498 



NEW ENGLAND F.\RMER. 



Nov. 



often, when the March wmds are roaring through 

 the leafless trees, or flurries of snow are whitening 

 the ground. But it is where the elements are quiet, 

 and the sun shines brightly into the tangled brush 

 around him, that he utters his sweetest notes, and 

 attracts every ear. 



A :?LOEAL lOVE-LETTER. 



A late English })aper contains a letter purporting 

 to have been written l)y a young gardener to a lady 

 whom he loved, and with whom he wished to wed. 

 Whether exactly such a letter was actually written, 

 and sent Ijy the gardener, we have not the means of 

 knowing, or is it of much consequence. The letter 

 is an ingenious one, by whatever means it came to 

 see the light. It reids thus : 



My Rose, Maky : — As you are the pink of per- 

 fection and the blossom of May, I wish to tell you 

 that ni}- hearVs ease has been torn up by the roots, 

 and the peas of ni}- holm entirely destroyed, since I 

 began to pine after yew. My name is William 

 Budd. At first I was poor, but by shooting in the 

 sjiring, and raising a carnation fast, I obtained a 

 celerj/, and by a little cabbaging, &c., I rose to be 

 master (though something like a creeper) of the 

 whole garden. I have now full command of the 

 stocks and the mint ; I can raise ante-mone from a 

 penn}j-ro}ial to a 'phim, and what my expenditure 

 leaves I ])ut in a box for yew. If I may as a cox- 

 comb speak of myself, I sho\dd say that I am the 

 flower of manhood, that I am neither a standard 

 nor a dwarf, a mushroon nor a Maypole. My nose 

 is of a turnip-reddish kind, and my locks hang in 

 clusters round my ears. I am often in the com- 

 I^any of rakes, and rather fond of vines and shriibs, 

 which my elders reprove me for ; as I had better 

 berry all this, and say that I have a Windsor beau 

 and that I have some London pride, and as I am a 

 branch of a good stock with a portly bearing, I Avell 

 know when and where to make my bough. So 

 lett-\ice act for ourselves, and fix an early day for 

 grafting your fate M'ith mine. I am certain that 

 we should make a very nice pear, and never repent, 

 even when we become sage by thyme. Yew would 

 be the balm of my life, and I would be the balsam 

 of yours, so that the people who would call us green 

 now, M'ould call us evergreen hereafter. And now 

 sweet peas be ^vith yew ; if he who tried it tares me 

 from yew, I shall become a melon cauliflower, and 

 wither away ; my tongue will always be a scarlet 

 runner in your jjraise ; for I have ])lanted my hope 

 in yew, and now I only live for the thyme when I 

 may hear from your own tu-lips, that I am your 

 own sweet William, and not your 



Weeping Will-o." 



Officers of the Vermont State Agricultu- 

 ral Society. 



President — Frederick Holbrook, Rrattleboro'. 



Vice Presidents — E. Hammond, Middlebury ; H., 

 S. Morse, Shelburnc ; Henry Keyes, Newbury ; 

 Solomon W. Jewett, Weybridge. 



Corresponding Secretary — J. A. Beckwith, INIid- 

 dlebury. 



Recording Secretary— Charles Cummings, Brat- 

 tleboro.' 



Treasurer — Edward Seymour, Vergennes. 



Auditor — F. E. Woodbridge, Vergennes. 



BERKSHIRE COUNTY CATTLE SHOW. 



The 4oth Anniversary of the Berkshire Agi-icul- 

 tural Society took place at Pittsfield, on the 3d, 4th 

 and 5th days of October. All the exhibitions, and 

 all the exercises of the whole three days, including 

 the Ball on the evening of the third day, were on 

 the grounds of the Societ}-. It was our dutj', as it 

 was our pleasure, to attend this exhibition as a Del- 

 egate from the State Board of Agriculture, and to 

 record such observations as would be beneficial to 

 agriculturists of other portions of the State, if 

 transmitted through the volume which comprises 

 the annual transactions of the Board. 



The show this year was the first under important 

 changes, and new arrangements of the Society ; they 

 had purchased and enclosed thirty acres of land, 

 erected yards, stables, laid out and graded a fine 

 trotting course, introduced water in abundance, and 

 constructed a building in the form of a T, each part 

 ninety feet in length, and about fifty feet wide. On the 

 roof is a deck with balustrades, aSbrding space for 

 some ten or fifteen hundred persons, from wliich po- 

 sition the trotting, the equestrian performances by 

 the ladies, the foot-races, the plowing, drawing, and 

 all other out-of-door exercises, could be seen. So 

 from this spot was one of the loveliest panoramas 

 ever presented to the eye. Here the Pontoosuc 

 comes ambling along through the narrow valleys, 

 turning wheels and wateruig meadows as it flows, 

 and giving examples of animated industry in its bab- 

 bling course. There flows the Housatonic, enlarged 

 and strengthened by the contributions of the Pon- 

 toosuc, and sAvelling out into the magnitude of a 

 river, gladdening the manufacturer's as well as the 

 farmer's hopes, and fertilizing the waiting intervals, 

 green slopes and shady banks, as it winds along. 

 Yonder are the hills on every side. On the north, 

 old Greylock lifts its hoary head, still venerable and 

 august, but young as when the oldest saw it first, 

 dashing the battling elements from its sides, as the li- 

 on shakes the night-drops from his impervious mane. 

 There are the hills wliich circumscribe and mark 

 out the amphitheatre of which these grounds are the 

 centre — their sides covered with the deep forest, or 

 dotted with rock maples, black birch, or groups of 

 hemlock, perhaps the most beautiful evergreen of 

 our climate, as well as among the most symmetri- 

 cal and elegant of trees. Down the sides of these 

 "Chrystal Hills" pour limpid streams, whore sheep 

 and milch cows slake their thirst, and, checked in 

 their course, with gathered strength they turn the 

 wheels that grind the com, or saw the logs that they 

 have nourished through many jears. And now 

 that autumn frosts have touched with icy fingers the 

 trembling leaves, they gleam in colors of every hue, 

 gold and scarlet, purple and orange, each hieing in 

 brilliancy with the other, and forming a richness of 

 shade and coloriirg never imitated by man, and prob- 

 ably unequalled in any other clime. Nearer, shoot 



