St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-06-26
A Farmer Burning Up $1,000 n
Month.

a good lesson in regard to the value
of trees as an agricultural product is
now being taught the farmers of GER
tain sections of Ohio and Indiana. As
most of our readers know, this portion
of the country has for many years
been the principal source of the black
walnut lumber, long so fashionable
here, and still very highly priced
abroad. Twenty or thirty years ago
the black walnut trees nearly covered
the ground in some counties, and al
though the beautiful color and grain of
the wood caused steady demand for
it, and at good prices, the process of
cutting down and saving the logs was
too slow for the Ignorant and Improvl-
dent settlers. who burned over thous-
ands of acres of forests to save them
selves the trouble of thinking how to
clear the land intelligently. The more
sensible of them sawed and split the
beautiful timber for framing their
houses and building fences, which are
worth day nearly as much as if they
were of solid mahogany; but 10y far
the larger portion was dispersed in
smoke and ashes. As the supply of
the timber diminished the value has
advanced and "A combination of specu-
lators is said to have been formed
within a few months to secure all the
remaining available stock, and hold it
at its own price. The agents of this
combination, which is supposed to
have been formed in England, are now
engaged in buying the timber still
standing. and are said to have secured
already about $1,000. 900 worth at trees,
which are being rapidly cut down and
shipped across the ocean. The sudden
demand caused 10y these extensive
operations seems to have opened the
ewes of the farmers for the first time
to the irreparable loss which they have
inflicted upon themselves IN the reck-
less destruction of twenty Years ago.
One. in particular, informed Il cores
pondent of one of the New York pa
perS that hc worked almost necessarily
for eight years to clear the black wal
nut trees off his farm, burning more
than eighty acres of timber on his
ground. During the thirty years since
this Wholesale destruction was effected
the farm has been constantly cult
waited aud is now valued ut about eight
thousand dollars; if it could he put
again in the condition III which IT was
before the clearing commenced it would
be worth more than one hundred thOuS-
and. so that the old farmers eight
years of toll were practically devoted
to throwing away his money at the
rate of a thousand dollars II month.
1t is true that by this means his land
was cleared for crops but the expert
encc of other countries shows that jul
dicious thinning, in place of imdiscrim-
mate destruction, would have reduced
the producing capacity of the farm
very little. if at all, and would have
increased the value of the timber re-
served 50 much as to compensate in Il
great degree for that cut away, 50 that
the owner might have secured both
profits instead of one. The advanta-
gcs of such thinning, it must he re-
membcred, would he greater with black
walnut than with almost any Other
timber. for the irregular twists which
are apt to affect Il forest tree deprived
of its companions, while they would
iniure the value OF the pine, much in
crease that of the sO-called fancy
woods, by the variety i'll grain which
they produce; and the gnawing of eat
tie, or the effects of wind or lightning
to which trees standing in open field
are liable. are all sources of new beauty
and consequent enhancement of price
As we have said before, we have seeI
a single black walnut log for whicl
five thousand dollars was paid, and
one gnarled and crooked tree of thi,
species to the acre would give such :
farm a great value. - American Archi
. tect.