1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



545 



as good a fertilizer as the Peruvian, and we pre- 

 dict that vast quantities of it will be sold the 

 coming year for $40 or less, per ton. 



The quantity of guano shipped from the Chin- 

 cha Islands in 1857, was 490, Go? tons; in 1858 it 

 was 266,709 tons, — a falling off in a single year 

 of nearly one-half. In the first six months of 

 1859, it was 46,577 tons, a much smaller amount 

 than at the same time last year. 



The quantity of guano on the islands has been 

 computed at three millions of tons — an amount 

 absolutely inconceivable by any of us, and yet, 

 with thousands of vessels lyingidleat the wharves 

 for want of employment, we are told we must pay 

 $65 per ton for the Peruvian guano ! We should 

 be glad if all our people v/ould refuse to purchase 

 another pound of it. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE YEAR CROWNED WITH GOODNESS. 



And when, Messrs. Editors, have we seen a 

 year that was not ? All not equally so, but enough 

 every year to fill all hearts with wonder, grati- 

 tude and praise. And yet, how many complaints 

 are uttered every year of cold, backward spring, 

 of late or early frosts, drouth, blighting, hail, 

 wind, insects or something else destructive to 

 the crops and ruinous to the hopes of the hus- 

 bandman ! But has any man living ever seen a 

 year crowned with wrath ? Would such a year 

 be strange ? Shall unthankful and disobedient 

 children receive, year afteryear, only good at the 

 hands of God ? This is not the manner of men. 

 God's ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts 

 our thoughts. He causeth His sun to shine on 

 the evil and the good, and sendeth the rain on 

 the just and on the unjust. What living man, 

 indeed, has ever seen such a year of scarcity and 

 want as we read of, 2 Kings, sixth chapter, 

 when an ass's head was sold for four- score 

 pieces of silver, (about 840,) and a fourth part of 

 a cab of dove's dung, (supposed to be an almost 

 worthless vegetable resembling dove's dung,) for 

 five pieces of silver (about 82,50) ; or, when one 

 mother said to another, "Give thy son, that we 

 may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to- 

 morrow." Had we ever witnessed one such year, 

 it might cure our complaining, and inspire our 

 hearts with gratitude for years of no greater 

 abundance than the present. 



I have been young, Messrs. Editors, and now 

 am old, yet I have never seen a year that was 

 not crowned with goodness, especially as respect- 

 ed the productions of the earth. I remember 

 that in my boyhood, the crops were sometimes 

 shortened by drouth, insects, or some other 

 cause, and there were no such facilities then as 

 now, for getting supplies from a distance. I re- 

 member going to mill, ten or twelve miles, on 

 horseback, with the last bushel of corn, and then 

 going into the field, and gathering the first 

 ripening ears, and drying them in the sun, or by 

 the fire, for the next grist. But still we had 

 Thanksgivings, and thought we had something 

 to be thankful for. But now, instead of "eating 

 and giving God thanks," as was then customary. 



I often hear complaints (Moses might call them 

 murmurings) of bad weather, unfruitful seasons, 

 light crops. Have we not, at this moment, much 

 greater cause to speak of His goodness ? "O, 

 that men would praise the Lord for His good- 

 ness." 



My father, who has long since gone to his rest, 

 used to tell us of a British soldier, who remained 

 in this country after the Revolutionary war. He 

 said he never saw such complainers as the Yan- 

 kees were. It was always too wet or too dry — 

 too hot or too cold ; and if there came ever so 

 pleasant a day, they were suspicious of it. It 

 must be a weather-breeder. I have often mar- 

 velled, after hearing the complainings of people 

 in spring and summer, to see what crops they 

 have gathered in the fall. 



The years vary. Rarely does the earth yield 

 every kind of crop in abundance. Indian corn 

 and the smaller grains, wheat, rye, &c., do not 

 often yield largely the same yeai\ In some lo- 

 calities in this region, there is but little fruit, 

 and corn will be light. All other crops are not 

 often better. It seems good to see potatoes come 

 out of the ground free from rot, and of good 

 size and quality. Some old writer has said, "He 

 that will observe providences, will have provi- 

 dences to observe," and he will often find that 

 what, at the time, seemed a judgment, was a real 

 blessing. 



Some five or six years since, we had a very 

 warm April, and it hatched out an innumerable 

 multitude of grasshoppers. But in the early part 

 of May there came, not merely a frost, but a hard 

 freeze, which killed them before their depreda- 

 tions became visible. The frosts of last May and 

 June had a similar effect. Some years it has 

 seemed as if the grasshoppers would devour 

 every green thing. This year, there have been 

 but very few. I did not see one until the 18th 

 of July, and he, though ])retty fully grown, had 

 been so excluded from the air and light in the 

 thick grass, that he could neither fly nor hop. I 

 doubt not that frosts in May and June that nip 

 our vines, and are regarded as a calamity, do 

 much less injury than would be done by the in- 

 sects which they destroy. 



Let, then, farmers of every class learn this con- 

 soling truth, that whatever else may be wrong. 

 He that ruleth the weather and causeth the earth 

 to yield her increase, understands His work, and 

 doeth all things well. N. s. 



Monadnoclc, No. 4. 



BUCKLIN'S IMPROVED HARROW. 



Messrs. Hobart and Spaulding, of East Pep- 

 perell, Mass., are introducing a new implement 

 called Bucldin's Improvement in GultliHttor and 

 Harrow Teeth, one of which we have used several 

 times, and on different kinds of soil. It is a 

 heavy implement, and requires g, strong team, 

 and when provided with it, accomplishes a great 

 deal of work in a given time. On wet lands, the 

 soil adheres to the teeth — the teeth being some- 

 what in the form of cultivator teeth — and conse- 

 quently the draft is heavy ; on sandy loarns, it 

 will bring a newly-turned sward into a finely pul- 



