86 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



heat causes this corn to pop so freely, must, I think, 

 render it peculiarly valuable in the fattening of 

 fowls ; and I hope all our farmers will at least try 

 the experiment of a crop which seldom fails, and 

 which, when it comes into more general use in 

 families, will a!)ate a small per centage, at least, of 

 the tribute which all New England now pays to the 

 Great West for bread-stuffs. A corn- popper costs 

 but about a quarter of a dollar; and when pop corn 

 is raised so freely as to be sold for a dollar or less 

 per bushel, it wi'l be one of the cheapest and healthi- 

 est articles of diet to be found in the whole cata- 

 logue of good things. I trust the time is not far 

 distant when what is new held as a luxury, will be- 

 come a blessing of no ordinary magnitude to the 

 "hard-faring poor" of our land. E. C. P. 



Somerville. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 



ESSEX AGEIOULTURAL TRANSAC- 

 TIONS. 



By the persevering industry of the Secretary of 

 this society we are favored, in due season, with an- 

 other number of its transactions — a volume, it 

 should be called, for it contains 200 pages, neatly 

 printed in readable form, with all desirabl i illustra- 

 tions of tables and index, and with here and 

 there a pleasant song and story, as spices for en- 

 tertainments. 



First came the address of B. P. Poore, of Indian 

 Hill Farm, a document of 28 pages, every one of 

 which 1 read with increasing delight, although I 

 had before heard it with careful attention. I know 

 not how expert the author may be in turning the 

 furrow slice and seeding the field, but he has cer- 

 tainly shown himself to be an adept in antiquarian re- 

 seai'ch, especially of Indian relics, and many an in- 

 quirer will be obliged to him for bringing together 

 so much interesting matter. His reference to those 

 fathers of Essex, Pickering, and others, who did so 

 much to advance the interests of this society, and 

 of the community in which they live, is certainly 

 great. "Old fogies" as they may have been, one 

 of them was worth a dozen sprouts of modern 

 growth. 



In addition to the reports of the year, some of 

 which are prepared with much labor, and marked 

 ability, the volume contains several papers of ster- 

 ling value. Although I have spoken favorably of 

 those reports which have been pre])ared with care, 

 there are others of which I feel constrained to 

 speak in a different strain. Of what use is it, year 

 after year, to accumulate a catalogue of premium^s 

 awarded without giving any reason for the awards 

 made ? Whenever a committee makes an award, 

 they should tell in plain English their reasons for 

 so doing. If one bull is sujierior to another, they 

 should say in what points he is superior ; and if 

 one cow or heifer is preferred to another, they 

 should tell why they are preferred. If they are 

 not capable of doing this, they are not fit for the 

 trust re])osed in them. But the same skill and dis- 

 crimination that will enable them to select the best 

 animal when they want to purchase, will qualify 

 them to judge of them when presented at the 

 shows. Within the last thirty years, the State has 

 given to each of its agricultural societies nearly 

 §20,000, and it has the right to demand of them 



see that they are forwarded. I believe Essex has 

 done her duty as well as any other county, though 

 there is much left undone that ought to have been 

 done. Essex. 



THE VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 



The Philadelphia Ledger of the 29th ult. con- 

 tains an exceedingly able article on the above sub- 

 ject. The following extracts from it will give our 

 readers much pleasure : — 



"To many, the scientific men of a nation seem 

 but drones, without practical utility, trying all sorts 

 of impractical)le exjieriments in their laboratories, 

 mixing acids and alkalies, and talking learnedly on 

 subjects far removed from practical life, but doing 

 nothing for mankind. Solomon tells us too of a 

 poor wise man who delivered a city, yet no man re- 

 membered him. 



If there is one sign of these times more hopeful 

 than another, it is that scientific men are, as a class, 

 more honored than at any former period of the 

 world's history. James Watt, who discovered the 

 steam engine, has enabled England, with a popula- 

 tion of twenty-five millions, to do work that as ma- 

 ny hundred millions of men could not have done 

 without. It is thus that seience has created the 

 fabulous wealth of that monarchy. She is doing 

 the same at this moment for our own country. 

 Who can tell the value to this nation of the life of 

 such a man ? Fulton, with his steamboats, or even 

 above him, our own glorious old Franklin, who 

 wrested the lightning from heaven, and the sword 

 from the hands of tyrants ? Doubtless many a man, 

 who boasted of his own great practical business 

 powers, smiled, if in passing he marked him, with 

 kite and key demonstrating, in this, our own city, 

 the identity of lightning and electricity, and laying 

 the foundation thus for those electrical telegraphs 

 now ready to convey tidings from continent to con- 

 tinent round the globe in an instant. Who can cal- 

 culate the value of such a man as Prof. Morse to 

 the country and to the world ? 



The scientific man, then, is of value to the com- 

 munity just in proportion to the amount of labor 

 he saves to other men while jn'oducing similar re- 

 sults. Leibig has increased the production of all 

 the farms in England, by applying the principles of 

 analytic chemistry to soils, manures, and agricultu- 

 ral results generall)- — he has been worth millions 

 of bushels of wheat already to Europe. The scien- 

 tific medical men of that country have lengthened 

 the average of life several years. The same is true 

 of mental science. He who has a better knowledge 

 of those laws which enable a man at once to distin- 

 guish truth from error, can w'rite a book which will 

 save thousands from some popular mistake, or from 

 years of laborious thought, enabling men to form 

 just conclusions without delay. His empire is over 

 the mind of man. 



Nor is science less valuable even in matters of re- 

 ligion. Moral science is but a branch of this. M. 

 Guizot, in Paris, is at this moment urging the es- 

 tablishment of scientific theology in that city. Natu- 

 ral religion is, of all sciences, the most delightful, 

 the most practical, and the most useful. It corrects 

 a thousand political blunders, and is, in effect, the 

 basis of all true legislation." — Scientific Jimerican. 



A r>^r^ TT^-DTT Tf Voo linon coi'rl tTint "tn hrenh 



