30 



The Woodpecker. 



Vol. XII. 



a^d all, before the sun. While he finds 

 time for the discharge of his political and 

 other public duties, he spends little or none 

 of it by the way-side, in discussing the aflairs 

 of the nation or the gossip of the village. 

 He takes a newspaper to tell him how the 

 government and the world jog on, and an 

 agricultural paper to give him an idea of the 

 improvements to be made in his own occu- 

 pation. 



The buildings and premises of the other 

 exhibit many a symptom of neglect and pre- 

 mature decay. A barn door, perhaps, for 

 loss of hinges, is propped up by rails or 

 stakes. The frame work of a shed is all 

 that remains of what was once a shelter for 

 his stock. Brushwood and trunks of trees 

 lie in fantastic confusion about his doors, 

 whilst the skeletons of departed carts, and 

 wheels, and sleds, and ploughs line the road 

 side for a considerable distance, as you ap- 

 proach his dwelling. Walls and fences are 

 so enveloped in bushes, as to be almost im- 

 perceptible. His barn-yard is washed and 

 drained by a convenient declivity, leading 

 either to the road side or a neighbouring 

 stream. His tillage land is impoverished 

 by repeated croppings and a stinted allow- 

 ance of food. Thistles, johnswort and mul- 

 lein, or some similar specimens of vegeta- 

 tion, hold title to his mowing fields by right 

 of uninterrupted occupation. He rises not 

 before the sun tells him it is day. He is 

 generally behindliand in his work. His 

 crops suffer for want of due care and har- 

 vesting. He carries to market an inferior 

 article, gets an inferior price, and then com- 

 plains to everybody he meets of hard times, 

 and the hard life a farmer has to lead. Of 

 course, he is quite ready to lay the blame 

 upon any shoulders but his own, and the go- 

 vernment, either state or national, has very 

 often to bear no small share of it. 



By a process recently invented, the rays 

 of the sun, striking upon a person's counte- 

 nance, portray, in an" instant of time, an ex- 

 act miniature of his features. The same 

 art has also been applied to give a faithful 

 birdseye view of groups of objects and men. 

 Every attitude, every lineament is struck 

 off", in a twinkling, with all its beauties or 

 blemishes, just as they are in the originals. 

 Suppose the Dasruerreotype were employed 

 to seize the striking points of each farm in 

 this county, and thai the pictures, thus pro- 

 duced, were suspended on these walls for 

 inspection. Would there bctio contrasts 

 exhibited in the panorama? No features 

 which would willingly be erased 1 No whole 

 pictures which would gladly be turned face 

 to the wall ? 



No farmer who has any pretensions to the 



name, when he looks upon the two extremes 

 to which his noble art may be elevated or 

 degraded, would hesitate which to choose 

 for the object of his endeavours. If he elect 

 the good former as the model of his imita- 

 tion, he will need something more than mere 

 wishes and resolutions, — than sudden starts 

 and occasional exertions, to realize in his 

 character the enviable distinction of a skil- 

 ful cultivator of the soil. It is not the work 

 of a day or of a year, but of many years, 

 truly to earn and deserve this title. It is 

 laborious, patient, persevering and intelli- 

 gent working, that is to do it. He must 

 take an honest pride in his profession; never 

 to be ashamed of his hard hands, homespun 

 frock, or toilsome occupation. His motto 

 should be, "Whatever is honest is honour- 

 able," and farm labour is pre-eminently so. 

 His heart and his head, as well as his mus- 

 cles and sinews, must be in his work. He 

 must endeavour not only to make his farm 

 profitable, to gain from it the most he can 

 at the least expense, but to keep it in a con- 

 stantly progressive state of improvement. 

 He will have his attention awake at all 

 times, to the means of effecting this. He 

 will not lay out for cultivation more ground 

 than he can manure well, cultivate well, and 

 leave in better tilth than he found it. He 

 will remember another axiom of the good 

 farmer, "that whatever is worth doing at 

 all, is worth doing well." He will ever 

 bear in mind, too, that his own farming, 

 however excellent and successful, may still 

 be made better and more profitable. — Ad- 

 dress of A. W. Dodge, Esq., before Barn.' 

 stable Agricultural Society. 



The Woodpecker. 



In more than fifty orchards which I have 

 myself carefully examined, those trees which 

 were marked by the woodpecker — for some 

 trees they never touch, perhaps because not 

 penetrated by insects — were uniformly the 

 most thriving, and seemingly the most pro- 

 ductive; many of these were upwards of 

 sixty years old, their trunks completely co- 

 vered with holes, while the branches were 

 broad, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of 

 decayed trees, more than three-fourths were 

 untouched by the woodpecker. Several in- 

 telligent farmers with whom I have con- 

 versed, candidly acknowledge the truth of 

 these observations, and with justice look 

 upon these birds as beneficial ; but the most 

 common opinion is, that they bore the trees 

 to suck the sap, and so destroy its vegeta- 

 tion ; though pine and other resinous trees, 

 on the juices of which it is not pretended 

 they feed, are often found equally perforated. 



