452 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Oct. 



native element, all meet him as he goes forth to 

 his labor in the morning, or returns home at night- 

 fall, and tell him of their gratitude to God for life 

 and its joys. If he possesses true sympathies, he 

 will join in the universal ascription of praise and 

 thansgiving to the Creator of all. 



As he considers "all this scene of man," he con- 

 fesses it a "mighty maze, but not without a plan." 

 He witnesses the unfailing regularity of all the 

 changes in nature. In the "seed-time" he stakes 

 his all on the coming of the "harvest." Counting 

 on the faithfulness of nature, he lays plans, and 

 takes preliminary steps for extensive schemes, which 

 he would not dare enter upon, were nature accus- 

 tomed to swerve in the least from her uniform 

 course. He sees nature co-operating with him to 

 bring about desired ends. He, if any one, may see 

 the harmony and fitness of things. When he 

 searches for the cause of this wonderful beauty and 

 order, lo ! it is God. 



Is not then the husbandman peculiarly surround- 

 ed by circumstances suited to improve his moral 

 nature ? What folly for such a man to repine at 

 his lot, and seek to exchange his independence, and 

 happy seclusion from the vices of society, for the 

 uncertainties of trade, or for pursuits involving a 

 ten-fold greater risk of life and fortune than can 

 possibly pertain to agriculture. 



If he rightly estimated his privileges, he would 

 consider himself the happiest of men, and if he 

 rightly improved those priveleges, he would elevate 

 at once, in the eyes of mankind, the labor of culti- 

 vating the soil to be the most dignified and enno- 

 bling of employments. J. B. K. 



March, 1856. 



WORK-AN ODE. 



Bt C. 8. PIRCITAL. 



There is a giant strong and brave, 



And generous as great, 

 Who for the feeble race of man 



Doth early toil and late. 

 He delveth in the murky mine, 



And on the furrowed lea ; 

 And, with his vessels built of oak, 



He plows the stormy sea. 



The forest falls beneath his axe, 



And cities vast arise ; 

 And verdant fields look smiling up, 



To greet the smiling skies. 

 He builds the mansion towering high, 



The little cottage near, 

 And fills to overflowing both. 



With all the heart can cheer. 



He chains the streamlet to the wheel, 



And bids it turn the mill j 

 He harnesses the iron horse, 



And guides him at his will. 

 His powerful arm defends the weak 



Against o'erpowering wrong ; 

 And grateful hearts contpire to praise 



The giant, great and strong. 



Fair hands have twined a wreath to deck 



His rugged brow with bay. 

 And we, with joy, have met to keep 



His festival to-day. 

 Then farmers, artizans and all 



Who scorn your task to shirk, 

 Come, join your song with olts, to sing 



The mighty giant, Work ! 



For the New England Farmer. 



REPORTS OF THE STATE BOARD OF 

 AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Editor. — You have read these reports, and 

 to you therefore anything I may say will not ap])ly. 

 For the past month or so, I have devoted my 

 spare moments to reading the three volumes al- 

 ready issued. Why, Mr, Editor, the very sight of 

 these volumes, as they lay on my study-table, fill 

 me with pride — pride that our good old mother 

 Massachusetts has produced three such monuments 

 to the enterprise, industry and progressive spirit of 

 the farmers of the good old Commonwealth. Look 

 at them — the manner in which they are got up — 

 the information contained in them. There are no 

 superior documents issued, either State or national. 

 They are perfect text books for managing a farm 

 in all its details, and a person may take these books, 

 and by reading and digesting their contents, be- 

 come an accomplished farmer, without other in- 

 struction. I have been very much interested in 

 reading the experiments which have been made on 

 the State farm in Westboro'. While as yet ihere is 

 little or nothing as fairly settled in regard to the 

 application of manures for instance, still, there 

 must in the very nature of things, be some certain 

 and fixed truths come out of them. And for one I 

 regret that the Legislature jws/ dissolved dieted with 

 such illiberal s])irit towards the Board — cutting 

 down its appropriation from $6,000 to $.'5,000. The 

 wiser course wottld have been to have added $4,000 

 to the six — but if the farmers throughout the State 

 approve of this act of their representatives, all right, 

 I have nothing to say, only permit me to think, 

 Mr. Farmer, that your brothers do not fully under- 

 stand their interest yet. Just look at the hosts of 

 schemes which are presented to our Hon. General 

 Court every year, asking, and many of them obtain- 

 ing grants of money, the benefits to the State of 

 which, in comparison to what the Board of Agricul- 

 ture wish to do on the State farm, for the real good 

 of the farmers — "is as the picked end o f nothing 

 whittled down to a point." Ten thousand dollars 

 a year is little enough for such an object, and I will 

 venture to say, Mr. Editor — and with all seriousness 

 too — that in twenty years' time, the State would be 

 the gainer. The fact is, farmers, many of them, not 

 all, wish the State to manage as they do their farms, 

 with a more liberal expenditure of money in the 

 right direction, and both would be greatly benefited. 



Individual farmers are not able to carry on their 

 experiments, at least very few ; while the good re- 

 ceived is for all, high or low, rich and poor; the 

 man of one acre or of a thousand acres. Now the 

 State is abundantly able to do this business; if all 

 is a failure, no one feels it, while every truth or fact 

 brought to light is a public benefit to the end of 

 time. Mr. Editor, I go in for an appropriation of 

 ten thousand dollars a year for five years, — that's too 

 short a time — say ten years, to the State Board of 

 Agriculture, for carrying on experiments in all the 

 different branches of farming, in the broadest ac- 

 ceptation of that term ; and I believe that if all the 

 farmers throughout the State could have a copy of 

 these reports, and read them, they would say amen 

 to my proposition. There is altogether too much 

 theory abroad in the community, and too few facts 

 and truths. We want the latter," and this the Board 

 are trying to give us. 



In conclusion, I once more express my regret at 



