116 



GENESEE FARMbiR. 



Mat. 



A Farmer's Life. 



I WISH I could see in all larmers a disposition 

 to magnify their calling ; but I have been grieved 

 in many a farm house, to listen to lamentations 

 over what they term their "hard lot." I have 

 heard the residents upon a noble farm all paid 

 for, talk about drudgery, and never having their 

 work done, and few or no opportunities for their 

 children ; and I have especially been sorry to 

 hear the females lament over the hard fate of 

 some promising youth of seventeen or eighteen, 

 who was admirably filling up his duties, and 

 training himself for extensive usefulness and in- 

 fluence. They have made comparison between 

 his situation, coarsely clad and working hard, 

 and coming in fatigued with some college cousin, 

 or young man who clerked it in a store, till at 

 length the boy has become dissatisfied, and beg- 

 ged off from his true interests and happiness. 



I am conversant with no truer scenes of en- 

 joyment than I have witnessed in American farm 

 houses, and even log cabins where the father 

 under the influence of enlightened Christianity, 

 and sound views of life, has gone with his family, 

 as the world have termed it, into the woods. — 

 The land is his own, and he has every induce- 

 ment to improve it ; he finds a healthy employ- 

 ment for himself and family and is never at a 

 loss for materials to occupy his mind. I do not 

 think the physician has more occasion for re- 

 search than the farmer ; the proper food of veg- 

 etables and animals will alone constitute a wide 

 and la.sting field of investigation. The daily 

 journal of a farmer is a source of much interest 

 to himself add others. The record of his labors, 

 the expression of his hopes, the nature of his 

 fears, the opinions of his neighbors, the results of 

 his experiments, the entire sum total of his ope- 

 rations, will prove a deep source of pleasure to 

 any thinking man. If the establishment of agri- 

 cultural societies, and the cattle shows of our 

 country, should have the effect of stimulating one 

 farmer in every town to manage his land and 

 6tock upon the best principles of husbandry, there 

 would be a wonderful and speedy alteration in 

 the products of the earth, because com[)arison 

 would force itself upon his friends and neighbors, 

 and his example would be certainly beneficial, 

 for prejudice itself gives way to profit. — Choule''s 

 Address. 



Noble Sentiments, Well Expressed. 



Common- Schools. — When the State furnish- 

 es the means for schooling its children, and those 

 children, or their parents, neglect those means, 

 the funds of the State are not only wasted to the 

 extent that they are not improved, but the absent 

 children are grossly wronged, and the public de- 

 frauded of the benefiLs which would result from 

 their education. Liberty, without intelligence, 

 can not be properly appreciated or long preserved. 

 Our district scliool-houscs are the moral and in- 



tellectual laboratories, where, under the fostering 

 care of the State, and the blessing of Providence, 

 the minds and characters of the rising genera- 

 tions, as they succeed each other, are to be fitted 

 for the enjoyment of freedom, and foi- performing 

 the high duties of freemen ; or their neglect is to 

 sink those generations to the condition of slaves, 

 whether they continue to live under tlie name of 

 liberty or not. No expedient should be left un- 

 tried, which the wisdom of the Legislature can 

 suggest, or the vigilance of school committees or 

 citizens invent, to fill our school-houses, and give 

 to every child the benefit of the liberal and free 

 provisions made for him. To perfect our sys- 

 tem of common schools, higher qualifications in 

 teachers, more permanency in their employment, 

 and better wages for their services, are damanded. 

 These are subjects which, in your paternal care 

 for the present and future children of the Com- 

 monwealth, you cannot with safety overlook. I 

 am happy to believe that at this time there ex- 

 ists, among the thousands of teachers in the State, 

 a truer estimate of the dignity and magnitude of 

 their employment, and more zeal to benefit them- 

 selves for it, than has ever before existed. — Ad- 

 dress of Gov. Briggs to the Legislature. 



Resurrection op a three thousand yeah 

 OLD Pea. — In the year 1838, Sir Gardener Wil- 

 kinson brought from Egypt a vase of great anti- 

 quity, which had been dug out of ;i mumni}' j)it. 

 This vase was presented to the Brihsh Museum, 

 and was opened in the presence of several anti- 

 quarians; but it contained only a small quantity 

 of dust and a few seeds, among which were peas, 

 vetches and wheat. Three of the peas were 

 presented to Mr. Grimstone by T. J. Pettigrew, 

 who kept the peas by him until 1844, when, hav- 

 ing purchased the herbary at Highgate, ho set 

 them in a pot of composite. The pen soon 

 sprang from its three thousand year trance into 

 vegetal)le life, but yellow, as i? it had been jaun> 

 diced with adisoaBed livei*. When it had attained 

 sufficieni height, it was carefully transplanted in-, 

 to the open garden; it thrived, blossomed, and in 

 August last (1844,) Mr. G. harvested 55 seed 

 from its pods. These were planted this year, 

 and all of them have thrown up their stems, blos- 

 soms and pods, and again give hope for an abun- 

 dant increase. The pea has many peculiarities, 

 one of which is, that the pod projects through the 

 blossom, leaving the latter behind it, while the 

 generality of peas push, or rather carry off the 

 blossom at the tip of their pods, Mr. Grimstone 

 was offered last year twenty pounds for twenty 

 of these peas, which he refused to accept, prefer- 

 ring rather to multiply than to sell. The bloom 

 of this pea is white, and of a bell form. — ^^%'- 

 lish paper. 



The Best Book. — The best book for a farm- 

 er is the Bible ; and the next best works, aro 

 those devoted to Agriculture. 



