1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



303 



of her new-born puppies, which had been re- 

 moved two or three times from her ; and her 

 anxiety was excessive, as she tried to find out if 

 they were all present, or if any were still missing. 

 She kept puzzling and running her eyes over them 

 backwards and forwards, but could not satisfy 

 herself. She evidently had a vague notion of 

 counting, but tiie figure was too large for her 

 brain. Taking the two as they stood, dog and 

 Damara, the comparison reflected no great honor 

 on the man." 



For the New England Farmer. 



TIME FOR THOUGHT IN THE FIELDS. 



Friend Brown : — "A Reader," who criticises 

 the articles in the Montldy Farmer, makes some 

 remarks on the following sentence in Mr. Fay's 

 Essex County address : "He who delves and digs 

 the earth I'rom morning until night, has little 

 time and less inclination for thought." I have 

 been happy to agree with him in most of his re- 

 marks, l)ut do not in this. Cannot a man think 

 while planting, hoeing, and harvesting his crops? 

 Think j-e the only place for deep thought is in 

 the office of the lawyer, doctor, or office of the 

 priest? Who that has one spark of animation 

 left when he goes into his fields, with the free 

 breath of heaven upon his cheeks, and standing 

 upon soil which he calls his own, cannot think, 

 and think deeply, too ! I assure you it is not I. 



"A Reader" says, "the advantages which the 

 farmer enjoys for study and reflection, and his 

 opportunities for profiting by the changes of sea- 

 sons and the successive beauties which the rolling 

 year presents fcr his admiration and improve- 

 ment, are generally dwelt upon by agricultural 

 orators in poetic ecstacies, (where is a better 

 place to make poetry than in the field, on a pleas- 

 ant summer morning ?) that are but poorly real- 

 ized by him who sits down in a warm room to 

 study, after a day spent in the woods, with the 

 thermometer pointing at zero ; or by him who 

 attempts to admire the glories of sunrise, after 

 mowing long enough to be thinking of breakfast, 

 or of his feet ami legs, that are sopping wet with 

 the chill dews of a summer morning." Now I 

 have some experience in this matter, for I carry 

 on my farm of aljout ninety acres, without tlie 

 help of one hand, so much as three months in a 

 year, and have been out teaming this winter with 

 the thermometer pointing thirty degrees below 

 zero, and had ample time for tlio light and consid- 

 eration, and a grand time for study by a good 

 fire when I got liome. As to the glories of sun- 

 rise, no one can beat mo in the admiration of 

 that ; and as to thinking of breakfast up here in 

 Vermont, (except some of the very slack ones,) 

 we are enjoying tlie glories of sunrise so much, 

 even while mowing, that we are hardly ready to 

 go when the summons comes ; we have a way, 

 also, to fix our feet and legs, so that we suffer no 

 more from the oliill dews (if I may call them so,) 

 than if we remained in the house. Wc do not 

 have to delve so l)ut tliat we can look ai-ound 

 upon nature and up to nature's God. If our 

 friend "Reader" had said the farmer has less in- 

 clination to comnuinicate his thoughts, T should 

 probably agree with him. 



Now, friend Brown, will you permit mo to 

 quote from an Essex address, by Hon. E. Everett, 



as in more accordance with my views. "The re- 

 flecting mind, it is true, beholds traces of a higher 

 wisdom and goodness in every step of every Avalk 

 of life ; but the husbandman, who drops a seem- 

 ingly lifeless seed into the cold, damp earth, there 

 in a great part to decay — who sees the vital germ 

 in a few days pierce the clod, rise into the air, 

 drink the sun's rays and the dews of heaven, 

 shoot upwards and expand, array itself in glories 

 beyond the royal vesture of Solomon, extract from 

 the same common earth and a thousand varieties 

 of the green of the leaf — the rainbow hues of the 

 petals — the juicy or the solid substance of the 

 fruit, which is to form the food for man and his 

 dependent animals, — I say the intelligent hus- 

 bandman who beholds this, seems to step behind 

 the veil which conceals the mysteries of creative 

 power, and sit down (if I may so speak,) in the 

 laboratory of Omnipotence." 



Now, Mr. Editoi", I have endeavored to make 

 this as short as possible, and yet I have but just 

 began ; but T will ask one or two questions, and 

 then stop. Cannot a farmer exercise his thoughts 

 on various subjects, even when at work? And 

 if he reads, will he not have inclination to crit- 

 icise, compare, and come to conclusions? I think 

 he will, and in this find rational and rapid im- 

 provement, w. s. 



South Woodstock, Vt., Feb., 1855. 



AMERICAN PLATS GLASS. 



On Thursday, last week, wc experienced the 

 pleasure of seeing the first plate glass manufac- 

 tory, established in our country, in successful 

 operation, at the foot of North-sixth Street, Brook- 

 lyn, (formerly Williamsburg.) In the month of 

 January last, not a brick of it was laid ; and on 

 the day mentioned, we saw six huge plates of 

 glass, nine feet by four, cast with great expedi- 

 tion, and with as complete success as if it were in 

 an old establishment. Some speeches were made, 

 after witnessing the operations, by some of the 

 select party invited ; of these, some were very 

 appropriate and pointed, others were not. Judge 

 Beebee, who was present, paid Mr. Dickson, the 

 manager, a very liigh compliment ; he said he 

 came here from England, with all tlie plans in 

 his brain, and had ordered every thing from be- 

 ginning to end ; and so well had every thing been 

 planned and executed, that not a single brick had 

 to be relaid, and nothing has been wrong done. 



The process of making plate glass consists in 

 melting the silex and flux in large crucil)les, then 

 emptying the molten mass upon a smooth iron 

 bed, with guide Avays or strips of metal at the 

 sides, on which rolls a huge iron roller, which 

 smooths down the molten mass on its bed like a 

 baker rolling out a cake. AVhen it congeals, 

 which it does rapidly, it is shoved on a rolling 

 table into the annealing oven. American white 

 sand, fi)r making glass, took tlie prize in the Lon- 

 don Exhibition, in 1S51, and wo see no reason 

 why we sliould not manufacture as good, if not 

 better plate glass than any other nation. The 

 six large plates were made in about an hour ; 

 every thing was conducted skilfully, and no mis- 

 takes were made ; the utmost satisfaction was 

 given. The ])est wishes were expressed for the 

 success of tlio enterprising American Plate Glass 

 Company. — Sckntijic Anicrlran. 



