1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



185 



tablished on the plains of Concord, where the 

 first germs of freedom were moistened with blood, 

 under the supervision of the intelligent observers 

 there situated, it is to be hoped more light will 

 dawn on this and other subjects. 

 Feb. 28, 1854. 



For the New England Farmer. 



COUNTRY FARMERS AND CITY ME- 

 CHANICS. 



Mr. Editor: — I am one of that great multitude 

 of farmers' boys, who, early imbibing the notion 

 that farming is less profitable than most other 

 kinds of Ijusiness, learn a trade, and finally find 

 themselves city mechanics. A grand good position 

 to look back from, and which I have long wished 

 some one of our class, more competent than my- 

 self, would improve for the benefit of our succes- 

 sors ; for it seems that farmers' boys, and girls 

 too, are still looking to the shops and stores of the 

 city, as a refuge from the poverty of the fiirm. 



Oji looking back from this stand-point upon my 

 past ex2:)erience and observation, the first convic- 

 tion which occurs to my mind is, that farming is 

 more, and other business is kss profitable than 

 they seem to be. I have lately received a letter 

 from a brother, who not "taking to a trade" now 

 owns a small farm. Alluding to my old notions 

 of the unprofitableness of forming, and to the 

 high prices I now pay in the city for all kinds of 

 provisions, he says, in the familiar style of family 

 correspondence : 



"On looking at the amount and variety of arti- 

 cles consumed and worn out by farmers ; tlie in- 

 terest most of us pay when wo first begin in the 

 world ; our carriages and harnesses ; our clothing, 

 food, &c., for ourselves and little ones, I think 

 there must lie profit somewhere in forming, great- 

 er than you used to allow. Look into our buttery, 

 our clothes-press, our cellar, our barn, and pig- 

 pen, — nothing to brag of, as you know, — but yet 

 enough if all were put into a bill to make quite a 

 sum. If farmers were to give their forms credit 

 for rent and everything you pay money for, which 

 their farms produce, they would need something 

 of an income to foot the yearly bill — and would 

 find out, I I)elieve, that forming is not quite such 

 poor and unprofitable lousiness as some of us think 

 it to l)e." 



Farmers handle but little money, and hence are 

 apt to look upon the weekly wages of meclianics 

 as large, Avhich will barely supply a family with 

 the necessaries of life. I recollect my feelings, 

 when a boy, on hearing of a mechanic who re- 

 ceived ten dollars a week in the city. I could hard- 

 ly imagine what one man could do with so much 

 money ; or, when it was possible for others to 

 put themselves in the way of getting such wages, 

 anybody should be willing to stay and "gee-haw" 

 oxen on a iarm at fifty cents a day ! Well, I left 

 the farm, and have reached the goal of my boy- 

 ish ambition. 1 am in Boston, with ten dollars a 

 week ! 



But how much better oflFam I, after all, than 

 most of my schoolmates are, who were compelled 

 to work for twelve to fifteen dollars per month, 

 Avhile I was receiving thirty to forty? Little if 

 any; and wliy ? Because "circumstances alter 

 cases." Before I kept house I had twelve to fif- 

 teen dollars per month to pay for board, washing, 



mending, and other unavoidable incidentals — a 

 very important item that farmer-])oys seem never 

 to take into account, — and then, when sick, my 

 watcher's, nurse's, doctor's, apothecary's, board- 

 ing-house keeper's, and washerwoman's liills were 

 all made out on the ten-dollar-a-week system, and 

 took off" the dollars almost as fast as my pulse 

 beat in a high fever. While the farmer-boy who 

 works by the month is Jboarded, washed and 

 mended, "in the bargain," and, if sick, is taken 

 care of at the lowest figure, or carried home to be 

 nursed by his motlier and sisters. 



If tlio editor thinks the foregoing remarks worth 

 publishing, I may take time to say something up- 

 on the relative advantages and trials of support- 

 ing a family upon a farm in the country, and on 

 ten dollars a week in the city. 



A CiTV Mechanic. 



Boston, March 0,' 1854. 



TENACITY OF LIFE. 



Among the lower animals tenacity of life is the 

 most remarkable in the polypi ; they m;iy be jwuud- 

 ed in a mortar, split up, turned inside' out like a 

 glove, and divided into parts, without injury to 

 life ; fire alone is fatal to them. It is now about 

 a hundred years since Trembly made us acquainted 

 with these animals, and first discovered their in- 

 destructibility. It has subsequently been taken 

 up by other natural liistorians, who have followed 

 up these experiments, and have even gone so far 

 as to produce monsters by grafting. If they be 

 turned inside out, they attempt to replace them- 

 selves, and if unsuccessfully, tiie outer surfoce as- 

 sumes the properties and power of the inner, and 

 the reverse. If the eifort be partially successful 

 only, the part turned liack disappears in twenty- 

 four hours, and that part of the body embraces it 

 in such a manner tliat the arms which projected 

 behind are now fixed in the centre of the body ; tlie 

 original^ opening also disappears, and in the room 

 of feelers a new mouth is formed, to which new 

 feelers attach themselves, and this new mouth 

 feeds immediately. The healed extremity elon- 

 gates itself into a tail, of which the animal has 

 now two. If two polypi be passed into one an- 

 other like tubes, and pierced through with a bris- 

 tle, the inner one works its way through the other 

 and comes forth again in a few days ; in some in- 

 stances, however, tliey grow together, and then a 

 double row of feeh^rs surround the mouth. If they 

 bo mutilated, the divided parts grow together 

 a^ain, and even pieces of two separate individuals 

 will unite into one. 



New Material kor Paper. — We have just ex- 

 amined, says the Baltimore Sun, several "samples 

 of paper made of reeds or cane, of a species which 

 grows in great abundance in our southern States ; 

 and also a sample made by the same process from 

 white pine shavings. In such an age of invention 

 as this, incredulity is not to be tolerated ; there- 

 fore we submit witli the best possible grace even 

 ti) tlie white pine. The reed paper is (piite a prom- 

 itfixig article. Another sample comjioscd of rac^ 

 and reeds, one-third of the former and two-tliirds 

 of the latter, is quite a fine article, and its value is 

 estimated by the makers equal to that of ratrg 

 worth 12i cents per pound. TIk; paper from pine 

 shavings is designed for wrapping or envi'Iopo pa- 



