1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



513 



tliough their form adujits them for the heavier 

 work ; and they have all the honesty and docility 

 of the Devon ox, and greater strength, if not his 

 activity. The Herefordshire ox fattens speedily at 

 a very early age, and it is therefore more advanta- 

 geous to the farmer, and perhaps to the country, 

 that he should go to market at three years old, than 

 be kept longer to be employed as a beast of draught. 

 They are far worse milkers than Devons. This is 

 so generally acknowledged, that while there are 

 many dairies of Devon cows in various parts of the 

 country, (none of which, however, are very profita- 

 ble to their owners,) a dairy of Herefords is rarely 

 to be found. 



To compensate for this, they are even more kind- 

 ly feeders than the Devons, and will live and grow 

 fat where a Devon would scarcely live. Their beef 

 may be objeeted to by some, as being occasionally 

 a little too large in the bone, and the forequarters 

 being coarse and heavy ; but the meat of the best 

 pieces is often very fine-grained and beautifully 

 marbled. There are few cattle more prized in the 

 market than the eenuine Herefords. 



For the Netr England Fanner. 



MAN, A COMPLEX BEIKG. 



Mr. Editor: — ]Man is a complex being, en- 

 dowed with various faculties, passions, and desires, 

 and each one of these organs needs its appropri- 

 ate stimulus and training. He was not created and 

 placed upon this earth, simply for the purpose of 

 satisfying his animal wants and desires ; he has a 

 nobler and more heaven-born mission to fulfil ; and 

 even if an education should not aid him in the 

 least in getting money, I should still consider it to 

 be his duty and privilege to obtain all the learning 

 which his means and opportunities would allow. 1 

 do not consider that the study of the dead languag- 

 es is of importance to the farmer or laborer of any 

 class. It is a relic of ancient barbarism, which has 

 descended to us through many centuries, like an 

 heir-loom, and entailed upon us by colleges and 

 universities, that the study of the dead languages 

 is the base and apex, the foundation and lapstone 

 of all education. But that day has passed. Men 

 have discovered that the highest attainments in sci- 

 ence may be made without ever looking at a Greek 

 grammar. In fict, it may be questioned whether 

 the study of Latin and Greek is good for anything, 

 excepting to some professional men. It has, in 

 many cases, done more harm than good, by divert- 

 ing the mind from the sublime truths of science 

 and nature, and causing the mind to worry itself by 

 studying out Greek roots. Yet in the study of 

 mathematics there is a vast fund of practical 

 knowledge, with which it is of importance that 

 every farmer should be acquainted. Surveying, 

 chemistry, geology, and botany, together with sev- 

 eral other studies, open an extensive field of inves- 

 tigation and research, involvitt^ many principles of 

 the utmost utility, besides disciplining the mind, and 

 affording the utmost pleasure to the investigator. 



And again I would say, that I consider it to be 

 of the utmost importance that the farmer should be 

 well educated ; for in this country, where the peo- 

 ple are sovereign, and where every man of good 

 moral character is liable to be called upon to fill 

 some station of honor or trust, I regard it of 

 great importance that all should be prepared to oc 



cupy any place in government to which he may be 

 called. Perhaps it is a somewhat common belief 

 among the great mass of people, that the laboring 

 classes cannot study, that the almost constant toil 

 of the body to which they are subjected unnerves 

 the mind, and incapacitates them for mental labor; 

 but the idea is erroneous, for, although severe and 

 unrelaxing toil does impair the mind, simply be- 

 cause the too severe taxation of any part of the 

 system must of necessity, weaken the whole, and 

 the mind is impaired, because it is not allowed free 

 and sufficient scope for the exercise of its faculties, 

 which unexercised, will weaken it to the same de- 

 gree that Gverexercise would ; yet, manual labor, 

 when practised in a proper manner, and to a suita- 

 ble degree, is most eminently qualified to develop 

 and strengthen the intellectual faculties. In fact, 

 they can never be unfolded without suitable bodily 

 labor. EuLER Norcross. 



South Hadley, 1856. 



Remarks. — We do not entirely agree with our 

 respected correspondent, when he says that the 

 study of the dead languages is only a relic of bar- 

 barism. We confess that it would not be best for 

 the man who is inevitably doomed to jjush the 

 fore-plane, and do nothing else, to spend years in 

 acquiring a knowledge of the Latin or Greek. But 

 no such case occurs with us. The carpenter and 

 the farmer will read, and the better they under- 

 stand the meaning of the words they read, the 

 greater will be the gratification they feel, and a 

 greater positive benefit will they derive from that 

 reading. Words grow from things and facts, called 

 "roots," and when we understand what these are, 

 we are in possession of the whole force and mean- 

 ing cf them. The study of these languages, also, 

 exercises and disciplines the mind, as well as the 

 other branches he recommends. We do not mean 

 to say that the study of these languages is of the 

 ^rst importance, but that all may derive consider- 

 able benefit and gratification from even a partial 

 knowledge of them. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HOW TO PICKLE CUCUMBERS. 



I saw in your paper a week or two since, an in- 

 quiry as to the best mode of pickling cucumbers. 

 1 have used the following for several years, and 

 think it the best of recipes : 



Make a brine l)y putting one pint of rock salt in- 

 to a pail of boiling water, and pour it over the cu- 

 cumbers, cover tight, to keep in the steam, and let 

 them remain all night and part of a day ; make a 

 second brine as above, and let them remain in it 

 the same length of lime ; then scald and skim the 

 btine, as it will answer for the third brine, and let 

 them remain in it as above ; then rinse and wipe 

 them dry, and add boiling hot vinegar, throw in a 

 lump of* alum as large as an oilnut to every pail of 

 pickles, and you will have a fine, hard, and green 

 pickle. Add sjjices, if you like, and keep the pick- 

 les under the vinegar. A brick on the top of the 

 cover which keeps the pickles under has a tenden- 

 cy to collect the scum to itself, which may arise. 



Andover, Mass., Sept., 185G. c. E. L. 



