1855. 



^EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



219 



ing articles have not come up to that time, we give minister to each a severe flagellation ; reminding 

 a few samples. The prices given, it must be re- j them, if they demurred on the score of innocence, 

 collectc'd, are the wholesale; the retail were of i that they would merit it before the close of the 



course higher. 



Bacon, 15 cents; barley, $1,25 to $1,50; 

 beans, $4 to $4,50 per bushel ; butter, shipping. 

 No. 1, 24 cents, No. 2, 22 cents ; corn, $1,90 to 

 $2,10; coflfee, 19 to 21 cents. Virginia coal, 

 from $9 to $15; flour, $14 to $15 ; hay $21 to 

 24 ; molasses, 48 to 54 cents ; peas, $2,50 to $3 ; 

 rice, 7 cents ; rye, $1,75 to $3 ; sugar, loaf, 23 

 to 25 cents ; brown, 11 to 15 cents ; teas, hyson, 

 $1,70, hyson skin, $1, souchong, 68 to 75 cents. 

 — Portsmouth Journal. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 



"A merciful man is merciful to his beast." 

 Tried l)y this test, the number of those who can 

 appropriate the promise made to the "merciful" 

 must be few indeed. 



Touching this matter, there is a lamentable de- 

 fect in our education. Children are not taught, 

 as they should be, that brutes have nerves and are 

 subject to pain, for aught we know, as acute as 

 human beings ; and that to needlessly inflict 

 pain even upon a worm, is inhuman, not to say 

 sinful. 



Inhumanity to man everybody condemns. And 

 who does not know, that the boy who can re- 

 morselessly rob a bird of her eggs, and destroy 

 her nest, has taken the first step in his education 

 towards heartless tyranny ? 



week. 



Like begets like. Be gentle to the ox, treat 

 him kindly, and he will be gentle in turn, and 

 will draw all he can, and bear with patience all 

 good burdens. A good teamster, with no whip 

 but a corn stalk or an oat straw, and without 

 noise, will make his team do all lie desires, and 

 that with alacrity. 



The ivhip-stQT on the other hand, making so 

 many and such unearthly noises, that in the 

 days of our grandfathers, his approach would be 

 mistaken for an incursion of savages, and pound- 

 ing and punching and pricking all the spirit, 

 animation, courage and strength out of his team, 

 getting "stalded," as they say in Virginia, at 

 every tight place, accomplishes nothing but the 

 ruin of his team and-his own disposition. 



If I shall have induced one individual to adopt 

 a more humane and more rational course in the 

 management of working oxen, I shall not have 

 written in vain. r. b. h. 



LECTURE ON AN IMPROVED FIRE 



SYSTEM. 



Reported for the New England Farmer, 

 BY WILLIAM W. HILL. 



In lieu of the usual discussion on agricultural 



matters, the attendants upon the Legislative Ag- 

 ricultural Meetings were on Tuesday evening last, 

 Workirif/ Oxen. — There arc various modes in treated to a well-written and interesting lecture 



which this tcndendy to ignore the feelings of 

 brutes manifests itself. The patient ox who tills 

 our ground and bears our burdens, laboring when 

 and where the interest or caprice of his owner 

 may dictate, till, by reason of age, he is worth 

 more for the butcher than for the team, deserves 

 while he lives, to be well-fed and kindly treat- 

 ed. _ How seldom, alas, is this his fate ! We oc- 

 casionally see a man driving oxen, who seems 

 to be conscious that they can feci. But oftener 

 far, the teamster seems to regard skill in the use 

 of his implements of torture, as the perfection of 

 his art. Consequently he is incessantly belabor- 

 ing the faithful, submissive beast with liis cudg 

 el, whip, or goad, whenever he thinks his blows 

 will occiision the most pain. 



In some parts of New England, especially in 

 Maine, teamsters use what they call "goads." 

 This consists of a rod with a spike in one end 

 about half an inch in length. With this they 

 perforate the skins of the poor animals, as often 

 as they need exercise or recreation. 



The savage who fills the flesh of his victim 

 with barbed arrows and lighted pitch pine splin- 

 ters, may plead his belief that thereby he shall 

 propitiate the Great Spirit. For this wanton 

 cruelty of the teamster, no apology can be found 

 in Pagan, much less in Christian ethics. 



Then the idea of whipping an ox to make him 

 draw, soems to meunphilosophical. As with chil- 

 dren, it may sometimes be necessary to inflict 

 bodily pain in order to bring the will into subjec- 

 tion. But this whipping an ox by way of prep- 

 aration to draw, reminds me of the provident 

 father who, being much from liome, was wont to 

 call his boys together Monday morning, and ad- 



upon an improved system of protection from fires, 

 by Joseph Bird, Esq., of Watertown. 



The lecturer opened with an eloquent portrayal 

 of the characteristics of fire as witnessed in the 

 destruction of human dwellings, and often of hu- 

 man life, and remarked that no subject was more 

 important to the community, either socially or 

 financially. In support of the financial view of 

 the matter, he read an extract from &7//;»rtn's 

 Journal, in which it was stated that great fires 

 had invariably preceded the periods of great com- 

 mercial distress in this country, and the theory 

 was broached that they exerted a vast, if not a 

 controlling influence upon the financial condition 

 of the community. In proof of this the great fire 

 in New York in 1836, and the numerous fires 

 which occurred in the United States the last year, 

 were cited. It was estimated that the annual loss 

 from fire is $18,000,000, but the speaker believed 

 that the losses were nearer $25,000,000. 



He then proceeded to discuss two points — first, 

 is our present system for the prevention of fires, 

 efiicient? And second, can it be made efficient 

 without too great an expenditure of money ? To 

 the first proposition he replied no. In the coun- 

 try, the engine is often a mile or two from the 

 burning Imilding, and time is required before the 

 firemen can assemble to take the engine to the 

 fire, and after they get there no reservoir of wa- 

 ter is at hand for their vse. Their efforts are 



