NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



375 



done for his money ; he made his servants, laborers, 

 and horses move faster ; broke them from their snail's 

 pace ; and found that the eye of the master quick- 

 ened the pace of the servant. lie saw the beginning; 

 and ending of every thing; and to his servants and 

 laborers, instead of saying, ' Go and do it,' he said to 

 them, ' Let us go and do it, my boys.' Between 

 comn and ffo he soon found a groat difference. He 

 grubbed up the whole of his furze and his ferns, 

 ploughed the whole of his poor grass land up, and 

 converted a great deal of corn into meat for the sake 

 of the manure, and preserved his black water, (the 

 essence of manure ;) cut his hedges down, which had 

 not been plashed for forty or fifty years ; straightened 

 his zigzag fences ; cut his watercourses straight, 

 and gained a groat deal of land by doing so ; made 

 drains and sluices, and irrigated all the lands he 

 could ; he grubbed up many of his hedges and bor- 

 ders covered with bushes, in some places from ten to 

 fourteen yards in -width, and threw three or more 

 closes into one. He found out that instead of grow- 

 ing white-thorn hedges and haws to feed foreign 

 birds in winter, he could grow food for man instead 

 of birds. 



" After all this improvement, he grew more and 

 made of two hundred and fifty acres than he did 

 from one thousand ; at the same time ho found out 

 that half of England at that time was not cultivated, 

 from the want of means to cultivate it with. I let 

 him rams, and sold him long-horned bulls," said 

 Mr. BakewcU, "and told him the real value of labor, 

 both in doors and out, and what ought to be done 

 with a certain number of men, oxen, and horses 

 within a given time. I taught him to sow less and 

 plough better ; that there were limits and measures 

 to all things ; and that the husbandman ought to be 

 stronger than the farmer. I told him how to make 

 hot iand colder and cold land hotter, light land 

 stitfer and stiff land lighter. I soon caused him to 

 shake off his old prejudices, and I grafted new ideas 

 in their places. I told him not to breed inferior cattle, 

 sheep, or horses, but the best of each kind, for the 

 best consume no more than the worst. My friend 

 became a new man in his old age, and died rich." 



Is it not true that " labor well applied is produc- 

 tive of profit? " — Genesee Farmer. 



THE SPIRIT OF IMPROVEMENT; 



Never, probably, at any previous period, has there 

 been manifested so universal a disposition and desire 

 of improvement in the various branches of science, 

 and in the different manufacturing and mechanical 

 arts, as dt present. Our colleges and seminaries of 

 learning are cmulously vying with each other in 

 granting every facility in the education and instruc- 

 tion of the youth committed to their care. Our in- 

 stitutions for the promotion of practical science arc 

 exerting themselves to the utmost for the advance- 

 ment of this valuable and important object. Men 

 of intellect, and genius and skill, have embarked in 

 these noble and praiseworthy undertakings, and from 

 the success which they have already experienced, are 

 encouraged to persevere and to redouble their exer- 

 tions. Even our farmers and agriculturists have at 

 last begun to feci the general impetus which has been 

 given to the human mind, and think it necessarj' to 

 do something in the way of improvement in the art 

 of husbandry. Horticulture, in the last few years, 

 has progressed with rapid strides, both to the aston- 

 ishment and delight of those who have devoted to it 

 their attention. And agriculture now is calling 

 loudly for information and the testimony of facts, in 

 order to found a profitable and approved system, for 

 the proper cultivation of the earth. Legislatures are 

 beginning to take this subject into consideration, and 

 we look forward to the time, when among the hardy 



yeomen of the land we shall find as much intelligence, 

 with regard to soil, manures, crops, implements, &c., 

 relating to their particular pursuit, and the mode of 

 treating and managing them to the best advantage, 

 as we have already the evidence of proficiency in 

 other departments, where man has already attained 

 almost to perfection. That in the manner of culti- 

 vating there is great room for improvement, seem* 

 now to be universally conceded. And the success 

 which has attended the efforts of some of our most 

 enterprising farmers, of late years, is operating pow- 

 erfully as an encouragement to similar and more ex- 

 tended endeavors with others. Nor docs the influ- 

 ence seem to be limited to any particular class, or to 

 any section of country. It appears to be wide- 

 S])read and universal, pervading the entire length and 

 breadth of the land, though more sensibly felt where 

 it is, of course, most needed, or other places that are 

 most thickly settled, and most accessible to markets. 

 The eastern section, our own state, the southern dis- 

 trict, and even the far west, where land can be almost 

 obtained for the asking, and where the best of land 

 is to be found, there is instituted the same intjuiry 

 for practical knowledge, and manifested the same 

 desire of improvement. So universal, in fact, is this 

 spirit, that it must necessarily be productive of the 

 most important and astonishing results. — Farmer 

 and Mechanic. 



THE CANADA GOOSE. 



The Canadian or American wild goose, {Anser 

 Canadensis,) and the Chinese goose, (^4. cygnoides,) 

 occupy, as a writer observes, " a sort of debatable 

 ground," so that naturalists have been in doubt as to 

 which family they should be refen-ed ; and hence 

 some have applied to them the name of sioan geese. 



The Canadian goose is extensively known. It is a 

 migratory bird, and in its semiannual journeys, trav- 

 erses the northern part of the continent almost from 

 the etiuator to the pole ; and there are but few of the 

 inhabitants of this country that are not familiar with 

 its shrill and animating cry. Its autumnal flight 

 lasts from the middle of August to the middle of Oc- 

 tober, and the vernal flight from the middle of April 

 to the middle of May. Various stops are made, how- 

 ever, at convenient points, between the winter and 

 summer localities. 



It breeds in its wild state only at the north. Its 

 favorite resort is the coast of Labrador, and the region, 

 about Hudson's Bay ; though Hearne speaks of hav- 

 ing seen great numbers within the Arctic circle, 

 pushing their way still northward. 



To the inhabitants of the regions where it breeds, 

 the bird is regarded as an important source of sub- 

 sistence. Its arrival in spring is anxiously looked 

 for, and the Indians denominate the month the^yoos* 

 moon. It is said that the carcasses of these birds are 

 dealt out as rations to the men employed by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. " One goose, which when 

 fat weighs about nine pounds, is the daily ration to 

 one of the company's servants during the season, and 

 is reckoned equivalent to two snow geese, (.-1. llijper- 

 bo)-ea,) or three ducks, or eight pounds of buffalo and 

 moose meat, or two pounds of pemmican, or a pint 

 of maize and four ounces of suet." [Richardson.] 

 Those which are killed after the weather becomes 

 cool in the fall, are frozen and kept in the feathers 

 for a Avintcr stock of provisions. 



Richardson describes the habits of these geese in 

 his Fauna Boreali- Americana, as follows : — 



" About three weeks after their first appearance, 

 the Canada geese disperse in pairs through the coun- 

 try, between the oOth and 67th parallels, to breed, 

 retiring at the same time from the shores of Hudson's 

 Bay. In July, after the young birds are hatched, the 

 parents moult, and vast numbers are killed in the 



