418 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER. 



Sept. 



plaint made either of yield or quality. In Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota the winter wheat is very 

 fine, and the spring wheat promises well, but is 

 not yet secure. In Michigan complaints have 

 been made, but they have local foundation. In 

 Missouri the wheat crop is secondary to some 

 others, but the press of that State express no 

 dissatisfaction. 



With export prices we should doubtless have 

 a movement of the crop never before witnessed, 

 but as this is dependent upon two things, namely, 

 the continuation of the war and poor crops in 

 Europe, we shall perhaps witness no unusual 

 movement. Our people have not, in getting po- 

 litical independence, got, or even learned the 

 value of commercial independence. We are, 

 therefore, dependent upon a foreign demand. If 

 now the producer and the consumer were both 

 in this country, if our manufacturers use our raw 

 material and our producers used home manufac- 

 tures, we should not have the anomaly of a peo- 

 ple almost fearing too large a crop, and hoping 

 for disasters to their luighbors almost, to enable 

 them to sell their surplus. When will we learn 

 wisdom ? 



RU8TIC3 NEED N'T KNOW MUCH. 



The world has moved a pretty good stretch, in 

 the education of farmers, within the last two cen- 

 turies, and we hope — indeed we know — that dur- 

 ing the next two it will move comparatively a 

 good deal more. 



The Horticidturist, quoting from ^'Philip's Pro- 

 gress of Agriculture," says that Gervase Mark- 

 ham, who lived at the commencement of the 17th 

 century, wrote a practical work on husbandry, 

 with a view of enlarging the knowledge of the 

 farmers of his day, and laid down what may be 

 considered essential knowledge for them. 



He considered reading and writing not very 

 necessary for them to know. 



As touching the master of the family himself, 

 learning, he thought, could be no burthen, but 

 as becoming some of the servants, he says, "some 

 servants in husbandrie, as the bayliffe, the under 

 farmer, or any other ordinary accountant, it is 

 not much material whether they be acquainted 

 therewith or no, for there is more trust in an 

 honest score chaulkt on a trencher, than in a cun- 

 ning written scrowle. And there is more bene- 

 fit in simple and single numeration in chaulke, 

 than in double multiplication, though in never 

 so fair an hand written." Markham had a curi- 

 ous method of finding how the corn market would 

 open in each month of the year. This was be- 

 fore the days of combination of speculators in 

 breadstuffs. 



"If you would know," says he, "whether corne 

 shall be cheap or deare, take twelve principal 

 graynes of Wheate, out of the strengthe of the 

 eare, upon the 1st day of Januarie, and when 

 the harth of your chimney is most hot, sweepe it 

 clene ; then make a stranger lay one of these 

 graynes on the harth, then mark it well and if it 

 leape a little, corne shall be reasonably cheape, 

 but if it leape much corne "shall be exceedinge 

 cheape, but if it lie still and move not, then the 

 price of corne shall stand, and continue still for 

 that moneth, and thus you shall use your twelve 

 graynes the first day of every moneth one after 



another, that is to saye, every moneth one grayne, 

 and'' you shall know the rising and falling of 

 corne in every moneth, all the year followii^g." 

 We suppose the hopping of parching peas in a 

 hot skillet would foretell the price of peas by the 

 same rule. 



For the Neto England Farmer. 

 VEKTEBRA-TE ANIMALS— No. 2. 



The grand division of the animal kingdom 

 called Vertebrates are divided into four classes. 

 The first two, fishes and reptiles, are cold-blood- 

 ed, that is, they have a temperature about the 

 same as the element in which they live. This 

 depends upon their respiration and circulation. 

 Fishes breathe by means of gills, and their blood 

 is puviKed only by the action of the small quan- 

 tity of air held by the w iter, as it is made to pass 

 through the gills. Reptiles breathe by means of 

 lungs, but their circulation is very sluggish, and 

 compared witb the higher classes, but little blood 

 in a given time passes through their lungs. Some 

 reptiles, as the frog, in early lif^^ (t-.dpoles,) 

 breathe by means of gills. Fishes are univer- 

 sally organized for swimming in water — reptiles 

 for the most part are amphibious — living both in 

 the water and on the land. 



The other two classes, Birds and Mammals, 

 are warm-blooded, maintaining a uniform tem- 

 perature in the different seasons, whether the 

 weather be hot or cold. Birds, with fishes and 

 reptiles, are oviparous — producing eggs. Mam- 

 mals are viviparous. Birds are organized for 

 flight ; but this remark, like many general re- 

 marks which we make, has exceptions. The os- 

 trich never rises on the wing, and the wings of 

 the penguin are formed into paddles as nicely as 

 the tail of a muskrat or of a beaver. Mammals 

 all suckle their young. This fact gives them 

 their name. Whales and porpoises are commonly 

 called fishes. They possess, however, all the 

 characteristics of mammals if we express them in 

 general terms. They are warm-blooded, vivipar- 

 ous, and breathe by means of lungs. Their teeth 

 and other organs correspond also with the organs 

 of mammals in their structure. The only thing 

 they have in common with fishes is, that they are 

 organized for swimming. The bat is also a mam- 

 mal, and not a bird, though it is organized for 

 flight. This class, then, seems to be formed in 

 some of its orders to occupy the three elements, 

 the air, the earth and the water. 



The class of mammals is divided into nine or- 

 ders. We cannot do more than mention them. 

 There are the Bimana — two-handed — including 

 man ; the Quadrumana, four-handed, containing 

 all apes, monkeys and baboons ; the Carnivora, 

 flesh-eaters, containing cats, dogs, wolves and 

 bears ; the Marsuj)ials, animals with a pouch for 

 their young — containing opossums and kanga- 

 roos ; the Edentata, animals having no teeth in 

 the front part of either jaw, containing sloths and 

 armadillos ; the Rodentia, grinders, animals with 

 only two front teeth in either jaw, containing 

 squirrels, beavers and rabbits ; the Perchyder- 

 mata, or thick-skinned animals, including the 

 horse, the hog and the elephant ; the Ruminan- 

 tia, or cud-chewers, containing the ox, the deer 

 and the antelope ; the Cetatians, or sea mon- 

 sters, including the whale and the porpoise. 



