1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



383 



er extreme. A current or rather torrent of emi- 

 gration set in, and in seven years a million and a 

 half of persons embarked for America, and the cur- 

 rent still flows. Ties of religion and country could 

 no longer bind them to a land of misery and death. 

 The state of warfare ceased. England found in the 

 event her safety and her punishment. God, it may 

 almost be said, had made peace out of solitude. 



What was before impossible; in rural economy, 

 now became possible ; the great division of farms is 

 no longer matter of necessity. In place of 700,000 

 farms, there may now be half the number. Pota- 

 toes and oats which had been grown to excess, 

 may give i}lace to other crops ; the four-course sys- 

 tem may be extended ; cattle, which were neglect- 

 ed because the population could not get enough 

 poor food to feed themselves, may be multijilied. 

 Wages will be higher and capital will slowly accu- 

 mulate in the farmers' and laborers' hands. If man- 

 ufactures and commerce develop themselves, capi- 

 tal may yet enrich the Emerald Isle. But farming 

 ca])ital is yet very deficient there. 



Ireland owes to Sir Ptobert Peel one great meas- 

 ure of relief for which it will long bless his memo- 

 ry, — the Encumbered Estate act. The object of 

 this act was to facilitate the sale of estates hope- 

 lessly encumbered with mortgages and other in- 

 cumbrances. Nearly all the southern and western 

 counties of Ireland were hopelessly insolvent. — 

 Around all property hung a frightful host of mort- 

 gages and mortgagees and annuitants, — the claims 

 of some of them dating back to the time of Crom- 

 well. Nobody owned the lands and everybody 

 owned them ; no one had the power to improve 

 them. This legal plague, born of poverty, struck 

 the land with barrenness. Sir Robert Peel caused 

 parliament to enact that three commissioners 

 should be appointed for the sale of encumbered es- 

 tates ; that the process before them should be rap- 

 id ; that the purchaser receiving a title under their 

 conveyance, should have an indefeasible one ; that 

 the purchase money should be distributed by the 

 commissioners to those entitled to it. No single 

 measure has done so much to regenerate Ireland. 

 Within three years after the commissioners entered 

 on their duties, they had petitions before them for 

 the sale of 2500 properties, charged with mortgages 

 to the extent of a hundred and fifty millions of dol- 

 lars. At the sales, a majority of the purchases are 

 made by the Irish, a pleasing fact. 



This sketch of the agriculture of Ireland may re- 

 mind the reader of a work by an Irish author, on 

 the "Reptiles of Ireland," who devoted a chapter of 

 his volutne to snakes, and had nothing to say about 

 these reptiles, except that there are no snakes in 

 Ireland. But if there be no good farming in Ire- 

 land, there are warnings enough of the dangers 

 and evils of bad. That unhappy country shows 

 that when crushing debt exists upon the land, 

 there is misery for the farmer, and exhaustion of 

 the soil ; that when agricultural capital is wanting 

 there can be no agricultui'al ])rosperity, and that 

 neither by large farms nor small farms, can the re- 

 sult be avoided ; that the accumulation of this cap- 

 ital is the resul: of much labor, through many gen- 

 erations ; that there can be no good agriculture, 

 unless there be on the land great numbers of do- 

 mestic animals, and if the agriculture be truly 

 prosperous, the annual animal produce will be 

 greater in value than the annual crops; that a 

 country cannot escape the danger of famine, if it 



rely for its food on only one or two crops ; and v: 

 shows that dreadful lesson of Divine Providence, 

 that a wrong done never dies, but that "the ini- 

 quity of the fathers is visited upon the children un- 

 to the third and fourth generation." M. 



"HOW COUNTRIFIED." 



I saw a manly farmer, a champion of the soil. 



With his neat, though homely garments, and look of honest 

 toil; 



With wealth of heart, and wealth of hand, brown beauty in his 

 face, 



He stood within your city, and I marked his modest grace ; 



And many passed with stately step, in broadcloth and ia 

 pride, . 



But murmured, as they looked on him, "0, my ! how countri- 

 fied." 



I saw an aged lady, a Deborah past her prime. 

 Who'd measured years of usefulness, content to bide her time; 

 For a seat within a stage-coach, I heard her ask one day, 

 When one with face like Esau, (no birthright by the way,) 

 From underneath a cloud of smoke, said, "Can't she ride out- 

 side ? 

 I'm sure there is no room within for one so countrified." 



In learning's classic temple, with an open brow and high, 

 Stood one of nature's gentlemen, bright genius in his eye, 

 Yet bore his hands a trace of toil, his frame a store of health, 

 Of far more sterling worth, my friends, than all his classmate's 



wealth ; 

 And high up wisdom's mount he stood, it could not be denied, 

 Yet in the distance one could see how very "countrified." 



I saw a bounteous, well-spread board, in farm-house kept with 

 care ; 



And merry was that household band, for city friends were 

 there. 



While the generous, soul-felt welcome, each kindly lip ex- 

 pressed, 



Inspired with easy confidence, each cared-for, happy guest ; 



And while I listened earnestly to what each might confide, 



I heard their numerous praises, but never "countrified." 



Not many months from this, I saw the mistress of that farm, 

 At threshold of her last year's guest with satchel on her arm ; 

 Straightway a little daughter, well instructed what to say. 

 Appeared to tell her country friend, that "ma had gone away." 

 As with disappointed countenance, the woman turned aside, 

 The lady murmured in her room, "She looked so countrified." 



Shake off your cankering fetters, ye slaves to Fashion's king, 

 Declare your independence, and truthful ofi'erings bring, 

 To deck the shrine of liberty ; in virtue put your trust, 

 And honor merit everywhere, in damask or in dust. 

 We're children of one family, it cannot be denied. 

 For our father dwelt in Eden— and he was "countrified." 



New Bedford Standard, 



THE CEDARS. 



The question is often asked, what ails the cedars ? 

 but none seem, to be able, satisfactorily to reply. 

 As early as April they had the appearance that 

 evergreens presented during the severe drought of 

 1854, the leaves had a reddish-brown look, some- 

 thing as they appear when changing their old foli- 

 age for new. Many supposed it to be merely that 

 natural and annual transition. But the season 

 passed when that appearance was natural, and still 

 the cedars have a gloomy and funereal dress, still 

 fading, falling, and leaving bare and disconsolate 

 looking branches. 



This condition of the cedars may be noticed 



