64 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



in any degree as active as the two blue tit-mice so 

 patiently obsen-ed by Mr. Weir on the 4th of July, 

 1837. Great as the number of returns to the nest 

 seems to be, it certainly does not exceed that of 

 the common window swallow. — White's Popular 

 History of Birds. 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



This is an Illustrated Annual, edited by J. J. 

 Thomas, Esq., one of the Editors of the Country 

 Gentlemnn, Albany, and published at Albany, by 

 Luther Tucker & Son, and for sale by A. "Wil- 

 liams & Co., Boston. It contains an almanac, sug- 

 gestions for laying out and dividing farms, the art 

 of planning farm-houses, with models, the manage- 

 ment and capital of the farm, farm implements, 

 fruit culture, laying out orchards, culture of small 

 fruits and climbing annuals, lawns, rock work, 

 weights and measures, contents of cisterns, prepar- 

 ing soil for gardens, comparative amount of food 

 consumed by different animals, doctoring sick ani- 

 mals, how to propagate plants by cuttings and pre- 

 vent wheat from sprouting, save mice-gnawed trees, 

 together with many valuable facts and suggestions 

 which we have not enumerated. It is a valuable 

 hand-book for the farmer or gardener. Price 25 

 cents. 



THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC. By Robert B. Thomas. 

 (Or his Good Genius !) Published by Hickling, Swan & 

 Brown, Boston. 



We should like to see the person who pretends 

 to know when it is to rain or shine, blow or freeze, 

 without the aid of the Old Farmer's Almanac, by 

 Robert B. Thomas. Why, the very pork in the 

 pot wouldn't boil in some houses unless the Far- 

 mer's Almanac were there ! It tells you almost 

 everything ; it has interest tables, and post office 

 regulations, and railroad matters, and anecdotes, 

 &c. And then there is the poetry over the calen- 

 dar nages, and the pictures, the goats, crabs, cen- 



excellent, and ought to be in the hands of every 

 person owning a horse. What with brutal blows, 

 short, or untimely feeding, exposure when heated, 

 and that miserable taste which tortui'es horses with 

 martingales, check-reins, and other trappings, they 

 are truly a persecuted and suffering race. 



The chapter on "hints to purchasers" may save 

 that class many a hard nip if they study it careful- 

 ly. It contains facts which, if they were to be 

 gained by experience, might be very dearly pur- 

 chased. The horse trade has its glitter and var- 

 nish, as well as any other, and the "Moses" so 

 graphically described in the Vicar of Wakefield, is 

 not the last of that class to be "taken in." It has 

 a good Index. Any one that can afford to keep 

 a horse, can afford to purchase this book. 



VOICES OF THE HEART. 



A little volume of 120 pages. By Fanny Fales ; 

 published in 1853, by B. B. ^Mussey & Co., Boston. 

 Sometime since we found a beautiful waif in one of 

 our exchanges, entitled, "A Dying Wife to her 

 Husband," and published it in the November num- 

 ber of the Farmer. Scon after we received from 

 the author the volume of poems from which it was 

 extracted, and find that the gem received .some 

 damage in the transfer. But it was not our fault — 

 we gave it as we found it. The volume before us 

 contains many poems of merit. While their senti- 

 ment is correct, they have natural poetic language, 

 an easy versification, and evince great tenderness 

 of feeling. 



INFLUENCE OF A NEWSPAPER. 



A school teacher, who has been engaged a long 

 time in his profession, and witnessed the influence 

 of a newspaper on the minds of a family of children, 

 writes to the Ogdensburg Sentinel as follows : 



"I have found it to be the universal fact, without 

 exception, that those scholars of both sexes and of 

 all ages who have had access to newspapers at 

 home, when compared with those who have not, are 



