One of the greatest errors of American farmers is their neglect to
cultivate groves of trees for woodlands, in all suitable places. Our
primeval forests have been wantonly destroyed, and the country is not
yet old enough to feel the full force of neglecting to replenish them,
by new groves, in suitable localities. On the points of hills, rough
stony places, sides of steep hills, ravines that can not be cultivated,
and by the side of all the highways of the land, trees should be
cultivated: in some places fruit-trees, but in most places forest-trees.
The advantages would be manifold; they would afford shade for cattle,
groves for birds, which would destroy the worms; they would break off
the cold winds from crops, cattle, fruit-orchards, and dwellings; would
greatly enrich the soil by their annual foliage, afford abundance of
fuel at the cheapest rates, give much good timber, provide for fine
maple-sugar, and be the greatest ornaments of the rural districts. Only
think of the comfort and beauty of fifty miles square, in which not a
street could be found which had not trees on each side, not more than
twelve feet apart. When such trees should become twenty years old, the
pedestrian or the carriage could move all day in the shade, listening to
the music of the birds, and inhaling the aroma of the foliage or
flowers. To every owner or occupant of the soil we say, plant trees.