222 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



ers of the Farmer certainly do not need a homily 

 from a Hawaiian pastor on the benefit of farm- 

 ing. They see enough in your excellent periodi- 

 cal. Allow me, however, to say that I have late- 

 ly read an essay on "Farm Life, a School of True 

 Manhood" by the Rev. William Clift, of Stoning- 

 ton, Ct., which I think valuable, and which I de- 

 sire to commend to the attention of your read- 

 ers. I do not know the writer, though I have 

 some acquaintance with his locality, having spent 

 my early boyhood in the counties of New Lon- 

 don and" Windham. I wish every farmer in New 

 England could read this essay. Mr. Clift nobly 

 advocates the work of the cultivator. He writes 

 like one who has some experience in the busi- 

 ness. For aught I know, he may have been com- 

 pelled from feeble health to devote a portion of 

 his time to laboring on the farm. Like the late 

 Rev. Isaac Robinson, of Stoddard, New Hamp- 

 shire, who devoted much of his time from ill 

 health to this business, though he gained and 

 held, wliile he lived, the reputation of a close 

 student, and an uncommonly able minister of the 

 gospel; I know another minister whose health 

 demands that he toil twelve hours a day, who is 

 yet an indefatigable student. I love to hear such 

 men speak on the influence of farm life to the de- 

 velopment of true manhood. If I am not mis- 

 taken, the business of toiling on the farm had, 

 in their case caused such a development. 



Allow me to say that on looking back on my 

 life spent in the United States till thirty years of 

 age, first in Connecticut, then in Vermont, after- 

 wards in Western New York, and finally in Mas- 

 sachusetts, I plainly see the truth of the proposi- 

 tion which Mr. Clift lays down in this article, 

 and which it is his object to establish, viz.: — 

 "Farm Life a School of True Manhood." Yes, as 

 I recall early scenes, go from one end to the oth- 

 er of this and that parish, and look in upon the 

 families which I knew in my boyhood and youth, 

 I plainly see that the farm was indeed the school 

 of true manhood. I love to think of the farmers 

 of those towns. They composed the backbone of 

 society and the church. One of them after whom 

 I named our only son, was qualified to be gover- 

 nor of the State. Indeed, many of your readers 

 kno'v that more than one governor of Vermont 

 was a practical farmer. They were the deacons 

 in our churches, our town officers, and our repre- 

 sentatives to the State Legislature. I say this 

 the more freely as it was not my privilege to be 

 brought up on a farm, though I belonged to the 

 working class, still, except in haying and harvest- 

 ing, I seldom wrought in the field. My sympa- 

 thy was rather with the mechanics, many of 

 whom, I beg leave to say, Avere intelligent and 

 noble men, though, on the whole, the farmers as 

 a class were more manly, hardy and wealthy. 

 One advantage farmers have always had of me- 

 chanics I may mention, is the leisure of long 

 winter evenings. While mechanics of almost 

 every sort were compelled to toil by candle-light, 

 and to a late hour, farmers used to sit by the 

 fire, and might spend their time in reading and 

 profitable conversation. Their superiority as a 

 class when I was young ought to have been 

 greater than it was ; for though I freely admit 

 that as a class farmers had a manly and noble 

 character, I cannot at the same time forget that 

 cider-drinking and story-telling during winter 



evenings eff'ectually kept many of them from ris- 

 ing as intellectual men. Indeed the practice was 

 in many cases ruinous. The thrilling tale of 

 "Kitty Grafton" I never read without being re- 

 minded of scenes which I know to have been act- 

 ed in my own town which nestles among the 

 mountains of Vermont. How many of my old 

 neighbors sleep in a drunkard's grave on the old 

 hill, who learned to drink whisky, and brandy, 

 and other foul spirits, from guzzling cider ? I re- 

 joice to believe that the practice of swallowing 

 the juice of the apple has fewer advocates than 

 formerly, and that winter evenings at farmers' 

 firesides are now spent in a more rational man- 

 ner than they used to be in dear New England. 

 Yours truly, J. S. Green. 



For the Nev England Farmer. 

 HEMLOCKS AND V^THITE PIKES. 



Mr. Editor : — While perusing the ])leasant 

 letters of your correspondent, Mr. French, indit- 

 ed from foreign parts, and strolling in imagina- 

 tion among the scenes described, free of all sus- 

 picions regarding the truthfulness of the narra- 

 tive, the "even tenor of my way" was rudely dis- 

 turbed by the unexpected announcement, that our 

 traveller wandering in the Schwarzwald, discov- 

 ered the black mountains to be overspread with 

 hemlock trees and white pines ! 



"All the world and his wife" are aware that 

 the trees in question {Ahies Canadensis and Phms 

 strolms) are held to be natives of the new world 

 only. Mr. French's adventure and recognition, 

 as detailed in his letter published in your Janu- 

 ary number, will create quite an uproar amongst 

 the botanists. However it may be at Baden, 

 these trees are very common in our forests here- 

 abouts, and they fully bear out Mr. French's en- 

 comiums on the beauty of their appearance ; 

 though I regret to say that the greater part of 

 the full grown specimens, majestic with umbra- 

 geous heads of a century's growth, have suc- 

 cumbed to the axe, and have been ignominiously 

 converted into boards for the carpenter and logs 

 for building wharves. Sic Transit, Sec. 



March, I808. Far East. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "OLD EED STOCK OP NEW ENGLAND." 



Mr. Editor : — AVe are glad to see by your 

 last paper that there in one man among us who 

 stands up for the "old red stock of New Eng- 

 land." This is no new theory with Mr. P. ; we 

 remember to have heard a like opinion from him 

 several years ago, when he addressed the farmers 

 of Hillsborough county, and you yourself were 

 present. We have lately seen an elaborate arti- 

 cle on this subject, in the American Farmers'' 

 Magazine, a valuable paper published by Mr. 

 Nash, at New York. The truth is, farmers are 

 diffident in the expression of their real opinions 

 of the value of natives, because they are not quite 

 so fashionable. But if it is found that they can 

 be fed at two-thirds the cost, and at the same 

 time will yield quite as good products, is it not 

 clear beyond a doubt, that it is best economy to 

 keep them ? Granite Hills. 



March 14, 1838. 



