206 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



well feel ashamed of it. We cannot, of course, 

 say that such was not the case. We have, however, 

 every confidence in Dr. Pugh's honesty of purpose 

 and in his ability to determine accurately the 

 composition and value of the several manures 

 examined. 



A MODEL NEW ENGLAND TOWN. 



The New England Farmer says that the town 

 of Dunbarton, Merrimack county, N. II., during 

 the French, Indian and Revolutionary Wars, out 

 of a population not exceeding 500 souls, sent 104 

 soldiers into the field ! It has now a population 

 of about ten or twelve hundred souls, who have 

 real estate to the amount of a quarter of a million 

 of dollars, and have a million at interest! Their 

 taxes are about forty cents on a hundred dollars. — 

 They also own a fine town farm, which, for a long 

 time, had but one inmate, a poor soldier of the 

 war of 1812. The poorest man in town kills a 

 good beef and a hog annually for the use of his 

 family, and keeps one or two good cows ! There 

 is not a lawyer or doctor or sheriff in the town. — 

 They have never dismissed a minister from the 

 pr.lpit, and the people have not had a case on the 

 docket of their County Court for more than ten 

 years! It is said that no widow of this town ever 

 had her " thirds " set off, and that wills are almost 

 always settled by the parties interested. There 

 are eleven schools in the town, usually taught by 

 young women, and it has always been the practice 

 to send the boys to college, who are "quick to 

 learn." 



The soil of this little republic is high, moist and 

 warm, not frosty, and during extreme cold weather, 

 fue thermometer does not fall so low, by ten de- 

 grees, as in some other towns within ten miles of 

 it. The people are nearly all farmers, and are 

 remarkably healthy. Some of its citizens have 

 lived to be more than one hundred years of age, 

 many over ninety, and the "most of them have 

 Jived to be from seventy-seven to eighty-five ! " — 

 No liquor is sold in the town, except as a medicine. 

 An agent was appointed at a salary of $40, and the 

 •first year his returns showed sales to the amount of 

 -$10. At a central point stand two splendid liberty 

 poles, throwing the glorious Stars and Stripes to 

 the breeze. It was on this very spot, where the 

 boys rendezvoused and were inspected, and with 

 their fowling pieces marched to join Gen. Stark, at 

 Bennington, during the Revolutionary war. They 

 had no niusie to cheer the parting from the loved 

 ones they were leaving behind, and must have 



gone in silence and sadness, had not an old gentle- 

 man by the name of Roach — honored be his 

 memory — placed him serf in front, and set up such 

 a whistle as electrified the whole party, and put 

 new mettle into their heels as well as their hearts ! 

 Many other virtues and graces abound in this 

 delectable town — this little Utopia, where the 

 millenium is dawning! The men, of course, are 

 excellent husbands, and the women exemplary 

 wives. The daughters are from a healthy race, 

 and are fair to behold, vigorous, and not "bad to 

 take," when they can be caught. The young men 

 — except the scholars — stick to the farms, take, 

 and promptly pay for the newspapers they read, 

 keep posted up in the affairs of the world, and 

 are brave, hardy and intelligent — true descendants 

 of the old stock of '76. 



EEECHES ON FAST HORSES. 



Rev. Henry Ward Beech er sometime since had 

 a ride after Bonner's fast horses, and descants as 



follows : 



" If a horse has had swiftness put into him, it is 

 fair to give him a chance to develop his gifts. Of 

 course, there is a bound. Reason in all things. 

 Even in trotting, it is easier and pleasanter for 

 some horses to go twelve miles an hour than for 

 others to go three. They were made so. Does it 

 hurt a swallow to go swifter than an ox ? Why not? 

 Because he was made so. It is easy to do the 

 thing we were made to do easily. He does it, when 

 wild, of his own accord. He does not lose the 

 relish of speed even when domesticated. 



" Take a fine fed horse, who, in harness, looks 

 as if he were a pattern of moderation, a very 

 deacon of sobriety, and turn liim loose in pasture. 

 Whew, what a change! He takes one or two steps 

 slowly, just to be sure that yon have let go of him, 

 and then with a squeal he lets fly his heels high in 

 the air, till the sun flashes from his polished shoes, 

 and then off he goes faster and Mercer, clear across j 

 the lot till the fence brings him up. And then, 

 his eye flashing, his mane lifted and swelling, his 

 tail up like a king's sceptre, he snorts a defiance to 

 you from afar; and with a series of rearings, run- 

 ning sideways, pawings and plungings, friskings 

 and whirls, he starts again, with immense enjoy- 

 ment, into another round of running. Do you not 

 see that it is more than fun ? It is ecstacy. It is 

 horse-rapture ! " 



"I never see such a spectacle that I am not 

 painfully impressed witli the inhumanity of not 

 letting horses run. Fastness is a virtue. Our 

 mistaken moderation is depriving him of it. I 

 drive fast on principle. I do it for the sake of 

 being at one with nature. To drive alow, only and 

 always, is to treat a horse as if he were an ox. — 

 You may be slow, if you think proper. But your 

 horse should be kept up to nature. He would have 

 but two legs, if it was meant that he should go 

 only at a 'go to meeting'- pace. He has four legs. 

 Of course, he ought to do a great deal with them." 



