try. It is well known that temperature influences vegetation: the plants of the tropics will not thrive in this latitude: neither will the wheat of this region thrive within the tropics. May we not reasonably infer that the clearing away of the forests, the more easy and rapid evaporation of moisture from the earth with other necessary effects of denudation have, in a measure, changed the climate of the state or affected its mean temperature. If this be true does it not present one cause for a change in the forests of our State often noticed by agriculturists and naturalists?—that is, when a settlement has been cleared, and a second growth of timber is permitted to spring up, the latter growth is not always of the same variety as the wood which has been removed. It is generally and well understood that a growth of sturdy oaks indicates a clay soil: the elm leads us to expect a rich alluvial vale, warm and sheltered; a sandy soil claims the various pines, and from these and other indications of original vegetation, the pioneer could generally judge, with accuracy, the soil of any tract of land within his line of vision.

Applying these remarks to the county of Madison, it is found that most of the southern and middle towns exhibit the remains of stately pine trees, mostly the white pine; a few of this variety yet rear their heads. The stumps of these pines which encumber the grounds present a diameter of four and five feet, which warrants an altitude of sixty feet or more, and this is verified by many of the older inhabitants, who represent the former growth of pines, as sending up erect shafts full sixty feet, in perfect symmetry to the jutting out of the first branch. The demand for lumber of this character was greatly increased when the Erie canal was opened, causing it to fall on every lot, and rapidly find its way to the eastern markets. The pines passed away, and the hemlock and basswood became the substitute. Plank roads and other useful objects will, at a very early day, carry off the remaining hemlock. White cedar was once abundant in the wet grounds of the county; a portion yet remains and furnishes durable farm rails and posts. The varieties of oak abounds in the northern towns only. Near to the Oneida lake the prevailing woods are oak, elm and ash, intermixed with beech,

birch and maple, while on the line of the canal, stunted oaks, low pines and shrubs cover the ground. Beech and maple prevail in the southern towns; the swamps afford black ash, while the side hills present elm, basswood, wild cherry, and now and then a few hemlocks.

The noble maples, which years ago furnished the families of Madison county with a good and wholesome sugar, have to a great extent fallen under the blow of the axe; where the axe has spared the "maple bush," man's improvidence has hastened decay and extermination. The annual incisions from whence to draw the rich juices, produce exhaustion and imperfect development of the extreme portions of the tree, hence disease and death ensue.

From this department of the forest much sugar is yet made in the county of Madison. Maple trees newly or recently tapped will produce from four to five gallons of sap per day; in favorable seasons an average product of four pounds of sugar has been made from each tree. The labor of one man is sufficient to conduct the process of sugar making from one hundred trees; the time necessary for the production of the sugar in a marketable condition, is usually three weeks: in which time one man will have made from three to four hundred pounds of sugar, worth about ten cents per pound.

Though the timber of Madison county did not at any time give it the character and temporary advantage of a "lumbering county," yet the early settlers were compelled to endure the toils and privations incident to the "clearing" new lands; toils rendered more severe probably, by the non-marketable condition of much of the wood, and the absence of navigable waters for its transportation. Every man who entered the county with a view to agricultural benefits, adopted such methods for clearing the lands as would permit the earliest deposit of seed: To effect this object the usual plan was to fell trees near the line of the intended fences; the butts were split into rails and stakes; the tops were cut into convenient lengths for piling and burning; the underbrush was

cut and piled and burned with the tree tops. The stout or timber trees were girdled by making a horizontal incision through the bark and into the body of the tree, cutting off all communication between the upper and lower portions of the bark. By this means the natural circulation of the sap or vital fluids was effectually checked, and the tree withered and died; for many years after stretching its leafless, naked arm to the heat and cold, dryness and moisture of the season, and at last unable to resist the blast, it falls, needing but the torch to remove every vestige.

This system of girdling prevented the growth of the leaf, admitted the sunbeams to the soil, which, with more free admission of atmospheric influences upon vegetable matter, afforded to the farmer a rapid and remunerating product for his labor. The spirit of adventure and enterprise induced many persons to purchase lands with the intent to clear them extensively, and offer them, thus far improved, to the farmers for occupation: finding a large profit în labor thus applied by the increased value of land thus cleared. This system introduced a hardy, though not permanent class of men-men enamoured of the free wild life of the forest and the chase, changing the scene of their labors, as emigration demanded and occupied the "clearings." The process of destruction of the timber is widely different from that of the agricultural pioneer. There is an art and taste in every employment, in wood chopping as well as in merchandize: the art of the woodman is exhibited in his economy of time, his tact in the use of the axe and power of the lever. When he selects the ground for his labors, he times his bargain with reference to the full expansion of the leaf and twig of the season, knowing that in these auxiliaries he finds time and labor-saving friends, as they furnish a most convenient and ready combustible for application to his log heaps and brush heaps; from the months of June to August, therefore, the woodman enters upon his duty-he expects, also, from action at this season, to prevent the sprouting of the stumps, which, if suffered to grow, mar the beauty of his work, and keep alive the roots. The general method of proceeding was to fell every tree, divide the body into lengths of about fourteen feet, cut the tops into portions easily

handled, and pile them, with the brush, in heaps, ready for burning. In this condition the whole area is left through the winter, until the first dry days of spring; fire is then applied to the brush heaps, commencing at the windward side, presenting, in a short time, a wide spread conflagration; a scene which, at times, is grand, even appalling, when the heavens are red and every object seems to melt away in the fervent heat.

These burnings have been occasionally, attended by unforeseen and mischievous consequences, as the destruction of adjoining forests of timber intended for preservation, by the proprietor. The most strenuous endeavors of the collected neighborhood have, at times, been unavailing to arrest the torrent of flame, until many hundreds of acres have been swept over. Many hill sides and tops in this and other counties, carry the marks of devastating fires, and the often noticed result of a new or second growth of wood, of a species quite different from the first forest. The first burning of the intended clearing never, or seldom, destroys the large logs or bodies of the trees lying on the ground; the first operation was called the "burning off the fallow," the next is the "logging off" or "log rolling ;" this work was arduous and required the united forces of the neighbors far and near. A common interest always commanded a willing hand along all the border settlements, and so universal was this sentiment of good will and mutual aid, that an instance of hesitation was rarely met; every man, boy and team, invited to the "logging bee" was certain at his post on the appointed day—a day, generally, of much excitement and strife in the endeavor of each to excel the other in the number of well constructed log heaps ranged in line, and clearing away the score blocks, and all rubbish from the soil. When the hours of evening approached the boys were actively engaged in firing the heaps, that they might burn during the night, again staining the floating clouds with a crimson glare, and rolling dense masses of smoke to towns far distaut, reminding the inhabitants of times and scenes. but lately familiar in their own vicinity. The cost of clearing land necessarily varies with the extent of standing lumber, rarely

has it been less than three, and generally ranging as high as five dollars per acre. Contracts have been made for clearing and fencing large tracts at from ten to twelve dollars per acre.

The very imperfect plows in use fifty years ago, were unfit to encounter a newly cleared piece of ground, nor could they work with advantage until the third or fourth year, when the smaller stumps and roots having decayed would allow a passage, though very irregular, between the larger stumps. During the first year or two, the seed was sown upon the unplowed surface and harrowed with a rude triangular harrow: this implement was frequently the natural crotch of a tree, into which seven or more iron teeth were placed at regular intervals. Until late years the plow used in this region boasted of a wooden mould board, armed with a steel share affixed by the smith at the nearest village: the mold board having been split from the butt of a winding hard maple tree, and worked down to a thickness of about two inches. Imperfect and cumbrous as these implements were, yet there are those with whom habit is so strong, that regrets have been heard within a few years, that the good old plow had given way to cast-iron and new fashions; this, however, must ever be so, while conceit and vanity are so prominent in our composition, and so difficult to eradicate even in these days of better means for education and the acquisition of knowledge. The method of reaping grain in Europe with the sickle was used till recently in this county, and though the cradle has, to a good extent excluded the sickle, that tool is to be found among the implements of the oldest farmers. The long standing tree stumps, and other surface impediments, were the probable cause for the later introduction of the grain cradle, and the farmers were content in the olden time to reap and bind an acre per day and per man, esteeming this quantum of work a full measure for an able man.

A serious inconvenience was felt in the early settlement of this county by reason of want of grain seed. It will have been noticed that the several towns were settled within a short period of each other, several in the same year, hence a dependance on distant