228 MOxNTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



A PLEASANT VISIT TO AN EMINENT FARMER. 



Fiom the Saratoga Republican. 



A VISIT TO THK PRESIDENT OF AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 

 WHAT OCCURRED— INTERSPERSED WITH SOME REFLECTIONS BY THE NARRATOR- 

 ALL CONTAINED m TWO LETTERS, OF WHICH THIS IS 



NO. II. 



Number I. having already appeared, excuse me, but " Hike to be particular, 

 Mr. Editor — and now as to his sales. Col. C, President of the Agricultural So- 

 ciety of county as aforesaid, from his little farm of 100 acres, of which 



20 are in wood, sells some hay, some pork fattened on cooked potatoes and 

 meal, gradually diminishing the proportion of the former, until the unclean non- 

 cud-chewing beasts are nearly ready for the sacrifice, when the potatoes are en- 

 tirely withdrawn-, and the king of grains, the pride of our country, entirely su- 

 persedes them.* He sells some butter at never less than a shilling a pound, at 

 the village of" Sarritog," as the country people hereabout call it ; some poultry, 

 and divers other odds and ends, too tedious to mention ; therein acting on the 

 maxim of Poor Richard that " every little makes a mickle." And furthermore, 

 according to the saw of the same sage economist, so says Mr. C. " if you would 

 have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself^ Hence it is, 

 that he has no servant of any sort about his house. His thrifty wife cooks, 

 washes and mends, and performs with untiring diligence the household duties, 

 that her husband " may be honored as he sittelh at the gate among the elders." 



If the house is homely in its exterior, the inside was all neat and " in order." 

 There were shelYcs in one closet loaded with beautiiul cheeses, and in another 

 bending under the load of the nicest patch-work quilts, and counterpanes, and 

 house linen for every use, and as white as the driven snow. 



" As huswives keep home and be slining about, 

 So speedeth their wiimings, the year throughout." 



Wondering how he could get from his only twenty acres of wood an adequate 

 supply of fuel for this northern climate which locks up the earth and covers its 

 bosom with frost and snow during five months of the year, he showed his visit- 

 ors that he kept but one fire going generally, and that in a stove that served at 

 ■once for cooking and warming. The fact is, Mr. Editor, that men who are ever 

 at work rarely suffer with cold, and Mr. C. is one of those who handles his tools 

 -".without mittens," rememberin* Poor Richard says, again, that " the cat in 

 gloves catches no mice." 



With a provident economy characteristic, not so much of himself as of the 

 country to which he belongs, this side of the Potomac, while content to put up 

 a little longer with his old mansion, Mr. C. had built himself a capital barn, 

 which was as " full as a tick." Its ample dimensions and convenient arrange- 

 ment, atlbrding shelter and security to his crops, his implements, his cattle and 

 manure — except that, as before stated, his increasing stores have this year swelled 

 Ibeyoud calculation, and his hay is some of it stacked in the field. 



There is one thing observable to a southern-bred farmer here, as throughout 

 this State: Their ivonnfoices, made with rails, much longer than in the South, 

 are generally not more than (3 or at most 7 rails high, and scarcely anywhere se- 

 cured by stakes and riders. Such fences in the South would be considered a 

 temptation rather than a barrier. Hence it is undoubtedly to be inferred that 

 the cattle are of more docile and peaceable temper ; and it may be worthy of in- 

 quiry, whether these qualities be not transmissible? May it not, in fact, be 



■* It is lime we had given u name to this nuble grain — an American name. Aute, for instance, what it 

 was called by the aboriginal owners of the country, wliom we robbed, as the strong will always rob the 

 weak, and when they won't submit, the usual expedient is to kaock out their brains ! Indian corn is no 

 name at ifll ! Neither is the Greek iianio Maize. The Indians call il 'mole.' [Ed. Farm. Lib. 



(i(J8) 



