1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



343 



of the Massachusetts commission, Dr. Loring, to 

 address them on the subject. 



What now is the duty of good citizens in this 

 matter ? It surely is to give every aid in their 

 power to the execution of the laws just enacted. 

 A man v.ho, with the evidence now before the 

 public, Avill contend that this disease is not to be 

 met and treated as contagious, ought to be shut 

 up in quarantine tUl he recovers from so danger- 

 ous a heresy. We believe that the Governor act- 

 ed wisely in convening the Legislature, for in no 

 other way could knowledge on this subject be so 

 well collected or disseminated, as by a thorough 

 public investigation, a publication of the evi- 

 dence in ten thousand copies, as has been or- 

 dered, and the return of the members to their ru- 

 ral homes, with full knowledge of the nature of 

 the disease, and of the measures adopted to limit 

 and exterminate it. The Legislature has done it- 

 self honor by the course adopted, which has been 

 marked with energy and unanimity in all that is 

 essential. On the important points as to wheth- 

 er more or less power should be conferred on the 

 Commissioners, or how appraisals should be made 

 of animals or other property taken for the public 

 good, lively debates have sprung up, but upon 

 the expediency of adopting the most stringent 

 and energetic measures to exterminate this terri- 

 ble scourge from the Commonwealth, there has 

 appeared to be great unanimity. 



In the present fetate of public sentiment no 

 person will pui'chase, either for breeding purposes, 

 or for beef, or for the dairy, and no farmer will 

 take as a gift, any animal from an infected herd. 

 What, then, is the value of such a herd ? What 

 can be done with it ? Let those answer who com- 

 plain of the course that has been adopted in Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



Walking Horses. — A correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman suggests the offering of pre- 

 miums at annual county fairs, for fast walking, as 

 well as fast trotting horses. He says he knew a 

 man who kept from two to four teams at work, on 

 the road, and never allowed them to trot at all ; 

 yet he made the distance in quicker time than his 

 neighbors who made their horses trot at every 

 convenient place. He said that when a horse 

 walked after trotting, he walked much slower than 

 his common gait, if kept continually on the walk, 

 and thus lost more than he gained by trotting. 



CuKious Effects of Camomile. — A decoction 

 of the leaves of common camomile will destroy all 

 species of insects, and nothing contributes so much 

 to the health of a garden as a number of camo- 

 mile plants dispersed through it. No greenhouse 

 or hothouse should ever be without it, in a green 

 or dried state ; either the stalks or the flowers 

 will answer. It is a singular fact, that if a plant 

 is drooping and apparently dying, in nine cases 

 out of ten, it will recover, if you plant camomile 

 near it. 



YOUTH'S DEPARTMENT. 



THE PO^WrER OF BEADING. 



Benjamin Franklin tells us, in one of his letters, 

 that when he was a boy, a little book fell into his 

 hands, entitled Essays to do Good, by Cotton 

 Mather. It was tattered and torn, and several 

 leaves were missing. "But the remainder,'' he 

 says, "gave mo such a turn of thinking as to hav3 

 an influence on my conduct thi-ough life ; for I 

 have always set a greater value on the character 

 of a doer of good than any other kind of reputa- 

 tion ; and if I have been a useful citizen, the pub- 

 lic owes all the advantages of it to the little book." 

 Jeremy Bentham mentions that the current of his 

 thoughts and studies Avas dii'cctcd for life by a 

 single phrase that caught his eye at the end of a 

 pamphlet, "The greatest good of the greatest num- 

 ber." There are single sentences in the New Testa- 

 ment that have av,-akcned to spiritual life hun- 

 dreds of millions of dormant souls. In things of 

 less moment reading has a wondrous power. Geo. 

 Law, a boy on his father's farm, met an old un- 

 known book, which told the story of a farmer's 

 son, who went away to seek his fortune, and came 

 home after many years' absence, a rich man, and 

 gave great sums to all his relations. From that 

 moment George was vnieasy, till he set out on his 

 travels to imitate the adventurer. He lived over 

 again the life he had read of, and actually did re- 

 turn a millionaire, and paid all hii father's debts. 

 Robinson Crusoe has sent to sea more sailors 

 than the press gang. The story about little George 

 Washington telling the truth about the hatchet 

 and the plum tree has made many a truth-teller. 

 We owe all the Waverly Novels to Scott's early 

 reading of the old traditions and legends ; and the 

 whole body of pastoral fiction came from Addi- 

 son's Sketches of Sir Roger DeCoverley, in the 

 Spectator. But illustrations are numberless. 

 Tremble ye who write, and ye who publish writ- 

 ing. A pamphlet has precipitated a revolution. 

 A paragraph may quench or kindle the celestial 

 spark in a human soul — in myriads of souls. 



WHESE ALL THE TOYS COME PROM. 



The vast majority are made at Grunhainscher, 

 in Saxony. The glass comes from Bohemia. The 

 bottles and cups are so fragile, that the poor work- 

 man has to labor in a confined and vitiated at- 

 mosphere, which cuts him oft' at 3j years of age. 

 All articles that contain any metal are the pro- 

 duce of Nuremburg and the surrounding district. 

 This old city has always been one of the chief 

 centres of German metal-work. The vvorkers in 

 gold and silver of the place have long been fa- 

 mous, and their iron-work unique. This spe- 

 cialty has now descended to toys. Here all toy 

 printing-presses, with their types, are manufac- 

 tured ; magic lanterns ; magnetic toys, such as 

 ducks and fish, that are attracted by the magnet ; 

 mechanical toys, such as running mice, and con- 

 juring tricks, also come from Nuremburg. The 

 old city is pre-eminent in all kinds of toy diablerie. 

 Here science puts on the conjurer's jacket, and 

 we have a manifestation of the Germanesque spir- 

 it of which their Albert Durer was the embodi- 

 ment. The more solid articles -which attract boy- 



