1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



375 



your trial. It gives one more heart. It serves 

 to keep one about his business. Otherwise you 

 are apt to fall off into an unprofitable reverie ; 

 you wake up and find yourself standing in a 

 dream, half-seeing, lialf-imagining, under some 

 covert of over-arching branches, where the stream 

 flows black and broad among the rocks, with 

 moss-green above the water and dark below it. 



But let us begin. Standing in the middle of 

 the stream, your short rod in your hand, let out 

 twelve to twenty feet of line, varying its length 

 according to the nature of the stream, and, as 

 far as it can be done, keeping its position and 

 general conduct under anxious scrutiny. Just 

 here the water is mid-leg deep. Experimenting 

 at each forward reach for a firm foothold, slip- 

 ping, stumbling over some uncouth stone, sliding 

 on the moss of another, reeling and staggering, 

 you will have a fine opportunity of testing the 

 old philosophical dictum that you can think of 

 but one thing at a time. You must think of half 

 a dozen ; of your feet, or you will be sprawling 

 in the brook ; of your eyes and face, or the 

 l)ranches will sci-atch them ; of your line, or it 

 will tangle at every step ; of your far-distant 

 hook and dimly-seen bait, or you will lose the 

 end of all your fishing. At first it is a puzzling 

 business. A little practice sets things all right. 



Do you see that reach of shallow water gath- 

 ered to a head by a cross-bar of sunken rocks? 

 The water splits in going over upon a slab of 

 rock below, and forms an eddy to the right and 

 one to the left. Let us try a grasshopper there. 

 Casting it in above and guiding it by a motion of 

 your rod, over it goes and whirls out of the 

 myriad l)ubbles into the edge of the eddy, when, 

 quick as a wink, the water breaks open, a tail 

 flashes in the air and disappejirs, but re-appears 

 to the instant backward motion of your hand, 

 and the victim comes sklittering up the stream, 

 whirling over and over, till your hand grasps 

 him, extricates the hook and slips him into the 

 basket. Poor fellow ! you wajit to be sorry for 

 him, but every time you try you are glad instead. 

 Standing still, you bait and try the other side of 

 the stream, where the water, wiping off the 

 bubbles from its face, is taken toward that deep 

 spot under a side rock. There, you've got him ! 

 Still tempting these two shores, you take five in 

 all, and then the tribes below grow cautious. 

 Letting your line run before you, you wade 

 along, holding on by one branch and another, 

 fumbling with yo^ir feet along the jagged chan 

 nel, changing hands to a bough on the left side, 

 leaning on this rock, stepping over that stranded 

 log. Kipping a generous hole in your skirt as 

 you leave it, you come to the edge of the petty 

 fall. You step down, thinking only how to keep 

 your balance, and not at all of the probable depth 

 of the water, till you splash and plunge down 

 into a basin waist deep. The first sensations of 

 a man up to his vest pockets in water are pe- 

 culiarly foolish, and his first laugh rather faint. 

 He is afterward a little ashamed of the alacrity 

 with which he scrambles for the bank. A step 

 or two brings liini to a sand bank. But w^iilc 

 you are in a scrape at one end of your line, a 

 trout has got into a worse one at the other. A 

 little flurried with surprise at both experiences, 

 you come near losing liim in the injudicious haste 

 with which you overhaul him. — Bcccher's "&«/■ 

 Papers." 



For the Ifeu- England Farmer. 



ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. 



Mr. Editor : — I have been a reader of your 

 paper some three or four years, and, of all the 

 agricultural publications with which I am ac- 

 quainted, I give it the preference. Its columns 

 are filled with matter interesting to every farmer. 

 Through it we learn the results of experiments, 

 and practices of farmers in various parts of the 

 State, country and world. 



We have a seminary of learning in our town, 

 that manufactures school-teachers by the dozen, 

 but where are our agricultural writers ? We 

 have farmers among us who are growing rich by 

 raising hay, milk and cabbages, and others grow- 

 ing poor by raising weeds, lice and caterpillars. 

 Will not both classes give some of their experi- 

 ence? We have no farmers' club, but political 

 clubs are well atteaded. Our farmers annually 

 buy several hundreds of bushels of corn, yet some 

 raise corn to sell. 



If a person, in passing through our town by 

 railroad, were looking for the beautiful in nat- 

 ural scenery, and highly cultivated farms, he 

 would soon wish to take up a morning paper and 

 have the car-wheels "fly swifter round ;" and if 

 he should have occasion to alight at the stopping 

 places on the road, at one he will find himself on 

 the skirts of a barren plain, with here and there 

 a few poor old cows, vainly trying to satisfy the 

 cravings of hunger by clipping its scanty growth 

 of grass ; at another, the cars will leave him 

 upon the edge of a swamp, with not an acre of 

 cultivated land, or scarcely a human habitation 

 in sight'; but his ears may be saluted with the 

 hooting of owls and the melody of bull-frogs. 

 Yet there are pleasant locations, fertile farms, 

 handsome residences and beautiful orchards, away 

 over the tree-tops in the distance. r. 



Seekonk, Mass., March, 1855. 



For the New England Farmer. 



INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE 

 EARTH. 



Mr. Editor : — In the article selected from the 

 Scientific American, in your last on this subject, 

 the author did not, as I could discover, under- 

 take to account at all, according to his theory, 

 for the phenomena of volcanoes, hot springs, &c., 

 taking into especial regard such as the geysers 

 of Iceland, and water volcano in Central Amer- 

 ica. 1 may add here that the discussion of this 

 subject receives additional interest at this time, 

 from the fact that Vesuvius, that once over- 

 whelmed two "cities of the plain," and in the 

 admiration of the terrific scenes attending one of 

 its most remarkable eruptions, so graphically 

 described by Pliny the younger, the elder lost 

 his life, is now again, for the fiftieth time since 

 the Christian era, belching forth its floods of 

 molten elements and deluging the country with 

 desolation. R. n. n. 



Cabi!.\ges. — The value of cabbages for breed- 

 ing, especially dairy stock, is probalily greater 

 than i^ usually supposed. The field cultivation 

 of this plant is much on the increase among the 

 fiirmers of CJreat Britain. The»mountof nutri- 

 ment matter which i/s ottpable of being raised 



