$[)e .farmer's iHontfjIi) teitor. 



the east side of the meadow. The ground is 

 high enough for a wall to stand, and there are 

 stone enough on the knoll which ought to come 

 out to make it." 



Mr. Butler made no reply, but, together with 

 Saul, went to digging stone. 



" This looks like a new farm," said Mr. George 

 one day to his neighbor, as they rode by Mr. 

 Butler's house. 



" Yes," replied the neighbor, " there is a new 

 band at the bellows." 



" Does Hendricks work it on shares ?" 

 "No, he works by the month." 

 " Does he ? What makes him drive on so?" 

 "I don't know for certain, but J guess Butler's 

 daughter is at the bottom of it." 



When the winter set in, Saul, though be was 

 a good boy to work, felt a desire to iiave a little 

 more furniture in the upper story, and asked 

 leave to go to the Centre to school. " Uncle Zeb 

 says he will board me, if I'll come." 



"I don't see bow I can spare you. We must 

 build in the spring, and we have all the timber 

 to get to the mill," said Mr. Butler. 

 San! lookedrather down-hearted. 

 "Yon can go," said John, who was sitlinsr be- 

 before the blazing fire, between Saul and Lizzy. 

 "I'm going to stay, that is, if they will let me. 

 I tell you what it is," turning to Mr. Butler, " if 

 you will give me this critter," laying his hand 

 upon Lizzy's arm, '• I will stay and work lor you 

 ut any pay you choose." 



Lizzy turned very ted, but neither ran for the 

 pantry nor pushed awav John's hand. 



"Well," said Mr. Butler, who had recently 

 Eeen what things were coining to, " that must he 

 pretty much as you and she can agree — must is 

 it not, mother ?" 



"I guess so," said Mrs. Butler, dropping seve- 

 ral stitches in a stocking she was mending for 

 John. 



'■There won't be much difficulty about it, then, 

 I guess," said John. " Saul may go to school. 

 He may go to college if he has a mind. I can 

 get his support out of the farm without hurting 

 anybody, I reckon." Then, turning to Lizzy, he 

 said, " the road is good, and Jack wants to stir 

 himself, and I want you to go over to mother's. 

 Suppose you jump into the wagon and ride with 

 me." 



Lizzy looked towards her mother and rose up, 

 and went to put on her things. The horse was 

 soon at the door, and Lizzy was soon at John's 

 mother's, and John's mother was soon .introdu- 

 ced to Lizzy, who soon became her daughter-in- 

 law, that is to say, on New Year's Eve. 



Pure Air. 



Let us follow the human being through the. va- 

 rious periods and circumstances of his life, and 

 observe with what degree of freedom the atmos- 

 phere is allowed to exert the full influence of its 

 invigorating powers upon him. 



The Infant. — He scarcely has made his en- 

 trance into the great stream of air, and uttered 

 his plaintive petition for a portion of the new 

 element to expand his little chest, ere, bv the 

 careful nurse, he is tucked away under the cov- 

 erlid, with his head closely wrappeil in a blanket 

 shawl, lest the already impure ajr of the cham- 

 ber should be too strong for his weak organs. 



Should an anxious aunt, led by her curiosity) 

 throw off a fold of the mummy-like case — or 

 should the infant, in its suffocating throes, pene- 

 treate an opening through the woolen walls 

 which confine it, his little throat, expanding in- 

 stinctively with the touch of a somewhat better 

 air, greets it with swelling notes of mournful 

 joy. Alas ! it is but the signal for the good nurse 

 to "protect" the babe against the danger ot'taking 

 cold, in an atmosphere of perhaps ninety degrees 

 Fahrenheit. She has no notion that her delicate 

 charge shall get the sniffles by undue premature 

 exposure. The louder little Oliver cries for 

 more oxygen, the closer he is confined to hush 

 the noise. 



The Schoolboy.— And here we find him, with 



from four to five hundred others, immured be- 

 tween close walls — perhaps in a low ceiled apart- 

 ment, half under ground — with doors and win- 

 dows closed, and caulked tight, to save the heal 

 from the fuel burning in a little red hot stove, 

 and exhausting a large portion of what little ox- 

 ygen there may be present in the air. His brain 

 is stimulated by threats of punishment or hopes 

 of reward ; his body is constrained within the 

 narrowest limits; motion is denied to him ; and 

 his lender and growing muscles are forbidden to 

 participate, as they should, in even the poor 

 nourishment which the imperfectly oxygenized 

 blood might furnish. At night he occupies a 

 room, rather larger than a prison cell, which-con- 

 tains sufficient air to allow him to breathe it in 

 its purity for the space of from thirty to sixty 

 minutes ; after which, as the room is so small, for 

 fear the night air will blow right on him, if the 

 window sash should be lowered to give an exit 

 to some of the foul air, he inhales and re-inhales, 

 in larger and larger proportion, the carbonic acid 

 thrown off from his own lungs as excrementious 

 poison, until, in the morning, he creeps from his 

 bed in a dripping sweat, drooping, languid, and 

 tinrefreshed by his sleep, and poorly fitted to 

 engage in the severe mental task imposed upon 

 him by his teacher. 



Can we wonder that he should "creep like a 

 snail, unwillingly to school," where the artificial 

 stimulus of the rod, is substituted for the natural 

 stimulus of oxygen ? 



The Apprentice. — In very few of the various 

 trades, or professions, is he subjected, during the 

 hours of labor, to any other atmosphere than 

 such as is polluted, by either the respiration of 

 numbers of persons in a small room, or the efflu- 

 via of materials of manufacture, increased and 

 concentrated by the back situation and narrow 

 enclosure of the house itself, by which all visi- 

 tation of genial atmospheric currents is pre- 

 vented. 



There are some trades, which, happily for 

 their followers, require the labor to he performed 

 in the open air ; such are those of the house 

 builder, farmer, gardener, and some others ; but 

 the laborers at these occupations at night are 

 generally subject to vitiated air, in small crowd- 

 ed chambers, whereby the good effects of the 

 exposure of the day are generally counteracted. 

 But all others, at least those pursuing mechani- 

 cal trades, pass their working hours in close, un- 

 ventilated shops, redolent with the fumes of 

 steam, smoke, while lead, sour paste, acids, alka- 

 lies, the gasses from decomposing animal and 

 vegetable matters, and many other matters, 

 which add more or less to the deleterious prop- 

 erties of the air respired by many lungs. 



A ventilated workshop is almost an unknown 

 thing; and he who decides upon himself, or his 

 child, becoming an apprentice to any one of the 

 great majority of trades, must calculate upon a 

 prostiation of strength, paleness of countenance, 

 languor of spirits and body, frequent sickness, 

 and almost inevitably, as statistics show, a pre- 

 mature death. 



This results, too, in very many of these occu- 

 pations, without the action of any peculiar cause 

 connected with them. A large proportion of the 

 evil is believed to be due to the foulness of the 

 atmosphere necessarily produced by the absence 

 of ventilation. — Uses and *1bust.s of Air. 



From the Plow, Loom and Anvil. 

 Bone Dust. 

 Nearly all recent experiments seem to corrob- 

 orate former statements relative to the great util- 

 ity of bone-dust when properly applied, and 

 many farmers are availing themselves of this 

 valuable article to increase the fertility of their 

 soils. But, if its properties and effects were 

 more generally understood, none but judicious 

 applications would be made and it would, doubt- 

 less be in much greater demand, and, as a con- 

 sequence, all hones would be preserved in a fresh 

 state, and mills would be erected purposely to 

 prepare them, and an article decidedly superior 

 to that at present employed would be obtaina- 

 ble. 



Some interesting facts and inquiries in regard 

 to its use, has been presented to us of late, that 

 we deem well worthy of publication. Thev 

 were received from an intelligent gentleman re- 

 siding in Bucks county, Pa.,'and are the results 

 of his own experiments, which he is prepared to 

 substantiate. He slates that, in 1845, he applied 

 ten bushels of bone-dust (cost $4) on three- 

 quarters of an acre of clover sod, and obtained 

 eight bushels of wheat, extra, worth ten dollars. 

 His land was ploughed the first of September; 

 after which the dust was applied broadcast, and 

 then cross-ploughed quite shallow, sowing the 

 wheat September 25lh. The subsequent season 

 he manured with barn-yard manure the rest of 

 the field for corn ; hut says the corn and oats 

 have been decidedly superior where the hone- 

 dust was applied, and now produces a much 

 larger quantity of clover. In 1840, he applied 

 110 bushels (cost $44) on seven and a half acres 

 of oat stubble without other manure, and gather- 

 ed 113J bushels of wheat, and thinks, had the 

 season been favorable, the yield would have 

 been even 140 or 150 bushels. In 1847, he ap- 

 plied one hundred bushels, with six loads of 

 yard manure, on seven acres of clover sod, and 

 obtained 200 bushels of wheat. He says, by 

 leaving some pieces without bone-dust, he has 

 satisfied himself that it is more efficacious than 

 a covering of yard manure. 



In the fill of 1847, he mixed two bushels of 

 bone-dust with ten of fine soil, keeping it moist 

 during the winter, and, in the following spring, 

 placed one handful under each hill of corn, thus 

 applying not over two bushels to the acre, and 

 obtained ten bushels the acre more corn than on 

 that portion to which ashes and plaster were ap- 

 plied. The soil was a loamy one, and he re- 

 marks that its effects are more visible on loam 

 or clay than on sand, and that the dust use. I was 

 obtained at the button manufactories. 



He also observes that it is less perceptible on 

 land that has been recently limed, and stales 

 that he applied bone-dust and caustic lime togeth- 

 er on one portion of a field, and on another pure 

 bone-dust, and the result was that double the 

 quantity of wheat was produced on that portion 

 to which the dust was applied alone. He further 

 states that the experiments of his neighbors cor- 

 roborate those of his own, and then, in conclu- 

 sion, wishes our opinion in regard to the cause 

 of t lie failure. A correct explanation of this 

 phenomenon would be full of interest as well as 

 value; but, owing to our limited knowledge of 

 the action of the phosphates, it is exceedingly 

 difficult to arrive at an accurate conclusion : nev- 

 ertheless, we submit the following remarks us 

 (t?° Eight hundred pounds of" gold are used I the result of our brief reflections. And, in or- 

 up in making pens in this country in a year. At der to he clearly understood, we shall be obliged 

 least 1,000,000 pens a year are manufactured. | to rehearse some matters of fact that may not 



