Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-09-19

plain and placing Self-actlng wind
mill over each, shall set it to pumping
up water by night and day when wind
serves into a shallow reservoir by its
| side, whence, after being thoroughly
warmed by the sun, it 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 far below the price
at which their owners now hold them.
was looking through Virginia some
years ago, in time of general drouth,
and saw a field of perhaps ten acres of
corn parching and whitening in the July
sun. A brook large enough to run
small grist-mill came brawling and foam
ing down from the adjacent hills, passed
through the center of that corn-field at a
depression of few feet below its aver
age surface, and fell into the river at its
lower side. / am entirely confident that
$500 judiciOusly spent would have suf-
feed to irrigate at least half of that corn
field doubling it's annual product, wheth-
er of grain or grass, henCeforward until
time shall be no more. Yet the owner
went on blowing four or five inches
deep from year to year, growing half
crop when rains were abundant and sea-
sonable, with next to no crop at all when
summers were dry, and fancying him
self bowling to a judgment of Heaven
possibly to be averted by fasting and
prayer-when a six weeks, drouth de-
MED him any corn. Whatever may be
thought of such theology, that husband
ry was simply abominable. The prayer
of faith which would have saved that
corn-crop must have been uttered with
axes, spades, and shOvels.
H. Forests green which gave
this State her beautiful name was that
of her primitive forests; Iregret that they
palpably grow smaller and lighter. Not
that trees were not made to be cut down
and forests to give place to cultivated
fields; ! know they were, and rejoice in
the dispensatiOn. But between the clear
ing away of forests to give place to
fruitful fields and happy 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 indiSCrim-
! mate and reckless in forest eXtermina-
ton. Our fathers found trees in their
way. and cut them out of it by whole
sale; we 90 on doing as they did when
| their reason for it no longer serves us. |
| Judge that Vermont has this day not
! only far less timber, but smaller area
! devoted to growing it, than she should
! have; that her fields are becoming more
| arid, her streams scantier and more ca
! PRECIOUS. because of the dearth of trees.
/ Many dairy farmer has said, ''Away
with the woods! | can buy my fuel
with the grass | can cut on the ground
| thew now cover which is a grave mis-
! take. Every farmer should have from
| Is to % per cent of his acres covered
with forest, and will average more grass,
year by year. than If the owner had
| stripped his land bare Of trees. Keep
the crcsts of his ridges, the sides of his
ravinps, we'll covered with timber, and
| he will cut more grass from so acres thus
| shielded from the drying up of its
springs and 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 a part 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 re-
place the glorious pine forests which
they so madly annihilatcd: they ought
to realize that 100 acres of beach. red
oak. hcmlOck, white birch, etc, etc,
are worth far less than those same acres
covered with white ash, black walnut,
hickory. chestnut, locust and white
pine. would be. And the cost of trans
forming a comparatively worthless into
a relatively choice and precious forest is
far less. save in time, than is generally
supposed. Keep planting 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 q perception that apple-trees
ought to be grated should have lived to
this dav unconscious of the truth that
forests, at least in we'll settled COmmuni-
ties. should be made to grow mainly
choice timber instead of the inferior or
Indifferent.
hold that systematic tree-planting is
already in order in YermOnt-that thou
sands of her farms should have acres of
their crests and sleeper hillsides planted
with hickory, locust, white oak,
II
Give your seeds or young trees a fair
start, fence out your cattle, and they will
need little care or labor And you will
not have to wait thirty or forty years
for some return for your investment, as
is commonly supposed Within six
wears. YOU may begin to cut out hoop
poles, and, by cutting these at the right
time. YOU may have at least two new
ones start from almost every stump, and
grow far more rapidly and vigorously
than from the seed. Believe me, there
are few so safe and productive methods
of investing money for your children as
by buying forests of young timber so
situated as to be exempt from danger by
fire, and by planting and caring for
trees.
It is my conviction that far more labor
than.has ever yet been bestowed on the
soil Of this State might be thus applied
with protit-that the reclamation of wet
lands by undertaking, the subsoiling
of fields where clay or loan would thus
be mingled with sand or gravel, the ap-
plcation of fertilizers, especially of gyp-
sum, to hills, and to heavy clays of
freshly burned, unslaked lime (especi-
ally Of that portion usually rejected by
| bulderS) would be generously requlted
by more bOunteous haryests. | hold
that Vermont may wisely prOffer to
many Of her industrious sons induce
ments to stay at home which should
outweigh their indictments to seek homes
elsewhere. But these propositions I
barely suggest, leaving their considera-
ton to the intelligent and forehanded
yeomanry Of this State. Should they
respectively decide that they can afford
to drain boys, and plant trees, and sub
soil, and fertilize as vigorously as have
done on my own little farm, she will
have at least half a million people at the
taking of the next Federal census in
1880. For though she may never grow
grain so luxuriantly or make meat so
cheaply as some Of her sisters in the
great West, she has still advantages
and attractions which those who, after