WITH a liberality, if not a recklessness, which, while it was natural in a country originally well wooded, may hereafter be considered culpable, we Americans have omitted a simple and pleasing duty, that our immediate successors will have great cause to complain of. We have thrown away, for Want of forecast, opportunities which it may not now be too late to remedy, unless it should be found impossible to convince those interested how easily they may repair the error. We have de-Btxoyed with the axe and foe, under an impresrion that coal would supply our future wants, and already our artisans are obliged to send to distant parts at a greatly increased cost for suitable woods; it will be a sufficient illustration that might be greatly extended, if we adduce the fact that Cabinet Makers already draw their supplies of Walnut wood for the Atlantic cities from the shores of the Ohio and more distant points,* where the same process of destruction is in progress; that the Whip Makers and others find it very difficult to procure a supply of small Hickory limbs; and, more important, that the sleepers of Railroad tracks, and good lumber generally have become a most costly article.

We are too apt to say that posterity has done nothing for us, and, therefore, we will do nothing for posterity; but we must recollect that it is to our successors we are to look for the patrons of Railroads, and that it is for a future benefit and for posterity we mainly invest our capital in these expensive undertakings.

The first directors of Railroads were naturally too intent on making immediate returns, and too much pressed with other duties, to take into consideration the great results that might be produced in a few years by planting a few nuts, seeds, or trees, on their boundaries, to admit into their calculations this immense source of profit. If the Locust, White Oak, Chesnut, Hickory, and Larch, had been planted liberally on the sides of the embankments, and canals had been similarly treated; if the borders of our turnpikes and plank roads had now growing upon them trees producing the most useful woods, planted at the time of the construction of these vast lines of intercommunication, we as a people should have been the richer by many millions of dollars. Now nothing of value is produced upon the sites we have mentioned.

State governments should long since have seen to this. No charter for a public road or canal of any kind should ever have been granted in America without the obligation that all the borders should be planted with suitable trees, and that.

* In our edition of Michoux's North American Sylva; vol. 1, page 68, will be found the following note: - "The demand for Walnut wood in the Atlantic cities, and the want of attention to its cultivation, have made it necessary for the cabinet makers. etc. to import from the West the greater portion of their supplies. This resource must fall in times, and the wood may not Improbably become nearly as costly as Mahogany, which it resembles in many of its properties." plantation maintained, or the charter become void. In the Southern States here would have been an ample provision for Live Oak timber - in the Northern for White Oak, Locust, etc., for national or private purposes. We need not say that the government itself could'easily have made the proviso that the timber should belong to itself, or the half of it; nor need we urge the additional comfort of the traveller, though that is an .important consideration which will have to be more studied than it has heretofore been, in various ways; it is sufficient to enforce the necessity of producing valuable woods for future use, in a national point of view, and to urge upon incorporated companies the large profit that would result.

And first of these profits at a rough calculation. By planting the acorns or seeds themselves, scarcely any cost would be incurred; but it can be shown by practical men, that at present prices, a mile of seedling Oaks one year old, planted ten feet apart, which would give for both sides of a road, one mile in length, one thousand and fifty-six trees, could be bought and planted for twenty dollars, and Locust the same, if not for less. At a low estimate, we will assume that these trees in twenty years would be worth, on an average two dollars each, or two thousand one hundred and twelve dollars, (ornamental trees produce a much greater result in five to eight years). If our route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, with its branches, is four hundred miles in length, and was planted on both sides, say eight hundred miles, the value produced where nothing of value is now growing would, if we are correct, yield eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars ! Apply this estimate to the whole length of Railroads, canals, and turnpikes, in the Union, and the result is too startling for figures.

Let any one make a similar calculation for the finest fruits to be sent by the rail to our principal cities, and the figures will be still more surprising, while the profit would be infinitely sooner realized; suffice it that we have made it evident that we may have timber at every man's door sufficient for his increasing wants, instead of being dependent on Canada as we now are. When Canada has exhausted her supply, which she must some time do, where are we to go ?

We have taken as samples a few trees of known mercantile value, but it is not necessary to confine the selection to these; we would even recommend varying the kinds very considerably, and changing their character according to climate and the soil, and the wants of the State wherein the line was constructed. The per centage of profit is sufficient to touch stockholders in a point that has some scarified spots- the pocket; but if this inducement fails, we would recommend the formation in every State of new companies, with charters, or privileges from the companies already formed, requiring the performance of this cheap and agreeable duty. For ourselves, we should prefer taking stock in the " Tree Company " to that of the road itself, and at the same time we should be doing our fellow men an immense service. Ornamental trees interspersed would add immensely to the beauty of the route, be very profitable, and would give to passengers, who are sadly in want of resources for occupation, something to study and talk about, with examples for home adoption.

The railroad or canal could deliver the matured woods at given points where most required, very much cheaper than by the process now employed to haul them from inland points where nature planted the nut. How often do we see ship and other timber brought from great distances by horse power, or the lumbering process during freshets, and subjected to great injuries and losses.

In France and Switzerland, and some other countries, government long since, with paternal foresight, took this matter under consideration; and the turnpikes and canals now afford an abundance of timber for ship-building and other purposes, distributed on the routes where it can easily be transported. As you approach the latter country from France, over the Jura, you perceive that the roads are bordered (and, of course, shaded,) with fine old trees of the English Walnut (Juglans regia); thousands of sacks of nuts are exported from thence, via the Mediterranean, to this and other countries, forming a large source of revenue at our expense. The trees and fruit are protected by law; different customs as to ownership of the produce prevail in different communities, but in all a source of wealth is evident.

In America, our turnpikes occupy much greater width than most of those in Europe; lavish waste in this respect marks our legislation, as it does in so many enterprises, public and private. It is also common to have more thoroughfares than are required. Now that the charters are obtained, it is not likely that any of the width will be abandoned, but this can surely be usefully employed.

It may be urged at first view, that trees on railroad borders or banks would be in the way of the cars; but that it is not so is evidenced on very many embankments, where, in the newly moved earth, worthless wood has sprung up from seeds of neighboring trees, and is suffered to grow, sometimes having already attained a merchantable size, but usurping the place of enduring materials for commerce, or for the repair of the road itself Sometimes the bank is so high as to extend into the neighboring farmer's field; he finds it too steep to plough, but he might convert it to tree culture.

The subject is a fruitful one, and perhaps we have said enough to awaken attention in the proper quarters. We are all rushing ahead with railroad speed; it is not amiss to stop the cars occasionally, and look around at the nakedness of the land. It cannot be forgotten by recent travellers in Germany, that in some places the very near vicinity of the track of the locomotive is cultivated, by the look-out men, with cabbages, etc., to eke out their scanty salaries; and who can but remember the beauty of the station-house grounds, planted and adorned with trees and flowers ? The station at Brunswick, in Hanover, with its numerous beautiful specimens of Sophora pendvla, is worth going to see.

Our duty, under the caption of this article, would lead us to read government a lecture on the necessity of making some provision for the navy yards in the matter of ship timber, and even for tar and rosin; but we have already extended these remarks beyond our original intention, by pointing out a practicable scheme of economy and profit for private incorporations, from whose sagacity more may be counted on than upon our ever shifting political Governors, who we have learned to expect will look but little beyond their respective terms of salary and office. When will the time of foresight and paternal government begin ?

It is not, however, private incorporations nor government alone, that should anticipate a great demand and profit by timely provision. The father of the late Duke of Athol lived to see a ship launched that was built oat of the Larch wood planted by himself on his naked Scotch hills There are thousands of sites in this country where the larch and other useful woods would yield their thousand per cent upon a very slight outlay. Mountain sides should be enriched with hard wooded trees; Larch plantations have proved extremely profitable*

A father sometimes buys from an annuity company, for a small sum, a large amount predicated upon an infant's attaining majority - let other fathers plant trees and bequeath the result in the same manner; in the one case there is nothing produced for the benefit of the country - in the other there is a sure capital created, which is growing faster than the child; and if the latter dies, the trees survive for a successor, while the sum for the annuity is lost to the family. A plantation of Locust trees, costing five hundred dollars at the birth of an infant, on soil of moderate price, would be equal to more than ten thousand dollars at its majority.