138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



years, averaging a birth every twenty months in 

 each family. One settler had nineteen children 

 ir eighteen years ; another at the age of fifty- 

 n.ne, had twenty ; another had twenty-six, the 

 mother being fifty-three years old. Many other 

 facts are cited, showing that Avhatever the cold of 

 winter or other peculiarities of climate, there is 

 nothing to preclude the highest conditions of 

 health and longevity." 



Let the people and Legislators of Maine heed 

 the councils of such men as their former land 

 agent, Hon. E. L. Hamlin, in favor of opening 

 this region of great natural wealth to communi- 

 cation with the seaports, and let farmers every- 

 where be encouraged by the evidence in Mr. 

 Goodale's report that farming can be made prof- 

 itable in Maine, for they would be inexcusable. 

 Mho would fail in it any where else, while boast- 

 ing of greater natural advantages. 



Dec. 31. Folly Farm. 



For the New Englmul Farmer. 

 LITTLE THINGS, 



Or, a Walk in My Garden.. ..No. 13. 



Perhaps there is no one thing in which man- 

 kind so generally and so frequently make a mis- 

 take as in the neglect of little things. Let us 

 JQok ffrst at 



THE SCnoOL BOY. 



He makes his first mistake in supposing that 

 it is of no importance if he is heedless about 

 his spelling, his hand-writing and his reading. 

 If he plays truant it is of little moment to him. 

 Hut if he persists in neglecting these apparently 

 liille things, he will certainly grow up to be a 

 bungler in great things. I have seen a boy spurn 

 with contempt a subject proposed for composi- 

 tion, as for example, a bee, regarding it altogeth- 

 «T beneath his attention. But Bai'on Cuvier, one 

 of the most learned men the world ever saw, at- 

 tributed his whole success as a scientific man to 

 the study of insect'te. Sir Walter Scott, who is 

 known to every literary person, at least, acquired 

 his success by his attention to little things. Sup- 

 pose he was visiting the ruins of some abbey, 

 with pencil and note-book in hand, he would note 

 down every insect, plant, rock or tree that he 

 f^aw, and then interweave them all into his next 

 book, to be read with interest by those who des- 

 pise little things. 



Every man in active life must attend to little 

 things. Carry a check for a thousand dollars in- 

 to a bank and the cashier would attend to the lit- 

 tle circumstance of your signing your name on 

 its back. It is a little thing of itself, but neg- 

 lected it would soon ruin a bank. The sea cap- 

 tain must attend to little things or his ship will 

 be wrecked. But it is 



THE farmer's boy 



Who should learn this habit. A little hole in 

 j\ fence may cause your whole garden to be des- 

 troyed. A little hole in a fence rarely ever grows 

 smaller of itself; so a little duty neglected rare- 

 ly ever passes unnoted, but results in some trou- 

 lile. A little attention to that young coav will 

 make her gentle. Much of a farmer's income is 

 made up of little things, and lie who does not 

 ftttuch im;)ortantc to thcvse little rills of profit 



will never enjoy a large stream as the result of 

 their flowing together. A man may be stingy 

 and mean, but this has nothing to do with strict 

 economy in the use of time and money. 



Having penned these thoughts which passed 

 through my mind while tying up some little trees 

 to stakes to prevent their being broken down by 

 the snow, I remain as little as ever, 



Bethel, Me., Jamiary 1, 1858. n. t. t. 



BETHEL farmer's CLUB. 

 Officer.^.— N. T. True, M. D., President; D. 

 F. Brown, Vice President ; A. L. Burbank, Sec- 

 retary ; J. A. Twitchell, Treasurer and Librarian ; 

 Z. Thompson, G. Chapman, I). F. Brown, Com. 

 on Subjects. 



For tlie l^ew England Farmer. 



DUTIES OP CATTLE SHOW COM- 

 MITTEES. 



Mr. Editor : — I have glanced my eye over 

 your fair sheet, (No. 2 of Vol XII.,) just come 

 to hand, and am pleased to find the doings of 

 my own county so handsomely noticed by you. 

 While conscious that we omit many things that 

 ought to be done, we feel proud of some things 

 that we have done. As a general thing, I think 

 our committees have felt more fully the import- 

 ance of the duties entrusted to them, and the re- 

 sponsibility attached to their reports, than is felt 

 in most societies. In truth the committees are 

 the almoners of the bounty of the commonAvealth, 

 when acting in this capacity, and as much in honor 

 bound to discharge their duty with good fidelity, 

 as though ten times as much were entrusted to their 

 awards. Suppose they should at hap-hazard, 

 with no intelligent views of what they were doing, 

 recommend an implement as Avorthy the confi- 

 dence of the farming community — which really 

 was of no value — and in consequence of such 

 recommendation many of their neighbors should 

 purchase such implements, would they not be 

 putting forward false pretences ? I think they 

 would. It is not enough for them to say they 

 intended right, and did the best they could. 

 They should first be careful to knoAV what is 

 right, and then vigilant to do it, and nothing dif- 

 ferent. *»* 



South Danvers, Jan., 1858. 



Fur ihu New England Farmer. 

 THEN AND NOW. 



Mr. Editor : — Several years since while trav- 

 elling from Springfield to Boston, I made the ac- 

 quaintance of a gentleman (all but his name) who 

 ' had for many years been engaged in the cotton 

 manufactories at Palmer. I asked him if he had 

 I not, during his connection Avith the business, Avit- 

 jnessed a great improvement in the manufacture 

 I of cotton. "Yes," he replied, "but no greater 

 jthan I have seen in human nature in general."' 

 jTo prove his assertion he gave me tAvo short 

 'chapters of his observations, Avhich I take the* 

 j liber' y to quote. 



"When I came here, now more than forty years 

 'ago, we spun our yarns at the factory and people 

 came from the toAvns around and took themho.ne 

 and wove them. After I had been here a little 

 while I was sent into some of these toAvns to fook 



