NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



573 



After the dinner Mr. Alfrfd Baker, President 

 of the Society, then made a statement of the pres- 

 ent condition of the Society. The funds had been 

 increased since last year $700, and now amount to 

 $3,200, and the number of members was 700 ; of 

 which 250 had been added during the year, and of 

 these 200 were ladies. Being desirous of raising 

 the funds of the Society to the limit prescribed by 

 the legislature, on which bounty would be paid, 

 and having called pretty generally upon the gen- 

 tlemen, an appeal was made to the ladies. They 

 had responded with their characteristic generosity, 

 and the names of some 200 ladies were now en- 

 rolled as life members of the Society, and more 

 than the needed amount had been promptly raised. 



Speeches were made at the table by Hon. Ed- 

 ward Dickinson, Hon. Amasa Walker, Secretary 

 of the commonwealth, Dr. Reed of Pittsfield, 

 and President Hitchcock, and altogether, we 

 should judge the Hampshireites had a most agreea- 

 ble and profitable meeting. May they have many 



For the New England Farmer. 

 VALUE OF BIRDS. 



Friend Brown : — I will relate to you an occur- 

 rence that took place in the year 1851, on my farm, 

 that shows the value of birds, viz : — I went to 

 mowing in one of my fields, and found that the 

 grasshoppers were very plenty but not fully grown, 

 and remarked to my son, who was mowing with 

 me, that if they were not destroyed there would 

 be enough to eat up all the fall feed. But as soon 

 as we had mowed a few swarths, there were three 

 blackbirds came and went to work, and before 

 noon there were more than 50 blackbirds and bobo- 

 links on the piece ; the next day when we took 

 away the hay the grasshoppers were few and far 

 between. The following day we went to another 

 field at some distance where the grasshoppers were 

 the same, and the birds followed until their number 

 increased to more than 200, and when we were 

 done haying they had made a clean sweep, with 

 the assistance of a few of the crow blackbirds that 

 appeared to come a great distance ; they were 

 coining and going always in the same direction and 

 very high in the air. I will just remark that when 

 I was a boy my father said we might kill all those 

 kinds of birds, because, as he said, they did mis- 

 chief. 



I once knew crow blackbirds to pull up corn, 

 and but once. 



Yours, &c., B. F. Cutter. 



Pclham, 2V. H., Nov. 6, 1852. 



A Seasonable Hint. — Suet and lard keep better 

 in tin, than in earthen ware. We have vessels 

 made with covers and handles, which will contain 

 about fifteen pounds each, five of them for a dollar. 

 With careful usage they will last an age. Lard 

 kept in earthen pots, penetrates the pores so that 

 the outer surface is soon covered, and in hot 

 weather so much will pass through as sometimes 

 to run off upon the shelves. Now is the time to get 

 the tin cans ; once tried you will never go back to 

 t.ie earthen pots, either as a matter of convenience 

 or economy. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



During the last half century, no subject has 

 more engaged the attention of thinking, practical 

 men, than the improvement of machinery. Un- 

 der this general head may be properly classed all 

 the implements of farm husbandry. In our coun- 

 try, more perhaps than in all the world beside, 

 has this spirit of improvement, this constant striv- 

 ing for something better, wrought out results use- 

 ful to man. Our government and institutions are 

 well calculated for the development of individual 

 genius and enterprise ; and to this individual think- 

 ing and acting, may be referred the glorious re- 

 sults which have been attained. 



Genius is not pent up by arbitrary rules, edicts 

 or censorships, to break out here and there like an 

 impetuous torrent, but finds vent in all directions, 

 and thus every department of industry is benefit- 

 ed. It is seen in works of art, where great nat- 

 ural obstacles are to be overcome. Combined with 

 wealth, it spans rivers whose perpendicular sides 

 and deep abyss have mocked the daring and skill 

 of former ages, or bids the mountain yield a pas- 

 sage through its rocky bosom. The old machine- 

 ry, both of sea and land, stands back mute and 

 motionless, in astonishment at the modern queer 

 ways of grinding, reaping, threshing, pumping, 

 pulling and wheeling, and all manner of locomo- 

 tion. 



Man's inventive genius never tires — the inven- 

 tions of one only exciting the genius of another to 

 supply a defector add an improvement. It is this 

 stimulus which has brought the steam-engine to 

 its wonderful state of perfection, and produced sim- 

 ilar results with other machinei'y — with our reap- 

 ers, plows, harrows, and most of the implements 

 of the farm. 



The quality of any work, in whatever art, de- 

 pends mainly on the tools with which it is wrought. 

 The most skilful shoe-maker, with a superior piece 

 of leather, cannot make a good boot, unless he 

 have a good awl, good thread, and a good knife ; 

 and the ship-builder not only needs the right kind 

 of timber, but the right kind of tools. It is so in 

 every art. In farming, good land will avail but 

 little with a plow that does its work in an imper- 

 fect manner, and the farmer would find that he 

 was far behind his neighbors both in quality of 

 work and time, if he was without a harrow, or if 

 he should use the flail or horse's hoof, instead of 

 the threshing machine, upon large quantities of 

 grain. 



If his plow turns the furrow, so as to preclude 

 the atmospheric influences, or breaks it into dis- 

 jointed masses, his crop is materially affected by 

 it. The whole action of the plow depends upon a 

 shaping so precise, that a very accustomed eye can- 

 not ascertain without trial whether a plow is right- 

 ly turned or not. Again, the operation of the 

 plow depends upon the kind of soil to be turned. 



