1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



121 



be allowed to turn the house upside down or 

 inside out, in the exuberance of their spirits. 



They should be taught by example as well 

 as by precept, to respect the sacredness of 

 home, to treat each other with courtesy and 

 politeness. Habits of personal neatness should 

 be carefully insisted on, and purity of morals 

 and uprightness of conduct seduously culti- 

 vated. But in order to train a child success- 

 fully, one must begin in season. There must 

 be no domestic tyrants of two years old, be 

 they ever so "cunning." The mental garden 

 must be sown in the early spring, else it will 

 soon be full of noxious weeds. Be sure it 

 will not remain long unoccupied. 



The advantage of teaching boys to sew has 

 been well shown in a late number of the Far- 

 mer ; many would find it a pleasant change 

 from out-door pursuits in these long evenings. 

 Before work was banished from our common 

 schools, (a proceeding of which 1 have often 

 doubted the wisdom,) it was not unusual for 

 boys to become quite skilful in this branch of 

 education ; and as such skill never comes amiss, 

 it would be well for mothers and older sisters 

 to take some pains in teaching them. There 

 are also many other household duties, of which 

 it is wrong to allow them to remain ignorant. 



While thus trainmg the boy for the present, 

 the parents should try to ascertain what his 

 future calling is to be. Genius, like murder, 

 "will out." The juvenile JM. D. will prepare 

 bread pills and chalk powders, (let us hope 

 that these will be the extent of his medicinal 

 preparations) ; the lawyer will question and 

 cross-question until he wears your patience 

 out ; the clergyman will harangue his admiring 

 audience from the top of a pile of boards ; 

 the mechanic will devote his spare time to the 

 manufacture of miniature carts and wheel-bar- 

 rows ; the military commander, at the head of 

 his un-uniformed regiment, will 



"Storm some ruined pig-stye for a town," 



and so on to the end of the chapter. These 

 various manifestations will not be overlooked 

 by the wise parent. 



Farmers, do not force or ill-timedly advise 

 your boys to follow your own calling, however 

 much you may wish that they should do so. 

 If they adopt it, let it be their own free choice. 

 It will be useless to tell them that agriculture 

 is one of the noblest pursuits, unless your own 

 life exemplifies the statement, unless, in fact, 

 you believe it yourself. And if you do, hon- 

 estly and earnestly believe it, your example 

 will be the best advice you can give them. 



Marlboro\ Mass., 1868. Mattie. 



Remarks. — While we have some faith in the 

 "manifest destiny" of individuals as well as of 

 nations, we believe that with most of us 

 there are conditions and circumstances, "that 

 shape our ends, rough hew them as we will." 

 The experience of most individuals, proba- 



bly, who have lived long enough to find that 

 there is no use in pulling gray hairs from their 

 heads, corroborates that of St. Paul, who said : 

 "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 

 understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but 

 ivJien 1 became a man, I put away childish 

 things.'^'' According to our recollection of our 

 boyhood dreams our "genius" "did out," — by 

 turns, — in nearly all the various manifestations 

 of which "Mattie" predicates the future call- 

 ings of her several "Olive Plants." Let a cir- 

 cus visit a neighborhood, and all the boys are 

 turning somersaults, or riding the old mare on 

 their heads ; a juggler succeeds, and, presto 

 change, they are drawing ribbons from their 

 mouths, or swallowing jack-knives. 



A FARMEK'S TALK OH" STOCK. 



The farmers of Randolph, Vt., meet weekly. 

 The order of exercises is, first the reading of 

 an Essay ; second, an Oration; third, Discus- 

 sion. At the meeting, Monday evening, Dec. 

 30, the time usually devoted to the essay was 

 occupied by filling the questions in blank from 

 the Agricultural Department at Washington. 

 The subject of the "Oration" by Mr. S. How- 

 ard was Fencing. He estimated the amount 

 of fencing in the town of Randolph at 171,566 

 rods. Rail fence, once the cheapest, was now 

 the dearest. Stone walls was one of the 

 cheapest. Thought old growth of cherry the 

 best wood in that neighboi'hood for posts ; 

 next, butternut. Considered August and 

 September the best time to cut timber for posts 

 or any other use. 



We condense the following report of the dis- 

 cussion on the most profitable stock for that 

 section, and that which will most improve the 

 farm, from the Orange County Eagle : — 



W. W. Walbridge, on opening the discus- 

 sion, remarked that he was in favor of the 

 introduction of all kinds of thoroughbred stock, 

 and commended the enterprise of those gentle- 

 men who had done so in that neighborhood. He 

 referred to the introduction, forty years ago, 

 of a breed of black cattle into the town of Ca- 

 bot, by Judge Dana, which proved fine animals ; 

 Durham cattle had been brought into the same 

 town years ago, and they had produced a ben- 

 eficial effect upon the cattle of that section. 

 The Morgan horse, forty years ago, was a 

 superior animal. He recommended breeding 

 from the stock we have. 



But what kind of stock most enriches our 

 farm, he regarded as an important question. 

 Sheep, he thought, although they scatter their 



