276 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



ECONOMY. 



Teach children economy, both by precept and ex- 

 ample. Economy is one of the main pillai\s of suc- 

 cess and reputation in future life, as avarice is its 

 bane. 



The grand clement, after superior talent and good 

 sense, in the character of Washington, Franklin, tlic 

 Adamses, and nearly all our revolutionary worthies 

 and their predecessors, and with equal justice we may 

 add, their successors also, was economy — economy 

 in its broadest sense, economy of time, of opportu- 

 nity, intelligence, and advantages, equally with 

 economy of money. 



Without economy, Franklin would have had no 

 time nor money to acquire the stores of information 

 he had treasured up, and that stood him in such good 

 stead in after life. Franklin agreed to board himself 

 for half the amount allowed his fellow-apprentices. 

 He bought bread, raisins, and other simple, nutri- 

 tious, and easily-digested food, which he could eat 

 without cooking. The consequence was, he had de- 

 spatched his meal in the printing-office before they 

 had reached their boarding-house. All the remain- 

 der of the time occupied by the more laborious meal 

 was by him devoted to those acquirements which 

 subsequently delighted the literary and scientific 

 •world. What was saved from his food, furnished the 

 onlj' means he could command for the iDurchase of 

 books. Thus half the money spent by his fellows 

 on board, amply supplied him with both mental and 

 physical food. 



Ilad Franklin been the low-minded, needy gor- 

 mandizer, dependent on anj' greedy schemer or paltry 

 politician for the means to gratify a loathsome appe- 

 tite, he would have succumbed to the i)opular clamor 

 when almost universally assailed. But after inviting 

 all his oljjectors to his frugal repast, — a dinner of 

 plain boiled Indian pudding without dressing, — of 

 which he partook heartily, while their pampered 

 stomachs turned from it with disgust, he showed 

 them his independence of popular support, and that 

 even then he had purposed that self-dependent, self- 

 dictated course, which was destined afterwards to 

 challenge the admiration of both hemispheres. 



The untiring activity, enterprise, and economy of 

 Washington enabled him to devote the seven long 

 years of the revolutionary war to his country's ser- 

 vice, without pecuniary recompense. By the prac- 

 tice of these virtues, he had acquired the ability 

 largely to augment the gift of a patriotism so oppor- 

 tune, and so almost indispensable to a suffering na- 

 tion. 



Arnold had his morbid, undisciplined, clamorous 

 appetite to pander for ; and without strong moral 

 principle to uphold him, rapidly ran through a career 

 of extortion, peculation, and robbery, till he was fit- 

 ted for the last great leap into the abyss of infamy, 

 long before prepared for him by the arch tempter, 

 who had early and effectually taught him to despise 

 economij. 



It is said that the British emissary sent to treat 

 •with Marion, finding him sheltered in the almost im- 

 penetrable iastncsscs of a swamp, and with his entire 

 suite of olHccrs dining on a few roasted potatoes, 

 reported t'ne hopelessness of assailing an enemy so 

 independent of the conveniences of life, and threw 

 up his commission, which could be only employed in 

 the futile efforts of tyranny against a self-denying 

 patriotism and virtue. 



But leaving examples historically conspicuous, let 

 us look at the every-day avocations of life. Exam- 

 ine the success of business men, in this or any other 

 large city. How few of those, to the manor born, 

 achieve independence by their own exertions ! 

 Reckon up all the successful men, wlicther as im- 

 porters, shippers, jobbers, or retailers ; examine any 



class of mechanics or artisans ; look into the profes- 

 sions of the pulpit and the bar, of surgery and medi- 

 cine, of artists, authors, publishers, and schemers of 

 every hue and description, and nineteen out of twen- 

 ty, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred, will be found 

 to have been bred in the countrj-, and parly trained 

 to hardy enterprise, patient endurance, and the most 

 rigid economy. These are the elements of future 

 prosperity ; the only bases of success. This is the 

 law of our being — an ingrain principle of our nature, 

 without the early and constant practice of which, 

 future achievement is as hopeless as growth witliout 

 food, or vitality without air ; they are indeed so es- 

 sential, that th.ey should be taught and enforced even 

 where there is no present necessity for their practice. 

 Teach the little girls to economize their dresscF, their 

 school-books, their pin-money, and even the paper- 

 rags, — and the boys their own little personal matters, 

 and those pertaining to the farm, as economy* in 

 feeding the animals, economy in saving and sujiply- 

 ing manures, economy in the aj^plication of hand, ox, 

 and horse labor to their various and appropriate du- 

 ties, — and we will guarantee to every child of good 

 sense and sterling moral principle, thus educated, the 

 greatest measure of success attainable in the sphere, 

 occupation, and circumstances with which they may 

 be surrounded. — American Agriculturist, 



AMELIORATION OF LANDS BY DRAINAGE 

 AND IRRIGATION. 



Water is an indispensable agent in the production 

 of vegetation. It is only in a state of solution that 

 the pabulum of plants can be taken up ; and although 

 every circumstance associated with the economical 

 process of nutrition be favorable, yet the deficiency 

 of this fliiid — nay, the privation of a constant and 

 properly graduated supply — will nullify and render 

 them utterly inefficient in reproduction and suste- 

 nance of vegetable organisms. The wheel of the 

 miller demands a continued supply, or it ceases to 

 revolve ; if the fountain fails and the stream shrijiks, 

 the wheel remains idle. So if the soil be not irri- 

 gated by the dews and rains of heaven, or by artifi- 

 cial means, no useful vegetation clothes its surface, 

 the phenomena of reproduction ceases, and the beau- 

 tiful creations of organic hfe wither and die. But 

 the redundancy of water is no less detrimental to a 

 healthy and vigorous vegetable development, than 

 the entire privation of it. Every one has observed 

 that lands which are submerged during the greater 

 part of the season, are usually, if not invariably, 

 sterile ; and this result ensues, whether the water be 

 upon or near the surface. Soils, also, whicli are so 

 situated as to be inundated during seasons of pro- 

 tracted or copious rains, are often more seriously and 

 injuriously afi'ected by the opposite extreme of ex- 

 cessive drought, than the more dry and porous soils. 

 The legitimate solution of this is, that such soils are 

 deficient in native energy, — there is no action ex- 

 cept in a very thin stratum of the superficial parts, in 

 consequence of the supernatant water in the spring 

 and fall indurating all to the surface ; and consequent- 

 ly, when dry weather succeeds, the crops, which ];avo 

 taken root, being deprived of the rcqui^ite quantum 

 of water, sicken and die. Sw-amps on which water 

 stands, and perhaps stagnates, from lack of action, 

 during a great part of the season, produce only 

 aquatic grasses. Such lands, though replete with 

 humus, and all the more essential elements of latent 

 vegetation, are, in their pristine and unameliorated 

 st<ite, little better than water and barrens. When- 

 ever lands of this description arc found, the adoption 

 of a correct system of drainage is the only resource. 

 Drainage may often be effected by simply deepening 



