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THIS implement received the first prize of the New York State Agricultural Society at the trial at Utica, N. Y., in September, 1867, where competition was unrestricted. The following is an extract from the report of the judges:

"It first operated as a seed-sower, scattering rye very evenly, and covering it with four ploughs running shallow and turning the earth all one way. Next it worked with seven cultivator teeth, throwing the earth in opposite directions. It cultivated two rows of corn, one plough on each side throwing earth towards the corn, and then both threw it away from it. The changes to accomplish these different objects can be made very easily; in NO CASE did it require more than SIX MINUTES FOR THAT PURPOSE. It did all the work, and went through all the tests to which it was subjected in a VERY PERFECT MANNER. It worked close to the corn rows, and by means of the steering apparatus, it could be made to move around a hill or a single stalk which

happened to stand out of line, without injuring it or touching it. It destroyed the weeds very satisfactorily, and it was tested in as WEEDY A PATCH and AS TOUGH A SOD AS WE EVER SAW. It pulverized the soil as well as could be desired. It is very strong in all its parts, and we think it is not liable to get out of order. The machine is very SKILFULLY CONSTRUCTED, the greatest amount of material being DISTRIBUTED TO THE PARTS WHERE THE STRAIN IS GREATEST. We award the Gold Medal to this implement."

This implement was used on the farm of the Michigan State Agricultural College during the season of 1868, and gave entire satisfaction, from its efficient and perfect operation in all cases.

It is proper to state that some changes have lately been made in the construction of this implement, which are deemed to constitute important improvements. For the frame, wrought iron has been substituted in place of wood and cast-iron, rendering the implement both lighter and stronger. This and various other alterations, were patended in June, 1868. We have not seen the implement in its new form, but the proprietors and manufacturers, Messrs. A. L. Brearley & Co., Trenton, N. J., consider it superior to the form of 1867.

FORESTS.

Hon. J. M. Edmunds, late Commissioner of the General Land Office, communicates to the Monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture, the following paper upon a subject meriting more attention than it has yet received:

The Uses of Forests.—The progress of population and settlement, not only on this, but on the other Continents, has demonstrated the fact that that country only is desirable and practicable as the habitation, of civilized man which is clothed with, or is in the vicinity of forests.

Besides furnishing the best and most economical material for the convenience and many of the necessities of civilized society, forests fertilize and moisten the earth, soften and modify the climate, and protect men, animals, and vegetation from the blighting effects of the unbroken rays of the sun, and dry and sweeping winds, which everywhere prevail on extended treeless plains, deserts, or wastes. So marked and universal are these effects, that even the casual observer may trace with accuracy, by the absence or abundance of animal and vegetable life, the line between the rainless regions of the earth and those which are enriched and fertilized by the outpouring of the rain clouds, which in our country, except upon the mountain plateau, everywhere abound.

To the pioneer, forests are a necessity. They supply building material, tools, carriages, fuel,-in fact are the reliance of the frontier settlers for almost all domestic purposes, nor can a substitute be found which is within the means, and accessible to the advance settlements. It is not until the facilities of

economical transit, and the capital and skill of the miner and manufacturer have occupied the country, that the various substitutes for timber, for multifarious domestic uses, can be obtained even by the more opulent, and for the indigent, structures and implements of timber must, under the most favorable circumstances, continue to be the main reliance.

It is true, that for buildings, vessels, bridges, and many other structures, and for machinery, tools and utensils of almost every description, stone, brick, iron, and other expensive materials, have been substituted for timber in the older and wealthier communities; but it is not true that these inventions, numerous and important as they are or may be, have diminished or will lessen the consumption of timber. It must be borne in mind, in this connection, that new uses have been found for timber as well as for its more durable and expensive substitutes; that, while in the older sections of the country its use has been discontinued for many purposes, it has been applied to new and varied uses by a large and rapidly increasing population, and that more, much more, is now annually consumed than at any former period since the settlement of this continent.

If, then, forests are essential for domestic uses, and their consumption annually increasing in the ratio of population; if they are esential for the protection of men, animals, grains, grasses, and fruits, as none will deny, but all admit, what should be done to stay their waste; and what should be the policy of the nation and people relative to their growth and preservation ?

Their Waste.-Till within a short period the advancing column of population has been composed of those who have been forced to contend with the densely timbered region east of the Mississippi, carrying with them habits and tastes unsuited to the vast treeless plains now facing our frontier settlements.

Upon the first settlement of the continent communities were weak and scattered, the open prairies of the west were unknown and inaccessible, timber for every purpose was abundant and

free, forests were the great hindrance to progress and cultivation, the immense growth on the Atlantic and western slope of the Alleghanies was disproportioned to the wants of the population, facilities for its transport to the seaboard did not exist, and its destruction was an apparent necessity. The inconveniences of a treeless waste were unknown, and the consequent prospective value of the forests unthought of and unappreciated. For generations the advance settlers continued the war of destruction upon the most extended and valuable forests on the globe. And thus it is, that the whole people of the country, after having been taught that they could not live with the forests, have now to learn that they cannot live and prosper without them.

While the war upon the timber reserve was conducted with the greatest vigor, the population was sparse and poor, yet, after a century and a half of toil it has worked entirely through this almost impenetrable wilderness, leaving but scattered fragments behind, and now, confronting a treeless waste, is forced to draw its supplies of an essential commodity, which requires a century for reproduction, from a diminished and constantly and rapidly diminishing supply, and this for a population tenfold greater than that with which our career as a nation was commenced.

Now, the demand, the need for indispensable forest products, comes from both ways; then it came from neither. Now, there is a vast population to consume; then, there was only a feeble one to destroy. Now, the forest cannot supply the demand for its products without certain prospective exhaustion; then, it did not afford space for settlement and cultivation except through its destruction. Until recently, as new sections of the country were approached by the settlers, new sources of timber supply were opened; now, the country to be peopled is the most destitute, and the advance of settlements but increases the demand upon the already diminished reserve.

Except in the mountain regions, nearly the whole vast surface, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, has been despoiled

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