1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



443 



For the New England Farmer. 



A VIEW OF LABOR. 



Mk. Editor : — Manual labor or work is dreaded 

 by some, and despised by others, and very fcM' have 

 a natural love for it. The love of labor is acquired 



admonition is rather to be considered as the pre- 

 scribed means of self-preservation, than as a curse 

 on him for disobedience. Labor and health are so 

 dependent upon each other, that we may as reason- 

 ably consider health a curse as to consider labor a 

 curse. And to wind up : an idle man, whether 



by habit and perseverance, in a great measure. God rich or poor, is an excrescence deriving its nutri- 

 made man dependent upon his own efforts to feed i ment from the industry of the working classes of 



and clothe himself; he has hands, and intellect to 

 direct his hands, and God has shown no ])artiality 

 in the formation of any class of individuals as an 

 exemption from labor, or promised prosperity to 

 spring from habits of idleness. Among savages 

 and other improvident people, starvation, as a ])un- 

 ishment, is the inevitable consequence of their in- 

 dolence and disregard to the foculty of foresiglit. 

 Farmers and mechanics have frequently failed for 

 want of self-respect. Instead of herding together, 

 as the manner of some is, in low drinking houses, 

 to degrade themselves, if they would sjjend their 

 leisure hours in using means to inform, enlarge and 

 elevate their minds, by reading the productions of 

 good, well-informed authors, or meeting together to 

 lecture each otheron the subjects of their respective 

 callings thev vvould soon find that instead of being 



the community, and merits the curse for his lazi- 

 ness and breaking the fourth commandment as 

 much as Adam did for his disobedience. 



Wilmington, 1855. Silas Biiov\'N. 



For the New England Farmer. 



REMEDY FOR CURCULIO-APPLE 

 TREES. 



Mr. Editor : — I noticed in the Farmer of June 

 30, a communication from John P. Wyman, upon 

 the ravages of the'curculio, and have since been 

 looking for some person to point out a remedy. I 

 have for years been unable to obtain plums in con- 

 sequence of that insect. This season, having made 

 an ointment by mixing sulphur with yellow snuff in 



J Jill, .1.1 1 .• 1 1 f ' lard, and applvmg it to the body and hmbs of the 



degraded bv lalior, that dcfrradation had sprung ironi ; , t u r u i ,i *u^-„ ^„«„, *,-,..,„ „„ +^ 



^^, • T » , . . , X^ "... , trees, I have so far checked their operations as to 



another cause. Ignorance and vicious habits will de- i, .> * ,. ^i • ,.• +^ • „ .„„„„•„„ „*• 



, » ,p . 1 lY 1 I- allow the trees at this tune to give promise of an 



preciate a man s self-respect and often lessen his | , i , ^ ^ 



Mr. Wyman appears to despair of good results 



self-esteem. The fiirmer who is supjilying the world 

 with the staff of life, ought to consider his position 

 as high, and his occupation as respectable, as the 

 quack that supplies the world with his nostrums, 

 impregnated with the seeds of death, or the moun- 

 tebank that gets rich by his impositions practised up- 

 on a credulous multitude. 



It is the m«n that makes his calling respect;ible, 

 and not the calling the man, — an infamous charac- 

 ter will disgrace any profession. Labor has a mor- 

 al influence connected with it; there is less dissim- 

 ulation and temptation to dishonesty among far- 

 mers and other laljoring classes, than exists among 

 politicians and the learned professions. The man 

 that labors ought to consider himself a man, and 

 use the means to be a respectable man, and that 

 will elevate his business to respectabihty ; let him 

 quahfy himself to fill his station, be it what it may, 

 by gaining the requisite knowledge required to 

 make him master of his art, whether firmer or me- 

 chanic, then he will have confidence enough in him- 

 self to have a mind of his own, and not feci degrad- 

 ed at seeing the dis])lays of officious coxcombs that 

 make pretensions to superiority. 



After all the arguments and examples to the 

 contrary, a good moral character is an essential in- 

 gredient in tlie formation of a man. A rogue, him- 

 self being judge, esteems an honest man more than 

 one of his own feather. What man whose charac- 

 ter for knavery is esUiblished, can abide long in a 

 place? He is like the troubled sea, and has to live 

 by shifting his ])lace and changing his name, and 

 wants eyes behind to sec who is in jjursnit ; once a 

 rogue, always suspected. No man under the sun, 

 who knows right from wrong, or has any regard 

 for his own good, who will not enjoy himself better, 

 and wear a more comfortal)le conscience by work- 

 ing either by hands or head than spending liis time 

 in idle dissipation. That the impression giined 

 credence, or jirevailed among mankind, tint labor 

 was the curse of God for Adam's disobedience, is 

 preposterous; when he said to Adam, "in the sweat 

 of thy brow thou shalt eat bread," the prediction or 



from his apple trees. I think him premature in his 

 conclusions ; there are, probably, a number of rea- 

 sons why he has not a good crop ; his trees may be 

 making wood too fast to bear fruit. I have some 

 in that condition, and I have noticed the same in 

 other orchards, which have afterwards yielded abun- 

 dantly. Mr. W. speaks of a fine blossom this year ; 

 it was so with many of my young trees which have 

 now less than a dozen apples each, and yet I can- 

 not attribute it to the insects entirely, as trees of 

 the same age, and in the same orchard, are now 

 loaded to excess with the choicest fruit. This result 

 would surprise me, had I not for years been ac- 

 quainted with the character and habits of these dif- 

 ferent kinds of fruit. If Mr. W. would malve an 

 investigation, he would probably find that tlie trees 

 from which his sprung, have been in the habit of 

 producing their main crop in the even years, and 

 that his trees being a part of the original tree, will 

 ultimately develop the characteristics of tlie parent. 



If Mr. W. will take the trouble to call on me, I 

 will show him some trees, burdened with choice 

 fruit, than which none better can be found in the 

 country, which have been in the habit of bearing 

 abundantly in the odd years only, resting ti'om their 

 great exertion through the even years. 



Mr. W. need not despiiir since such fruit may be 

 introduced into his orchard. 



Charles Eastman. 



South Hadley, Jlug. 24, 1855. 



Good Horse Proat-:ni)er. — The best provender 

 that we ever gave to a horse was a mixture of two- 

 thirds oat meal and one-third corn meal. Tlic oat 

 meal had been thought by some physiological chem- 

 ists to contain much muscle, or flesh-forming matter, 

 and the corn meal to contain much fat-t'orming ma- 

 terial, and therefore, when combined together, we 

 get both principles combined. Our experience with 

 this feed corroborates the above theory. 



A writer over the signature of W. W. B., in tlip 



