320 What One Man Can Do. [July, 



parent stem. Eetaining its seed in an arid soil and atmosphere, it is 

 for months and years wafted about by the winds, but from lack of mois- 

 ture keeping closed. Eventually it falls upon some damp spot, near 

 some well or oasis, when it opens, deposits seeds, and thus by a most 

 exquisite adaptation of means to an end exhibited in this beautiful phe- 

 nomenon of nature, the work of reproduction is commenced and con- 

 cluded." 



Ijat ^nz Phk dun §o. 



*' The JV. E. Farmer tells the story of a Boston boy, educated for the 

 law, who, seeking for a location in which to establish himself in his 

 profession, went in 1810 to a farming town called Northtield, situated 

 on the Connecticut river in a lovely valley. He was a man of public 

 spirit and rural taste. When he went there the whole settled plain was 

 destitute of tree or shrub — ' not a flower planted by the hand of man — 

 not even a rose could be found.' 



** The road-sides were encumbered with cast-off implements of hus- 

 bandry ; the relics of an ancient log-house, or some dilapidated vehicle, 

 and among these, the burd'jck and thistle, the mullein, milk-weed and 

 johnswort, were flourishing in rank luxuriance. 



" Such was the general appearance of the place in 1813. about three 

 years after this gentleman entered it, with the intention of making it his 

 future home. There was within him a love of the beautiful in rural 

 life, which the scene before him aroused into action ; and after arranging 

 the whole matter in his own mind, he called on some of the farmers, 

 with whom he had become acquainted, on the minister, the physician 

 and others, and proposed to plant four rows of the Amevican Elm, hun- 

 dreds of which, young and thrifty, were then standing on the banks of 

 the river, through the entire length of the street ! By most the propo- 

 sition was cordially received, and they were ready to lend a helping-hand 

 in the work. But by others it was fiercely opposed, and denounced as a 



* d d federal trick ' — it being during the war. when parties were 



strongly arrayed against each other, and when burning jealousies were 

 more common than a desire to embellish and increase the comforts of 

 home. But a survey was made, the lines were struck, and the work 

 went on. The farmer came with his team, the lawyer, and doctor, and 

 minister, and storekeeper came with their implements, and in a few days 



