1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



511 



achs, at least, for a time — as every one knows. And 

 yet, according to Dr. Dunglison, who is pretty high 

 authority, all such mixed or made breads are more 

 or less indigestible. 



But if fermented bread is not so good as that 

 which is unfermented, that which is prepared by 

 effervescing mixtures is still worse, whether their 

 bases are soda, or potash, or ammonia. If these 

 substances were not sometimes adulterated — even 

 with arsenic — they would nevertheless be medi- 

 cines, and who wants medicine in his bread, at least, 

 as long as he is in good health ? 



Auhurndah, Sept., 1857. W. A. Alcott. 



For the New England Farmer. 



KYMU OF THE FARMER. 



BY THE "PEASANT BARD." 



As Sung at the Franklin County Agricultural Pair. 

 When Adam took the fruit 



From gentle Eva's hand, 

 Then honest Labor first took root 



Deep in the virgin land. 



For then was earth accurst 



That man should toil for bread ; 

 But God for good o'erruled the worst, 



And man was blest, instead. 



Blest in the teeming soil 



His labor did retrieve ; 

 Blest in his vigor-giving toil ; 



Blest in beguiling Eve. 



Welcome ! to Labor, then, 

 That crowns with health our lives ; 



Hail, Adam ! first of husbandmen ! 

 Eve, first of farmers' wives ! 



Hail 1 brothers,— first of earth ! 



May "bright succession" raise 

 The orator to sound your worth, 



The bard to hymn your praise I 



And unto God alone. 



Our homage, due, be given. 

 Who deigns, as children, us to own. 



And break ua bread from Heaven. 



OHINESE FAEMIIfQ. 

 We extract the article given below, on the sub- 

 ject of farming in China, from the work of Robert 

 Fortune, Esq., published in London. Mr. Fortune 

 was employed by the East India Conpany to pro- 

 cure tea plants, seeds, etc., for the plantations of 

 the Government in the Himalayas. He was for 

 fourteen years Botanical Collector in the Celestial 

 Empire for the Horticultural Society. 



"The farmers in China, as a class, are highly re- 

 spectable ; but, as their farms are all small, they 

 are probably less wealthy than ours. Each farm- 

 house is a little colony, consisting of some three 

 generations — namely, the grandfather, his children, 

 and his children's children. There they live in 

 peace and harmony together : all who are able work 

 on -the farm, and if more labor is required, the 

 stranger is hired to assist them. They live well, 

 dress plainly, and are industrious, without being in 

 any way oppressed. I doubt if there is a happier 

 race anywhere than the Chinese farmer and peas- 

 ^L>uy. Being well known in this part of the coun- 



try, and having always made it a point to treat the 

 people well, I was welcomed wherever I went. I 

 began to feel quite at home in the farmers' houses. 

 Here the female members of the family have much 

 more liberty than those of a higher rank. They 

 have small feet as usual, but they are not so con- 

 fined to the house, or prevented from looking on 

 and speaking to strangers, as the higher classes are. 

 If a stranger enters the court of the house unex- 

 pectedly, he will see a number of ladies, both old 

 and young, sitting on the verandah, all industrious- 

 ly employed on some work — some spinning, some 

 sewing or embroidering, and one probably engaged 

 in culinary operations ; and if the stranger be an 

 unknown foreigner, the whole will rise hurriedly, 

 and disappear like a covey of partridges, overturn- 

 ing wheels, stools, and anything else that may be in 

 their way. This was a frequent scene in my earli- 

 er visits, but it gradually wore off when it was 

 found I was a civilized being like themselves. 

 These same ladies afterwards would often ask me 

 to sit down, and even set a chair for me, and bring 

 me a cup of tea with their own fair hands ; and 

 while I drank my tea, they would go on with their 

 work, laughing and chatting as freely as if I had 

 been a thousand miles away." 



A market in one of the towns of the interior is 

 described thus : 



"Near the centre of the city, in one of the prin- 

 cipal streets, I found a most excellent market. For 

 fully half a mile this street was literally crowaed 

 with articles of food. Fish, pork, fowls, ducks, veg- 

 etables of many kinds, and the fruits of the season, 

 lined its sides. Mushrooms were abundant, and 

 excellent, as 1 afterwards proved by having some 

 cooked. Frogs seemed much in demand. They 

 are brought to market in tubs and baskets, and the 

 vender employs himself in skinning them as he sits 

 making sales. He is extremely expert at this 

 branch of his business. He takes up the frog in his 

 left hand, and with a knife which he holds in his 

 right chops off the forepart of its head. The skin 

 is then drawn back over the body and down to the 

 feet, which are chopped off and thrown away. The 

 poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless, and 

 without feet, is then thrown into another tub, and 

 the operation is repeated on the rest in the same 

 way. Every now and then the artist lays down his 

 knife, and takes up his scales to weigh these ani- 

 mals for his customers and make his sales. Every- 

 thing in this civilized country, whether it be gold 

 or silver, geese or frogs, is sold by weight. 



"Here tea-leaves — that is, just as they had been 

 plucked from the bushes, and unmanufactured — 

 were also exposed for sale in this market. They 

 were sold at from three farthings to five farthings a 

 pound ; and as it takes about four pounds of raw 

 leaves to make one pound of tea, it follows that the 

 price was at the rate of threepence to fivepence a 

 pound, but to this must be added the expense of 

 manipulation. In this manner the inhabitants of 

 large towns in China, who have no tea farms of 

 their own, can buy the raw leaves in the market, 

 and manufacture the beverage for themselves and 

 in their own way." 



Cf^* Messrs. M. & J. H. Buck, of I^banon, N. H., 

 the other day took a contract for building 2000 of 

 Allen's patent Mowing Machines for next year. 



