No. 3. Conquer with kindness. — Autumnal ploughing of light land. 



95 



Conquer with Kindness. 



If you would have friends, you must show 

 yourselves friendly. I once had a neighbour, 

 who, though a clever man, came to me one 

 hay day, and said, " Squire White, I want 

 you to come and get your geese away." 

 " Why," said I, "what are my geese doing?" 

 "They pick my pigs ears when they are eat- 

 ing, and drive them away, and I will not have 

 it." " What can I do ?" said I. " You must 

 yoke them." "That I have not time to do 

 now," said I. " I do not see but they must 

 run." " If you do not take care of them I 

 shall; — what do you say Squire White?" 

 "I cannot take care of them now, but I will 

 pay you for all damages." " Well," said he, 

 "you will find that a hard thing, I guess." 

 So off" he went, and I heard a terrible squall- 

 ing among the geese. The next news from 

 the geese was, that three of them were miss- 

 ; ing. My children went and found them ter- 

 ribly mangled and dead, and thrown into the 

 bushes. " Now," said I, " all keep still, and 

 let me punish him." In a few clays the 

 man's hogs broke into my corn ; I saw them, 

 but let them remain a long time. At last I 

 drove them all out, and picked up the corn 

 which they had torn down, and fed them with 

 it in the road. By this time the man came 

 in great haste after them. " Have you seen 

 any thing of my hogs?" said he. " Yes, you 

 will find them yonder, eating some corn 

 which they tore down in my field." " In 

 your field?" "Yes," said I, "hogs love 

 corn, you know — they were made to eat." 

 "How much mischief have they done?" "O, 

 not much," said I. Well ofFhe went to look, 

 and estimated the damage to be equal to a 

 bushel and a half of corn. " O no," said I, 

 "it can't be." " Yes," said he, "and I will 

 pay you every cent of damage." " No," I 

 replied, "you shall pay nothing." "My 

 geese have been a great trouble to you." 

 The man blushed and went home. The 

 next winter when we came to settle, he de- 

 termined to pay me for my corn. " No," 

 said I, " I shall take nothing." 



After some talk we parted ; but in a day 

 or two I met him in the road, and fell into 

 conversation in the most friendly manner. 

 But when I started on he seemed loath to 

 move, and I paused. For a moment both of 

 us were silent. At last he said, "I have 

 something labouring on my mind. Those 

 geese. — I killed three of your geese, and 

 shall never rest till you know how I feel. I 

 am sorry." And the tears came in his eyes. 

 ;"0 well," said I, "never mind, I suppose 

 my geese were provoking." 



I never took any thing of him for it; but 

 whenever my cattle broke into his field after 



this, he seemed glad — because he could show 

 how patient he could be. 



Now, conquer yourself, and you can con- 

 quer with kindness, where you can conquer 

 in no other way. — Vermont Chronicle. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Autumnal Ploughing of light land. 



It is almost universally admitted, that, 

 much as heavy land may be benefited by an 

 autumnal ploughing, by which the soil may 

 be laid up high and dry to the action of win- 

 ter frost and snow, to plough up and thus 

 expose light land to the winter rains, would 

 be improper in the extreme, as much of the 

 pulverized surface would be washed away, 

 and the land be rendered so flat and compact, 

 as not to be operated upon by the harrows at 

 the time of seeding in the spring: this, I say, 

 is the very general opinion, even of practical 

 men ; but 1 have found that it is not so in 

 fact; and a friend has turned my attention 

 to a case in point, which so exactly corrobo- 

 rates my own experience, that I must, with 

 your permission, copy it, for insertion in the 

 pages of the Cabinet. It is contained in 

 "Lislc's Husbandry," a work of infinite 

 merit, and abounding in pleasing and in- 

 structive experiment. The author says: 



" On the 20th of October I began plough- 

 ing a field of 52 acres, for oats, to be sown 

 in the spring following, the land turning up 

 so fine and small, that it was supposed the 

 ground by the winter rains, would fall flat. 

 I had finished the ploughing by the 20th of 

 November, and notwithstanding it was light 

 white land, and fell so fine, yet at the oat- 

 seed time, the 20th of February, the harrows 

 being good, the oats were laid deep enough 

 in the furrows, or seams; for although the 

 earth seemed to be closed on the surface, 

 yet with five times harrowing, the seed was 

 well covered, the effect of early ploughing 

 in the winter. This method of fallowing 

 light land succeeded admirably well, and 

 answered in every respect a good purpose ; 

 the oats prospered, and bore a better colour 

 than others which I sowed in strong land 

 after two earths or ploughings, the same 

 year; and when I cut them, they were, in 

 every respect, great oats. I conclude, there- 

 fore, from this and other like experiments, 

 that ploughing such light lands, which fall 

 fine, thus early, is best ; since the oats can 

 be let deep enough into the soil, and by that 

 means the ground so ploughed, taking the 

 winter rains, will retain so much moisture 

 as to bring the oats all up at once ; the con- 

 trary of which is the danger, when such 

 light lands are sown in the spring, immedi- 



