1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



53 



necessary to observe, in order to be successful in 

 other vocations, are of equal importance to the 

 tiller of the soil. Paj-ing but little attention to 

 the peculiar operations of the farm, the address 

 inculcates the principles of thoroughness, and a 

 perfect mastery of the pursuit of agriculture, par- 

 tially and theoretically. Mr.* Greeley closes his 

 address ■with an eloquent appeal to the "gener- 

 al experience, and the heart of humanity," in fa- 

 vor of*he "calm perennial joys of a humble rural 

 home.'' We commend the address to all, as filled 

 with good thoughts and valuable suggestions, and 

 we are sure that no one will rise from its perusal 

 without feeling in his heart a new and more car- 

 nest longing for the "serene joy which shall irra- 

 diate the farmer's vocation, when a fuller and 

 truer education shall have refined and chastened 

 his animal cravings, and when science shall have 

 endowed him with her treasures, redeeming labor 

 from drudgery, while quadrupling its efficiency, 

 and crowning with ])eauty and plenty our boun- 

 teous, beneficent earth." 



PIGS AND DOGS. 



[Mr. Willis, in one of his recent Idlewild letters, 

 says:] 



In my daily rides, of late, I had thought my 

 neighbors' dogs rather more filibusterous than 

 usual, and I was wondering whether it was owing 

 to the frost-sieve which I was allowing kind Dame 

 Nature to spread protectingly over my upper lip, 

 when a friend gave me the key to their excitabili 

 ty. This is the hog- killing season.; and it appears, 

 that with the scout of blood in the air, the farmers' 

 dogs became annually furious. They bark at all 

 comers, even those witli whom they are well ac- 

 quainted, and in their assaults ujDon th^ passers- 

 by, they quite forget their usual polite distinc- 

 tion between beggars and gentlemen. Pig influ- 

 ence, even after death, is thus hostile to good 

 manners. One cannot "kill his own pork," and 

 have also a well-behaved dog. And I must own 

 that I am pleased with discovering a new reproach 

 to the animal — for it is one of the obstinacies about 

 which I am most reasoned with, by my household 

 advisers, that I cannot consent to keep a pig. 

 "There's an unrighteous amount of swill wasted," 

 aa my man eloquently expresses himself — "twenty 

 dollars a year in good sweet pork that you know 

 all about." But, satisfactory as it may be to eat 

 pork with which one has been previously acquaint- 

 ed in the shapfc of swill, my abliorrence outweighs 

 both the economy and the pleasure. If it were 

 nothing else, the voice of theljrute is doom enough 

 for him. ("Oft in the stilly night," etc.) And 

 as one must rcmeml;er daiiy, every creature of 

 which one is l)ouud, as the master of a home, to be 

 mercifully mindful, I will have a home without a 

 pig — if my own taste and my dog's better manners 

 are arguments tliat continue to prevail. 



B^ Monroe D. Randall, district school teacher of 

 Belchcrtown, has been ordered to pay $10 and costs 

 — amounting to about ^;:jO, for inflicting excessive 

 punishment on a female pupil. He appealed. 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE MONTHLY FARMER FOR DE- 

 CEMBER. 



This number completes the volume and the year. 

 This is as it should be. A periodical should no 

 more end in April or October, than Thanksgiving 

 or Christmas come in dogdays. These long eve- 

 nings, too, are just the tunes for holding family 

 councils on the suljject of taking the Fanner an- 

 other year, for, as Young says, "Night strikes 

 thought home ;" and formers arc obliged to think 

 over their expenses pretty carefully. But until 

 Agricultural Colleges, Lecturers,or something else, 

 shall take the place of agricultural pajiers, we do 

 not see how we are to get along Avithout the Far- 

 mer. But this is wandering from our text. Let 

 us glance at the contents of the number for De- 

 cember. 



A MODEL FARM. 



Although Congresses and Legislatures may neg- 

 lect to establish in our country any thing like the 

 "Model Farms" of Europe, that so take the fancy 

 of some agricultural writers and speakers, still we 

 are not left entirely without models. Scattered all 

 over the land, unpretending as worth, and retiring 

 as modesty, are yet to be found, thank heaven, 

 thousands of model farms and model farmers, of 

 the true American stamp. "How to secure a home 

 and be Independent" j^laces one of these models 

 before us. When young men cease to imitate, and 

 older ones to admire, such examples as the history 

 of Mr. Stow affi^rds, and look to the legislature 

 for their "models," the "decline and fall" of our 

 empire will begin, and very much where that of 

 the Roman did. 



BIRDS. 



No. 7 of Mr. Prowler's series of articles on the 

 "Birds of New England," which treats of the 

 Swallow tribe. 



CALIFORNIA. 



The land of gold promises to become a land of 

 farmers. Messrs. Byrant & Co., on page 573, 

 speak of the agricultural capabilities of the coun- 

 try, while "California Matters" give some of the 

 premiums offered there on agricultural productions; 

 and "Gold against Hay" is a sensible article, — 

 but what's the use of talking ? Though a Califor- 

 nia outfit may cost more than a farm in Iowa, and 

 every ounce of gold dust twice its market value, 

 and the lives of half the minors, yet thousands 

 must and will "see the folly of it for themselves." 

 cows. 



A likeness and statement of the cow that took 

 the first premium at the Middlesex County show. 



FAIRS. 



Brief notice of agricultural fairs in C'heshire 

 County, N. II.; full account of ihe National Horse 

 Exhibition, where the receipts were $10,000 ; of 

 the Augusta, Georgia, Show ; of the Hampshire 

 County Exhibition ; with naia>s of officers of the 

 Rockingham, and of the Hillsborough, N. II. So- 

 cieties for 1854. 



FRfrx. 



If "J. T. W." wlio Aakes inquiries about graft- 

 ing pears on tlic JMoiintain Ash, lias not the 

 monthly Farmer for May, 1 sliould advise him to 

 obtain it, and read an article by Mr. Goodrich, on 

 page 224, and a few lines on page 204, before he 



