[853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



173 



(&.) Or at least, is it not better to use the hoe, 

 than the cultivator, at such a stage of the <;;rowth, 

 if thereby we can pUice six r )\V8 of short corn 

 where otherwise we must have but four? I plant- 

 ed the last season an half-acre with the low grow- 

 ing variety. My men had planted the first three 

 rows, each three feet apart, contrary to my inten- 

 tions. The remainder was planted in rows two 



feet apart. The yield was 98 bushels (in the ear;) 

 IG of which were pig corn and 82 good sound 



corn. L. s. H. 



Norlhampton, March 1, 1853. 



Remarks. — (a.) We have known some of the 

 largest and best crops of corn from the eight 

 rowed Canada kind. (6.) The cultivator can 

 scarcely be used too freely in the early stages of 

 the corn plants; but when it has grown tall 

 •enough to be broken down in cultivating, the roots 

 must have formed a net work over nearly the whole 

 ground. Cultivating, then, cannot be beneficial. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 INFLUENCE OP NEWSPAPERS. 



Messrs. Editors : — Newspapers wieid an influ- 

 ence which controls nations, not by brutal force, 

 not by the din and smoke of war, nor the arbitrary 

 mandates of a despot, but by a still, impulsive 

 power, which permeates the mind for good or for 

 evil; they exert as great if not greater influence 

 over the public mind than all the orators of the 

 professions as moral or immoral agents. Newspa- 

 pers conducted by good, well-informed, higli-mind- 

 ed editors, will disseminate, in the public at large, 

 as much useful knowledge and as much moral 

 principle, I believe, as our schools and c )lleges. 

 We can all discern the difference between tliose 

 who read tlie productions of good liberal minded 

 -editors, and those who read scurrilous party psi- 

 pers, by their elevated conversation. A bigoted 

 editor will propagate bigotry, a vicious one vice, a 

 demagogue deception, an infidel skepticism, and 

 the libertine will propagate licentiousness, and so 

 on to the end of the catalogue of influences. There 

 is no necessity of party individuals being bigots ; 

 charity covers a multitude of faults; "vv'e may 

 agree to differ" in a gentlemanlike manner, with- 

 out those rancorous, uncharitable feelings, which 

 add nothing to the items which constitute happi- 

 ness, but rather infringe upon the good rules of 

 Christianity. 



In a community where there are indi\'iduals who 

 will traffic away their own souls and the souls of 

 others for lucre, we have reason to fear the worst 

 of consequences from the circulation of licentious, 

 immoral and youth-corrupting newspapers. There 

 are no kind of wicked propensities in man but what 

 can be accommodated with a creed from an un- 

 principled editor whose influence, Bohon Upas-like, 

 poisons all who venture within its atmosphere, and 

 whose only idea is to get money without regard to 

 means or consequences. 



Farmers and mechanics are daily reaping bene- 

 fits from the instructions which they get from read- 

 ing newspapers conducted by good, scientific, and 

 judicious editors. But few, comparatively, would 

 know the improvements which are yearly taking 

 place in agriculture and the mechanical arts, were 

 it not for this channel of conveyance. Many a 



man gains knowledge from a source, unconscious 

 from whence he derived it, and of course is unable 

 to render '* honor to whom honor is due." Some 

 of the editors of our political papers, in their par- 

 ty zeal, make an impression upon the minds of 

 some of those who read them, not at all favorable 

 to the prevalence of brotherly love in the commu- 

 nity. The mischievous effects of persecution for 

 honest political opinions, are felt in every neigh- 

 borhood; if the authors of these offences are not 

 rewarded soimer or later, justice must have sti'ayed 

 away from home. 



Intelligence seems to spread and enlighten the 

 people in a nation in proportion to the freedom 

 wliich is allowed by government to the circulation 

 of the thoughts and opinions of each other by 

 newspapers; look at the laboring classes in des- 

 potic Europe, where a paper is not permitted to cir- 

 culate without passing the censorship of a govern- 

 ment tool, and see the difference between them 

 and those living under the liberal governments of 

 England, the United States, and all other liberal 

 governments. Under despotic rule, ignorance is 

 the huge chain which binds the people to servi- 

 tude ; when that chain is once sundered tb.e des- 

 pots tremble in their shoes for consequences : there 

 is no chain strong enough to bind a virtuous and 

 intelligent people. Let farmers, mechanics and 

 all people who are dependent upon their wits and 

 hands consider well their situation and responsi- 

 bilities, and let them discourage vitiating publica- 

 tions from entering their doors, to do more toward 

 corrupting youth than all the clergy in the com- 

 munity can counteract. 



The impressions made on the minds of youth are 

 enduring and hard to eradicate, whether the im- 

 pressions are made by reading contaminating pub- 

 lications or associating with filthy brained rowdy 

 companions ; many a parent has found to his sor- 

 row that p.s the "twig was bent the tree was in- 

 clined," while making a desperate attempt to re- 

 claim an incorrigible son, that had been neglected 

 while young, without success. 



In making a selection of newspapers, the man 

 who would "train up a child in the way he should 

 go" will see the importance of selecting those 

 which will have a tendency to exalt and purify the 

 mind, instead of corrupting and debasing it by 

 sowing the seeds of pollution broad cast in the 

 public, to bring forth their fruits by producing a 

 generation of ill-bred juveniles, qualified to enter 

 the ranks of street rowdies and public plunderers, 

 rather than gladden the hearts of their parents and 

 prove useful members of society. 



Silas Brown- 



Wilmingtofi, 1853. 



U. S. AcRrcuLTrsAL Society. — We understand 

 that the yieople of the State, and particularly of 

 this vicinity, are taking strong hold of this nation- 

 al association. Numerous "subscriptions of $25, 

 which constitutes a life-membership, have recent- 

 ly been made, and among those of a still broader 

 liberality, there is a subscription of $500, from 

 the Hon. Jonathan Phillips, of Boston. In all 

 this we think we can see the untiring activity of 

 the honored President of the society. We con- 

 sider the institution as now established on a per- 

 manent basis ; and that if its members imitate tho 



