46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



But my space, for this number, is already con- 

 sumed and the question of stoves or furnaces, 

 which I had intended to discuss, must rest for 

 the present, upon the general principles already 

 suggested, perhaps to be further considered in the 

 future. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT. 



BY JOHN GOLDSBURT. 



The facilities for acquiring and diffusing informa- 

 tion are immeasurably greater than they ever have 

 been at any former period of the world. The 

 great improvements in the arts and sciences, the 

 general progress of the age in civilization and re- 

 finement, and the spirit of unwonted enterprise 

 pervading all classes in the community, are the 

 surest harbingers of a better day. They have al- 

 ready done much to break dowTi the barriers be- 

 tween different classes of men, and to introduce to 

 each the knowledge and the business of all. 



This is as it sliould be. Man was not made for 

 himself alone, but for society, in which there is a 

 community of interest, and, in some measure, of 

 feeHng, which becomes a bond, uniting all together 

 as one common family ; so that whatever interests 

 and deeply affects any one class of the community, 

 will, in some measure, interest and affect the whole. 

 We live in an inquiring and obser\ing age. Everj' 

 improvement, in agriculture or the mechanic arts 

 is now chronicled by the public press, and sent 

 abroad on the wings of the wind, to be read b\ all 

 classes of men in every part of the world. The fa- 

 cility and rapidity of communication between dif- 

 ferent and distant places, are among the proudest 

 triumphs of human knowledge, and will do much to 

 correct public opinion, and to direct it to its legiti- 

 mate objects. There are none so high, and none so 

 low as not to be benefited by the means of intelli- 

 gence. The thoughts and experiments of one in- 

 di\'idual are now communicated with electric speed, 

 to quicken the thoughts and experiments of anoth- 

 er; and, in this way, all are benefited. Besides, 

 much is to be effected through the agency and in- 

 strumentality of our common schools. These little 

 primary institutions, in which the children of the 

 rich and the poor enjoy equal privileges and advan- 

 tages, and receive the same instruction, are the pla- 

 ces in which to sow the seeds of knowledge. And, 

 if these seeds be sown with care, they will spring 

 up and produce an abundant harvest. Here, then, 

 we have a lever power, by means of which we may 

 be enabled to elevate and educate all classes in ihe 

 community ; to qualify them for entering the great 

 field of labor and of usefulness, with skill, dexterity 

 and enterprise. 



Our progress, in agricultural knowledge, is on- 

 ward; it is slow, but sure. We have not yet 

 reached the extreme point of improvement. Before 

 that is reached, many a project will have been pro- 

 posed and rejected; many an experiment tried and 

 failed. Still the spirit of investigation and experi- 

 ment is abroad, dangerous only to those who are in 

 error, and who are afraid of improvement. It is 

 highly probable that many of the inventions and 

 improvements of our day would have been regard- 

 ed by our early pious ancestors as little better than 

 damnable heresy and witchcraft. What would they 

 have said at beholding the effects of steam, which is 



now used in propelling almost all the machinery of 

 the world ; when in their day, every thing was done 

 by manual labor, and at a very slow rate, and in a 

 very inferior manner. It then took as many days 

 to do the same work, as it noiv docs hours, and 

 without doing it half so well. What would they 

 have said at witnessing the more astonishing effects 

 of the electric telegraph, by means of which intelli- 

 gence is now transmitted, with the speed of light- 

 ning from one end of the United States to the oth- 

 er ; when in their day it would have talvcn several 

 months, if not years, to have done the same ! We 

 see, then, that the spirit of improvement has been 

 abroad in the land, and has wrought out important 

 results ; and, that if we do not keep up with the 

 spirit and improvement of the times, we shall soon 

 find the world ahead of us, and that all our ideas 

 and associations belong to a past generation. 



It is true, that most of the improvements of our 

 day, great and astonishing as they have been, have 

 been made in the mechanic arts, in the use of ma- 

 chinery, and in the means and facilities of intercom- 

 munication. Some improvements have been made 

 in the tools and implements employed in agricul- 

 ture ; but few improvements have been made in 

 the science of agriculture itself. And even these 

 improved tools and implements are not generally 

 used by farmers. Too many still use the old and 

 worn-out implements of a by-gone age. They still 

 continue to plow and harrow, to plant and sow, and 

 to dig and cultivate the ground, in the same man- 

 ner, with the same im])lements, and with the same 

 results, as did their fathers, gi-andfathers and great- 

 grandfathers before them. They never once stop 

 to take counsel of their reason or to consult with 

 their neighbors, upon the best means and methods 

 of doing the same things. The consequence is, 

 they have fallen behind the age in which they live, 

 and are living in the age of high-heeled boots and 

 peaked-toed shoes, when people used to go to mill 

 with a bag thrown across the back of a horse, hav- 

 ing the grain in one end of it, and a large stone in 

 the other. 



Still, in proportion as knowledge has increased 

 among the people, and industrious habits have been 

 formed, in the same ratio have the means of im- 

 provement increased. Every one must have no- 

 ticed the greater productions of the educated and 

 skilful laborer over the ignorant day laborer who 

 knows just enough to do what he is told to do. 

 Every one must have witnessed the increased skill 

 and power of the scientific laborer, and the greater 

 profits Mlaich come from forethought, order, and 

 system, as they preside over aU our farms, in all 

 our workshops, and in all the labors of our house- 

 holds ; — the care that mends a fence and saves a 

 cornfield ; the prudence that cuts the coat accord- 

 ing to the cloth, that lays up something for a rainy 

 day, and that saves all its earnings ; and the wisdom 

 that leads the farmer to avail himself of all the 

 means of improvement within his reach. Progress 

 — improvement — should be the motto of every 

 farmer. 



The way in which Toads shed their Skins. — 

 I have a small house under my care for growing 

 cucumbers. There is a bed in the middle of it, and 

 the soil is about 3 feet high from the ground {i. e., 

 to the top of the hills where the plants are in.) A 

 person, therefore, standing in the house can exam- 

 ine an object placed on the hill with ease. Last 



