20 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



he labors are so variable. He enters his fields 

 with the great book of Nature open before him, 

 ample in her page, and full of interesting and im- 

 portant teachings ; but without many of those 

 helps, the effect of study and experiments of ages, 

 reduced to strictly arbitrary rules, and which, care- 

 fully followed, Mill produce a well-known result. 



No man, therefore, needs a sound and ripe judg- 

 ment, a clear and comprehensive intellect, and a 

 general knowledge of mechanics, of the physiolo- 

 gy of plants and animals, of botany, of meteor- 

 ology, geology, and something of the laws of trade 

 and political economy, more than the farmer. The 

 manner of cropping his fields this year may not 

 precisely answer for the next, because the season 

 may be of a widely different character, and thus 

 require a different mode of treatment. He must 

 lean upon a well-balanced judgment, and the great 

 truths of Nature, stored up by experience and ob- 

 servation. 



If I desired to pass an encomium upon Agricul- 

 ture, I might with propriety point to these substan- 

 tial homes around us, these churches and school- 

 houses, springing as they have, from the products 

 of your still fairer fields. Or I might contrast it 

 with that which sustained your ancestors nearly two 

 hundred years ago, when these roads were at best 

 but bridle paths, and your gardens and fields were 

 occupied by the grim forests, never lighted but by 

 the council fires of the Indians who occupied them 

 before you. These changes have been wrought 

 with carefulness and toil through long years of 

 economical industry, and a practice of the stern 

 virtues implanted in your bosoms by the noble men 

 and women whose memories you celebrate to-day. 



What if one of the dwellings which stood on this 

 plain had been protected from the elements, with 

 all its household goods, its furniture, bedding, wear- 

 ing apparel, together with the means of travelling 

 which they then possessed, and could be visited 

 and seen by us to-day, would not your admiration 

 be tempered with gratitude to Him who has led you 

 along to these pleasant places, and crowned your 

 labors with peaceful abodes and the fulness of do- 

 mestic comforts ? From those faint and boding 

 beginnings have sprung this Httle republic, with all 

 its social enjoyments, so unlike the garrisons and 

 perils which surrounded your ancestors two hun- 

 dred years ago ! 



How would the fabrics of the farmer's family, 

 then — the homespun woollen gowns, dyed in the 

 chimney corner, and the checked linens, both for 

 dresses and apron-, compare with the glossy silks, 

 Thibets and muslin-delaines, together with the rich 

 shawls, satin cloaks, and elegant Talma capes and 

 Honiton laces, that I see around me to-day ! There 

 were then no Lowell or Manchester, turning out 

 thousands of yards of cotton-cloth an hour, to 

 clothe and civilize the world — or carpet-looms to 



weave the finest wool into fabrics as soft as the 

 thistle's down, and with colors as bright as the but- 

 terfly's wing, to soften the footstep upon the floor, 

 or shut out rude winter Avinds. 



So was the style of living and travelling as differ- 

 ent as the style of dress. Plain meats and vege- 

 tables, — the turnip instead of the potato, — and 

 principally rye and barley bread, made up the sum 

 of their frugal meals, — and there was less dyspep- 

 sia and despondency in those than in our more arti- 

 ficial life. Men and women travelled on foot, or at 

 best, on horseback, two or three upon a single beast, 

 through lonely and intricate paths, when necessity, 

 of one sort or another, compelled them to visit 

 some of the earUer and more populous settlements. 

 Now, we think it a hardship if our horses do not 

 accomplish ten miles an hour, in carriages so set 

 upon springs of steel, and so cushioned as to roll us 

 along as though reclining on beds of down ; or, in 

 locomotive houses, at forty or fifty miles an hour, 

 while we eat, drink, smoke or sleep at will, lounge 

 away the time in listlessness, or grumble at the 

 speed which only conveys us sixty miles an hour ! 

 In mid-winter we sit in churches at summer tem- 

 perature, where, perchance, flowers bloom and shed 

 their fragrance around the worshippers, while soft 

 and entrancing music floats through the vaulted 

 aisles. 



In the fields the contrast is as great in the im- 

 plements with which they cultivated the soil, as in 

 any thing else. Shovels and plows of Avood, heavy 

 and cumbrous harrows and carts, and hoes and 

 scythes, exhausted the strength to wield them 

 which should have been devoted to moAing the soil. 

 But in the face of these discouragements, the stem 

 old Puritans succeeded in all they undertook ; they 

 were methodical, and earnest, and persevering. 

 If separation from friends, grim woods, coarse, and 

 sometimes scanty fare, and savage hate, could not 

 daunt them, neither could the common deprivations 

 and embarrassments of their position, fail to stimu- 

 late their exertions. Faith led them here, and it 

 did not desert them when sore and grievous trials 

 pressed them on every side. 



"The Plow, — Its one share in a hank of earth 

 is ivorth ten in a bank of paper." — This senti- 

 ment, upon which you have been pleased to call me 

 up, suggests more topics than time will alloAV me 

 to touch upon noAV. The one share Avith Avhich your 

 fathers wrought, was but an indifferent affair ; we 

 have not only improved greatly upon that, but have 

 added another, so that while shares in banks of pa- 

 per, in railroads, in manufactories and mining com- 

 panies, are uncertain, unprofitable, or ruinous, the 

 Ploiv, Avith its two shares, is upturning the soil to 

 the sun and air, and doubling the ordinary profits 

 of the fields. 



Sagacity of a Horse. — A young filly belonging 

 to a gentleman in this vicinity, which had been at 



