190 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



year favor the development of the disease and 

 another prevent it. — E. M. Walker, M. I)., 

 Oonzales County, lexas, in Rural World. 



From the Cornhill Magazine. 

 SPRING. 



Here, where the tall plantation firs 



Slope to the river, down the hill, 

 8trangL> impulses, like vernal stirs, 



Have made me wander at their will. 



I see, with half attentive eyes, 



The bufls and flowers that mark the Spring, 

 And Nature's mj riad prophecies 



Of what the summer's suns will bring. 



For every sens" I find delight — 

 The new- wed cushat's mumurous tones, 



Young blossoms bursting into light, 

 And the rich odor of tlie cones. 



The larch, with tassels purple pink, 

 Whiispers like distant, falling brooks; 



And su i-fargotten dewdrops wink 

 Amid the grass in fehady nooks. 



The breeze, that hangs round every bngh. 

 Steals sweetnves from the tender shoots, 



With here and there a perfumed gush 

 From violets among the roots. 



Bee, where, behind the ivied rock, 



Grow drifts of white anemones; 

 As if the Spring, in Winter's mock. 



Were mimicking his snows with theBe< 



The single bloom yon furzes bear 

 Gleams like the liery planet Mars; 



The creamy primroses appear 

 In galaxies of vernal stars. 



And, grouped in Pleiad clusters round, 

 Lent-lilies blow — some six or seven; 



With blossom-constellations crowned. 

 This quiet nook resembles heaven. 



THE LABOR QUESTION. 

 What a Hired Man Says. — A man in 

 Herkimer County, N. Y,, writes as follows to 

 the New York Farmers' Club : — 



I work by the month in the summer, and by 

 the day in winter, and make the most this 

 way. I find that the less I know and the less 

 I do on my own responsibility the better satis- 

 faction I give. I have tried always to suit, 

 but I find you do not want your hired men to 

 know any more than your horses, though we 

 are expected to behave better sometimes. 

 There seems to be a sort of pride growing up 

 among you to have a young man start in the 

 morning and have no idea what he is going to 

 do till he gets on the spot. The first season I 

 got $32 a month, while a big Irishman got 

 $35, though he could not run any kind of ma- 

 chine, or drive a team decently, but he had an 

 abundance of muscle, and that was all that was 

 wanted. If you want intelligent help you 

 must pay for it. Again, you all complain 

 that your hands do not take any interest in 

 your work. This is true, but how can it be 

 otherwise when you want to get as much work 

 out of us as possible .-' For instance, a certain 

 farmer, nearly through haying, told his men 

 that they must rush throui^h before night. All 



wont to work with a will, each exerted himself 

 to the utmost, and when the last forkful went 

 over the beam, a cheer from the men pro- 

 claimed that haying was done at four o'clock 

 Saturday afternoon. When the cheer was 

 hushed the voice of the employer was heard 

 telling the men to take the teams and haul out 

 manure. There was not much interest in the 

 work after that. Now, if you want jour men 

 to have an interest in things, treat them as 

 men, and while at work as companions ; let 

 them know why a thing is done so and so, and 

 many a blunder which you think arises from 

 stupidity will be avoided. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 



Stock Breeders' Association. — The Associa- 

 tion of Breeders of Thoiough-bred Neat Stock iield 

 its annual meeting at Springfield, Mass., on the 

 12th inst., and elected the following officers : — 

 President — E. H. Hyde, of SlafTord, Ct. Vice 

 Presidents — J. F. Anderson of South Windham, 

 Me., J. O. Sheldon of Geneva, N. Y., Biirdett 

 Loomis of Suffleld, Ct., J. W. Freeman of Troy, 

 N. Y., and E. D. Pierce of East Providence, R. I. 

 Secretary— J. N. Bagg of West Springfield. Treas- 

 urer — H. M. Sessions of South Wilbiaham. 



Ayrshire and Hereford Com. — George B. Loring 

 of Salem, H. S. Collins of CoUinsville, Ct., and 

 William IBirnie of Springfield. 



Devon Com. — H. M. Sessions of South Wilbra- 

 ham, B. H. Andrews of Waterbury, Ct., and E. H. 

 Hyde of Stalford, Ct. 



Alderney Com.— Jno. Brooks of Princeton, O. B. 

 Hadvvin of Worcester, and James Thompson of 

 Nantucket. 



After the meeting, the Devon, Ayrshire and Al- 

 derney Committees had a session over their re- 

 spective herd books, — now nearly completed and 

 soon to be published,— and cleared up some of the 

 knotty points in pedigrees. 



Maine State Agricultural Society. — Presi- 

 dent— Seth Scammon, Scarboro'. Secretary— S. L. 

 Boardinan, Augusta. Treasurer — Wm. S. Badger, 

 Augusta. Truscees— Geo. W. Ricker, Seward Dill. 



Woodstock, Conn., Agricultural Society.— 

 President— Oliver H. Perry. Vice President — 

 Wm. I. Bartholomew. Recording Secretary — 

 John Dimon. Treasurer— Samuel M. Fenncr. 



DECAY OP MAPLE TREES. 

 A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer as- 

 sumes that maple trees in that State are more 

 rapidly failing than other forest trees, and 

 says that since tapping with a bit has been 

 practiced, maple trees have died faster than 

 ever before. Is this tree of the maple or- 

 chards of New England P This writer says : — 



When an incision is made into the sap-wood 

 only, it will heal up, but when made deeper, 

 it never will, and all the adjacent parts will 

 die, and often decay. Now, in proof of this, 

 let any farmer examine two maples that have 

 been tapped for a dozen or more years — one 

 with the bit and the other with an axe or 

 gouge — the cuts by the latter not made beyond 

 the sap-flowing wood. The inner wood of the 

 formei and luuth of the surface will be found 



