NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan'. 



fluently, and by long and constant jiractice, he 

 will pronounce perfectly well. This may be ex- 

 plained in two ways, either by a sjinpathctie con- 

 sentaneous action of the nerves of voluntary mo- 

 tion in the finger, and in those of the tongue, 

 which is the most probable ; or it may be that 

 the movement of the finger distracts the atten- 

 tion of the individual from his speech, and allows 

 a free action of the nerves concerned in articula- 

 tion. — Scientific American. 



For tlie New England Farmer, 

 LETTER FROM MAJOR FRENCH. 

 Thb Mobthly Farmer for November — Maiterb at Wash- 



INQTON. 



My Dear Captain : — What do I know to in- 

 terest a farmer ? Well, that's a tough question 

 for me to answer. It is not to be supposed that 

 I know much — I, "a limb of the law," reduced by 

 redticiion, ascending, I'd have you to know, from a 

 politician, an office-holder, an Alderman ! (I have 

 thus far escaped being Mayor, although I saw 

 last summer that some of the papers honored me 

 with that title,) to a plain, practising lawyer, it is 

 not to be expected that I know much about far- 

 ming. Still I read the Monthly Neio England 

 Farmer as regularly as I ever did the New Hamj)- 

 shire Spectator when it was my own darling bant- 

 ling! 



I intended to have enlightened you, and your 

 readers, futher about the United States Agricultu- 

 ral Exhibition at Louisville, and believe I prom- 

 ised to do so, but I broke that promise about as 

 short ofi* as ever an L'ishman did the stem of his 

 dulideen, and the why it was done was, that I left 

 Louisville very unexpectedly the day prior to the 

 closing of the exhibition, and my time and atten- 

 tion was so entirely engrossed by other matters, 

 that I could find no time to post you up even for 

 the short time that elapsed between the closing 

 of the letter which I sent, and the hour of my 

 leaving the grounds, 10 A. M. on Friday ; and if 

 the whole concern had been sunk by an earth- 

 quake in five minutes after I left it, I could not 

 have heard, or known less about its closing hours, 

 or its results, than I now do. 



Would you like to know the reason why, at 

 this particular time, I have undertaken to Avrite 

 you a letter ? Well, you shall have it. I took 

 up the November number of the Farmer this 

 morning, and read it pretty thoroughly through. 

 It interested me much more than usual ; the ar- 

 ticles struck a corresponding chord in my Agri- 

 culto musiccil gamut, and my feelings responded 

 as you have doubtless heard the chords of a piano 

 respond to the notes of another musical instru- 

 ment played in the same room, and the feeling 

 came irresistibly over me, that I must write to 

 you, and so I am writing ! • 



"John DuvJnp," "hal ha! ha!" so I exclaimed, 

 and so I laughed, when I saw that old familiar 

 name. Why, Governor, I am on the shady side 

 of a half century, considerably so, and yet among 

 the very earliest recollections of my boyhood, 

 "Johidun," for that's what we used to call him, 

 and for many years I supposed his name actually 

 was "Johndun Lap," figures in the foreground. 

 He was #/;t' ingenious fellow of the neighborhood. 

 He could tinker a clock, mend a watch, solder a 



hole in a tin pan, doctor men, women, horses and 

 cattle, write poetry, compound root beer, manu- 

 facture fulminating powder, cast small cannons, 

 &c. &:c. For ycairs I have not heard of him, till 

 il saw his familiar name, and back came his famil- 

 iar face, and such a host of familiar scenes of my 

 boyhood, that I revelled for a good hour in the 

 past, and blessed my old friend — he must be pret- 

 ty old now — for writing that note so cliaracteristic 

 of himself. I hope some person more scientific 

 on the subject of waspS than I am, will answer 

 his question. 



I was not a little amused at the difference of 

 opinion expressed by difi'erent writers about the 

 sorghnm. There is your correspondent "I." of 

 Princeton, Mass., who is down on the "wonderful 

 cane" worse than "a thousand of brick," fully 

 equal to an entire brick wall thirty feet high, and 

 a hundred feet long ! he does not believe in it, 

 not by any means ; and "J. D. Canning," he thinks 

 common corn stalks will make as good molasses 

 as the sugar cane. "J. H. X.'s" experience is some- 

 what more encouraging, though not by any means 

 up to the Avonderful theoretical experience ex- 

 pressed a year or more ago, by the sanguine. "J, 

 H. N's" pig did not show any remarkable fond- 

 ness for it as fodder, and his cow exhibited her 

 want of good taste in the same way. My cow is 

 a. female who knows what's good, and she made 

 way most ravenously with a small patch which I 

 raised in my garden merely for fodder. "L. W. 

 M." tried his hand at syrup, making it with the 

 sugar cane and Avith corn stall's, and the corn 

 stalks beat all hollow, both in the production of 

 quantity and quality ! which very properly led 

 your friend "L. W. M." to the conclusion that the 

 loondcrful sorghum was pretty much another xcon- 

 derfid Moras Multicctulis humbug ! And then 

 we come to your own, "one houfs experience on 

 the first sugar estate of Massachusetts." You 

 ought to have staid longer, Governor. "An hour" 

 wont do to find out all the mysteries of Chinese 

 sugar cane ! However, your advice is excellent, 

 and is not backed up by the undue expression of 

 either hopes or fears. You are calm, "calm as a 

 summer's morning," and the motto in Oil Bias, 

 "patience, and shuffle the cards," hits your ideas 

 exactly ; patience, and try the experiment fairly 

 and carefully before condemning, is what you de- 

 sire, and you are right ; but I rather guess when 

 it is thoroughly ti'ied to the end, the end will be 

 found somewhat more hitter than sweet! The 

 cane I raised here, grew well, and to the height 

 of from ten to fifteen feet. I had not sufficient to 

 try any saccharine experiments, and so used i' for 

 fodder in September, and for that purpose I have 

 no doubt it will be valuable, "J. H. N.'s" cow to 

 the contrary notwithstanding. But for sugar, I 

 think I should prefer one good rock maple tree, 

 to considerable of a lot of sorghum. 



Judge French's letters from Europe are a shin- 

 ing light to your pages. He certainly observed 

 well and thoroughly during his travels, and he 

 possesses, beyond almost any writer within my 

 knowledge, the faculty of enlivening his descrip- 

 tions with queer and witty suggestions, Avhich 

 provoke a laugh, while reading of the most seri- 

 ous matters. Who can read his description of the 

 relics exhibited in the Church of St. Ursula at 

 Cologne, Avith a sober countenance ? And the 

 conclusion which folloAvs his description of oxen 



