Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1872-10-03

Iudl plOuuCl, WHCJllCI VI gam VI
grass, hence forward 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 seasonable,
with next to no crop at all when Sum
mers were dry, and fancying himself
bowling to the Judgment Of heaven
possible to be ayered by fasting and
praycr-whcn six weeks drought denied
him any even. Whatever may be
thought of such theology, tina! hus-
bandy was simply abominablc. The
prayer faith which saved that corn
crop must have been uttered with axes,
spades and Shovcls.
I'd. F6yeSL The green which gave
this State her beautiful name was that
of her primitive forests | regret that
they have palpaby grown 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 at the diSpenSation. But
between the clearing away of forests to
give place to fruitful fields and happier
homes on the one hand and DESTROYING
all forests, so that fields can no longer
be fruitful nor homes happy, there is a
wide space; and the necessity which
impelled our pioneer ancestors to de-
stroy trees as a litc-work has rendered
their descendants indiSCriminatc and
reckless in forest determination. Our
fathers found trees in their way, and cut
them out of it by wholesale we go on
doing as they did, when their reason for
it no longer serves us. | Judge that
Vernon 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 the deanh of trees. Manga
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 a great mistake Every
farmer should have from Is to Is 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 crests Of
his ridges, the sides of his rayincs, well
covered with timber and he will cut
more grass from So acres thus shielded
from the driving up Of its springs and
slopes than if he had his whole 1000
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 annihjhtcd they ought
to realize that 100 acres Of beech, red
oak, hcmlock, white birch, &c. &C., |
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 transform |
ing comparatively worthless into
relatively choice and precious forest is
far less, save in time, than is generally |
supposed. Keep planting the better
species as YOU cut ont the worse, and .
your forest will gradually become worth .
$500 per acre where it is now worth .
but s5o.-No man who has been
educated up to a perception that apple .
trees ought to be grated Should have .
lived to this day unconscious OF tie
truth that forests, at least in well settled
communities, should be made to grow
mainly choice timber instead ofthc in
lerior or indifferent.
| hold that systematic ,rce-planting
is already in order in Vcrmont-that
thousands of her farmers should have
acres of their CrcSts and sleeper hilIsidcS
planted with hicoy, locust, white pine,
&C., Immediately. Give your seeds or
young trees a fair cart, fence out your
cattle, and they will need little care so
labor And you will not have to wait
thirty or forty years for some return for
your investment, as is commonly sup
posed. Within six years YOU may begin
to cut out hooppoIes, 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. Be |
licve me, there are few so safe and pro- ,
ductive methods of investing money for
your children as by buying forests Of
young timber so situated as to be exempt
from fire, and by planting and caring
for trees. 4
1t is my conviction that far more i
labor than has ever been bestowed on |
the soil of this State might be thus APP
piled with proit-that the reclamation
of wet lands by undertaking, the
subsoiling of fields where clay or loan J
would thus be mingled with sand or {
gravel, the application of fertilizers,
especially of gypsum to hills, and to
heavy clays of freshy-buned lime I'M
Stacked lime Especially of that portion i
usually rejected by buiIdcrs) would be {
generously requited by more bounteous G
harvests. | hold that Vermont may
wisely prolfer to many of her industri-
Gus sons inducements to stay at home =
which should outweigh their incte- a
mcnts to seek homes elsewhere. - But c
these propositions | barely suggest, r
leaving their consideration to the in
telligent and iorehanded yeomanry of u
this State. Should they respectively I
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