1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



245 



shall go to farming. So our old friend Daniel 

 Needham, Esq., of Groton, has t-ipt up his pon- 

 derous law tomes, gone to Quechee, Vt., and 

 planted liimself on a three-hundred-acre-farm on 

 the banks of the "Silver Quechee," where we 

 trust he may vegetate and thrive exceedingly. 



A SKETCH OF FAEM LIFE. 



" There is poetry iw farming." True, 

 But I have read and so have you, 

 That "distance lends unto the view 



Enchantment fair." 

 For instance : digging gold will do 



Till one gets there. 



In summer planting, weeding, hoeing. 



And practising '■^Knick-knack^s^'' at mowing, 



(That science which you boast of knowing 



So very well,) 

 The scorching sun no mean type showing 



Of what's called h — 1. 



In winter tugging with the flail, 

 Or sledding in the cutting gale. 

 Such as would send a gallant sail 



In bare poles seaward. 

 And blows your fore-nag's lusty tail 



Straight out to leeward. 



In place of literary talk 



With compeers in your daily walk. 



It's "Shall you top, or cut the stalk 



Of that ere cropV 

 Or, "Sold yer cattle ? — how'U ye chalk 



To swell or swop ?" 



Not half the prose may well be told 

 Which farmers every day behold 

 In summer hot and winter cold. 



Dull as 'tis real ; 

 Yet we've incentives manyfold 



To the ideal. 



The pictures in the book of June ; 

 The glorious dawn, the balmy noon ; 

 The dewy eve, the rising moon ; 



All these are ours, 

 And all the recompensing boon 



Of birds and flowers. 



When Winter hurls his storms apace. 



Oft piteous is the farmer's case : 



Night comes — the blazing chimney-place 



Stills all complaints ; 

 Thaws out his features, till his face 



Shines like a saint's. 



Tliere while the cheer reeks to the ceiling. 

 He gets most comfortably feeling. 

 Thinking how barn ami battened shielling. 



Secure and warm, 

 His poor dependants safe are shielding 



I'rom the storm. 



There he may read, muse and ponder 

 Upon this life, this world of wonder ; 

 There, judge-lik», he may set asunder 



The truth from error, 

 And see in men of "blood and thunder " 



No cause for terror. 



There he may form just estimate 



Of those the world calls good and great ; 



See fortune, circumstance, and fate 



Create renown, 

 And give a knave a chuir of state. 



An ass a crown. 



Knickerbocker. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MURIATE OF LIME. 



Mr. Editor : — Early in June last, I procured 

 a barrel of Mr. James Gould's muriate of lime, 

 who requested me to make trial of it upon my 

 crops. I tried it upon six rows of corn, in the 

 middle of a field, at the first hoeing, i;utting a 

 small handful to each hill. On one side I had 

 planted six rows of corn, manured in the hill 

 with compost ; on the other side an equal num- 

 ber of rows, manured in the hill with guano. 

 No manure had been used in tlie hill, in the six 

 rows to which I applied the muriate of lime ; 

 but the whole field, previous to planting, had 

 been dressed with a thin coat of compost. As 

 the field was surrounded b}- two or tliree rows of 

 potatoes, of course there were two or tliree hills 

 of potatoes at each end of the rows of corn. 

 These were treated with the same kind of manure 

 as the corn in the rows, of which they were a 

 continuation. 



On harvesting the crop, I found that the corn 

 to which the muriate of lime had been applied, 

 was stout and the crop good, considering the 

 season ; in short, about one-third heavier than 

 that on which the compost or guano was used. 

 The potatoes which had been treated with mu- 

 riate of lime, were nearly twice as large as those 

 which were manured with the compost or the 

 guano, and there was about the same number to 

 the hill. Larkin P. Page. 



Bedford, Mass., 1855. 



WHAT IS RESPECTABLE SOCIETY? 



We heard a man, otherwise intelligent enough, 

 lately sneer at another, "because," said he, "one 

 never meets him in respectable society." The 

 speaker did not mean, however, that the person he 

 affected to look down upon was immoral, but 

 merely that his circle of intimates was not com- 

 posed of the fashionable or the rich. 



This notion of what constitutes respectable so- 

 ciety, is quite a favorite one with that class of 

 individuals, whom Thackeray has so significantly 

 called "snobs." Empty pretence is always making 

 its own characteristics a standard, by which it 

 strives to measure the respectability of persons at 

 large. In a community of mere money-getters, 

 wealth is the test of respectability. Among the 

 proud, narrow-minded, effete nobility of the Fau- 

 bourg St. Germain, respectability dv-pendN on be- 

 ing descended from ancestors, who have married 

 their cousins for so many centuries, tliat neither 

 muscle nor brains are left any longer to the degen- 

 erate descendants. With tlie dandy officers, wlio 

 constitute a considerable portion of the American 

 Navy, respectability consists in having spimged on 

 "Uncle Sam," in wearing gilt buttons, and in 

 bilking tailors. Every conceited fool thinks him- 

 self, in like way, the only man really weighty, tiie 

 only person who is respectable. 



But true respectability depends on no such ad- 

 ventitous circumstances. To be respectable is to 

 be worthy of respect ; and he most descvv(;s re- 

 spect wlio has most virtue. The hunihlcst man, 

 who bravely does his duty, is more worthy of re- 

 spect, is more truly respectable, than the covetous 

 millionaire among his money-bags, or the arrogant 

 monarch on his throne. The fine lady, who back- 



