258 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Domestic Department. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FLOWERS. 



Who docs not love flowers ? They are such pure 

 and beautiful things, such sweet gifts from our heav- 

 enly Father, scattered with lavish hand to gladden 

 the hearts of his creatures ! Xot for the wealthj' 

 alone do they bloom, but the lowliest cottager may 

 claim them as his own, to beautify his humble home. 

 I never passed a cottage overhung by vines, where 

 roses and honeysuckles mingled, and jessamine 

 peeped in at the windows, without thinking that 

 there must be, in that lowly abode, hearts full of 

 love — love for the beautiful, and love for God. How 

 pleasant to see young children bearing their hands 

 full of the fragrant treasures — twining them in gar- 

 lands for those they love, or scattering them over 

 some lonely grave ! 



Methinks that children surrounded with flowers — 

 taught daily to gaze upon them and examine and ad- 

 mire their wonderful structure — cannot grow up 

 unmindful of their Maker. In their hearts will be 

 planted an affection for the lovely and beautiful in 

 Nature, and they will " look through Nature up to 

 Nature's God." 



" Blessed be God for flowers — 

 For the bright, gentle, holy thoughts that breathe 

 From out their odorous beauty, like a wreath 

 Of sunshine on life's hours." 



E. C. L. 



Milk Cellaks. — Farmers about to build a dwell- 

 ing should know that, by carrying up a large flue 

 (twelve inches in diameter and circular is the best) in 

 the chimney-stack from the cellar, and having a window 

 or two opening to the north, or cold side of the house, 

 out of the cellar, they can have as good a "milk 

 room " under their house as could be had over a spring, 

 that may be perhaps two hundred yards or one fourth 

 of a mile off ; which is so j^lensant to go to in bad 

 •weather, especially by the female portion of the 

 family. 



The floor should be flagged with stones, as they can 

 be kept sweeter and are colder than either bricks or 

 cement, which absorb " spilt milk," and thus taint 

 the atmosphere. The walls and ceiling should be 

 plastered, to facilitate whitewashing and cleansing. 

 Nothing but milk and cream should be kept in the 

 room, as a pure atmosphere for cream to rise in is 

 absolutely essential to the making of sweet butter. 



What is needed to have a cool, sweet cellar, is a cur- 

 rent of air, which will be secured by the aforesaid 

 flue and the open windows — as a strong current of 

 air is at least ten degrees colder than the same air at 

 rest. 



Chubnixo. — Farmers ought to know that churn- 

 ing can be done with any good churn in five to fif- 

 teen minutes, as well in winter as summer, by having 

 the temperature of the cream right — say sixty to 

 sixty-two degrees. The temperature of an ordinary 

 sitting or living room, in winter, to be comfortable, is 

 sixty-five to sixty-eight degrees, and a closet opening 

 into such a room would be the best place to keep the 

 pot in the winter. In the summer the cream can be 

 readily reduced to the right temperature, by breaking 

 up clean ice and putting it into the churn. 



A thermometer, which is necessary to regulate 

 these matters, costs but one dollar ; and such an in- 

 vestment every farmer ought to make, who has 

 churning to do, and thus save labor and time, which 

 is money, and make this much-dreaded part of the 

 duties of fai-mers' wives and daughters much pleas- 



anter and easier — and for this I know they Avould 

 thank your modest correspondent, if they knew him. 

 — Ohio Cultivator. 



13outl)*s Department. 



Curious Facts. — The greyhound runs by eyesight 

 only ; and this we observe as a fact. The carrier- 

 pigeon flies his two hundred and fifty miles home- 

 ward, by eyesight, viz., from point to point of objects 

 which he has wiarAef? ; but this is only our conjec- 

 ture. The fierce dragon-fly, with twelve thousand 

 lenses in his eyes, darts from angle to angle with the 

 rapidity of a flashing sword, and as rapidly darts 

 back ; not turning in the air, but with a clash re- 

 versing the action of his wings — the only known 

 creature that possesses this facultj". His sight, then, 

 both forwards and backwards, must be proportiona- 

 bly rapid with his wings, and instantaneously calcu- 

 lating the distance of objects, or he would dash him- 

 self to pieces. But in what conformation of his eye 

 does this consist ? No one can answer. A cloud of 

 ten thousand gnats dance up and down in the sun, 

 the minutest interval between them, yet no one 

 knocks another headlong upon the grass, or breaks a 

 leg or a wing, long and delicate as these are. Sud- 

 denly, amidst your admiration of this matchless 

 dance, a peculiarly high-shouldered, vicious gnat, 

 with long, pale, pendent nose, darts out of the rising 

 and falling cloud, and settling on your cheek, inserts 

 a poisonous sting. What possessed the little wretch 

 to do this? No one knows. 



A four-horse coach comes suddenly upon a flock 

 of geese on a narrow road, and drives straight through 

 the middle of them. A goose was never yet fairly 

 run over; nor a duck. They are under the very 

 wheels and hoofs, and j-et, somehow, they contrive 

 to flap and waddle safely off. Habitually stupid, 

 heavy, and indolent, they are, nevertheless, equal to 

 any emergency. Why does the lonely woodpeck- 

 er, when he descends his tree, and goes to drink, 

 stop several times on his way, listen, and look round 

 before he takes his draught ? No one knows. How 

 is it that the species of ant, which is taken in battle 

 by other ants to be made slaves, should be the black, 

 or negro-ant ? No one knows. 



A large species of the star-fish possesses the power 

 of breaking itself into fragments, under the influence 

 of terror, rage, or despair. " As it does not gener- 

 ally break up," says Prof. Forbes, " before it is raised 

 above the surface of the sea, cautiously and anxious- 

 ly I sunk my bucket, and proceeded in the most 

 gentle manner to introduce Ludia to the purer ele- 

 ment. Whether the cold air was too much for him, 

 or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know not ; 

 but in a moment he proceeded to dissolve his corpo- 

 ration, and at every mesh of the dredge his fragments 

 were seen escaping. In despair I grasped at the 

 largest, and brought up the extremity of an arm with 

 its terminating eye, the spinous eyelid of which 

 opened and closed with something like a wink of de- 

 rision." With this exquisite specimen of natural 

 history wonders — for naturalists can only vouch 

 that " such is the fact," and admit that they know 

 no more — we shall close our digression. — The Poor 

 Artist. 



As a man is, under God, the master of his own 

 fortune, so he is the master of his own mind. The 

 Creator has so constituted the human intellect, that 

 it can only grow by its own action, and by its own 

 action it will certainly and necessarily grow. Every 

 man must educate himself. 



