60 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



in the highest degree attractive to thinking, enter- 

 prising YOung men. Pleasant situations, orna- 

 mental trees, flowers, avenues, neatness and or- 

 der are all desirable and all contribute much to 

 the pleasant associations connected with the far- 

 mer's home, but these alone, without something 

 that shall occupy and satisfy the mind, will not be 

 sufficiently attractive to keep our young men and 

 youug women in the business of agriculture. Dr. 

 R. was followed by J. B. Farmer, Esq.,whomade 

 eome remarks upon the manner in which the wife 

 and daughter discharge their duties, as an impor- 

 tant circumstance connected with the farmer's 

 happiness. The cleanliness and order of the house 

 and the comforts of the farmer depend essentially 

 upon the wife and daughters, and if they would 

 keep him at home and make home pleasant to him, 

 they must attend to those things. 



Other gentlemen not belonging to the club were 

 then invited to tuke part in the discussion. Some 

 interesting remarks were made by Rev. Mr. Frost, 

 especially with reference to bringing mind to bear 

 upon the cultivation of the soil. Where there was 

 the best cultivation there was the most mind en- 

 gaged in it. Where he saw about the premises 

 beautiful flowers, finely cultivated gardens, neat 

 avenues, delicious fruit, he was sure to find culti- 

 vated mind. Rev. Mr. Angier followed in some 

 remarks upon the importance of habits of person- 

 al neatness in the farmer as having much to do 

 with the comfort of home. He should carefully 

 clean his boots, and leave in some back room the 

 frock in which he took care of his cattle and 

 cleaned his horses, and not disgust his wife and 

 daughters by bringing the cow-yard into the sitting 

 room. The wife and daughters should show that 

 they sympathise with the father in his labors, and 

 do what they can to make him comfortable after his 

 day of toil. They should meet him with a pleas- 

 ant smile, and be ready to attend to his wants. 

 Elizabeth should get his slippers, and Susan take 

 away his boots, and all should be emulous to make 

 him feel that his comfort is an important consider- 

 ation with them. 



The interest of the discussion was kept up 

 till nearly ten o'clock. 



The meetings of the Club have been held week- 

 ly, at the houses of the members, since the latter 

 part of October. At our next meeting the subject 

 of garden fruits is to occupy our attention, 



I will endeavor to keep you informed of passing 

 events in our good old town, especially when any 

 thing occurs which I think of sufficient general 

 importance to merit a ])laco in your paper, 



Yours, truly,, h. 3. 



Watekproof for Leather. — Linseed oil, one 

 pint; yellow wax and white turpentine, each two 

 ounces ; Burgundy pitch, one ounce. Mix and col- 

 or with lamp black. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MONTHLY FAEMER FOR JANUARY. 



As almost every body takes some sort of reckon- 

 ing of progress and prospects, on the commonce- 

 ment of a new year, it may be well for us to ask, 

 here, how stands the cause of agricultural im- 

 provement ■? We are prompted to do so especial- 

 ly by the fact that the number of the Farmer be- 

 fore us, which commences the new year, and the 

 number which closed the old year, point out sev- 

 eral signs of the times, which, by one and another, 

 seem to be regarded as unfavorable to any very 

 speedy advance. Of these, however, we s'nall be 

 able to notice only one — the fact that agriculture 

 does not offer as higli a premium for talent as do 

 other professions. 



I shall not attempt to controvert this fact ; in- 

 deed, I must go furthtx, and admit that I cannot 

 do it. None but a dreamer will ask for proof of 

 the assertion that individual New England far- 

 mers cannot afford to pay those in their employ- 

 ment the $1800 a year that city school-masters 

 command, or the $3 to $7 per day tliat factory, l)ank 

 and railroad corporations, ship owners and exten- 

 sive merchants, pay their competent superinten- 

 dents. In this state of things, suppose a dozen or 

 two of young men were to graduate yeiirly from 

 an agricultural college in each State of the Union, 

 masters of one-half the sciences proposed to be 

 taught in them, — would they not say, "Unless 

 farmers will pay as high a premium for talent as 

 other people w^iil , we shall seek oilr reward in 

 other pursuits?" And would they not as surely 

 and justly do so, as the farmer will sell his pro- 

 duce to the highest bidder ? For ought I can see, 

 then, looking m this direction, our " day of dark- 

 ness" tends only to a darker, di'earier night. The 

 wheels of our car of progress are blocked, if not 

 reversed. And a "Happy New Year" can mean no 

 more, agriculturally, than "may yopfls- shadow 

 never be less," — seeing it can riever^ibe larger. 



Now I prefer a more hopefuly#J?i!; of the subject. 

 What though institution, iftnd systoms^^vf educa- 

 tion which answer well in old countries', where the 

 population is dense, where one man owns land 

 enough for a county, and has tenants enough to 

 people whole villages, should fail here, where 

 population is sparse, where each individual is as 

 good as a lord, and where every man — 

 " that by the Plow would thrive, 



Himself must either hold or drive," 

 or do both , any way ho can fix it ? 



In the history of the colonization of our coun- 

 try, we find that the codes of laws which were 

 drawn up in the closets of English statesmen and 

 philosophers, often proved utterly impracticable in 

 the wilderness here, and were superseded by suck 

 simple regulations as neighbors chose to adopt. 

 Bancroft intimates (vol. ii., p. 145) that Locke's 

 elaborate constitution for Carolina failed because 

 " ho believed it possible to construct the future 

 according to the forms of the past." 



In the revolutionary struggle also wo find that 

 "the wisdom of this world" was confounded. 

 Duane (Military library, Art. Origin of Rifle 

 Corjis) says, that the means and mode of defence 

 which the Americans adopted in the early contests 

 not only in8|)irited the British army during the 

 remainder ofthe war with dread and apprehension, 

 but actually effected an important change in 



