378 



NEW ENGLAND FARjMER. 



Aug. 



sive one. "Slow and sure," should be the motto 

 of the young farmer, or of the beginner. 



If these sage suggestions do not compensate 

 Mr. Cook for the shelter afforded us, the kind in- 

 vitation to tea, the hearty reception we received 

 from his mother, (his wife being absent,) and the 

 pleasant chat with his children, the next time we 

 pass that Avay we will cancel the bill with the 

 hard, unfeeling cash. 



It was gratifying to me to find a man in the 

 prime of life, with means at command, entering 

 upon a large and neglected farm with well-defined 

 views as to v/hat he means to accomplish, and 

 with a determination to make it pay a fair inter- 

 est upon the capital invested. I wish him all suc- 

 cess in his new enterprise, and using the license 

 conceded to an older man, ask him to remember 

 the injunction to "i>e sloio and sure." 



But, bless me, what a long letter. Who will 

 read it ? Well, friend, take a saucer of straw- 

 berries and cream as you read, and it will not 

 seem too long. Truly yours, 



Simon Brown. 



Messrs. Nourse, Eaton & Tolman. 



THE ■WOOL SBASOUr OF 1860. 



The past ten days have formed an important 

 period in the commercial history of our State for 

 the current year. In that short space of time up- 

 wards of one million dollars eastern capital has 

 been actually paid out to our farmers for their 

 wool clip — an amount of wealth calculated, in the 

 present impoverished state of our money market, 

 to work an untold influence for our commercial 

 prosperity. The clip has been a heavy one, and 

 it has brought fair prices. The season is consid- 

 ered to be about three-fourths over. It has been 

 characterized, so far as this State is concerned, by 

 more determined competition than has ever be- 

 fore been known. As was announced in our com- 

 mercial columns at the commencement, prices 

 were' expected to have ruled five cents below last 

 year's rates. This expectation was based upon 

 the difficulty of selling old wool this spring at a 

 reasonable advance on its cost last season, togeth- 

 er v/ith the unbettered prospects of the market for 

 manufactured goods. 



The feeling was general that the best wools 

 should be taken at a price not to exceed forty 

 cents. As the season fairly opened, a larger num- 

 ber than visual of heavy manufacturers and deal- 

 ers entered the market. Those who had hitherto 

 purchased in this field conceived that there was 

 an attempt to drive them out, and they exerted 

 themselves to the utmost to maintain possession 

 of the territory, where year after year they had ob- 

 tained theii- supplies. Wool-growers having found, 

 by the experience of the two past seasons, that by 

 holding back they could command their own 

 prices, adopted this course. Thus the market 

 opened plowly. There were rumors of the ability 

 of purchasers to pay last year's rates, but as yet 

 they remained firm in their determination to buy 

 for less. 



In a small Vay competition had already com- 



menced, and as high as forty-six cents had been 

 paid at a few places, when on Monday, the 18th 

 inst., the ball fairly opened by a certain heavy 

 manufacturing company giving their agents carte 

 blanche to purchase at current prices, whatever 

 they might be. Others, of course, had to do the 

 same, and a general advance was the result. For- 

 tj'-five and forty-six cents now became the com- 

 mon offering prices, with forty-seven and forty- 

 eight cents, and in some of the principal battle- 

 fields of competition, even fifty cents was not un- 

 frequently paid for choice lots. Thus the market 

 opened, and at these rates the bulk of the clip of 

 1860 has been sold. The same prices still prevail, 

 but the trade has assumed a quieter phase, 

 which v.ill continue with little variation till anoth- 

 er clip comes in. — Detroit Advertiser, June 11th. 



OUR FAEMERS. 



Their homes are their castles — their hearthstone a throne — 

 They rule with no sceptre the kingdoms they own ; 

 The stalks, and the vines, and the fruit-bearing trees, 

 Are subjects that bend not to tyrants the knee ; 



But bend with the weight of the orchard and field, 

 Ever loyal and faithful, a harvest to yield ; 

 No planning and plotting among them is known — 

 No traitor the sovereign would strike from his thone. 



He stands 'midst his acres of grass, wheat and maize. 

 Like Crusoe, "the monarch of all he surveys." 

 His banks are the earth banks that stand on his farm — 

 The banks that are safe when the jDanics alarm ; 



The stock is the cattle — nol fancy in braed ; 



The shares are tlie i:\ovi-shcti-cs that score for the seed — 



Not quoted on 'Change in the broker's array; 



But shares on which Nature will dividends pay. 



Their banks are not those that the widows condemn- 

 No officers pilfer deposits from them — 

 If small the potatoes that in them are found, 

 Yet none are as small as we find out of ground 



The farmer with appetite ever can eat 

 The bread on his table, "as good as the wheat ;" 

 And, loving most dearly his wife, he may utter, 

 "My bread and my wife ! I'll not have any but her!" 



With juice of the apple, the wife then may fill 

 The glass in which lingers no tremors or ill ; 

 And she may respond that, whatever betide her. 

 Most happy she'll be with her husband beside her! 



There's many a hearth where the embers are glowing , 

 There's many a heart with its joys overflowing ; 

 The hearths and the hearts from the world's rude alarms 

 Are safe in the homes that are reared on our farms. 



The Spider's Thread. — That a creature could 

 be found to fabricate a net, not less ingenious than 

 that of the fisherman, for the capture of its prey ; 

 that it should fix it in the right place, and then 

 patiently await the result, is a proceeding so 

 strange that, if we did not see it done daily before 

 our eyes by tlie common house-spider and garden- 

 spider, it would seem wonderful. .But how much 

 ia our wonder increased when we think of the 

 complex fabric of each thread, and then of the 

 mathematical precision and rapidity with which, 

 in certain cases, the not itself is constructed ; and 

 to add to all this, as an example of the wonders 

 which the most common things exhibit when 

 carefully examined, the net of the garden-spider 

 consists of tvro distinct kinds of silk. The threads 



