334 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the Neiv Eniflaud Farmer. 

 SELF-INSTRUCTION. 



As the present legislators ul' tlie eouiilry were 

 the youn^ men of the lust generation, so will the 

 future law-givers be selected from the present 

 youth. 



And from what station in life were the popular 

 public men of the present day taken! A large 

 number of them were poor boys, who commencing 

 witli nothing nutre than a coninion scliool education, 

 have, by their own rightly directed elTorts, and by 

 virtue of an indomitable strength of will, raised 

 themselves from a comparatively obscure origin to 

 an elevate position in the estimation of their coun- 

 trymen. Of this class are Henry Clay, Lewis 

 Cass, and numerous others; and if they prospered 

 in their hopes, surely others may do the same; the 

 end to be gained is no mean one, and is well worth 

 striving for. 



There is no young man in the country, however 

 humble may be his place in society, to whom the 

 gates of honor and learning are closed. Worth 

 and merit will always slioiv themselv(^i!, and in a 

 community capal)le of discernment, will always be 

 appreciated. 



A young man has no reason to despair because 

 he cannot have the advantage of a college educa- 

 tion, and if he has the spirit of a man there will 

 be no obstacle, on the contrary it should stimulate 

 him all tlie move. 



Roger Sherman, one of the committee who pre- 

 pared the Declaration of Lulependenee, and who 

 was a prominent person during the revolution, was 

 a shoemaker, — he educated himself^he was ac- 

 customed to sit with a book upon his knee, improv- 

 ing every spare moment during his work. Mr. 

 Jeflerson said of him, he "is a man who never said 

 a foolish thing in his life." 



Another was Kli Whitney, the iuvent(n- of the 

 cotton gin; if deprived of that useful machine, the 

 chief production of tiie Southern States would not 

 l)e estimated at one-tentli of its present value. 

 The worth of this important invention is only to 

 be reckoned by hundreds of millions of dollars. 

 Mr. W. was not wholly a self-taught man, haviuir 

 received an education at Yale College; yet his af- 

 ter usefulness was somewhat independent of his 

 collegiate instruction. 



Judge McLean, a gentleman of great legal ac- 

 (]uiremeuts, is also a self-taught man. The learned 

 J)avid Ritteuhouse, the astronomer, was of this 

 class. I shall close tiui list, at present, with the 

 name of Benjamin Franklin. Where can be 

 found brighter examples or instances more worthy 

 of emulation ? 



Tiiere are a great many young men in the coun- 

 try villages who do not rightly improve their spare 

 time. There the season of leisure is, during the 

 winter; the sun goes down early and the evenings 

 are long. A great advancement can be made at 

 such times. Let a young man make the trial, and 

 at the close of the season, if he finds he is not men- 

 tally improved, then he must redouble his exer- 

 tions the succeeding winter, and he will not fail. 

 L'it his motto be, "Don"l give up the ship !'' No, 

 never give up the ship — keep the light of science 

 'irjohtly burning; a steady hand upon the helm; 

 i .siiarp eye ahead for the currents of dissipation, 

 !"si ilioy divert him from his course; and it' the 



• - of disappointment sweep over his laboring 

 ... ;, tremble and uaver not, but remain by the 



helm until safely received in the harbor of suc- 

 cess. A good method of improvement for young 

 men in small towns, is by means of literary 

 chd)s; concerning which, I siiall, with your con- 

 sent, say sometliiiig in aluture number, s. s. p. 



Remakks. — In his late address before the Wor- 

 cester Society, Mr. Knowlton said, that schools 

 are mere machines. He would undoubtedly agree 

 -with us, that they are exceedingly useful ones. 

 The young man who has made uj) his mind that 

 his education can be acquired only through scliools, 

 will never realize his expectations. We are al- 

 ways at school, and the recitation hours are all 

 those, when we are imparting our knowledge to 

 others. The apprentice who labors regularly his 

 ten or twelve bonis a day, has still opportunity to 

 acquire all the elements of an education, by the 

 time he has attained his majority. His reading, 

 after tliat, will soon enal)le him to make himself 

 useful in almost any calling in life. We beg all 

 correspondents to give us their names, dates, and 

 places of residence. 



For the ISrie Enahind Farmer. 



PLOUGHING MATCHE3S. 



Pardon the suggestion, to those who have the 

 direction of tliese matters, that the principles on 

 wiiich the preniiuins are to be awarded should i)e 

 definitely stated, in connection with the ofl'er of the 

 premium. For instance, suppose the field, on 

 which the experiment is to be made, is known to 

 be a level plat of grass land, free of stones, with a 

 tair depth of soil, liaving yielded from one to two 

 tons of hay to an acre, for ten years past. Suppose 

 tlie ploughing heretofore to have been of an average 

 deptli of six inclies. Is it not perfectly easy to 

 say, beforehand, what kind of ploughing would be 

 best for such land ? May not the depth and u-'ullh 

 of the furrow required be prescribed ? the manner 

 of laying it also — whether llat — or not fiat? And 

 the time within which one quarter of an acre 

 should be ploughed ? If any principles have been 

 settled, let those be prescribed, that the ploughman 

 mav prepare hiniSL>lf for the operation. It is as 

 easy to order a plough to do work of one kind as 

 w-ell as another; — and when the character and con- 

 dition of the ground to be ploughed is well known, 

 it is well to stand right at tlie commencement. 

 Tiiese tiioughts came to mind on recently witness- 

 ing a ploughing match with IG teams — all on sim- 

 liar soil, each operating his own way. ihe woriv 

 was done by single teams, without a driver; — and 

 considering the dry and tough condition of the 

 sward, it was well done. The quantity of land to 

 be ploughed by each team was 1-lOth part of ttn 

 acre — a space one rod wide and sixteen rods long 

 was marked out. The work was done in time 

 varying from 35 to 50 minutes. The furrows va- 

 ried in depth from G to S inches, and in width from 

 10 to 10 inches. The idea occurred to us, wheth- 

 er it migiit not have been well to have prescribed 

 a furrow slice 1'3 iueiies wide and 8 inches deep — 

 and to have tried the skill of the several ploughmen 

 in approximating as near as they might to this rule. 

 Although it was prescribed thai butc/u /nan should 

 be engaged in the work — still, if we do not mis- 

 take, there was in company with almost every team 



