Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-12-21
Forest Culture.


sorry to see him go.
Forest Culture.
From the Massachusetts Ploughnan.
Farmers need not imagine that this term
implies calculation and labor beyond what It
Is in their capacity easily to meet. Any hill
side farm, OF a farm that has attached to 1t
a stretch Of outlying lands on which the
town taxes are u regular charge, is capable
of being to that extent made the nursery OF
forest, which year by year Is sure to
advance the solid value Of it to its owners
beyond what he now dreams Of. If tax
interest money eats out the substance while
he who is called on to pay it sleeps, so does
the growth of farm forest OF trees also go
on while he is slumbering unconscious of his
gain. BE always sticking in tree, Jock,
was shrewd advice by the old Scotch laird.
The farm that is belted, fringed, Unframed
and embroidered with fine growth Of wood
is always priced higher by every one at the
first sight OF it.
There are both public and private reasons,
and each OF the most urgent character, why
tree-planting for other than merely ornamen-
| tai Purposes ought to be assiduously prdc-
tised by the farmers OF New England. Our
rapidly multiplying population, which slim
ulates shipbuilding. housebuilding, and a
vast family of arts and Industries, has been
making serious inroads into the native for
est and compelling the people of the major
| ity of the States to send to distant places Tor
the supply OF wood for working up in the
various forms required by modern civiliza-
ton. But besides this consideration, there
is the not less important one for every agri-
| culturist, that with the disappearance of
the forest and large belts OF timber the
country will be left as arid as that Of Spain,
and the yearly crops of all kinds, from grass
| to grain, will dwindle for lack of the needed
moisture which is stored up in these forest
reservoirs.
| The. Statistics that are available for the
| illustration OF this subject are indeed start
ling to study. They as surely point the way
| to the steady diminution Of the agricultural
| resources Of the country as ii 1t were already
| a regular reported fact. In Colorado they
practise irrigation because they are without
| forests but where the forests have been
cleared off it aill soon be useless to think of
falling back on this expedient, for the reason
that to the forest themselves We owe our
chief irrigatIng resources. Already the
| brooks that used to brim with their floods
are dried and gone out OF sight, because
their natural parents and feeders were first
removed by the unreasoning and greedy
axe and where the larger streams were once
full and deep, they are become in innumera-
BILE instances variable in their supplies to an
extent that eXcites astonishment, and Tor the
same reason.
"a tree in full leaf is a nobler object than
| king in his coronation robes, says Lord
Bacon. We would not be guilty of over
looking the sound and healthy sentiment
with which the contemplation of fine piece
of woods is associated in the mind of Its
owner. Farming Is an avocatiOn that invites
the one who pursues 1t to look upward as
well rs downwards ; and while the value of q
number OF acres of growing forest may be
computed from year 20 year with unalloyed
satisfaction, that is but part, and in fact
small part, of the pleasure which the sight
OF it yields as the handsomest and solidest
feature OF an improving farmstead. Men
really know not how greatly the ties that
hold them to home are strengthened by a
feature of this sort, or how insensibly their
feelings are elevated and ennobled by the
reflection that all this is a part OF their own
lives, because it is of their own creation
Nevertheless it must long continue to be a
subject to approach on the economic side
first /; that is the one, and no doubt fortu-
nately, too, on which mems convictions on
such matters are most readily reached.
Every farm of any size and pretensions ought
to have its woodland, to be always kept IN
diminished in its aggregate area and held as
sacred as the house over the head. And
there is absolutely no reason for neglecting
an obligation that rests on every owner of
farm, when we stop to consider how much
thin, poor soil, fit for nothing else, there is
in these New England States, on which the
cost aud labor of raising attractive and val
liable forests, say OF pines and birehes only.
would be comparatively invisible. There
are men OF clear ideas and vigorous purpos-
es who at the age even of three-score years,
have made plantations OF acres upon acres
OF this character, and lived to enjoy the sat-
lsfaction of watching their growth and pecu-
mary returns besides.
How few men would be willing to believe
that this agreeable state of expectancy which
the planting and watching of a young forest
begets, is the very condition of mind that Is
conducive to longevity. Yet such is the fact,
in the nature of things. The habit of hop
ing and of looking forward to the accom-
plishment of certain worthy results is the
best possible one in which to indulge the
human spirit, which thus assumes an attl-
tude that is every way favorable for tena-
ciou5 hold on life without even the con-
seriousness of it. Here is d view OF tree
planting which the gentle moralist may pre-
sent, with every hope of creating success
full impression. Looking at his thriving
forest, the farmer who grows weary at times
OF the monotony and solitude OF his work,
may rest and refresh his spirits, and recu-
perste his mental yigor in the simplest and
surest way.
Another thing If We would arrest the
tendency in the past years to desert the
farms OF New England and keep the young
men and the sons at home, We must pay
especial attention to the ornamentation and
the increase in the value of those farms ;
and there is no means of doing it more likely
to work the desired effect than by setting
out forests Let the occupants of these
farms at once look up their acreage of light
and unimproved lands, and form deliberate
plans to plant them out with the different
sorts OF trees which are OF use for fuel, for
building, and for mechanical and industrial
purposes. Any farm will bring more at once
in the market that has these otherwise
valueless lands thus improved and redeemed
And no man has an absolute right to say to
| himself that in such matter he does not
care for the generation that Is to succeed
him ; he is himself at best but tenant-at-
| will under Providence, and as such Is bound
to transmit his trust to his posterity, or to
the next owner, in better condition than
that in which he took it.
In a dozen years, the white birch will
work wonders on the poor lands where moth
|
twenty years plantations OF white pine grown
from the seed, will yield fifteen cords OF
good marketable wood, or an interest exceed
ing thirty per cent a year on the first outlay of
land and labor. With the quicker growing
varities ike the above named may be plant
ed the oaks, the chestnuts, and hlckorles
and the naples. all together forming attrac-
tive groves where all has been an open bar
rem for wears and offering to the owner )
and the visitors eye the finest feature OF the
farm. II is idle to say that such trans
formation as this does not change the value
as well as the landscape of a farm. raising
both in the estimation of its owner. and him
self in the estimation of the community.
The man who, having ID possession a tract
OF Ian large enough to be called farm, does
not bestow "A thought on leaving 1t more
beautiful than when he acquired 1t, must be
reckoned as not much above the clod he plod-
| dinghy cultivates. Every owner of farm
should seek to become creator of beauty as
well as Of utility There are some things yet
in this world OF ours besides cornand potatoes
| simply. Even work has its higher use. The
landscape in whose making We have had a
hand insensibly lifts us up above the petty
| things OF life in its contemplation. The
home becomes dearer and draws the feet to
it more strongly year by year. The love OF
country itself strikes deeper roots in the
heart, and the patriot is made still more a
patriot because he realizes that he and his
land are one.
| At IHI- SEASON OF the year Coughs, Colds
Hoarseness and other affections Of the Throat and
Lungs prevail. Madame Za-oc PSrfer's Cardfns
BdisaDs Is valuable remedy. No family should