NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



483 



gress ; reads the books and papers, compares ex- 

 periments, and awakens in others about him new 

 views and desires in relation to agricultural em- 

 ployments. We need thousands of such men — we 

 want their energy and example, to reclaim our rug- 

 ged hills and send fatness into the valleys. In a 

 future meeting of the Farmers' C/w&vwe hope he 

 will give liis associates a statement of the compar- 

 ative enjoyments of the two occupations of the 

 mill and the farm. 



SAVING SEED CORN. 



Mr. F. Ilolbrook, a distinguished farmer of 

 Brattleboro', Vermont, has published a long com- 

 munication on the subject of cultivating Indian 

 Corn, in which we find the following mode adopted 

 by him in selecting his seed corn, and we extract 

 it fur the benefit of the readers of the Telegraph, 

 if better than the mode used by them : 



"While upon my present suhject, I will say a 

 word about saving seed corn. All experienced 

 farmers are aware that the productiveness and 

 early ripening of any kind of corn, depends very 

 much upon the manner of selecting the seed. I 

 have a long-eared variety, which I have been 

 planting and improving for some ten or twelve 

 years ; and although during that time I have tried, 

 1 presume, a dozen other sorts, I give the prefer- 

 ence to the first-named sort. Whatever may be 

 said in favor of a change of seed, as regards other 

 crops, there is no need of changing seed corn, pro- 

 vided proper care is used in the yearly selection of 

 that for planting. By proper attention to this 

 matter, a variety may be perfectly adapted in its 

 habits to a given climate and soil, and changed 

 much for the better as to productiveness. The 

 difference in product, between careful selection in 

 the field, and taking seed at random from the crib, 

 will, in a very few years, be much in favor of the 

 former mode — the soil and cultivation being in 

 both cases alike. 



"As soon as the earliest ears are thoroughly 

 glazed, I go over the field myself, selecting from 

 those stalks that are 'stocky' and vigorous, and 

 that produce two good ears. The selected ears 

 are taken immediately home, braided, and hung 

 up in a dry, airy place. When I commenced with 

 my favorite variety, it was' difficult to find twin 

 ears ; but now they are abundant. My crops also 

 ripen ten days earlier than at first. I will not 

 mention the length of the ears that might be found 

 in my fields, but will say to you, Ml-. Editor, come 

 and see for yourself. " — Germantoivn Telegraph. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TRANSPLANTING FRUIT TREES. 



Messrs. Editors : — Will some of your corres- 

 pondents inform me, through the columns of your 

 paper, the best month for transplanting fruit trees, 

 likewise the best manner of transplanting them. 



Blackstone, 1852. w. a. d. 



Remarks. — April is the best month, although 

 Mr. Downing thought October as good. If it is 

 more convenient to transplant in the autumn, we 

 do so. See former numbers for the mode of trans- 

 planting. 



PHYSICAL RECREATION. 



Now that the fine weather has commenced, and 

 we have before us a glorious summer, we trust 

 that our city mechanics and workers generally 

 will avail themselves of every opportunity for 

 physical recreation. Bodily exercise is one of the 

 most important means provided by nature for the 

 maintenance of health, and in order to prove the 

 advantages of exercise, we shall show what should 

 be exercised, and the modes by which it may be 

 adopted. 



The human body is in reality a machine, the 

 various parts of which are beautifully adapted to 

 each other, so that if one suffer all must suffer. — 

 The bones and muscles are the parts on which 

 motion most depends. There are 400 muscles in 

 the body, eacli performing a specific duty. They 

 assist the tendons in keeping the bones in their 

 places, and put them into motion. Whether we 

 run, walk, or sit, or stoop, bend the head, arm or 

 leg, or chew food, we may be said to open and shut 

 a number of hinges, or ball and socket joints. It 

 is a provision of nature that, to a certain extent, 

 the more the muscles are exercised, the stronger 

 do they become ; hence mechanics, laborers, far- 

 mers and others, are stronger and more muscular 

 than those whose lives are passed in easy, light, 

 and professional duties. Besides strengthening 

 the limbs, muscular exercise has a most beneficial 

 influence on the circulation of the blood and on 

 respiration. The larger blood vessels are general- 

 ly placed deep among the muscles, consequently 

 when the latter are put into motion, the blood is 

 driven through the arteries and veins with much 

 greater rapidity than when there is no exercise ; 

 it is more completely purified, as the action of the 

 insensible perspiration is promoted, which relieves 

 the blood of many matters taken up in its passage 

 through the system, and thus diffuses a feeling of 

 lightness and cheerfulness over body and mind. 



Recreation should be taken which will exercise 

 all the muscles. Most of our city employments 

 compel the workers to stand or sit in unnatural 

 positions, using only a few of their muscles, while 

 the others remain comparatively inactive. Tailors, 

 sawyers, shoemakers, engravers, watchmakers and 

 many others, such as cotton spinners, dress- 

 makers, present either awkward movements in 

 limbs or eyes, or are sickly or sallow looking. — 

 Such parties are commonly affected with indiges- 

 tion, giddiness, headache, or diarrhoea. Mer- 

 chants, store-keepers, lawyers, writers, &c, pass 

 weeks without exercise in the open air, and when 

 opportunity offers, they have lost the inclination. 

 These parties suffer from indigestion, costiveness, 

 cancer of stomach, and stagnant circulation of the 

 blood and all its attendant maladies. Now there 

 is no remedy for the evils referred to, but taking 

 advantage of the summer, and enjoying as much 

 bodily exercise and out-door recreation as possible. 

 It is quite a mistake to consider the labor of the 

 day as equivalent to exercise. Work, of any kind, 

 is a mere routine process, carried on with but lit- 

 tle variety of circumstance, and a mere change 

 of scene and air is beneficial. To derive the great- 

 est amount of benefit from exercise it should be 

 combined with amusement, and thus a botanic and 

 rural hunt is both pleasurable and recreative. If 

 this important fact was borne in mind by parents, 

 teachers and employers, much fewer would be the 

 victims to licentiousness, drunkenness and disease. 



