60 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Fkb. 



A LESSON IN ITSELF SUBLIME. 



A lessnn in iuulf sublime, 



A lesson wortli enshrinin^i, 

 Is this — " / take no hceil of time, 

 Save when the sun is shining." 

 These motto worils a dial bore, 



And wisdom never teaches 

 To human hearts a better lore 

 Than this short sentence teaches. 



As life is sometimes bright and fair, 

 And sometimes dark and lonely. 

 Let us forget its pain and cure, 

 And note its bright hours only. 



There is no grove on earth's broad chart 



But has some bird to cheer it ; 

 So hope sings on in every heart, 

 Although we may not hear it ; 

 And If to-day the heavy wing 



Of sorrow is oppressing. 

 Perchance to-morrow's sun will bring 

 The weary heart a blessing. 



For life is sometimes bright and fair, 



And sometimes dark and lonely, 

 Then let's forget its toil and care. 

 And note its bright hours only. 



We bid the joyous moments haste. 



And then forget their glitter — 

 We take the cup of life, and taste 



No portion but the bitter : 

 But we should teach our hearts to deem 



Its sweetest drops the strongest ; 

 And pleasant hours should ever seem 

 To linger round us longest. 



As life is sometimes bright and fair, 

 And sometimes dark and lonely, 

 Let us forget its toil and care. 

 And note its bright hours only. 



The darkest shadows of the night 



Are just before the morning ; 

 Then let us wait the coming light, 

 All boding phantoms scorning ; 

 And while we're passing on the tide 



Of Time's fast ebbing river, 

 Let's pluck the blossoms by its side. 

 And bless the gracious Giver. 



As life is sometimes bright and fair. 



And sometimes dark and lonely. 



We should forget its pain and care. 



And note its bright hours only. 



For the New England Farmer. 



REMARKS ON COWS. 



Mr. Editor: — L was much pleased with the 

 good sense manifested in your description of a 

 cow for fixmily use, in your last paper. Just af- 

 ter T read that, I took up an excellent paper, 

 publislied at Manchester, N. 11., in which was 

 copied from the London Affrin/hural Gazette some 

 remarks about "an extraordinary coav." I was 

 curious to know what was deemed an "exti-aordi- 

 nary cow" in London. This animal is said to 

 have yielded fifteen quarts of milk daily, on grass 

 feed alone, four months after calving, of a qual- 

 ity to give eleven and a half pounds of butter in 

 a week. Pretty well this, but how does it com- 

 pare with wliat is said of some of the cows and 

 heifers of your own Middlesex? If I do not mis- 

 take, gentlemni tiiorc have boasted of their De- 

 von Stock, as yielding products far better than 

 this. Milk of a quality to give a pound of but- 

 ter to each and every four quarts, — on grass feed 

 alone. This may be so, but I never could give 



full credit to the statement, and do not now. It 

 seems to me hardly possible to find a cow that 

 will give milk, tliat will yield more than a pound 

 of butter to each and every eight quarts of her 

 milk — whatever may bo the breed. If I could 

 find a herd of cows that would do this, I should 

 be satisfied. Inquirer. 



Dec. 25, 1854. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MOETCtAGES-SHADE-CRITICISM. 



^^ A Medley."' — As this article in the January 

 Fanner is devoted to myself, I wish for a little 

 more space in reply than would be admissible in 

 the narrow limits of my usual monthly review ; 

 not so much from any desire or intention of con- 

 troversy as for an opportunity of giving the rea- 

 sons for my caution against mortgages. Agree- 

 ing perfectly with friend Durand, that every 

 writer should bo allowed his own "say," I have 

 never supposed that any of my running com- 

 ment^could be considered as an infringement on 

 this privilege, especially as I fully believe in the 

 correctness of the sentiment, bluntly expressed 

 by old Dr. Johnson to one of his sensitive friends, 

 "Depend upon it, sir, no man was ever written 

 down but by himself." 



Regarding the subject of mortgages as one of 

 vital importance to the young farmer, and be- 

 lieving that a false step on this ground is often 

 the most fatal and irretracoalde of his whole 

 course, I am induced to give somewhat in detail 

 my personal experience with mortgages, altliough 

 by so doing I expose myself to the charge of ego- 

 tism — but, "how can we reason but from what 

 we knoiv.'^ 



For the sake of distinctness, wo will allude to 

 our experiences in the mortgage line, as they oc- 

 curred m the order of time. 



No. 1. The small fund of money that I saved 

 of my earnings, for some three or four years af- 

 ter twenty-one, was devoted to a debt on the 

 homestead, that descending from my grandfath- 

 er, was lived under by my father, and, after my- 

 self, was assumed by two others of his sons; yet 

 the old farm had to be sold at last, and the fam- 

 ily name of your humble "commentator" passed 

 from the title-deeds to the "ancient domain." 

 Among the earliest recollections of my boyhood, 

 that of the efforts of my parents to "raise" the 

 means for j'taying "the interest" is not the most 

 pleasant. That favorite colt, that web of cloth 

 sjDun by my mother's own hands and needed by 

 the backs of her boys, and many other things 

 that went, not to kill, l)ut merely to keep alive, 

 that mortgage, are among the indelible impres- 

 sions of my "first experience." 



No. 2. I loaned some money to a man in 

 Michigan, whoso land was paid for, and who had 

 put up one of the neatest log-houses I ever saw. 

 Three split logs, placed one above the other, were 

 of such size as to raise the walls sulfieiently high 

 for the roof, giving a comparatively smooth ceil- 

 ing, and a look of solidity and comfort within, 

 far superior to the usual style of smaller, unsplit 

 logs. The good woman "shuddered" at the 

 idea of a mortgage, and, with tears said to her 

 husband, "It will turn us and our cliildren out 

 of the home we have labored so hard to make 

 comfortable." But, almost in the language of 



