THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



147 



Of the concert alluded to above, we are sorry that want 

 of space prevents us from going into full particulars. The 

 choruses and the music allotted to the band were conducted 

 by Mr. Ann, their teacher, and considering that they had 

 received but two months' lessons from him, their performance 

 was highly respectable. The song " Hohenlinden," sung by 

 Mr. Johnstone, and the duet, " Flow, gentle Deva," sung by 

 Messrs. Brown and Jobustone, were unanimously rede- 

 manded, and politely responded to by the executants. The 



" Hautbois solo," performed by Mr. Boucicaut, was admi- 

 rably rendered. Mr. Gary, in two quartetts with Messrs 

 Brown, Hensley, and Boucicaut, showed himself to be a 

 promising flute player. Mr. Hensley (who is a thorough 

 musician) presided at the pianoforte, and rendered the parts 

 allotted to him with great taste and judgment. Suffice it to 

 aay that all went off well, and leaves us to expect a very 

 excellent performance at some future period. 



THE NEW YEAR. 



Christmas has again come and gone, but not 

 without leaving us wherewith to "point a moral." 

 Independently of the more grave and serious origin of 

 this institution, there is wisdom in the social festivities 

 by which it is attended, They constitute a salutary 

 break upon the sombre reflections suggested by the 

 last moments of the expiring year, and thus prepare 

 the mind the better to appreciate the cheering and 

 hopeful advent of the new. The assembling of friends 

 and relatives once a year is in itself an important event 

 to the members of a family, upon which the mind 

 dwells, both in its anticipation and retrospect, with 

 peculiar pleasure, especially when time and distance 

 have served to separate them. A hundred sources of 

 enjoyment arising out of the benevolent feelings 

 excited by the return of Ciiristmas tend to strengthen 

 and perpetuate the ties of kindred and friendship ; 

 and it is only the depraved and heartless upon whom 

 the incidents of the season produce no salutary in- 

 fluence. 



Having paid this tribute of respect to the memory 

 of the past, our aspirations are called forth to hail the 

 new year as the harbinger of hopeful anticipations. 

 The fulfilment of those hopes, be it recollected, 

 depends in a great measure upon ourselves. There 

 is a saying, as old as Solomon, but it may with 

 much propriety be adopted, both as a motto and as a 

 rule of action, for the ensuing year. It is 

 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 

 might." This proverb applies to every station in life 

 and to every department of business, especially to that 

 of agriculture ; on the punctual and timely perform- 

 ance of the operations of which so mainly depends 

 their success. Franklin has a homely illustration of 

 the folly of procrastination, and of the evil conse- 

 quences that frequently arise from apparently slight 

 neglect : " For want of a nail the shoe ivas lost ; 

 for want of a shoe the horse loas lost ; for ivant 

 of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and 

 slain by the enemy ; and all for want of a little 

 care about a horse-shoe null." Let us proceed to 

 apply these aphorisms and illusti'ations to the sub- 

 ject of agriculture. 



Many years ago there was a farmer in Norfolk 

 who, in the management of his holding, adopted the 

 reverse course, his motto on all occasions being— 

 " There's no need to be in a hurry ; there's plenty of 

 time." And so universally did he act upon this pro- 

 crastinating principle, that, his house happening to 

 take fire whilst he was at breakfast, he replied to those 

 who rushed in to apprise him of it, " Well, we shan't 

 need to be in a hurry; I'll just eat this mouthful of 

 bread-and-cheese first, and '11 then come and see about 

 it." And he sat in the chimney-corner till the fire 

 fell at his feet, so that he was literally "burnt out." 

 Fortunately, the accident was confined to the chim- 

 ney, and the neighbours had taken the precautions 

 necessary to extinguish it before he made his appear- 

 ance. But it may readily be conceived that with such a 

 "rule of action," his farm went to " rack and ruin," 



and he was reduced to poverty. In the same county" 

 there is another farmer, who cultivates about a thou- 

 sand acres. It was at the commencement of the general 

 harvest, and a considerable fall of rain had taken place. 

 " Well, Farmer," said a friend, who was a miller, 

 " how goes on the harvest V " Why," he replied, " I 

 availed myself of the fine weather, and began cutting 

 my wheat early ; and I got one hundred acres under 

 cover before the rain fell ; and as it is likely to be a 

 catchy time, I shall leave the rest till it is ripe enough 

 to ' cut and carry,' as it is free from ' rubbish.' My 

 men are now engaged in ploughing up the stubbles." 



Ludicrous as the conduct of the first man may have 

 been, it is but the transcript of that of many, who, in- 

 stead of seizing Time by the forelock,' allow the right 

 moment for the right work to slip by, and afterwards 

 endeavour to overtake Time by a hurried efibrtto atone 

 for their neglect. Lord Chesterfield says : " A man of 

 sense may be in haste, but will never be in a hurry." 

 The distinction may appear fanciful ; but it is strictly 

 true. Haste implies a consciousness of the importance 

 of performing an act or operation at the season in 

 which it is most proper to be done ; hurry, on the 

 contrary, displays a conviction of having, by neglect, 

 allowed the proper season to pass by unimproved, and is 

 b«t a nervous attempt to make up the loss by accelerated 

 speed in performing the work. Whatever is done 

 in a hurry, is, in most cases, done ill — the very speed 

 with which, by implication, the operation is performed, 

 being inimical to anything being done properly. 



But mark, next, the forethought of the other example. 

 His crop of wheat was early ripe, because it was sown 

 in good time in the previous autumn. It was free from 

 weeds or " rubbish" because the horse-hoe was well 

 employed during the summer. The consequence was 

 he was enabled to cut the first ripe, before his neigh - 

 hours had any ready. Thus acting upon his own judg- 

 ment regarding the weather, he secured half his crop ; 

 whilst the cleanness of the land afibrded him an op- 

 portunity of " cutting and carrying" the rest, at any 

 time when a dry day occurred. The ploughing-up of 

 the stubbles, too, as an interlude, when the weather 

 was too damp for harvest-work, was a further illustra- 

 tion' of seizing Time by the forelock, and of the 

 principle embraced in the motto : " Whatsoever thy 

 hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 



The vicissitudes of the seasons and liability to acci- 

 dents, both of property and person, are the great thorns 

 in the side of the farmer; but the thoughtful and 

 provident have the remedy, to agreat extent, in their own 

 hands. But do the farmers in general use it ? How many, 

 for instance, of those who sufiered so severely by the 

 storms of last summer and autumn were msured ? 

 How many farmers per cent., whose property is so ex- 

 posed to incendiarism, have insured against fire ? How 

 many young farmers, with rising families, have msured 

 their lives, .'^o liable to casualties and accidents termi- 

 nating in death ? Ask any number of them whether 

 these necessary precautions have been attended to, and 

 it is probable that a large proportion, whUst admitting 



