236 



KFM ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 





ment to more extended researches, and the early 

 formation of habits of perseverance and industry 

 — qualities always to be appreciated in youth, 

 and which it is not always easy to form, without 

 the assistance of some powerfully attractive and 

 engrossing study, which unites the rewards of 

 pleasure with the labor of pursuit. 



Flowers indicate taste, sentiment, character ; 

 they have a charming influence on young persons, 

 as those who are reared in their midst and who 

 engage in their cultivation, are quite likely to be 

 truthful, gentle and sincere. 



See in what glowing numbers Dr. Darwin 

 wrote upon his favorite topic, the Floicers. How 

 closely he must have observed them, and what 

 joy his rambles among the flowers of the fields, 

 and that minute observation, must have afl"orded 

 him. 



"But thou whose mind the soul-attempered ray 

 Of taste and virtue lights with purer day ; 

 Whose finer sense with soft vibration owns 

 With sweet responsive sympathy of tones ; 

 So the fair fiower expands its lucid form 

 To meet the sun, and shuts it to the storm ; 

 For thee my borders nurse the fragrant wreath, 

 My fountains murmur, and my zephyrs breatlie ; 

 Slow slides the painted snail, the gilded fly 

 Smooths his fine down, to charm thy curious eye ; 

 On twinkling fins my pearly pinions play, 

 Or win with sinuous train their trackless way ; 

 My plumy pairs in gay embroidery dressed, 

 Form with ingenious bill the pencile nest, 

 To love's sweet notes attune the listening dell, 

 And echo sounds her soft symphonious shell." 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



HARD TIMES. 



"Hard times" — nothing has been heard scarcely 

 for the past six months but "hard times" — and 

 to many, the expression has a feeling meaning to 

 it ; but to you, brother fixrmers, what care you for 

 hard times, so far as all the essentials of a good 

 living are concerned ? There may be a "panic" 

 among money-lenders, note-shavers, &c. ; there 

 may be a "crisis" among traders, merchants and 

 manufacturers ; but if you are a farmer, such as 

 1 often picture to myself, and such an one as I 

 have seen in my day, you will care for "none of 

 these things," any further than your svmpathies 

 are called forth by the wants, misfortunes and 

 sufl'erings of your fellow-men. Yours is a call- 

 ing instituted by the Great Former of all things, 

 and you have only to obey the laws which He has 

 given you, and the "profits" are seen ; there can 

 be no mistake here. Truly, there is no calling, 

 no speculation, no venture, no splendid opera- 

 tion that can compare with yours ; the croaking 

 and preaching of the idle and lazy to the con- 

 trary, , notwithstanding. Hard and severe toil 

 may be yours,_but do they not bring sound health 

 and a good digestion ? By some ignorant and 

 foolish-minded persons, your business, I know, 

 is called low and vulgar — but I tell you, it is the 

 business of Heaven ; it brings you in direct com- 

 munion with "nature and nature's God," and there 

 can be nothing low or vulgar in this. 



Shame on the stupids that know no better, and 



can see nothing beautiful, and to admire, in the 

 occupations of the farmer. Such a soul must 

 have a body more simple than the zoophite, and 

 it would need no miscroscope to show the struc- 

 ture of such persons. Heed them not, but go 

 forward and upward in your nobler and more el- 

 evating work, remembering that the promise of 

 seed-time and harvest is yours, the beauty and 

 sublimity of nature are yours, health, and, I hope, 

 contentment are j'ours, the noblest of all that 

 constitutes manhood are yours ; and if the bless- 

 ings, opportunities and privileges of life which 

 God has given you are rightly improved, when 

 you are called to the judgment to render your 

 account of life's farming, an eternity of happiness 

 is yours. All honor, then, to the worthy, indepen- 

 dent farmer ! NORFOLK. 

 King Oak Bill, 1858. 



-WAIFS FROM OVER THE WATERS. 



Sandwich Islands — Sugar Cane — Apples — Bananas — Sweet 

 Potatoes. 



We have been favored by the Rev. R. TV- 

 Fuller, of Lempster, N. H., with the following 

 extracts of a letter from that far distant and in- 

 teresting group, the Sandwich Islands. 



In a line from your office, received last July, 

 a desire Avas expressed for information concern- 

 ing the fate of the China sugar cane seed, which 

 I ordered for my brother, Josiah Fuller, at Hon- 

 olulu, Sandwich Islands ; and "the results of 

 the experiments" with it there. My brother in- 

 formed me that "the seed came safely to hand, 

 in good order, with tlie pamphlet," &c. In re- 

 gard to the production he writes, — "We look 

 with much contempt upon the grass as a sugar- 

 producing plant, in this country, where the real 

 sugar cane produces three tons of sugar to the 

 acre. But it is undoubtedly of the greate>t val- 

 ue as fodder for animals. I have a small patch 

 in my garden, from which I feed my cow. In 

 three clays after I began to give her about 25 

 pounds of the suckers, she increased her milk 

 more than a quart a day." 



The following brief extract from one of his let- 

 ters, concerning the productions and fertility of 

 those islands, may not be uninteresting to the 

 readers of the Farmer. At the time this was 

 written he had recently purchased and taken pos- 

 session of a pleasant residence in a valley about 

 two miles from the city, for the health of his fam- 



"We enjoy our valley residence very much, — 

 have fruit and vegetables of our own, — have not 

 been obliged to buy any vegetables except Irish 

 potatoes for months. Had two apples on one of 

 our little trees. One came to perfection and was 

 a delicious fruit ; the other was blown off by the 

 wind, before it ripened. I mention this because 

 it is something remarkable here. One of my ba- 

 nanas, only seven months from planting, has a 

 large bunch of 100 bananas upon it and is a mag- 

 nificent plant, about 12 feet high. The fruit will 

 be ripe in a month. I have about 200 plants 

 growing. There is no check to the growth of our 

 plants, except the dry weather which we some- 

 times experience. 



My sweet potato patch — one-fifth of an acre — 

 produced about 60 barrels of potatoes. We have 



