oaks and some ether trees flourish
for some years, then die premature
" as if from rips old age? | have
heard il suggested that the soil con-
ceives and brings forth the kinds OF
plants and trees adapted for it; and
that, though creation is finished In
some departments of animal and veg
etable existence, there IL still work
unfinished and in course Of develop
ment. The hickories, oaks, wild
cherries, sumachs, walnuts, poplars,
quaken asps, &C., which appear quite
foreign TO our prairies, there being
none within miles, but Which spring
from the earth very soon after the
fires arc kept off, do not appear as
new or distinct creations, but are
precisely of the kinds elsewhere
known for ages. 1t is not probable
that the earth sends forth such trees
from roots freshly created. SO that
there appears no way but to adopt
the suggestions of the writer above
accounting for the origin of trees as
usual from seeds and in these cases
of apparent spontaneous growth, we
have to look to the birds and quad
rupeds as the carriers and planters
of seeds.
Liebig's theory of the decline of
tree kinds, upon the principle of ex-
haustion and rotation, is most singu-
lar, though it certainly holds good in
respect to farm crops; and indeed is
beginning to DO looked to as dis
covery or knowledge worth to the
farmer the equivalent of half his
time and labor. Particular kinds of
trees may be ages or centuries ex-
hausting the soil of what is their
best living; other kinds may very
soon drain their maternal breast and
then die of starvation and in the
process of drainage and excrementi-
ton too-why not thereby commit
a suicide, or an assassination of a
neighborly tribe of trees? Ii is
said that the flax crop deposits a
poison, or more than likely exhausts
an essential, so that second crop
cannot follow. But wheat may
sul6ly AOllOW INA 50 tuty CAOkoI iOl-
low wheat or wheat clover. But
oats are exhaustive of what supports
wheat and corn-perhaps may de-
post poisonous excrement. And
one crop may be speedy restorer Of
what its predecessor took away.
can see nothing uni easonable or out
of ordinary, known relations in what
the writer offers.
But the subject presented becomes
especially curious when applied to
the country whore | am now resid-
ing. These islands, the Azores, are
several hundred miles distant from
the shores of Europe yet, some OF
the kinds of trees here, adopted citi-
zens from Spanish forests, were seen
for the first By men still living
These late emigrsnts spread rapidly
at first, which is a known peculiar
ity of plants, lately brought from
Europe to the United States. And
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