328 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



very few learn a trade after they are 20 or 21 

 years old, and in this country very few continue 

 to work at their trade after middle age. Look at 

 the young shoemaker. From 21 to 30 he sticks 

 to the lust and the awl, making an occasional 

 call among the farmer's daughters, and perchance 

 getting a life lease of one oi" them. The heaven 

 born desire of a home which he can call his own 

 is gratified. A little land, a cow, a pig, a garden, 

 claim his attention. Still the shop is not de- 

 serted. Soon a larger piece of land, lying very 

 near him, is for sale. It is added to his little 

 homestead. He has now some plowing, haying 

 and harvesting to do, and when Mr. x\.. is in a 

 great haste for his l)00ts, the weeds in his corn 

 have a holiday. Soon a little more land is bought, 

 a journeyman takes the shop, and at 40 the cen- 

 sus taker finds him in the field gathering his 

 crops, and writes him farmer. If our young shoe- 

 maker had lived in a village instead of on a 

 farm, there would have been a front shop, which 

 would by degrees receive articles from the market 

 as well as from the iac/isAop, and our shoemaker 

 would become a shoe-dealer — a shoe-merchant 

 — a merchant. Thus, with slight variations, we 

 might ti'ace the history of thousands, who com- 

 menced business as mechanics or artizans, labor- 

 ing with their hands, and at middle age become far- 

 mers, manufacturers, merchants, &c. But, on 

 the other hand, who has known the farmer at 45 

 become a shoemaker ? A merchant at 40 become 

 an artizan ? Who has known a minister at 50, 

 leave his desk and enter the work-shop of any 

 mechanic ? No, it is not the way Providence has 

 shaped our destinies. 



The farmer is the long-lived man ; therefore 

 every man desires to be a farmer, and to this end 

 shapes his plans and regulates his conduct. To 

 own a piece of land and cultivate timt land, to 

 see the fruit grow and mature under his direc- 

 tion, is a wish almost co-extensive with the race, 

 where man is free and the end within the limits 

 of human exertion. We would not say that all 

 employments are alike conducive to long life. 

 We do not believe they are. But we do say that 

 the scale based on the average age of those living 

 or dying in any employment, is a most fallacious 

 one, and leads us to most erroneous conclusions. 

 — Culturist df Gazette. 



PLOWING WITH AIT ELEPHAITT. 



P. T. Barnum informs the American Agricul- 

 turist that he has been plowiuf/ loith an elephant 

 for about a week. Ho says : 



He takes the subsoil plow and drives it down 

 IG to 21 inches, in a tight, hard sward, and 

 moves so fast and easily, that it is hard to realize 

 that he has anythinr/ attached to him. He walks 

 nearly twice as fast as a horse, and plows as cor- 

 rectly as the best broken team in the world. His 

 attendant sometimes rides him, and sometimes 

 walks (last) by his side, while another man holds 

 the plow. lie also draws carts, stone-boats, 

 (drags) loads wood, piles timber, picks up stones, 

 and makes himself generally useful about the 

 farm. 



As for the profit of farming with elephants, I 

 have not taken that part into consideration, and 

 probably shall not, though at a "rough guess," 

 I should think, all things considered, horses, 



oxen, or mules, would be quite as economical on 

 a farm as elephants. But of this, I will leave 

 the public to judge for itself, when I inform them 

 that he eats three pecks of oats per day, and 

 about 200 lbs. of hay. The one I use is as do- 

 cile as a cow, yet this is not always the case. 



Three pocks of oats and 200 lbs. of hay per 

 day, would be suflicient for six horses. Will 

 Mr. Barnum be kind enough to give us the live 

 weight of the elephant, and the exact amount of 

 food consumed on an averag-e ? 



HISTORY OF MEDFOED. 



We have examined some of the proof sheets 

 of the "History of Medford," by the Rev. 

 Charles Brooks, now in press, and find that 

 the volume is likely to prove to be both in- 

 structive and entertaining. The author seems 

 to have been most thorough in his researches and 

 his work will be one of great value and interest. 

 We intend from time to time to make a few short 

 extracts from the volume. The following account 

 of the "Baldwin Apple" will be perused with in- 

 terest. — Transcript . 



To Medford belongs the introduction of the 

 celebrated "Baldwin Apple." The first tree, 

 producing this delicious fruit, grew on the side 

 liill, within two rods of the former Woburn line, 

 and about ten rods east of the present road which 

 leads from West Medford to the ancient boundary 

 of Woburn. It was on the farm occupied by 

 Mr. Thompson, forty or fifty rods south of what 

 used to be called the "black horse tavern." At 

 the request of Governor Brooks, the writer made 

 a visit to that tree in 1813 and climbed it. It 

 was very old and partly decayed but bore fruit 

 abundantly. Around its trunk the woodpeckers 

 had drilled as many as five or six circles of holes, 

 not larger than a pea ; and, from tliis most vis- 

 ible peculiarity, the apples were called "Wood- 

 pecker Apples." By degrees their name was 

 shortened to Peckers; and, during my youth, 

 they were seldom called by any other name. 

 How they came by their present appellative is 

 this : Young Baldwin, of Woburn, afterwards a 

 colonel, and father of Loami, was an intimate 

 friend of young Thompson (afterwards Count 

 Rumford;) and, as lovers of science, they asked 

 permission of Professor Winthrop to attend his 

 course of lectures in natural philosophy, at Har- 

 vard College. Twice each week, these two thirsty 

 and ambitious students walked from their homes 

 in Woburn to bring back with them from Cam- 

 bridge the teachings of the learned professor. 

 One day, as they were passing by the "Wood- 

 pecker Tree," they stopped to contemplate the 

 tempting red cheeks on those loaded boughs, and 

 the result of such contemplations was the usual 

 one — they took and tasted. Sudden and great 

 surprise was the consequence. They instantly 

 exclaimed to each other that it was tlie finest 

 apple they ever tasted. Some years after this, 

 Col. Baldwin took several scions to a public nur- 

 sery, and from this circumstance they named the 

 apple after him, which name it has since retained. 

 In the gale of September, 1815, this parent tree 

 fell ; but very few parents have left behind so 

 many flourishing and beloved children. 



