Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-09-20

large enough to run small grist-mill came
brawling and foaming down from the adjacent
hills, passed through the center Of that corn
field at depression Of few feet below its
average surface, and fell into the river at its
lower eide am entirely confident that 5000
spent would have sufliced to irri-
gate ct least half Of that corn.feld, doubling
It's annual product, whether 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
a crop when rains were abundant and sea-
sonable, with next to no crop at all when
summers were dry, and iancying himself bow.
ing to judgment of heaven-possibly to be
averted by fasting and prayer-when q six
weeks drought denied him any corn. What
ever may be thought Of such theology, that
husbandry was simply abominable. The pray.
or Of faith which would have saved that corn
crop must have been uttered with axes, spades
and shovels.
IL. Forests.--The green which gave this
State her beautiful name was that Of her prim-
tive forests J. regret 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 clearing 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 neces-
sity which impelled our pioneer ancestors to |
destroy trees as a life-work has rendered their |
descendants indiscriminate and reckless in |
forest determination. Our fathers found |
trees in their way, and cut them out Of il by
wholesale; we 60 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 a smaller area devoted to
growing it, than she should have that her
fields are becoming more arid, her streams
scantier and more capricious, because of tho
dearth Of trees. Many dairy farmer has
said, away with the woods can buy my
fuel with the grass | can cut on the ground
they now cover"-which is grave mistake.
Every farmer should have from Is 10 25 per
cent. Of his acres covered with forest, and will
average more grass, year by year, than if the
owner bad stripped his land bare of trees.
Keep the crests Of his ridges, the sides Of his
rsvines, we'll covered with timber, and howill
cut more grass from 80 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 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 replace the glorious
pine forests which they so madly annihilated
they ought to realize that 100 acres of beech,
red oak, hemlock, white birch, etc., etc., are
worth far less than those same acres covered
with white ash, black walnut, hickory, chest
nut, locust and white pine would be. And
the cost Of Transforming a comparatively
worthless into a relatively choice and precious
forest is far less, save in time, than is gener-
ally 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 percep-
ton that apple-trees ought to be grated sho'd
have lived to this day unconscious of the truth
that forests, at least in well settled commu-
mites, should be made to grow mainly choice
timber instead of the inferior or Indifferent.
hold that systematic tree-planting is al
ready in order in Vermont-that thousands
Of her farms should have acres of their crests
and sleeper hillsides planted with hickory, To-
Gust, white oak white pine. etc., etc., imme-
diately. Give your seeds or young trees
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 COM
monty supposed. Within six years, 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 vigor-
ously than from the seed. Believe me, there
are few so sofe and productive methods of in
vesting money for your children as by buy
ing forests of young timber so situated as to
be exempt from danger by fire, and by plant
ing and caring for trees.
1t is my conviction that far more labor
than has ever yet been bestowed on the soil
Of this state might be thus applied with profit
that the reclamation Of wet lands by I'M
derdraining, the subsoiling Of fields where
clay or loan would thus be mingled with
sand or gravel, the application of fertilizers,
especially Of gypsum, to hills, and to heavy
clays of ircshly-burned, unslacked lime les
peclally Of that portion usually rejected by
builders) would be generously requited by
more bounteous harvests. hold that Yer
mont may wisely profer to many Of her in
dustrious Sous inducements TO stay at home
which should outweigh their inducements to
seek homes elsewhere. But these PROPOSE
tons | barely suggest, leaving their consider
alton to the intelligent and forehanded yeo-
many Of this state. Should they respective
ly decide that they can afford to drain boys,
and plant trees, and subsoil, and fertilize as
vigorously as | have done on my own little
farm, she will have at least half million
people at the taking of the next federal CEN
sus in $780, 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 once enjoying them, have
pitched their tents elsewhere, are perhaps
better trained to appreciate than the sons
who have never abandoned her soil. No
hills are greener no skies are brighter, no
waters purer, no air more bracing than hers
and do not know that any other state ac-
cords better common school education TO
the great body of her sons and daughters than
she does; and l greatly proclaim my indobt-
edness to her schools for the better part of
whatever training in letters and the rudi-
ments Of science l received. | believe one
Of the most eminent Of her sons, the late
Stephen A. Douglas, borrowing an express
sion of Daniel Webster's, remarked that YER
mont was ga noble state to emigrate from -
and this, if rightly considered, is no slender
praise. A philosopher reokOned it among
the chief blessings which attend our earthly
pilgrimage to be well-born and no is, in an