322 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



house is dirtier, his fences more tottering, his 

 soil poorer, his pride and his ignorance greater. 

 And when, at last, he sells out to a Pennsylva- 

 nian that reads the Farmer's Cabinet, or to some 

 Nevt- Yorker with his Cultivator packed up care- 

 fully as if it v.-ere gold, or to a Yankee with his 

 Neiv England Farmer, he goes off to Missouri, 

 thanking Heaven that he's not a book-farmer ! 



Unquestionably, there are two sides to this 

 question, and both of them extreme, and there- 

 fore both of them deficient in science and in 

 common sense. If men were made according to 

 our notions, there should not be a silly one alive ; 

 but it is otherwise ordered, and there is no de- 

 partment of human life in which we do not find 

 the weak and foolish men. This is true of farm- 

 ing as much as of any other calling. Buf no one 

 dreams of setting down the vocation of agricul- 

 ture, because, like every other, it has its propor- 

 tion of stupid men. 



Why then should agricultural icriters, as a 

 class, be summarily rejected because some of 

 them are visionary ? Are we not to be allowed 

 our share of fools as well as every other depart- 

 ment of life ? We insist on our rights. 



A book or a paper never proposes to take the 

 place of a {sLvmer's judgment. Not to read at all 

 is bad enongh; but to read, and swallow every- 

 thing without reflection, or discrimination, this is 

 even worse. Such a one is not a book-headed 

 but a block-headed farmer. Papers are designed 

 to assist. Those who read them must select, 

 modify, and act according to their own native 

 judgment. So used, papers answer a double pur- 

 pose ; they convey a great amount of valuable 

 practical information, and then they stir up the 

 reader to habits of thought ; they make him more 

 inquisitive, more observing, more reasoning, and, 

 therefore, more reasonable. 



Now, as to the contents of agricultural papers, 

 ■whose fault is it if they are not practical f Who 

 are the practical men ? who are daily conversant 

 •with just the things a cultivator most needs to 

 know? who is stumbling upon difficulties, or dis- 

 covering some escape from them ? who is it that 

 knows so much about gardens, orchards, farms, 

 cattle, grains and grasses ? Why, the very men 

 who won't write a tcord for the paper that they 

 read, and then complain that there is nothing 

 practical in it. Y'es, there is. There is practical 

 evidence that men are more willing to be helped 

 than to help others ; and also that men some- 

 times blame others for things of which they 

 themselves are chiefly blameworthy. 



For the New England Famier. 



MO"WINQ MACHINES. 



I am frequently asked what kind of mowing 

 machine had I better obtain for the cutting of the 

 grass on a farm of about one hundred acres — fif 

 ty of which are upland mowing ? A mower moved 

 by one horse should be sufficient for such a farm ; 

 though if two or more adjoining farmers could 

 unite in purchasing a machine to be moved by 

 two horses, the work would be better done. The 

 best way you can fix it, it requires power, and 

 considerable of it, to carry through a swarth 

 three and a half or four feet wide, where there is 

 a burden of grass of two tons to the acre ; and 



no enterprising farmer should remain sfttisfied 

 with a crop less than this, on land of fair quality. 

 I know that the average product, throughout 

 the State, is less than one ton to the acre ; but 

 this does not prove that it ought not to be two 

 tons ; it only proves that the present state of 

 culture is far below what it ought to be. So 

 many have practised skinning their land, by run- 

 ning the plow only four or five inches deep, and 

 scrimping it by dealing out their manure with a 

 small shovel — that the small crop mentioned is 

 the consequence. EssEX. 



May 2, 18o9. 



COTTAGE SONG. 



BT JOHN 8. ADAJJ8. 



We've a cottage clothed with roses, 



Near a wood, 

 Where the singing birds of summer 



Nest and brood ; 

 There in early spring the daises 



Gem the sod, 

 Looking up to heaven above them, 



And to God. 



There in holy calm we worship 



One above, 

 Through His works that all around ns 



Speak His love ; 

 Bead we there His will in every 



P.ock and tree, 

 While His blessings fall upon us, 



Kich and free. 



Beautiful the morning sunlight 



Cometh there, 

 Crowning Nature at her early 



Morning prayer ; 

 And at eTening, when the twilight 



Closeth round, 

 Still, devoutly at her worship, 



la she found. 



We are not alnne, for angels 



Come and go, 

 Walking often through our cottage 



To and fro ; 

 Promising to guide and guard us 



With their love, 

 Till we go to live among them, 



Up above. 



Simple life is ours); we follow 



Nature's way, 

 Learning of her truthful lessons 



Day by d&y ; 

 Striving to fulfil our miission, — 



Doing good : 

 Living happy in our cottage 



Near the wood. 



Sour Milk in Greece. — Dr. Landerer states 

 that the Greeks, as well as the Turks, are great 

 lovers of milk, especially sour milk, called by 

 the former xynagalon, and by the latter Jagusii. 

 Immense quantities of this sour milk are brought 

 from the neighborhood of Attica to Alhens, 

 and every one hastens to purchase it in tne be- 

 lief of its wholesome qualities. And, in fact, 

 this xynogalon, which exhibits a gelatinous co- 

 agulum, is a very cooling and nutritious article. 

 It is consumed with almost every dish. The 

 shepherds prepare it either with rennet or from 

 some of the dried coagulum of the milk itself j 



