1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



15 



He is restrained by no considerations of the ad- 

 vantages of a quiet rural life, for no young man 

 yet, ever had much fear of temptation, or doubted 

 his ability to pass unscathed through its furnaces, 

 thougli seven times heated. 



And so, many of our most enterprising young 

 men forsake their native land — some to re-appear 

 on fir distant shores, an honor to the State which 

 gave them birtli, leading with New England spirit 

 the grand enterprises of moral and political pro- 

 gress — some to return by and Iiy, successful be- 

 yond their hopes even, in their pursuit of foreign 

 gold — simie to wander back heart-broken and worn 

 out by disease and want, their only hope to lay 

 their weary bones in New England soil — many, 

 alas ! how many to fall by the wayside in the 

 dreary land of strangers, witli no friendly voice to 

 cheer them on their last dark journey, or to bear 

 back a son's or l)rother's farewell to dear friends 

 in their loved and far-oflF home. 



TRIES THE SHOE BUSINESS. 



Besides the inducements to emigration so pow- 

 erful at times as almost to depopulate whole villa- 

 ges in our eastern States, we have another cause 

 of constant change. IMany who remain among us, 

 after a short experiment on their farms, abandon 

 the cultivation of the soil as too laborious or un- 

 profitable and adopt some other business. 



It is the most common thing in the world, when, 

 for instance, the shoe business takes a sudden 

 start, to see scores of young men, who never be- 

 fore had an awl or last in their hands, leave their 

 farm employment, and congregate together in 

 some little seven-by-nine shop, making, after a 

 week's apprenticeship, each about half a dozen 

 pairs of what are appropriately called sale shoes. 

 These young men, crowded together inhot and un- 

 ventilated apartments, cramped over their benches 

 without active exercise, soon show in their pallid 

 faces their mistake, and when the business fails, 

 as it does, I believe about once in five years, they 

 look about tliem for means to mount another round 

 of "young ambition's ladder," and select another 

 occupation. 



Perhaps a profession is nest tried, for the world 

 is open to all in this free land. Any citizen of 

 good moral character, that is to say any man who 

 has never been convicted of sheep-stealing, has a 

 right by statute, in most of the New England 

 States, to be admitted to practice as attorney at 

 law, and any man who can buy, borrow or oth- 

 erwise come by an old horse and a box of pills, 

 may practice medicine, and as to pi-eachinff, many 

 people among us seem to believe, as Dogberry said 

 of reading and writing, that it "comes by natur" 

 and not by education, and that the less a preach- 

 er studies, the more he gets by inspiration. 



All these brilliant paths are open to the aspir- 

 ing youth, and so the profession of the law is 

 crowded with men who have no higher idea of their 

 practice, than as as a game of sharps and quibbles 

 and money-getting — who involve everybody who 

 consults them in lawsuits, and who bring reproach 

 and odium upon the]very name of their adopted pro- 

 f-'ssion. And the quack doctor has even a bet- 

 ter, because a less observed field of operation. 



If he has wit enough to deal only in brown 

 bread pills, a fair proportion of his patients will 

 of course recover, and if he ventures with ill suc- 

 cess into more dangerous experiments, he has only 



to sympathize with the surviving friends, walk 

 demurely at the head of the funeral procession, 

 while, like the good man we read of, though in a 

 different sense, "his works do follow him," and 

 the green grass soon covers all traces of his error. 



SHAMS AND QUACKERY ENCOURAGED. 



One effect of tliis perfect freedom for every man 

 to do as a business, what seems good in his own 

 eyes, is manifestly to encourage all sorts of shams 

 and quackery, but still this freedom is in accor- 

 dance with the spirit of our government, and 

 is productive of more good than evil, on the whole. 

 Often, worthy and Ijrilliant exceptions are found 

 to the course which I have so freely denoted, and 

 the importance of keeping down all appearance of 

 an aristocracy, except nature's aristocracy of true 

 genius and genuine nobility of soul, will outweigh, 

 in the end, the evil consequences to which I have 

 referred. 



The particular effect of this facility of change up- 

 on the agriculture of our States, as has been sug- 

 gested, is to disturb and prevent anything like a 

 regular and systematic course of husbandry, the 

 absolute necessity for which is so apparent. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HARVEST HYMN. 



RESPECTFULLY IXSCRIBED TO THE FARMERS OF THE 



"NEW ENGLAND FARMER." 



BV THE PEASANT BARD. 



Air — "JDundee." 

 O Tiiou, whose wisdom decks the sod, 



And loads wilh fruit the bough ! 

 We tliank Thee that the farmer's God 



Peculiarly art Thou. 



Thine aie the seasons as they roll ; 



Thy years, how dread they seem ! 

 From age to age is Thy control, 



Deilic and supreme. 

 When vernal skies and southern airs 



Make green the sunny slope, 

 We turn the glebe with gleaming shares 



And cast the seed in hope. 



When Autumn pours her solemn light 



Upon the fading fields, 

 Our garners filled to crowning height, 



Show what Thy bounty yields. 



Do Thou to us Thy grace impart, 



Who on that bounty live; 

 The incense of a grateful heart 

 Is all that we can give. 

 Gill, Mass. 



OUR JANUARY NUMBE3R. 



We shall send this number to several gentle- 

 men who have never taken the Farmer, and ask 

 them to give it an attentive examination, and if 

 approved, to aid in enlarging its circulation. If 

 its present readers believe with us that it is of 

 greatly more value to every farmer than its cost, 

 will each one exert himself to forward us one or 

 more subscribers for the coming year? During 

 the last year we have sent out over six hundred 

 thousand copies of the New England Farmer. — 

 Shall that number be doubled in 1853 ? If you 

 say so it can be done, and its value shall increase 

 with its circulation. 



