10 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jak. 



gifts may be more aptly observed than at any oth- 

 er period. 



But the country will ever be barren and dull to 

 him, or her, vrho haa no habits of observation ; 

 who will not mark the soft-falling snow, or see it 

 on the north-wind curling over the hills and 

 walls, or about the trunks of trees, assuming 

 fantastic forms, and filling the waste with imag- 

 inary grottoes, churches and castles. To such, 

 books have small attraction, and the country lit- 

 tle but cnmci or disgust. The poet tells us of a 

 man to whom 



" The primrose on the river's brim 



A yellow primrose was to him, 



And it was nothing more." 



Few, we trust, are so indifferent to the teach- 

 ings of nature, or forget this bountiful source of 

 enjoyment, 



'• Where living things, and things inanimate, 

 Do speak at Hearen's command, to eye and ear, 

 And speak to social reason's inner sense, 

 With inarticulate language." 



We cannot refrain from urging again upon all, 

 the importance of a proper appropriation of the 

 leisure winter hours. Some — we knoAV them 

 ■well — who are young, healthy, with good natur- 

 al abilities, and full of ambition in their daily 

 routine of physical labor, are yet sadly deficient 

 in those mental acquirements, without which, no 

 one in this country may reasonably aspire to 

 more than mere drudgery. Homely as the adage 

 is, we urge it now — "it is never too late to learn." 

 There are now persons in the Congress of the 

 United States, on the Bench, and others who 

 have secured wealth and distinction, who could 

 not read or write at the age of twenty-one ! Al- 

 fred the Great was twelve years of age before he 

 could read. If his history is not familiar to you, 

 young man and woman, there remains to you a 

 treat more instructive and gratifying than can be 

 found in most physical sources of enjoyment. He 

 always carried a book in his bosom, and amidst 

 the great business and hurries of government, 

 snatched moments of leisure to read. He became 

 the great legislator and pre-eminent patriot-king 

 of England. Most of our towns possess good li- 

 braries, and the sources of reading and learning 

 are accessible to all. Seek, in the mean time, to 

 understand and apply scientific knowledge to the 

 business of your profession, whatever it may be, 

 remembering that its true end is to enrich human 

 life with useful arts and inventions. 



Winter Schools. — These should receive your 

 careful consideration — make them the best of their 

 kind. Assist and encourage the teacher ; his task 

 is one of trial, and often of great vexation, from 

 the injudicious interference of parents in the reg- 

 ulation and discipline of the school. To secure 

 success, there must be order in every business, but 

 ijt is indispensable in schools. 



We have often set before the reader most of the 



specific duties of the farmer in the winter months, 

 and need not now to repeat them. After secur- 

 ing the comforts and means of improvement for 

 the family, his first important duties are the pro- 

 per shelter and feeding of his slock. It is of little 

 consequence to secure bountiful crops if they are 

 distributed in a careless and slovenly manner in 

 the winter. Those who have a supply of roots 

 will find the following to be a profitable mode of 

 feeding. Cut hay, straw, corn stalks or husks, 

 and throw it into the feed trough ; then add such 

 quantity of clean roots as you desire to feed to a 

 given number of cattle and cut them with the 

 hay. This process, though a little difiicult, gives 

 the dry fodder the taste of the roots, so that the 

 whole will be eaten with a high relish. But 

 cleanliness, good bedding, gentle treatment, and 

 kind care every way, will save hay and grain and 

 take the stock through in good condition. 



But we have said enough in this our first sal- 

 utation of the year. That we may ramble along 

 in pleasant paths together, plucking the fruits 

 and flowers that present themselves on the way, 

 and treasuring up that wisdom which is better 

 than rubies, is the sincere desire of him who now 

 wishes you A Happy New Year. 



For the New England Farmer. 



NEW PLANTS. 



Of the new plants recently introduced from 

 Eastern Asia, there are two that promise to be of 

 considerable value to the agricultural world. 

 These are the Holcus saccharaius, or North China 

 sugar-cane, and the Dioscorea japonLca, (Japanese 

 yam.) 



The fruit is a sort of broom corn, producing a 

 kind of sugar-cane, whose stalks attain seven and 

 eight feet in height. The experiments of Mons. 

 Louis ViLiiORiN and other French chemists, show 

 that the stalks produced on one acre will yield 

 2G,000 lbs. of very sweet juice, containing from 

 10 to 13 per cent, of pure sugar. The juice from 

 canes raised the past season, near Paris, has pro- 

 duced 52 to 78 per 1,000 of pure alcohol. The 

 residue of the canes can be fed to cattle and 

 sheep. The holcus, in its green state, is a rapid 

 grower, and valuable to be raised as a crop for 

 soiling, to be cultivated in the same manner as 

 Indian corn. 



The Japanese yam is beginning to be cultivated 

 in France as a substitute for the diseased potato. 

 It is largely grown in China, is very hardy, and 

 is easily propagated by cuttin'^s of its Icig vines, 

 and by its roots, whicli are, likr- those of the 

 potato, of annual growth. Tiie rcnjLs are large 

 and long, the flesh very mealy nnd devmd of any 

 peculiar taste or flavor. The Japanese yam is 

 pronounced, by eminent French agriculu'.riscs, a 

 most valuable acquisition. w. 



[^ There is no greater obstacle in the way of 

 success in life, than trusting for something to turn 

 up, instead of going to work and turning up 

 something. 



