422 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



quicken and enlarge his ideas for the rest of 

 the year, and endear him more closely to his 

 own calm retreat and "silent shade." And 

 then how grateful to his city cousins is the 

 very thought of that "haven of peace" up in 

 the country whither the/ can flee in the sum- 

 mer, and forget for the time the noise and 

 confusion amid which they live and move. 



In fact it is matter for thanksgiving to Him 

 who made the conntry, that there are such 

 calm retreats for this fa-t age and generation, 

 ■where the fevered blood can cool, and the 

 over-taxed brain be soothed to the rest it 

 claims. And our quiet, unpretending villages 

 are every year coming 'o be more and more 

 favorite places of resort for families from the 

 city, in preference to fashionable watering- 

 places and hotels by the "sounding sea." 

 True, our country life grows dull afrer a 

 wbile to the city belle and beau, and the stir- 

 ring business or professional man who lives in 

 excitement, gets to be uneasy after a while, as 

 a "fish out of water." Well, let them then 

 return to their native element until the next 

 vacation season comes round, while we that 

 remain behind will hold on oir quiet way till 

 our summer guests return. The town has its 

 distinctive features, and so has the country, 

 and in attempting to engraft the former on the 

 latter we are trying to join together what God 

 hath put asunder. Is it not so ? 



Yet, every now and then, the cry is raised, 

 "why don't you have more going on here?" 

 Meanwhile farming operations are steadily 

 going on, day by day, year in and year out. 

 Summer has its work and round of duty, and 

 winter brings its appropriate caves and toils, 

 though the former season Is distinctively the 

 busy one. One is peculiarly the time for 

 brain work, the other for manual labor ; one 

 for culture of mind and heart, the other for 

 tilling the soil. But all the year round thtre 

 is enough in the humblest hamlet to keep it 

 from stagnation. 



Suppo^e for a moment that this quiet fea- 

 ture ol our village should no longer distinguish 

 it, and it should come to be, so to speak, a 

 cross between town and country ; suppose 

 instead of the exclamation "How quiet your 

 street is," every new comer should remark, 

 "How changed from your old quiet!" 



So far as this implied an increase of enter- 

 prise and public spirit, and more frequent 

 social gatheri-ugs, the change would be a mani- 

 fest improvement. But to substitute for our 

 prevailing calm the noisy bustlmg activity 

 which some hanker after, would seem like sub- 

 stitutin i for our sweet Sabbath bell the steam- 

 gong's unearthly yell, that vvould make the 

 fathers turn in their coffins. 



If more noise is wanted, the multiplication 

 of reaping and mowing and threshing and .' ow- 

 ing machines will fast meet this want ; and as 

 for the rest, it is only necessary to set the 

 gossips and busy-bodies by the ears. 



No doubt the writer's view of the subject is 



biased by his own private taste and temfpera- 

 ment, and no man ought to set up his own 

 personal preference as the rule for all There 

 are in both town ami country, "many men of 

 many minds," but let me just repeat the query, 

 whether it is really desirable to oblltera e the 

 old familiar feature of a firming village. 



It is sa I indeed to contemplate the death- 

 like stillness of a deserted village, with its 

 crumbling old business stands and g- a- s- grown 

 highway. And it is aggravating to find any- 

 where in this great progressive nation a family 

 or community stagnating for want of enter- 

 prise. But what flock is not grattful to the 

 Good Shepherd for leading it now and then 

 "beside still waters?" w. E. B. 



Longmeadow, Mass., 1869. 



■WHAT IS KUST ON GRAIN? 

 In 1867 the farmers in Australia lost so 

 much by the red rust on wheat that the Gov- 

 ernor of the Colony appointed a Commission 

 to investigate the subject. From the report of 

 that Comminssion, which we find in the South- 

 ern Cultivator, we make the following ex- 

 tracts : — 



As regards the physiological character of 

 red rust, there can be no doubt whatever that 

 it is essentially a vegetable parasite or fungus, 

 attacking the plant externally, and brought 

 into active operation by certain atmo^pheric 

 or climatic conditions, the most tffective of 

 which last year were heat and humidity. D ;r- 

 iiig the growing season, the blades of cereal 

 plarV'S were kept in a con-inual state of damp- 

 ness, with OLCasional rapiil evaporation, caus- 

 ing the pores of the leaf to be more than or- 

 dinarily open, and thus facilitating the entrance 

 of the intinitely minute spores, or seeds, of the 

 rust fungus, which are more or less always 

 floating in the afmosphere, or deposited on 

 the soil or surroumang o'jects, ready for dis- 

 semination by every wind that blows. 



1 he spores of the rust are proved to be true 

 seeds, possessing a unitorm and definite char- 

 acter according to their variety retaining their 

 vitality as other seeds do, and capable ol be- 

 ing developed at any tim-^ by the appHeatinn 

 of heat and moisture. Your commissioners 

 have examiiu d through the mlcroscopt; vai ious 

 specimens of la-.t gear's rusted w eat, and lind 

 the rust spores id ntlcal in appearanc • wiili 

 those noticed and delineated by Mr. Cooke, 

 and other eminent m)coiogi»ts, who have 

 written on the sut)ject. It is lound an the al- 

 most uniforui result of last year's operations, 

 that rust has prevailed upon all kinds of land 

 — upon lands long crojjped, upon fallow lai (Is, 

 upjii grazed lands, upon virgin soil, upon ma- 

 nured Idiid.-i, upon ihe plains, and upon ihe 

 hills. But more than this, it has been proved 

 that in nearly eveiy instance the riihest lands 

 have suilered the most from red rust, and that. 



