old trees and over had generally escaped with only a temporary injury, from which they had recovered. The damage done by the insects is sweeping, extensive plantations of ash, box-elder, and maple having been entirely destroyed. The yearling willows, although eaten down, had sprouten again from the roots, and during the following season nearly recovered. Mr. Hodges regards the grasshopper as, to a considerable degree, the curse of the prairies, and with this evil removed all other obstacles in the way of forest culture in that State might, in his opinion, be removed by "intelligence, industry, and pluck." Logs and Lumber scaled by the Surveyors-General of Minnesota during the year 1877. [From the Ninth Report on Statistics of Minnesota for 1877, p. 215.] Scaled in Lake Saint Croix Scaled at Marine Mills Amount rescaled .... Log product of first district during the year ................ Besides these amounts there were logs sawed which were not scaled. Logs and Lumber reported from second District. Feet. 145, 582, 122 1,541, 747 147, 123, 869 2,761, 786 144, 362, 083 Total..... 646, 837 120, 368, 260 137, 021, 140 150, 330, 460| 21, 391, 100 60, 619, 750 * Of this, 100,000 was hard wood and the remainder pine. 6, 221, 680 Number of Forest Trees planted and growing in Minnesota in 1877, compared with the planting of 1876. [From the Eighth and Ninth Reports of State Commissioner of Statistics.] [The columns for 1876 in the above table are derived from the table given on page 161 of the Report of the Commissioner of Statistics for that year. It will be observed that they differ considerably from the table on page 85 of that report, which were quoted in our Report upon Forestry of last year at pago 538. The planting in 1877, according to both of these statements, was considerably less than in 1876.] WISCONSIN. By direction of a law enacted March 18, 1878, the Assessors were required to report statistics of agriculture, which were to be compiled and published by the Secretary of State in the appendix to his annual report. The first returns published under this law are given in connection with the report for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1878. The Secretary, however, complains of the omissions and errors found in the first returns and the difficulties he encountered in reducing them to a form suitable for the press. The chief obstacles were ignorance on the part of Assessors and in some cases their inability to use the English language. We give the totals of one columu as of special interest in this report. Acres of Growing Timber. ON THE ROTATION OF CROPS IN NURSERIES. The great and general law of rotation which is observed in the successful growing of field crops extends to trees and other vegetables, and is the foundation of all profitable cultivation. Trees appear to have some deleterious influence upon the soil in which they grow, rendering it unsuitable during some time for the growth of the same species or even of any woods on the same ground. Cultivators have long since been struck with the evidences of this fact that were daily coming to notice, and have attempted to account for it in various ways. Some have ascribed it to excretions from the roots; others, to decomposition without the presence of a sufficient amount of air, and others to the fragments of roots left in the soil by the death of old trees, or in the pulling up of stumps. With many modern chemists an opinion has been formed that there is an injurious acid fermentation, analogons to that in peat, or that there is a reaction of some particular astringent principle, or that the roots rob the soil of the properties necessary for the healthy vegetation of trees. Whatever may be the cause, it seems to be a fact that the same species cannot prosper for a long period on the same ground. When an oak forest has been cut off, we see the beech, birch, poplar, and other kinds spontaneously succeed it. Vast areas of pine and fir, when first cut off, become covered with a deciduous growth, and in like manner the latter are succeeded by the former. Examples of this are recorded by observers in every country, and have been noticed in all periods of the past. It is also well understood that it is quite impossible to make a tree grow where another has decayed. It is only with much care that vineyards can be at once planted on soil that has borne a growth of oak coppice, and in setting new vines it is always best to take lands that have been for some years under cultivation with some herbaceous crop. These principles apply especially to nurseries, in which it is found advantageous to alternate the cultivation of trees with clover, pease, beans, onions, cabbage, turnips, and other herbaceous plants, the result being alike advantageous to the nursery and to the field crop. In the present state of knowledge it would be quite impossible to say exactly what trees ought to succeed a given crop of timber. The oak, perhaps, quite as often appears to injure the crop that succeeds it, the elin less so. Some prosper for a long period without change, while others require frequent renewal, and the success of some nurserymen appears to depend upon their close observation in the latter respect. Theory and observation alike tend to show that in nurseries, as in field crops, an alternation in cultivation is advantageous, due regard being paid to the relative requirements of the vegetation under care, and avoiding the continued use of the same species, or even families, of plants. making the low growths succeed to the high, and those with deep taproots, those with roots that run near the surface, or the reverse, and changing the place of each seed-bed on plantations, as circumstances seem to require.1 DIRECTIONS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF THE WILLOW.2 For a willow plantation we should select suitable ground, and the best is that having a deep soil near a stream, where it will be generally soft and humid. It should be thoroughly broken up by a plow or hoe in February, if the season permits, and then planted at distances of three or four feet, with cuttings 15 or 16 inches long, and as large around as a finger, selected from the varieties which we may wish to grow. These cuttings are put in with the aid of a planting tool, and pressed down two thirds of their length. The cuttings of the first year yield sprouts of little value for use; but they should nevertheless be carefully cut, for if neglected they will be good for nothing the next year, except for brush-fires, because they will be too branching for any other use. When, on the other hand, care is taken to cut them down to the level of the roots, the shoots of the second year will be several in The cutting of the third number, four to six feet high and fit for use. year is more valuable, and so from year to year for 25 to 30 years, when the conditions are good and the roots vigorous. An arpent of willow should yield a hundred franes worth or more a year, almost without care to the owner, if kept from cattle, and the shoots properly cut down the first years. 'Chiefly from the Maison Rustique du xix. siècle, iv, p. 14. 3 In the climate of France. 40. Willows should be cut in February, or at latest in March. The finest shoots are often 8 to 10 feet long. They are cut with a strong cutting hook at a little above the root, which thus becomes a kind of pollard. Yellow and red willows are usually worked with the bark on, which gives them greater strength. When large, they are split and used for hoops, and for this use there is a large demand; their use in basketwork is varied and indispensable. They are also used in vineyards for holding up the vines. For white work, the Salix viminalis is commonly used, because its shoots are much more uniform and do not send off lateral branches. ON THE ASPECT SUITED TO CERTAIN TREES. Some general views were presented in our former report? upon the influence of aspect upon the growth of trees. This depends in a great measure upon the prevailing character of the winds, as to whether they blow from the sea or the continent, and whether they have been deprived of their moisture by passing over high mountains. It is, therefore, impossible to state a general rule; but, as a general fact, the firs, pines, larch, and birch, prosper in a northern aspect; the locust, beech, hornbeam, and birch, on an eastern slope; the oak, maple, and chestnut on a southern, and the spruce, oak, beecli, and hornbeam on a western one. It is probable that the effect of prevailing winds is more felt than the differences of exposure to the sun, unless the slope be so steep as to shade the surface. The authority last cited, notices a difference in quality of the wood, according to the exposure in which it grows. The northeast, east, and south are the best, and the northwest is the poorest, because trees growing with that exposure are most liable to injury from frost.4 THE QUALITY OF WOOD AS INFLUENCED BY CLIMATE, AND BY THE DRYNESS OR HUMIDITY OF THE SOIL. Timber grown in a soil where there is stagnant water for a part of the year is apt to be of coarse, loose, and spongy texture, and weak and tender as to strength. But if the roots are supplied with sufficient moisture, without excess or deficiency, the wood is dense, hard, and elastic. The best quality of wood is grown on good soil properly. drained. Granitic sand or gravel, with a subsoil which the roots can penetrate, and from which they can obtain nourishment, will often bear timber of fine quality, even where the surface is not profitable for agricultural use. The oak grown in a thin soil upon a flat rock has usually a large percentage of sap-wood and a brittle fiber. Timber grown in isolated places does not, as a general rule, split as easily as that grown in dense forests. Other conditions being equal, the density of wood grown in the south of France is greater than that from the northern departments. The tropical woods of exogenous families are, as a rule, distinguished by their great weight. This circumstance prevents them from being floated upon rivers unless buoyed up by air-vessels or other meaus. THE "RIPENING OF THE WOOD." This term is applied to "a process familiar enough to gardeners, as taking place in hot autumns, and receives some illustrations from some In the climate of France. 2 Forestry Report, 1877, p. 266. 3 Maison Rustique du xix. siècle, iv, p. 77. * Iv., p. 108. |