114 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



treme, is attended with undesirable results : 

 excessive study tending to enfeeble the body ; 

 all work, to deaden the sensibilities and blunt 

 the intellect, and too much play leads to bad 

 habits and an idle and useless life. The farm 

 presents peculiar advantages for the successful 

 blending of labor with daily study. If the 

 studies are practical and relate to their occu- 

 pation, they awaken an enthusiasm for their 

 work. Boys who are so directed as to per- 

 ceive the direct or remote application of their 

 studies begin to learn the value of knowledge, 

 and education appears worth striving for ; 

 consequently they turn from work to books 

 with greater zeal. A judicious union of work 

 with study reveals the brighter and higher 

 aspect of farming, and will make more inter- 

 ested and skilful workmen. Will it not make 

 boys more contented and happy, and less 

 inclined to quit at the first opportunity their 

 ancestral homes and their father's occupation ? 



Farmers who can thus educate their boys 

 and keep them at home during their minority, 

 at least, will Indeed find in them valuable as- 

 sistants, — a present comfort and pleasure. 



Lawrence, Mass., Jan. 8, 18C8. N. s. t. 



Rejiai!KS. — The foregoing suggestive arti- 

 cle reminds us of some of our early experi- 

 ence in combining work with study. In the 

 district in which we lived there was one session 

 of school of two months in the winter, and the 

 same In the summer, and, as a general rule, 

 boys attended the latter until ten years of age. 

 During our last summer term our folks were 

 very busy In clearing up a new lot. For a 

 part of this term, we were required to work In 

 the "burning" during most of the forenoon, 

 and to attend school in the afternoon. Of 

 course we left the field "as black as a little 

 negro," washed up, changed clothes, took an 

 early dinner, and trudged off alone to the 

 school house, anxious to arrive in season to 

 enjoy the noon-hour sports of the other boys. 

 Though our father took much interest in the 

 education of his children, and, being an old 

 school master, was ever ready to assist them, 

 as "N. S. T." says parents and employers 

 should do, we were not particularly pleased 

 with the arrangement. If the "other boys" 

 of the neighborhood had been required to do 

 the same, we should probably have been better 

 satisfied with the plan. The problem, how- 

 ever, of combining work and study is one over 

 which even the managers of our agricultural 

 colleges are still puzzling themselves. 



— Geo. Wood, of Brattleboro", Vt., says he has 

 tamed or broken 724 colts in the course of his life. 



AGKICUIiTUBAL ITEMS. 



— An orchard in Genesee Co , N. Y., of six acres, 

 has, during six years, brought in a revenue of 

 over $14,000, or $'2,400 a year. 



— We see it stated that a little kerosene oil 

 rubbed upon cliill)lains has effected a cure. We 

 have received benefit from the application of a 

 little wood ashes lye. 



— The California Farmer says that the agricul- 

 tural products of thit State already exceed those 

 of the mines, and are increasing in value with 

 great rapidity. 



—"God gives no value unto men 

 Unmatctied by meed of labor; 

 And cost to worth has ever been 

 The closest neighbor." 



— The Vermont Agricultural Society is in a 

 prosperous condition. The profits to the treasury 

 in 1867 amuunted to $567.76, which makes the 

 fund now in the treasury $8,661.84. 



— The Lexington, Ky., Farmers' Club are tak- 

 ing active measures to encourage the home man- 

 ufacture of agricultural implements. A move in 

 the right direction. 



— To every bale of cotton lint, weighing 400 lbs., 

 there are produced about 1400 lbs. of seed. So 

 says the new work on Cotton Culture, noticed in 

 another column. 



— A correspondent of the Rural Neio Yorker, 

 gives several instances where cattle and other ani- 

 mals were badly poisoned by eating straw that had 

 been much rusted. 



— The town of Bennes, in Brittany, is noted for 

 its peculiar butter. The milk of the previous 

 evening is mixed with the warm moming's milk, 

 and the mixture allowed to stand for two or three 

 hours, when the whole is churned. 



— The Waukcgan (111.) Gazette says sheep are 

 wintering well the present season ; a marked con- 

 trast with last. This season they went into winter 

 quarters in fine condition ; last season was exactly 

 the opposite. 



—There are said to be from 300,000 to 400,000 

 boxes of cheese in store in New York on pro- 

 ducers' account. The exportation of cheese for 

 the year, up to November 1, has been about 300,000 

 boxts greater than it was last year. 



— A Vermont farmer has in use a machine con- 

 structed from the design of an invalid neighbor, 

 which is managed by a boy and worked by one 

 horse, as a land roller and clod crusher, corn 

 planter, broadcast grass seed sower, and grain 

 drill. 



— The Rural New Yorker strongly opposes the 

 tendency towards specialities in fiirming in this 

 country, saying "the practice of devoting a farm 

 mainly to the growth of a .single product is op- 

 posed to all principles of scientific or common- 

 sense agriculture." The greater exhaustion of 

 the soil, the greater expense in conducting the 



