New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-05-24

| crud pe their sons that wlicn "'" ~ ~
.r,n riso in order TO provide them with what can
"' o0sV .sorIv purpose and generous ideas.
poo' "a. ,,nnnr.Ncg or GIOwING AND PRESERVING
| THE i"i TRIES.
| IT NAV seem prcsumptuous IN me TO speak 10 you
.tto nreseryation and diffusion Of Trees in State
40 ney "a YOURS and of whose alterations of bill
and valley forest and prairie, you know 30 much ana
| I so little But there are laws everywhere potent
| needs evorywhore felt, and errors very generally
committed and of these last the most pervadlDg IL
the reckless determination of Trees 1t IL not PEE
cuiar to this continent; for France and SPAIN Italy
and Portugal, have for the most part been denuded
Of forests and suffer for it not only in the scarcity
of Timber and Fuel but in the severity and dura-
ton of their drouths, the erceness and devastatons
of their gales the violence and aggravaton OF their
| floods All of them have timber on their rugged,
sterile mountains where it is scarcely accessible and
where it is least available to heir denser and more
| active communities. But if one-tenth of the sur
| face OF each arabic square mile were now
| covered with stately and serviceable forest
trees those countries wCuld be better fitted
to maintain large population, and their
| inhabitants would be more thrifty, efficient, and
| comfortable than they My own section Of this
continent has destroyed trees too eagerly reckessy
| and planted them too tardily too sparngly. My
| county OF w CStCnCSbcT ktcW-1Olhl DCEdh W 10
habted by cur race fully two Hundred and fifty
wears ago; il has been divided into farms from one
to two centuries and its people not behind others
| in saeacity and intelligence; they have still much
land covered with mainly Young timber; yet there
arc rot less than five thousand acres in that county
to-day exposing rocks thinly and partially covered
with soil which ought never to have been stripped
bare of trees Cut of tho timber if you will, though
il ia better to thin out than to sweep away forest
where the land is not needed for tillage, and have
trees of all ages and sizes growing on each acre de-
voted to forest. If those five thousand acres were
reclad in their primitive vesure, all the springs ana
streams of the county would be moro coTous, more
eauable more constant. than they are, and the SOIL
of tho sub;acent fields and meadows would endure
drouth and retain moisture as they never can while
hillside and rocky ridge exposed to sweep oil
wind and glare Of sun.
LOSSES ENTAu.ED BY DESTROYING TREES.
In this new bomteous, sunny land, where the
need of fuel is 50 much less than with US, you are
exposed to the miscalculaion made by my ancestors
two TO four generations back, when, seeing seven
Fights of New gland covered by stately, luxuriant
trees. they said "There will always Do timber
| "enough Let ms cut and slash, and clear all the
| Gland we can; others will save wood enough
| Though we destroy all we have;' but their chill
dren have lived to deplore their error. Fity-iiye
years ago, great pines were cut from hills now in
cluded in the city of Burlington, Vermont, sawed
into boards and these RATED down Lake Champlain
and the Sorel to the ST. Lawrence and so shipped to
Europe not paying fifty cents per day for the labor,
| calling the worth of the timber nothing. Barely
thirty years later when Vermont began to construct
her railroads, she had to draw the bridge-timber
| from Canada paying for it many times what her
| own disparaged pines brought when they were so
| The world full OF
| perences as instructive as this.
Ii is not too soon to begin to plant forests in the
more naked and arid portions Of Texas; 1t
| is high time that you were regarding good
timber az property and saving it with
scrupulous care and foresight. Extensive sec
tons of your State will need it before they grow
it, aside from those localities which need it already;
and your Society can do her better service than TO
impress on all owners of the soil whether in village
| or rural district the duty and profit of an annual
| and persistent planting OF choice and SeiVceaoie
| MAxIMs OF GENERAL APPLICATION.
| But-not to trespass too far on your patience-iet
me close with a few maxims. applicable to cultiva-
ton in every cline and under all circumstances,
whether among populations dense as that of China
| or sparse as that of British America.
| l. Oplv good Farming pays He who sOws or plants
without reasonable of good crops annually,
might better earn wages of some capable neighbor
than work for poor paymaster as ne Is certain 10
prove himself
H. The good farmer is prored such by ne STEADY dP-
probation Of his crops. ANY one may reap an ample
harvest from fertile virgin soil the good farmer
alone grows good crops at first and better and better
| ever afterwaTd .
III tits far easier to maintain The productive capacity
of farm than 10 restore it, TO exhaust its fecundlty,
and then attempt its restoration by buying costly
w. The good farmer sells mainly such products as are
least eyhduStire Necessity may cOnsrain him, for the
first year or two TO sell Grain OF even Hay but he
will soon send off his surplus mainly IN the form OF
| Cotton or Wool, or Meat, or Butter and Cheese or
something else that returns to the soil nearly all
that is taken from it,. A bank account daily drawn
upon while nothing is deposited to Its credit, must
! soon respond No funds" so with a farm similarly
| treated.
v Rotation is at least negatire Fertilization. 1t may
not positively enrich farm 1t Will at least retard
and postpone its impoyerishment. He who grows
| Wheat after Wheat, Corn after Corn, for twenty
years. will need to emigrate before that terIns full
filled. The same farm cannot support lnor endured
| him longer than that All our great Wheat-Towlng
| sections of fifty years ago are Wheat-growlng no
! longer; while England grows larger crops thereof
Oh the very fields that fed the armies of Saxon Har
| old and William the COnqueror. Rotation has pre-
| served these, as the lack of it ruined those.
VI Wisdem nerer dear, progdea ne artlce DC ger
uine. have known farmers who t0iled constantly
from daybreak to dark, yet died poor, because,
| through ignorance, they wrought to disadvantage
IL every farmer would devote two hours Of each day
to reading and reflection there would be fewer fail
| ures in farming than there are.
| VIL-The best Investment a farmer can make for his
children Is that Uhich surrounds their youth ioh the fd-
ional delights Of beaateOus, attractive home The
dwelling may be small and rude, yet few flowers
will embellish, as choice fruit-tIees will enrich
| and gladden. it while grass and shade are within
the reach of the humblest Hardly any labor done
farm 30 and ond as tat OF ar boe
WILL 4 good, practical Education, including a good
trade is better OUTFIT for youth than grand estate
have shaved and pnched to leave their children rich
when half the sum thus lavished would have pro-