556 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



brought $80 ; this year the four have not produced 

 fifty cents worth of fruit. Some method whereby 

 this biennial barrenness may be overcome, is all 

 that is needed by our farmers, especially those own- 

 ing small farms, to make the fruit raising business 

 profitable to them, beyond that of any other crop. 

 — Albany Argus. 



BLESSED MEMOHIES. 



We hunted berries by a babbling brook, 

 And odorous flowers from every sunny nook ; 

 And stopped to laugh and hear the echo's mock 

 King from old woods and gloomy rifts of rock. 



We walked at noonday in a sheltered glade, 

 Where sun nor starlight ever broke the shade ; 

 Within the damp and gloom a bird-song gushed, 

 A streamlet through a rocky crevice rushed. 



A moaning murmur through the pine trees swept. 

 Within the caves the owl in safety slept; 

 The laurel's snowy pillars opened there. 

 And poured their poisons on the sunless air. 



We paused to rest beneath a trailing vine 

 That clambered darkly o'er a blasted pine ; 

 Above the rocks its sweeping curtains hung. 

 And o'er the stream in tangled masses swung. 



She had a great proud wealth of golden hair. 

 That shone like moonlight in that shadowed air ; 

 A large blue eye that made me think of heaven. 

 When not a cloud across its deep is driven. 



She sang : not as they sing with heedless lips, 

 When keys are sprung by rosy finger-tips. 

 But that strange strain we only hear in dreams 

 From voices tuned to more than mortal themes. 



She walks no more that narrow unsunned glade, 



Long, long ago she passed a denser shade ; 



And when the darkness fled and morning broke. 



She slept in death, and with the angela woke. Tribune. 



For the New England Farvier, 



A CATTLE SH0WI2f GEIGGSVILLE, ILL. 



Mr. Editor: — I propose to give you a brief 

 sketch of a county Ag. Exhibition, which I attend- 

 ed at Griggsville, 111., on the 8th and 9th of Oct. 

 It was for the county of Pike, on the western bor- 

 der of the State. The exhibition was very much 

 on the plan of our New England exhibitions, but 

 the arrangements were not so complete as with us. 

 On one side of the open space where the fair was 

 held, a roof was erected under which the fruit and 

 vegetables and the handiwork of the ladies were 

 placed. The rest of the space was roped in, and 

 into this enclosure, the horses and cattle were 

 driven, to be inspected by the various committees, 

 and then withdrawn. The horses were tied to trees 

 or held by boys ; the cattle, some were served in 

 the same way as the horses, others were shut up in 

 pens, formed by piling oak rails one upon another, 

 after the fashion of Virginia fences. The number 

 of cows and heifers was not large. The animals 

 themselves were of good size, and generally of good 

 shrjpe, but evidently not calculated for dairy stock. 

 The great object here, is not milk, nor butter, nor 

 cheese, but beef for the market. The largest and 

 finest bulls I have ever seen, and in the greatest 

 numbers, I think, I saw here. The weight of the 

 largest one was 2150 lbs. The prevailing breed, 

 here, is the Durham. Cattle are not so much used 

 in teams, as horses and mules. Of these last, 1 



saw some very fine specimens. There were a few 

 sheep, but they were rather inferior looking. The 

 hogs were few, considering that this is a hog-rais- 

 ing countrj'. I saw some quite large ones, but they 

 were coarser made and much less handsome ani- 

 mals than we are wont to see at out New England 

 fairs. The hogs here, as you know, run at large 

 in the streets and in the woods, and pick up their 

 food wherever they can. There were some noble 

 looking draught horses on exhibition, some of the 

 finest I remember to have seen. The carriage 

 horses, as a general thing, are better looking than 

 ours, but I think I could select single specimens 

 from among ours altogether superior to any I have 

 yet seen here. 



And now a word about the products of the soil, 

 and the specimens of handiwork, and I have done. 

 In the potato line, there were some fine Chenan- 

 goes, Pink-eyes and Baltimore Blues. The pota- 

 toes here are not affected by the rot. There was a 

 single basket of beautiful looking turnips. Squashes 

 and beets were scarce. I saw no pears, nor peach- 

 es, and but few apples, (although apples, this way, 

 are plenty and good) but these few were very fine. 

 I measured one and found it 13^ inches in circum- 

 ference, it weighed 15 ozs., another measured 16 

 inches in circumference. There were some large 

 ears of corn, and some specimens of wheat. I saw 

 to-day, though not in connection with the Fair, 

 acorn-stalk, that by actual measurement, was 16 ft. 

 long. About half past three, the company was in- 

 vited to listen to an address from Prof. Turner, of 

 Jacksonville. He spoke only half an hour, but his 

 address deserves to be printed, and circulated far 

 and wide. The following is a bare outline of it. 

 He said : "Gentlemen and fellow-citizens of Pike 

 County, I hail the happy auspices which have hith- 

 erto attended our exhibitions, and which to-day 

 attend us, as omens of good, for the future pros- 

 perity of this society, of the agricultural interests 

 of this county, and of our rising and beloved State." 

 He then considered at length, some of the causes, 

 that have hitherto checked progress, in this im- 

 portant source of national wealth, and some of the 

 means to be used in promoting its greater advance- 

 ment. 1st, Associations like this are of invalua- 

 ble importance. They awaken interest in the sub- 

 ject. They set men to thinking ; they lead to an 

 interchange of thought, to a renunciation of old, 

 and used up theories and practices, and an adop- 

 tion of new ones, better suited to the condition and 

 wants. of the age. This cause needs the assistance 

 of judicious legislation. While commerce and 

 manufactures are yearly receiving aid from Con- 

 gress, by appropriations and favorable enactments, 

 this great interest, which engages, at the present 

 time, four-fifths of the capital of the nation, is ruth- 

 lessly neglected. Ought this to be ? Commercial 

 and manufacturing capitalists spend thousands upon 

 lobby members, in Congress, who do nothing but 

 agitate their interests. We have nothing of the 

 kind. Candidates for office, on the stump, never fail 

 to declaim loudly upon the importance of the sub- 

 ject of agriculture, and upon what they desire to 

 see done for it, by Congress, and what they intend 

 to do for it themselves, if they only get there. — 

 But alas ! Congress assembles and adjourns, year 

 after year, and nothing is done, and when you ask 

 the men whom you have sent there, what was done 

 with the agricultural bill ? 'O, it was left among 

 the unfinished business.' Gentlemen, my advice is, 



