THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



03 



that fools will learn of no other mistress than ex- 

 perience; and since we arc all in some degree fool- 

 ish, we oushl to profit hy her lessons. Something 

 has hcen done — "improvement" is on the wing ; 

 but yet the great mass of the people have not felt 

 her renovating influence. It is tUouglit indispen- 

 sable to tlic success of the minister of the s;ospe', 

 the lawyer, the statesman, that he should be well 

 educated. He must spend his days and nights in 

 poring over the musty volumes of antiquity ; and 

 consume t!ie "midniglit oil" in endeavoring to pos- 

 sess himself of all that the world ever knew or 

 thought of. How much more necessary, then, that 

 those who labor with their hands — they on whom 

 must depend the support of our country in peace — 

 her defence in war — should be thoroughly educat- 

 ed in all the- practical duties of life ; not that edu- 

 cation Wiiich should be of no benefit to themselves 

 or otliers — which should induce them "to plough 

 the classic field;" but rather to plough the reuZ 

 fields — to "know her rights, and knowing, dare to 

 maintain them." 



When v.'e see a man, in possession of a paternal 

 estate, which has come to him from a long line of 

 anccstoria! names, plodding on in the path thcij 

 trod, without ever dreaming of making any innova- 

 tion.s on the good old Vt'ay, we are apt to think that 

 prejudice rules him with an iron rod. His land 

 half tilled, his corn small, iiis stock of the meanest 

 breeds, descendants of those his lather and grand- 

 father owned before him, — and in short, his whole 

 establishment looking, no way, like that of an en- 

 lightened husbandman. This is no picture of the 

 imagination. It cannot be said of it as was remark- 

 ed by a celebrated lady, on contemplating a draw- 

 ing, that it is "more like than the original." 



It wou-Id Eccm that if any arguments wore re- 

 quired to convince the farmers of our land of the 

 necessity of improvement, and stimulate them to 

 increased exertion and perseverance in their pro- 

 fession, tlicy were to be found in the fact of the im- 

 portation, witliin t!ie last fev/ years, of large quan- 

 tities of bread stuffs from Europe. An agricultur- 

 al communitv sending abroad to procure their 

 bread, the "staff of life i" The thought is degrad- 

 ing. Our New England States too, are in tile hab- 

 it of receiving supplies of flour from the western 

 part;; of our Union. Can we not produce, at home, 

 sufKcient f-r our own consumption, and not be re- 

 duced to the degrading necessity of sending abroad 

 to procure the means of living.^ This is an impor- 

 tant point, and well worthy the serious considera- 

 tion of the farming community. 



But we have begun to amend somewhat in this 

 particular : for a year or two last past, the impor- 

 tations of arain have int been so great as they were 

 three or four years ago. Our citizens have given 

 their attention to the cultivation of the earth, more 

 of late than formerly ; convinced that it is a down- 

 hill business to be dependent on others for the ne- 

 cessaries of life. This is right : it is as it should be. 

 All that is wantinnr to make us truly an indepen- 

 dent nation, is the proper light antl information — a 

 bursting of thf bonds of ignorance and prejudice 

 that have too long held captive the nobler qualities 

 of the people. 



Let, then, the farmer-: of our country turn their 

 attention U.) the true means of our national pros- 

 perity — tie cultivation of the mind as well as the 

 soil. Let tiiem n.'^t g ; begging at the doors of their 

 lesislatnrcs, nor degrade themselves by a too mean 

 dependence on government for protection. They 

 have the true power : Heaven is their home, and 

 earth their footstool.' Who among all the sons of 

 eartli is s-i well calculated to enjoy true happiness 

 as an enliglitcned farmer! His is the warm heart, 

 the contented mind, the happy home I He is a 

 stranger to the anguish, the heart-burnings, that 

 rend the bosom of liie mere politician. He knows 

 iritiiingofsuch nice phrases as, "how is exchange.-" 

 "stocks low ;" '-market light ;" and a hundred oth- 

 ers in the speculating vocabulary of the day. Let 

 them inform themselves in all that relat'.s to their 

 profession ; considering tiiat tlie operations of mind 

 are as necessary in all that tliey do as in any 

 occupation in which man can engage. Then will 

 tliev lake that elevated stand to which they are en- 

 titled ; and then shall we become the models of the 

 earth :n agriculture, as we are in government. 



And ill view of all tins, I would siy — onward I — 

 put you shoulders to the wheel, and h dp to roll 

 on the tide of victory o-,-er prejudice and error. 



vate a small quantity of ground well, than to scram- 

 ble over a large e-xtent, not obtaining half the a- 

 mount of produce, and that with more labor too. 

 This is an important consideration to farmers. 

 Some men have an "itching palm" to own all the 

 land that joins them. This is all nonsense. Tlie 

 three hundred well disciplined Spartans of Leonidas 

 were sullicient to check the advancing tliousanrls 

 of Xerxes ; in like manner, three acres, under 

 proper discipline, will be of more profit to the cul- 

 tivator than thirty, under miserable harrowing. As 

 a gentleman once observed to his hired men, that 

 it was not the amount of work performed, but the 

 manner in which it was done, that he was looking 

 to ; so it is not the extent of laud that is gone over, 

 but the manner in which it is tilleo, that is to de- 

 termine the character of the cultivator for intelli- 

 gence and enterprise. The man who attempts to 

 till more than he can till well, is less a farmer than 

 he who, under the same circumstances, grow-s thir- 

 ty bushels of wheat upon the same quantity of 

 ground that the farmer gets fifteen from ; and if his 

 plants do not "mock his scant manuring," they at 

 least tell a story which should teach him whole- 

 some admonition. 



There is an old saying which apjilies very well to 

 the business of farming, that "an ounce of preven- 

 tion is worth more than a pound of cure." It is 

 easier to keep the soil in a good state, than to bring 

 it back, when it has become worn out. It is a fault 

 loo common among farmers, to wish to procure 

 metre land than they have means for cultivating as 

 it should be ; not considering that their wants 

 should be kept within their means. This reminds 

 one of the boy who was out shooting pigeons. See- 

 ing a fine flock of them on the branches of a tree, 

 he drew up, intending to fire ; but at that instant 

 discovering a still larger flock on another tree, lie 

 suspended operations, and began to consider with 

 himself, by what process he could obtain the whole 

 of them at one shot. While he was thus delibera- 

 ting, the pigeons flew away and left him ! \r\ this 

 emergency, our youthful poacher espied a turkey 

 buzzard on a tree near by ; and resolving not to be 

 outwitted this time, he discharged his gun at liiin ; 

 wliicli made, as the boy said, "the feathers fly ter- 

 ribly." But, however, he was not dead. At length, 

 after the third shot, the bird was brought down 

 from his "high estate, and weltering in his blood;" 

 and after much scratching and biting, our hunter 

 secured his prize, determining in his own mind, 

 never again to let slip a good opportunity for gain- 

 ing sometiiing, in his grasping desire for more. 



A. 



i-'.ii-ifje r'HniKT's M.tiillily Viailitr. 



A suggestion for the consideration of the 



Cuitivators of the Soil. 



The suggestion that I would wish to entbrce up- 

 on the minds of the fanning community is — wheth- 

 er it is not better, all things considered, to culti- 



Greatf.st Degrkk of Colt) I.N M..vv,from 171)0 

 to 181'2. Mr. Editor : — I send you the following 

 memorandum, showing the greatest degree of coltl 

 during the month of M,iy, in each year, from 171)0 

 to X'Si'i, taken from an abstract of tables of tlie 

 state of the tiiermometer, prepared by Professor 

 Farrar, of Cambridge, r.nd published in the third 

 volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences. The observations in the 

 first column were made at Cambridge, those in the 

 tecrmd, at Andover. Times of observation at Cam- 

 bridge, 7 A. M., i r. M. and '.) P. M. : at Andover, 

 sunrise, warmest part of the day, and sunset. My 

 own thermometer, at Cambridge, on Wednesday 

 morning, (May 183:1) at ."> l-'Z o'clock, stood at 30. 

 Cambridge. Andover. 



1700 47 



1791 3t) 



1792 44 l-'3 

 171)3 45 

 171)4 37 

 ]7:)5 40 1-2 

 17!)(i 39 

 1797 37 



179S 45 4i2 



1799 35 3d 



1800 42 32 



1801 47 46 

 ISOa 1'9 35 



1803 32 31 



1804 no record. 40 



1 805 42 38 

 ] 80(S 40 36 



1807 36 o-.i 



1808 40 33 



1809 41 



1810 43 



1811 37 



1812 32 



Flojton Transcript. 



The above would indicate a colder May the pres- 

 ent year than had occurred in the twenty -two years 

 prior and including 1812. The publication was 

 made in tfie middle of the month : since that time 

 to the first of June, surely the weather has been as 



cold if not colder for the advanced season than it had 

 been previous. — It had been remarked both in Eng- 

 lish and American publications, that the early pas- 

 sage of ice from the north sea towards the soutli, 

 discovered on and eastward of the Newfoundland 

 banks in Fibruary and March, presaged an ame- 

 linrated and warm season. The budding of trees 

 and plants Iia3 this year been earlier than common; 

 but the cold li:ts continued as if there was no cliange 

 from the cold seasons of the last four or five years. 

 Up to this fifth day of June we have had cold rains 

 nearly every day for about four weeks. The seed 

 corn in low wet lands has rotted, and fails to come 

 above ground. The Indian corn that has come up 

 even upon the best ground looks yellow. 



'j^his (■Juiii- 5} is the day of election or annual or- 

 ganization of the State government in New Ilamp- 

 shire-.it is a wet, cold and shivering day for the monlli 

 of June — very much like the election day twenty- 

 three years ago (1816) being a year which yielded 

 no Indiancorn, and which very much discouraged 

 tfie farmers, especially in the whole northern sec- 

 tion of New Hampshire. There were, however, in 

 that year unprecedented crops of rye and wheat. 

 We recollect to have seen in that year near t!ie 

 turnpike, on the side of tlie Croydon mountain, 

 such a burden of tall rye on new ground, as we never 

 before or since have set ej es upon. In that yeiir. 

 Gov. Page remarks to us, tint on twenty acres of 

 newly cleared ground, he obtained in the first crop 

 a clear profit of five hundred dollars. This was in 

 Haverhill, seventy miles north of us, on Connecti- 

 cut river. The crop was wheat, w-hose growth had 

 been so steady and gradual, that it was on the 9th 

 of September green as the grass of June. It how- 

 ever found sufficient length of season to become 

 perfectly mature. 



A continued cliange of clinuite, like that of the 

 last four years, would change our Indian corn pro- 

 duct for other kinds of bread stuff'; but cold sea- 

 sons ought not to drive fanners to a more southern 

 climate, for there the altered climate has an equally 

 injurious effect upon the crops adapted to the coun- 

 try, as it has here. 



From tils Pkiladetpliia Fariiiei's Cabinet. 



Fragments. 



'■'■Gather iqi thi fragments that nothing he lost." 



GIRLS. 



Gitls, be industrious, and observe economy in 

 every thing, even in time ; be neat and tidy, rise 

 early, and keep stirring to some useful purpose ; 

 dress so as to preserve your health, leave nothing 

 for others to do, thatyou can accomplish your- 

 selves, cultivate your minds, and eschew the least 

 appearance of evil in your manners and conduct ; 

 so shall you enjoy as mucii comfijrt, happiness, and 

 independerr,. as is allotted to mortals in this un- 

 certain world, and you will stand a very fair chance 

 of becoming united to some clever, industrious 

 youth in the bands of matrimony, and of becoming 

 a first rate wife and mother, "ruling your own 

 household well," and dispensing blessings all a- 

 round you. 



ENT.VILEl) ESTATr. 



Every man who desires to entail a valuable and 

 enduring inlieritance on his children which cannot 

 be docked ; of which rogue.s cannot defraud them, 

 and on which the sherift' can't levy execution, and 

 which they can't alienate by a general assignment; 

 may accomplish his wishes by bringing them up in 

 habits of persevering indust.y in any useful call- 

 ing, by instilling into them habits of sound econo- 

 my ; and, above all, by imbuing their minds with 

 correct and practical vicv.s of moral and religious 

 obligations. 



Bovs. 



Boys, treat the horses mildly, the cows gently, 

 the siieep kindly, the hogs mercifully, and the poul- 

 try prudently; so will you bo promoting your own 

 true interests, and be aiding in carrying out prac- 

 tically a religious obligation, enjoined on all, to treat 

 dumb creatures with hunianlty. ■ 



IIAKD B1.0. 



Parents, who endeavor to protect their children 

 from labor, cmd encourage them to seek self indul 

 geiiee, instead of animating them to become as in- 

 dustrious and useful as possible ; are f'oolishly aiul 

 certainly preparing fortliem a hard and thorny bed 

 to lay upon at a subsequent period of their lives. 



FATHERS AND MOrilER.S. 



Fathers and mothers, be kind and aflectionate, 

 but firm ana resolute ; and, above all, always rea- 

 sonable ; so shall yon command the respect and 

 obedience, that your station at the head of a famil}- 

 so imiJeriouf ly requires. 



LONGEVITY. 



There arc none v,-ho enjoy better health of body 



