Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-09-13
Farm and Household.
For..t.in Place Of De.er..

Secretary Sorthrop Of the Connecticut
board " education read an interesting paper
70 the agricultural congress IN session al New
Haven. about his especial object Of enthusi-
assn. the reclaiming Of barren wastes by
planting trees We are, as we have often
taken occasion 10 say. in fun accord with Nr.
Northrop IN this matter which is as much
in the line Of education as anything taught in
schools and though be may not have o mon
unent like BremOntier, who planted the Bis
cay coast with pines. be will deserve the pub
Die gratitude for his labors 70 awaken his
couutrymen 10 a practical emulation u the
Frenchman.
NIr Northrop showed by noteworthy Euro
pean examples how the desert regions Of this
country can be recovered tO use and profit by
replacing the forests whose removal has dos
olated them. All the sand plains and dunes
along the Atlantic coast were once wooded
the back side" Of Cape Cod was a majestic
forest promontOry when the Pilgrims anchor
I'd iu ProyincetOwn harbor, and the long
raachet Of the Caroluas were once green the
barrens Of southern New Jersey have been
made within q century. and the dunes Of
Michigan IN scarcely more than generation
by tho clearing Of the forests and the proven
ton by burning Of their natural re-produc-
ton Tie exposure of the sands 20 the action
Of wave and wind not only gives these regions
over 10 barrcnness, but they encrOach upon
tho fertile country behind. The dunes Of
Denmark the Netherlands and the Prlssian
coast antedate by many centuries the same
process which we may now see going on in
the American localities we speak Of. The Wis
itOr 10 Cape Ann has walked over what was
once Cofins farm, but il now glistening
white hill, with beach grass waving many feet
above where corn once grew and il south
jersey one may tread over the dead tops Of
apple orchards that mark whore q Homestead
was abandoned to the sand drifts. The shift
ing dunes along the eastern shore Of Lake
Michigan are invading the interior in the
ZANE way.
That all these misclieyous advances may
De stopped, and the seeming deserts Of the
coast BE- made valuable and permanent sources
Of revenue is fully proved by the experiments
Of Europe, which Dir. Eorthrop cites. The
work Of BremOnticr, before alluded TO- is not
yet a hundred years old He published a me-
noir on the subject which secured the pat
roIiage Of the French government. and ena-
bled him to introduce the maritime pine along
the coast u Gascony. There are nov over
100, OOO acres between the rivers AdOur and
Giroude covered with stately forest as the re-
suit Of lis enterprise: and nearly million
acres Of land before given over to sterility
have been reclaimed by it, protection. There
Is yet q great extent Of land 10 De redeemed.
anu il1tIhl hIDIbpIlhAlbl - lltAAlt tai Abi
the continuance Of the work. The greater
part Of this area is the property Of the gov
eminent, but where there are private owners
the state gives them small subsidy to aid III
the plantation. The cost Of protection and
planting the pines has been sometimes a.
much AS $40 per acre but there is now a
constant revenue derived by the government
from wood and resin, -S2G, 600 annually from
the latter item.
Nr. Northrop, beside other European in
stances cites the little that has been done III
this country in further proof Of the entire
practicability Of desert reclamation. He has
Just returned from trip to Cape Cod where
some 900 acres that were valued at from
- to 20 cents an acre have been made worth
from $40 10 go an acre by the growth Of
pitch pines planted 80 or 80 years ago. Less
has been done In the northern towns than in
the southern, but the same account Is given
from Barnstablc TO North Truro. II Is too
costly 10 transplant trees and the practice il
to drop the seed in hills as corn is dropped,
or sometimes in burrows, and thin the plants
when about two feet high. In % or 30 years
the trees can be profitably cut and marketed,
and two years after the ground is cleared a
second crop springs up of itself and grows
faster than the first. The Cape Cod farmer
are planting forests every year now, and are
trying other varieties Of pine, also the Euro
pean larch. Inland We have no tracts 81
hopeless TO the eye as the Cape drifts, mo-
even the Wallingford barrens, whose desper
ate estate engages Mr.. Northrop's pecula
concern but there are plenty Of sand plain
which are Improbable to the farmer, ant
might be made Of value in this way. Her
also We can have q wider range Of choice il
timber than on the shore. And not onl,
plains but many unproductiye hill-tops
ought TO be re-forested all the western
mountain region needs this gospel Of tree
planting. Put in practice, it would adorn til
decaying farms with verdurous beauty crown
ing future profit, fill again the exhausted wa
ter-courses, freshen the dells and flats Of Tia
pastures, and return in every way a hundred
fold the small expense and labor