NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



169 



HORTICULTURAL TOOL CHEST 



This is a small, portable chest, containing a useful 

 collection of tools, such as are generally iised in 

 managing trees, shrubs, or plants of any description. 

 These articles are very convenient, and always at 

 hand, ■R'hen kept in a compact form, and neatly 

 arranged in a chest, A\hich is so light that it can be 

 easily carried in the hand from, one part of the garden 

 to another, by the handle at the top. Such arrange- 

 ment greatly facilitates labor, and aids in executing 

 various operations in the neatest as well as in the 

 most expeditious manner. This chest contains a prun- 

 ing saw, pruning chisel, weeding hoe, garden rake, 

 tree scraper, scuffle hoe, and hook, all of which are 

 fitted to one handle, which may be screwed together 

 or unscrewed, as required, packed into the chest, 

 and locked up. It also contains twig cutter, vine 

 scissors, flower gatherers, grafting chisel, grafting 

 hammer, strawberry fork, transplanting trowel, 

 weeding trowel, garden rule and line, grass shears, 

 sliding pruning shears, pruning knife, and budding 

 knives. 



LABOR IS HONORABLE. 



All labor is honorable. The Great First Cause 

 works. Nature works, and every man who enjoj's her 

 fruits ought to hold it honorable to work. When 

 shall the glorious time dawn that intelligence and 

 true philanthropy shall annihilate the selfish distinc- 

 tion Avhich pride has made between labor and idle- 

 ness ? May that auspicious day soon arrive when 

 the worthless distinctions between mental and phys- 

 ical labor, which separate man from his fellow-man, 

 shall cease to exist, and all the tenants of the earth 

 m.eet as equal sovereigns of our common inheritance 

 — the earth. — Rodgers's Scientific Agriculture. 



FRUIT TREES BY ROAD SIDES. 



The season for setting out trees has arrived. We 

 would especiall}' call the attention of farmers to set- 

 ting out fruit trees by the road side. You accomplish 

 two things by so doing. You adorn the country, and 

 make it pleasant for yourself and others who travel 



that road so adorned. If you select good winter 

 fruit, 3'ou will in a few years have from those orna- 

 mental trees some profit, inasmuch as the fruit so 

 obtained will come from a source that vs'ould other- 

 wise be of no great avail to you. The trees, stand- 

 ing by the side of the wall or fence, will take up but 

 little room, and will not hinder your cultivating the 

 land, if you are so disposed. They will not deprive 

 you of any grass or other crop which you may put 

 upon the ground around them, and their roots, run- 

 ning partly into the road, will draw nourishment 

 therefrom, which would not bo of any use other- 

 wise. — Maine Farmer. 



CAMELS. 



A correspondent of the Louisville Democrat pro- 

 poses the use of the Bactrian camels for travelling to 

 California, New Mexico, and Oregon*. They would 

 be very useful for carrying the mail. Good authori- 

 ties state that they can carry one thousand pounds 

 weight one hundred miles per day for eight or ten 

 days in succession, and subsist on a scanty supply of 

 the coarsest herbage, only requiring water once in 

 two or three days. With the aid of this animal, the 

 United States mail might be carried from St. Louis 

 to Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, in 

 twenty days, or in a shorter time from the mouth of 

 the Arkansas River to the harbor of San Francisco, in 

 California. They could be got in their native coun- 

 try, Asia, and be brought by land to the Black Sea, 

 and shipped for the United States direct. 



In addition, it maj' be said, that the Bactrian or 

 Asiatic camel would be useful in war, in the vast 

 plains of the west. From their great power, quick- 

 ness of motion, docility, and shape of their backs, 

 they might be useful in carrying light pieces of ar- 

 tillery, and be trained to the use of them for their 

 various purposes. This would be a very effective 

 arm against the Indians. — Selected. 



Would not the drawing of the plough be more 

 beneficial to manliind than the carrying of a field- 

 piece ? 



With a downright taste for fruits and flowers, a 

 man may have occupation and amusement for years 

 in a hundred feet square of good soil. — Downing. 



