50G 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



off an excess of animal vigor, and the rosy-cheeked 

 maidens clung closer to the arms of their "gay 

 Lotharios." Auctioneers quoted scripture and 

 Shakspeare, mingling the sacred and profane as 

 badly as the jumble of their own carts, while the 

 '•Soap man" quietly pocketed the change of the 

 New Hampshire boys. There was plenty of bustle, 

 good-nature and fun, and after strolling among it 

 for an hour and getting many a good lesson on the 

 bright side of human nature, we left to look at the 



NEEDLE WORK, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



We have seldom seen a finer display of needle 

 work, such as quilts, rugs of yarn and rags, table 

 covers, and tapestry, linen, cotton and woollen 

 hose, with most of the articles of utility or fancy 

 of common household manufacture. Apples and 

 plums were in great variety and perfection ; among 

 the contributors were JosEpn Pinneo, of Hanover, 

 William Howard, of Orford, and Zuer Eldridge, 

 Daniel Stickney and John Hibbard, of Lebanon. 

 Other contributors had fine fruit, but whose names 

 we did not learn. The show of pears, peaches and 

 melons was small — that of squashes, pumpkins 

 and garden vegetables, grand ; it seemed as if 

 they had been trying to raise some of them as 

 large as their hills. 



There was not a large collection of machinery or 

 implements, but what was exhibited was of the 

 best manufacture — such as tenoning, boring and 

 mortising machines, carriages, plows, scythes, 

 lead pipe, yokes, furniture, &c, all manufactured 

 among the people themselves, and principally at 

 Lebanon. 



The address was delivered by the editor of this 

 paper, and enforced the necessity to the farmer 

 of a better knowledge of the occupation in which 

 he is engaged — of the organic and inorganic life 

 about him. Multitudes thronged the church un- 

 til fears were entertained of its safety, when a hap- 

 py thought of the marshal called out Prof. San- 

 born, of Dartmouth College, where he gave the 

 "outsiders" an eloquent address while the services 

 were going on in the church. The music by the 

 Lowell Brass Band, and Glee Singing, conducted 

 by Mr. Pushee, were of the highest order. 



Our thanks are due the Hon. A. B. Closson, 

 President of the Society, and other officers, and 

 especially to C. C. Benton, Esq., and his agreea- 

 ble lady, for their kindness and hospitality during 

 our stay among them. 



The spirit manifested in the perfect arrangements 

 for the Show, the products of all kinds presented, 

 and the great number of persons attending, were 

 sufficient evidence that the farmers in that portion 

 of the valley of the Connecticut are not on a stand- 

 still point, but are progressing in substance and 

 intelligence, and will undoubtedly find their com- 

 forts and profits increased by this special attention 

 to the great farming interest. 



THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 



It is established by chemistry, that there are 

 seventeen elementary substances in the composi- 

 tion of the human body. More than nine-tenths 

 of the whole bulk of the system is composed of 

 four gases which are invisible when in a free and 

 uncombined state, viz. : oxygen, hydrogen, carbon 

 and nitrogen. Besides these substances, there is, 

 in every full man, enough phosphorus and sulphur 

 to tip a gross of friction matches ; enough potash, 

 soda and lime, to form a lye sufficiently strung to 

 bear up half a dozen eggs at once ; enough iron to 

 make a good-sized penknife-blade ; enough of flint 

 to load the cock of an old-fashioned "Queen's 

 arms ;" and enough copper to give a flea a heavi- 

 er burthen in proportion to its size, than was ever 

 borne on the back of a camel. 



The entire body, that part of it which possesses 

 vitality, is but a collection of cells, each one of 

 which is a mere round, pearl-colored bag, filled 

 with fluid, and far too small, to be seen with the 

 naked eye — so small are they, in fact, that 12,000 

 of the smallest of them could be strung upon a 

 single inch in length of the thi*ead of a spider's 

 web. 



All the bones, before birth, are soft, like jelly ; 

 only six of the two hundred and forty-six which 

 we find in an adult being fully formed, or ossified, 

 at birth ; these are the bones of hearing, three in 

 each ear. 



Every bone in the body is in immediate connec- 

 tion with some other bone, except the hyoid bone, 

 which is situated at the upper part of the wind- 

 pipe, just under the lower jaw. Its length is about 

 two inches; but twenty-two muscles, seven liga- 

 ments and one membrane are attached to it. — 

 More than one-half of the substance of the bones 

 is composed of phosphate of lime, that substance 

 about which so much has recently been said as a 

 remedy for consumption. Some physicians appear 

 to have just discovered that phosphorus composes 

 a part of the human system, although the more 

 scientific members of the profession have long 

 used it with great advantage, especially in chemi- 

 cal union with iron. 



The muscles of the human system are somewhat 

 over 500 in number. Some of them, as on the 

 back of an adult, are 27 inches in length ; and 

 some, as in the ear, are not over a fourth of an 

 inch long. Muscle is termed lean meat. Muscle 

 is divided into fibres ; and if we take the smallest 

 of these fibres which can be seen by the naked eye, 

 and place it in the field of a powerful microscope, 

 we shall find that it is in itself a bundle of minute 

 fibres, each of which is not more than a ten thou- 

 sandth part of an inch in diameter, and some of 

 them are even less than half that size. A rope 

 formed by twisting fifty of these fibres together, 

 would be too small to be seen by the unaided vi- 

 sion. Could we unravel the fibres of a single cu- 

 bic inch of clear muscle, they would be found to 

 stretch out over G000 miles in length. Could all 

 the muscular fibres of an adult be placed in a con- 

 tinuous line, they would form a thread which 

 would reach more than 400 times round our globe, 

 or over 10,000,000 of miles. Chemically examined, 

 dried blood and dried muscle are found to be pre- 

 cisely the same. 



The little glands which produce the sweat are 

 situated just beneath the cutis, or true skin. Each 

 gland sends up through the skin a little tube, 



