1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



95 



these poor creiitures toil on through their period 

 of existence, without a ray of hope to cheer, or a 

 single solace to alleviate their woes. — Allen's Au- 

 tocrasy of Poland and Russia. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 



We find the following excellent article in our 

 exchanges, and wish we could give the writer 

 credit for performing so good a deed, as that of 

 writing it, but there is nothing attached to it by 

 which we may know its paternity. 



"We do not mean Herculean clubs, nor goad 

 sticks, to quicken the pace of Buck to keep up 

 with Bright. We mean no such un-fai'mer-like 

 expedient to quicken the pace or sharpen the in- 

 tellect. It is the farmers' social club for mental 

 and agricultural improvement that we have in 

 our mind's eye, and about which we propose to 

 stir up the thouglits of farmers, 'by way of re- 

 membrance.' Old soldiers love to fight their bat- 

 tles o'er again, and old men like to discourse of 

 wlij^t occurred in the days of their youth. Long 

 time ago we remember attending a meeting of 

 farmers' boys for amusement and instruction 

 when the merry sentiment went round the ring, 

 with the action suited to the word — 



"Thus the Farmer sows his peas, 



And thus he stands and takes his ease; 



But you nor I, nor no one knows 



How oats, peas, beans and barley grows." 



It was an ancient farmers' club in miniature, 

 and we know what lad it was of the number M'ho 

 married the district 'school-mar'm,' and in after 

 life was sure to get a premium at the cattle show 

 for the best butter, and won the reputation of 

 being the best farmer in the county. It was the 

 60n of a Scotchman, who was always first and 

 foremosc at the juvenile meeting, when amuse- 

 ment was always blended with instruction. Those 

 meetings taught us the useful lesson, that a little 

 often shows what a good deal means. While the 

 scholars in' our county districts are profitably 

 spending a winter's evening at the spelling school, 

 would it not be well for their fathers to assemble 

 in some convenient place, and in a free and famil- 

 iar manner, 'tell their experience' in farming, 

 and communicate to each other how they man- 

 age to raise the best stock, and enter into all the 

 minutite and variety of good husbandry? It 

 seems to us that much useful information would 

 be elicited, and that each and all would derive 

 very great benefit from participating in so pheas- 

 ant and profitable a discussion. Such farmers' 

 clubs are held weekly in many of the school dis- 

 tricts of Massachusetts, Maine and New Hamp- 

 shire — why should they not be held in every town 

 and district in Vermont? Can any one assign 

 a good and sufficient reason why such meetings Of 

 the 'lords of the soil,' for mutual improvement, 

 and for discussing the great and paramount ques- 

 tion, what shall be done to promote agriculture, 

 may not be as pleasant and profitable in Vermont 

 as they arc in other States ? Questions given out 

 at one meeting and discussed at the next, will 

 elicit thoughts and important facts, excite a laud- 

 able amliition to excel in word and in deed, in 

 theory and in practice. Merchants, mechanics 

 and manufacturers hold such meetings, and why 



should not nature's noblemen do the same and 

 share the rich reward ? 'Can any one man work- 

 ing alone on liis farm, learn as much us one hun- 

 dred men ?' ^lay not each discover some practi- 

 cal and important fact, and should not his neigh- 

 bors know it ! Let farmers hold such meetings 

 and t^ike their sons and workmen with them. 'A 

 farmer must have been slotlii'ul indeed, if, during 

 the past year, he has not learned one new fact in 

 relatit)!! to agriculture ; and should a hundred 

 neighbors meet, then each will learn ninety-nine 

 new facts for one communication. Pretty good 

 interest, surely ; and what is better, the givers 

 and the receivers each get their pay down . What 

 farmer that deserves the noble name, ever attend- 

 ed such a meeting without learning something 

 new, practical and useful?" 



ADVICE TO CONSUMPTIVES. 



Eat all you can digest and exercise a great 

 deal in the open air, to convert what you eat in- 

 to pure healthful blood. Do not be afraid of 

 out-door air, day or night. Do not be afraid of 

 sudden changes of weather ; let no chanye, hot 

 or cold, keep you in doors. If it is rainy weather, 

 the more need for your going out, because you 

 eat as much on a rainy day as on a clear day, 

 and if you exercise less, that much more remains 

 in the system of what ought to be thrown oflF by 

 exercise, and some ill result, come consequent 

 symptom, or ill feeling, is the certain issue. If 

 it is cold out of doors, do not muffle your eyes, 

 mouth and nose, in furs, veils, woolen comfor- 

 ters, and the like ; nature has sup|)lied you with 

 the best muffler, with the best inhaling regulator, 

 that is, two lips ; shut them before yon step out 

 of a warm room into the cold air, and keep them 

 shut until you have walked briskly a few rods 

 and quickened the circulation a little ; walk fast 

 enough to keep oflT a feeling of chilliness, and 

 taking cold will be impossible. What are the 

 facts of the case ? look at the railroad conductors, 

 going out of a hot air into the piercing cold of 

 winter and in again every five or ten minutes, 

 and yet they do not take cold oftener than others; 

 you will scarcely find a consumptive man in a 

 thousand of them. It is wonderful how afraid 

 consumptive people are of fresh air, tlie very 

 thing that would cure them, the only obstacle to 

 a cure being that they do not get enough of it ; 

 and yet what infinite pains they take to avoid 

 l)reathing it, especially if it is cold ; wlien it is 

 known that the colder the air is the purer it 

 mu8t be, yet if people cannot get to a liot climate, 

 they will make an artificial one, ami imprison 

 themselves for a whole winter in a warm room, 

 with a temperature not varying ten degrees in 

 six months ; all such peoi)le die, and yet we fol- 

 low in their footsteps. If I were seriously ill of 

 consumption, I would live out of doors day and 

 night, except it was raining or mid-winter, then 

 I would sleep in an un}ilastered log-house. My 

 consumptive friend, you want air, not physic; 

 you want pure air, not medicated air ; you want 

 nutritiim, such as plenty of meat and bread will 

 "■ivc, and they alone ; physic has no nutriment, 

 gaspings for air cannot cure you ; monkey capers 

 in a gymnasium cannot cure you, and stimulants 

 cannot cure you. If you want to get well, go in 

 for beef and out-door air, and do not be deluded 



