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  The address of Mr. Thoreau is a very interesting one, particularly that portion which explains the process of nature, by which when a decayed pine wood is cut down, oaks and other hard woods may at once take its place. In other words, how it is that, without the aid of man, a rotation of crops in the shape of trees takes place. This is done, as he truly says, by the winds, in some cases, by the birds and by animals in others. The squirrel is a great tree-planter, the oak, the walnut and the beech are mostly planted by him. They are brought from long distances and are buried in the ground for winter use ; some are forgotten or are not wanted and they vegetate the following spring. He is, however, mistaken in supposing the planting to be carried on annually of necessity, or that “the oldest seedlings annually die.” The plants come up and throw out from two to six leaves, and continue to do so from year to year, until the pines decay or arc removed, and the light and air come to them, when they at once commence a vigorous growth. I have marked within fifteen years, hundreds of oaks in their dormant state, and have never lost sight of them. There they are, just as when I first discovered them. Others I have opened to the light and air, by clearing away the pines which shadowed them, and they are vigorously taking their places. Providence has wisely made this provision for the future. These plantations are existing all around us, with no oaks within a large circuit—they have been all sacrificed years ago, yet the clearing up of a pine grove will reveal the careful providence of nature. If no oak has ever grown in a district, none will grow, for want of seed, but once planted and germinated, it is never lost.

  The squirrel is equally efficient in planting the pine seed as the acorn. The cone of a pine contains from thirty to sixty sound germinating seed. The squirrel, with his sharp teeth, cuts off the little flaps which hold them and pouches them, carrying them to his retreat, where they are lightly buried. A common chipmunk will take in his pouches or cheeks more than a hundred seeds at a time.

  It is not only the pine that acts as a sentry over the oak, preparing for its future growth by the annual decay of its spikelets. The birch, to some extent, performs the same office. If you carefully look through what appears to be an entire birch cover, you will frequently find the young oaks beneath abiding the period of its more rapid decay.
R. J. F. . . .

MIDDLESEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—We have before us the report of the last year’s doings of the Society. The Address of Mr. Thoreau, ‘On the Succession of Forest Trees,’ is given in full. We have spoken of this before, and given extracts from it. It contains, also, reports on Sheep, Poultry, Grapes, Vegetables, Bread, and Plowing loith Single Teams, extracts from which we hope to find room for hereafter. There are several other short reports of no general interest.

  An exceedingly pleasant narrative of a week’s boating excursion upon the waters of two rivers, whose very existence, perhaps, is all unknown to the majority of the dwellers on this side of the Atlantic. The author is evidently one who has read much, and thought much,—a keen observer and lover of nature, and one whom we could gladly journey with, amid the scenery described in this volume. Notwithstanding occasional attempts at fine writing, and some rather long-winded disquisitions upon religion, literature, and other matters,—sometimes naturally arising from the incidents of the voyage, sometimes lugged in apparently without rhyme or reason,—the book is an agreeable book and all the irrelevant matter may be skipped by those who don’t like it, while such as prefer this kind of reading to the narrative portions, may revel in it to their heart’s content; and so may each class of readers find something to suit them in these pages.

  We know not if the following choice morceau be original or select; it figures as one of the three mottoes at the beginning of the book, each having a page devoted to itself, a significant hint, perhaps, of the absence of “taxes on knowledge” across the Atlantic:—

  As a set-off we give a sample of the prose, in the following description of a bivouac on the banks of a river, which makes one long to be of such a party.

  The voyageurs are two brothers, who, in a boat of their own building, weighed anchor in the river port of Concord, U. S., “on Saturday, the last day of August, 1839.” A tranquil voyage, with but few incidents, bring them, on Monday evening, to their halting-place, which is thus described:—[quote from page 177: “Soon the village of Nashua was out of sight . . . ”]

  We shall be glad to meet our author again, as soon as his ‘Day in the Woods,’ which we see announced as nearly ready, shall have reached England; for we may as well intimate, before we conclude, that the present volume is a native of Boston, U.S., having been introduced to this country by a spirited publisher, to whom the English reader is already under considerable obligation.