1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



143 



about one of the number will live in a sort of doubt- 

 ful condition for several years, and then either con- 

 clude to live or die. 



Now I will tell you how I did. I had a small 

 front yard, thirty-six by eighteen feet, fenced in 

 fi'om a common. I spaded up the ground, manured 

 and planted it with potatoes, and cultivated them 

 thoroughly, and obtained a crop which more than 

 paid me for my labor. The next year I spaded, 

 took out the small stones, manured and sowed with 

 carrots, beets, and other roots, and at the same 

 time set out a row of ti'ees around the garden, con- 

 sisting mostly of rock maples. The neat-looking 

 beds were no mean ornament, as the weeds were 

 kept out. A handsome crop of vegetables reward- 

 ed me this year. The second year of planting my 

 trees, I had shoots eighteen inches in length. 

 There is no tree that loves good treatment like the 

 maple. As opportunity occurred, I introduced trees 

 and shrubbery and diminished the space for garden 

 vegetables, until I had a complete forest in my lit- 

 tle front yard without any real expense whatever 

 but which enhanced the value of the property in 

 the market at least twenty-five per cent. One of 

 these maples has been planted seventeen years, and 

 has grown from one inch and a half in diameter to 

 forty inches in circumference, and the luxuriance of 

 the trees has been so great, that more than half of 

 them have been cnt out. I deprecate the habit of 

 digging a hole in hard soil and crowding in a tree 

 with the expectation of having a shade tree in the 

 present generation, when a good shade may be ob- 

 tained in five years, by the method I adopted. As 

 ever, I am sometimes zeroically, and at others ther- 

 moically, yours, N. x. T. 



Bethel, Me., Jan. 26, 1856. 



its way into the new capitol extension at Washing- 

 ton, and into the parlors of the rich in New York 

 and Paris. The committee for the erection of the 

 Benjamin Franklin monument in Boston, adopted 

 it for that purpose, after subjecting it to the severest 

 tests of heat, cold, and pressure. The "Vermont 

 Italian" quarry of Dorset presents a bold front on 

 the side of the mountain, half a mile long by 150 

 feet high, and of a breadth which ages cannot ex- 

 haust. Rutland alone turns out half a milHon dol- 

 lars' worth a year. 



Mr. Manly's prize offer for a sawing machine ap- 

 pears to have been fully successful. He states that 

 sixteen patents have already been granted for ma- 

 chines of the character proposed, and several of 

 these are now doing satisfactory work. In a short 

 time a number more will be added to the list. 



VERMONT MARBLE. 



Mr. M. M. Manly, of South Dorset, Vt., who is 

 largely engaged in the marble business, and who re- 

 cently offered a prize of $10,000 for the best mar- 

 ble sawing machine, furnishes the Scientific Amei-i- 

 can with some interesting information in regard to 

 this important interest. He says the quarries of 

 Vermont alone are noyf valued by their owners at 

 not less than $15,000,000. The marble formation 

 extends the entire length of the State, and runs also 

 through Berkshire County, in ^lassachusetts, 

 thi'ough western Connecticut, and, he thinks, into 

 New Jersey. And probably these' marble interests 

 are not a moiety of those which exist in the coun- 

 try. The business is yet in its infancy, although it 

 has increased more than a hundred-fold in ten 

 years. In Vermont, marble of almost every kind is 

 foxmd, from the ebony black to the snowy white, 

 and varying nearly as widely in texture. Sudbury, 

 Brandon, and Middlebury have statuary marble 

 equal to the best Italian, as the busts of our native 

 sculptor, Kinney, testify. Roxbury has an inex- 

 haustible supply of the true Verd Antique, so 

 identical in composition and appearance with that 

 hitherto obtained from ancient ruins, that the best 

 judges have mistaken the one for the other. Al- 

 though these quarries have been opened but a cou- 

 ple of years, this beautiful stone has already found 



A YOUNG MAN'S CHARACTER. 



No young man who has a just sense of his own 

 value will sport with his own character. A watch- 

 fid regard to his character in early youth, will he of 

 inconceivable value to him in all the remaining 

 years of his life. When tempted to deviate from 

 strict pro})riety of deportment, he should ask him- 

 self, can I afford this ? can I endure hereafter to 

 look back upon this ? 



It is of amazing worth to a young man to have a 

 pure mind; for this is the foundation of a pure 

 character. The mind, in order to be kept pure, 

 must be employed in topics of thought which are 

 themselves lovely, chastened and elevating. Thus 

 the mind hath in its own power the selection of its 

 themes of meditation. If youth only knew how du- 

 rable and how dismal is the injury produced by the 

 indulgence of degraded thoughts, if they only real- 

 ized how frightful are the moral de])ravities which 

 a cherished habit of loose imagination })roduce8 on 

 the soul — they would shun them as the Ijite of a 

 serpent. The power of books to excite the imag- 

 ination, is a fearful element of moral death when 

 employed in the ser^^ce of \'ice. 



The cultivation of an amiable, elevated and glow- 

 ing heart, alive to all the beauties of nature, and all 

 the sublimities of truth, in^^gorates the intellect, 

 gives to the will independence of baser passions, 

 and to the affections that power of adhesion to 

 whatever is pure, and good, and grand, which is 

 adapted to lead out the whole nature of man into 

 those scenes of action and impression by whicii its 

 energies may most appropriately be employed, and 

 by which its high destination may be most eflectu- 

 ally reached. 



The opportunities of exciting these faculties in 

 benevolent and self-denying efforts for the welfare 

 of our fellow-men, are so many and great, that it 

 really is worth while to Hve. The heart which is 

 truly, evangelically benevolent, may luxuriate in an 

 age like this. The promises of God are inexpressi- 

 bly rich, the main tendencies of things so manifest- 

 ly in accordance with them, the extent of moral 

 influence is so great, and the effects of its employ- 

 ment so visible, that whoever aspires after benevo- 

 lent action, and reaches forth things that remain 

 for us, to the true dignity of his nature, can find 

 free scope for his intellect, and all-aspiring themes 

 the for heart. 



