1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARxMER. 



543 



themselves. They look on professional men, and! fessions" would hide their heads and slink away 

 persons engaged in some other vocations, as a abashed. Many of your readers have seen a ped- 

 sort of superior people; and when demagogues ler of soap, who made even liis two-penny trade 

 condescend to flatter them, they feel " tucked up^," respectable by being proud of it Iiimself. Of one 

 as the saying in, just as children feel when receiv- thing we may be sure ; nobody will have a better 

 ing the approbation of their superiors. They feeb opinion of farming than the I'ai-mor has. Ouroc- 

 a strong impression that farming has got a- " bad! cupation ought to be as good in New Hampshire 

 name," and are tickled with the notice of persons as a title of nobility in Europe. There maybe 

 whom they consider above them. But it will not mean lords and mean farmers ; but the fact that 

 always be so. There has been a good improve- a man tills the soil for a living, ought to be con- 



ment in this respect during the last fifty years 

 Farmers are beginning to feel as ' ' good as any- 

 body." And why should they not 1 Is there any- 

 thing degrading in cultivating the soil, the most 

 important occupation on earth ? The day-laborer 

 on the farm cannot appear every day in his broad- 

 cloth and clean dickey, and he is prone to envy 

 the man who can do so ; and he looks on his 

 soiled cluthing and long frock as a badge of dis- 

 grace. Fie on you, man ! It is said, the negro 

 despises his own color ; and if you are ashamed of 

 yourself because you are a farmer, all I have to 

 say is, you are just as wise as the negro. 



We might go on and give a great many reasons 



sidered presumptive evidence of his respectability. 

 It is so in Qther professions, tlien why not in ours. — 

 Plowboy in Granite FarTncr. 



THE SEASON. 

 From the first of June last, up to Tuesday, the 

 31st of October, rain did not fall in many parts 

 of New England, in sufficient quantity to wet the 

 ground as low as the roots of plants penetrate. 

 Persons digging wells 'found scarcely any signs of 

 moisture ten and twelve feet below the surface, 



and those heretofore affording an abundant supply 

 why fa7m1ng1hould be respectable ; but'it would! of pure water had become dry, or the water was 

 be wasting ink to no purpose. Nobody, will deny so impregnated with unpalatable salts as to be- 

 it. That it is not so respectabje as some other; come unfit for use. Such has been the case in 

 ca'" 



jailing, is also very apparent. Let a man appear ^ instances 

 in a promiscuous assembly, dressed in such a man- ^ , „, 

 ner as to indicate that he is a former, and the' ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ 

 " oSicers of the day " never see him ; at church 

 the sexton seats him in a distant pew, and he is 

 made to feel in all his intercourse with the world, 

 that he is nothing but a farmer. 



Now respectability depends, as has already been 

 intimated, on public, opinion ; and the farming 

 portion of the community, being by far the most 



31st of October, the heavens were 

 opened ; after many incifectual attempts to weep 

 upon the suffering soil, clouds came over this 

 region and began gently to shed their rich treas- 

 ures upon the crying and hungry earth. For- 

 tunately, the rain fell at first in a thick, drizzling 

 mist, until the surface was so much moistened as 



numerous, tiiey arc capable of controlling this readily to imbibe the copious showers ; it then 

 opinion ; consequently, all we have to do is, to came freely for several days, frequently accom- 

 respect ourselves, and if our business is not re-| panied by a strong south wind, 

 spectable, we may thank ourselves for it. There| ^^ ^^^.j^^^ ^.j^^^^ immediately before the storm 

 IS no occupation lu the world that gives the la-i, . ^ . . ,, , ^r ■, 



borer move leisure time, than farming. This time '^^S^" ' ^"^ interesting neighbors, the Muskrats, 

 may be spent in improving the mind ; in the ac-{ began to erect their winter habitations, and never 

 quisition of ideas; consequently, the farmer needjdid they rise with so much alacrity before ; story 

 not be an ignorant man. Or these leisure hours' after story went up, and what were yesterdav 

 may be devoted to writing for the agricultural, j ,^^^ apparent heaps of fresh muck on the margin 

 political, or religious press; and in this wav he ,. ^, . ^ , . . ,.,. . , 



may have an iirflueiice abroad that no pulpit in ^f the river, soon came to imposing edifices, with 

 the land can equal, for the press at the present | their subterranean and submerged channels, and 

 day, is the great '-lever that moves the world."; convenient upper rooms. They are now beautiful 

 Or if some of our farmers would spend their spare pyramids, overlooking the river and adjacent 

 hours in practicing the art of declamation, I have, ^^^^^^^^ wo hope they will not become to the 

 no doulit that many of them would become re-, • i , i in , . ^ i . .. 



spectable, andsomeof them superior public speak-' P'^*^^ animals " dreadful posts of observation, 

 ers. There may as well bo learned farmers, as How these curious animals knew the storm was 

 " learned blar;ksmiths." It is bj^ no means neces- approaching, that the river would suddenly rise' 

 sary that a farmer should be an ignorant drudge,! and the low lands be overflowed, we have nyt 

 travelling an unvarying round, " like a horse in, learned. We did not see them looking at the 

 a bark mill," destitute of the amusements and el-| ,, • ii • i ... 



egancies of other professions. In fact, there i.,! weather-vane on a neighboring barn, or watching 

 no other profession so full of real enjoyment asj t'le state of the barometer, or hold up a wet paw 

 the farmer's. We have everything the heart cauito ascertain the direction of tlie wimt, yet iflieir 

 desire; or may have all. It lies in our owuj instinct did not fail to prompt them to proville in 

 breasts and own wills to say whetiierour occupa-jgood season for the coming waters. How bcau- 



tion shall 1)0 respectable. All that is wanting isl ,;p,,i .,„i • , .• „ +„ n „i • • i 



,.,,, . \ , .^ ^,. ,!,„„„. „ ^ .? . tilui and instructive to tlie observing munl are 

 a little more independence of character, so that| i r , , , ,. . , tt 



we can stand flp in the conscious dignity of man-, ^''e works of the lower ord.n-s of animals: How 

 hood, and hoarA that we are farmers. Why, if' <j'jedient to the instincts implanted in tliem. How 

 all the farmers would do this, their numbers and: forcibly they recal expressive passaged of the 

 influence would 1)3 such, that the " learned pro-| o-vcat Psalmist 



