Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-09-27

you can afford TO do more and still more,
until all your land which lies lower than
the highest point at which you can fill
reservoir shall be occasionally refreshed by
the vivifylng appliance.
Irrigation necessarily fertilizes. 1t saves
to the land much of the nourishng juices
that would naturally pass off, especially in
times of thaw or flood, TO be squandered
upon rivers, bays, and the ocean. doubt
that any amply irrigated field is less fertile,
less productive today, than II was on the
morning of creation.
Ultimately, we shall supplement the flow
of our streams by digging wells on the
highest point in large swale or plain and
placing a self-acting windmill over each,
shall set it to pumping up water by night
and by day when wind serves into shall
low reservoir by its side, whence, after be-
ing thoroughly warmed by the sun, II will
be gradually drawn away to irrigate the
field or fields lying below. Were this done
wherever it could be to profit the annual
product of ten thousand farms in this State
might be doubled at a cost mr DeIow the
price at which their owners now hold them.
1 was looking through Virginia some
years ago, in time Of general drouth, and
saw a field of perhaps ten acres of corn
parchiug and withering in the July sun.
A brook 'qrge enough TO run a small grist-
mill can brawling and foaming down
from the adjacent hills, passed through the
center of that corn field at depression of
n few feet below its average surface, and
F.II i,.N., 4. "a II
entirely confident that 5000 judcously
spent would have sufliced to irrigato at
least half of that corn field, doubling its
annual product, whether grain or grass,
henccGorward until time shall he no more
Yet the owner went on plowing four or five
inches deep from year to year, growing
half crop when rains were abundant and
scasonable, with next to no crop at all when
summers were dry, and iancyng himself
bowing TO ajudgment of Heaven-possibly
10 be averted by fasting and praycr-when
n six weeks drouth denied him any corn.
Whatever may be the thought of such the
ology, that husbandry was simply abomin-
ablo. The prayer of faith which would
have saved that corn crop must have been
uttered with axes, spades and shovels.
II. ForeSfS.-The green which gave this
State her beautiful name was that OF her
primitive forests; 1 regret that they palpa-
bly, grow smaller and lighter. Not that
trees were not made TO cut down and for
ests to give place TO cultivated fields
know they were, and rejoice in the dispen-
sation. But between the clearing away Of for
osts TO give place to fruitful fields and hap
py homes on the one hand, and destroying
all forests, so that fields can no longer be
fruitful nor homes happy, there is wide
space; and the necessity which impelled
our pioneer ancestors to destroy trees as a
life work has rendered their descendants
indiscrimate and reckless in forest EXTERN
ination. Our fathers found trees in their
way, and cut them out of 1t by the whole
sale; we go on doing as they did when
their reason for it no longer serves us. l
udge that Vermont has this day not only
far less timber, but smaller area devoted
10 growing it, than she should have; that
her fields are becoming more arid, her
streams smaller and more capricious, be-
cause of the dearth of trees. Many dairy
farmer has said, "Away with the woods l
can buy my fuel with the grass can cut
on the ground they now cover'-which is
a grave mistake. Every farmer should
have from Is TO 25 per cent of his acres COW
cred with forest, and will average more
grass year by year, than if the owner had
stripped MS lahu paro OF trees Keep Inc
cresis OF MS rluges, tne sues oi hlsravlnes,
well covered win TIMBER, ana he VIII cut
more grass from 81 acres mus shieided
from the urylhg up OF It's springs ana
slopes than if he had his whole 100 acres
denuded of trees and devoted to grass.
This is one Of the few cases in which apart
is greater than the whole.
But the farmers OF Vermont should not
merely preserve their woods; they should
study to improve them. They ought long
since to have begun to replace the glorious
pine forests which they so madly annihilat-
cd; they ought TO realize that 100 acres OF
beech, red OAK, hemiock, white birch, &c,
&C. are worth iar less Than the same cover
Ell win white ash, black walnut, hickory,
chestnut, locust and white pine would be.
AAd the cost of transforming compara-
tively worthless into relatively choice
and precious forest, is far less, save in time,
than Is generally supposed. Keep plant
ing the better species, as you cut out the
worse and your forest will gradually become
worth $500 per acre where IT is now worth
but $50. No man who has been educated
up to a perception that apple trees ought TO
be grated should have lived to this day un-