1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FABMEE. 



495 



travel on a "good smart trot," and keep on so for 

 an hour, they make about ten miles, instead of 



POVERTY NOT SO GKEAT A CURSE. 



If there is any thing in the world that a young 

 man should be more thankful for than another, it 

 is the poverty which necessitates his starting in 

 life under very great disadvantages. Poverty is 

 one of the best tests of human quality in exis- 

 tence. A triumph over it is like graduating with 

 honor from West Point. It demonstrates stuii 

 and stamina. It is a certificate of worthy labor, 

 creditably performed. A young man who cannot 

 stand the test, is not worth anything. He can 

 never rise above a drudge, or a pauper. A young 

 man who cannot feel his will harden, as the yoke 

 of poverty presses upon him, and his pluck rise 

 with every difficulty poverty throws in his way, 

 may as well retire into some corner and hide him- 

 self. Poverty saves a thousand times more men 

 than it ruins ; for it only ruins those who are not 

 particularly worth saving, while it saves multitudes 

 of those whom wealth would have ruined. If any 

 young man who reads this, is so unfortunate as 

 to be rich, I give him my pity. I pity you, my 

 rich young friend, because you are in danger. 

 You lack one stimulus to effort and excellence, 

 which your poor companion possesses. You will 

 be very apt, if you have a soft spot in your head, 

 to think yourself above him, and that sort of thing 

 makes you mean, and injures you. With full pock- 

 ets and full stomach, and fine linen and broad- 

 cloth on your back, your heart and soul plethor- 

 ic, in the race of your life, you will find yourself 

 surpassed by all the poor boys around you, before 

 you know it. 



No, my boy, if you are poor, thank God and 

 take courage ; for He intends to give you a chance 

 to make something of yourself. If you had plenty 

 of money, ten chances to one, it would spoil you 

 for all useful purposes. Do you lack education ? 

 Have you been cut short in the text book ? Re- 

 member that education, like some other things, 

 does not consist in the multitude of things a man 

 possesses. What can you do ? That is the ques- 

 tion that settles the business for you. Do you 

 know your business ? Do you know men, and 

 how to deal with them ? Has your mind, by any 

 means whatsoever, received that discipline which 

 gives to its action power and faculty ? If so, then 

 you are more of a man, and a thousand times bet- 

 ter educated than the fellow who graduates from 

 colleges with his brains full of stuff that he can- 

 not apply to the practical business of life — stuff, 

 the acquisition of which has been in no sense a 

 disciplinary process as far as he is concerned. 

 There are very few men in this world less than 

 thirty years of age, unmarried, who can afford to 

 be rich. One of the greatest benefits to be reaped 

 from great financial disasters, is the saving a large 

 crop of young men. — Timothy Titcomh. 



Long Island Lands. — Application has been 

 made to us for the pamphlet on the Long Island 

 Lands to which we referred last v/eek. We have 

 but a single copy. It can be obtained by send- 

 ing to J. G. Elliott, Esq., 54 Wall Street, N. 

 Y., Box 3443. 



For the New Englmid Farmer. 

 CAUSE OP THE POTATO ROT. 



Mr. Editor : — I have heretofore offered seven 

 reasons, to show that the potato rot is not, and 

 can not, be caused by insects. No attempt has, 

 as yet, been made to answer any one of these seven 

 reasons, or to show that they are not well founded 

 in the nature of things, or in point of fact. They 

 seem to be regarded as impregnable and unan- 

 swerable. It is true, Mr. Lyman Keed, of Balti- 

 more, has published a certijicate from seventeen 

 members of Congress, who assert that, on a cer- 

 tain day, at Washington, the capital of the nation, 

 they saw, by the aid of the microscope, certain 

 insects, on some potatoes, in the act of sucking 

 and biting them ; and, hence, they jumped at the 

 conclusion, already forestalled by the assertions 

 of Mr. Reed, that these and such like insects are 

 the cause of the ])otato rot. Such certificates and 

 assertions do not prove anything. They only go 

 to show how liable the most gifted minds, are to 

 be deceived, and to substitute, for the cause of a 

 thing its effect, or consequent, or concomitant. 



Let it be admitted, for I have no disposition to 

 deny that those seventeen members of Congress 

 actually saw what they say they saw, insects 

 on those decaying and rotten potatoes ; were 

 they, therefore, justified in jumping at the con- 

 clusion, and drawing the inference they did ? By 

 no means ! Before I draw any such conclusion or 

 inference, I wish to make a great many inquiries, 

 examinations and investigations, and ask a great 

 many questions. I wish to know what causes 

 vegetables generally to rot and decay ? Is there 

 any general or known law relating to the rot and 

 decay of vegetables ? If so, what is it ? If in- 

 sects of some kind are always found, by the aid 

 of the microscope, in all incipient decomposition, 

 does this fact prove, that they cause the rot and 

 decay ? Is it a fact, that insects cause all the veg- 

 etables which they bite to rot and decay ? If not 

 all, which ones in particular, and why ? If I can 

 obtain a satisfactory answer to the above ques- 

 tions, I believe I can explain the cause of the 

 potato rot to the satisfaction of every one who has 

 no personal or pecuniary interest to subserve. 



It would be strange, indeed, if some kind of in- 

 sects were not found, by the aid of the microscope, 

 in all kinds of rotten and decaying vegetables. 

 This is as true of rotten vegetables, as of rotten 

 animals. All dead animals waste away and are 

 consumed by insects, while their death has been 

 owing to other causes. No one, for instance, who 

 finds a dead horse full of maggots, for a moment 

 believes that the maggots have killed the horse, 

 though they be found in every part of the dead 

 animal. And what is so manifestly true with re- 

 gard to a dead horse, may be, and probably is, 

 equally true with regard to dead vegetables. If 

 it be unreasonable to believe that the maggots 

 have killed the horse, it is equally unreasonable to 

 believe that insects are the cause of the potato 

 rot, because they happen to be found upon the 

 rotten tubers. They may be the consequent or 

 concomitant of the rot, but not the cause of it. 



Besides it seem to me strange, passing strange; 

 in fact, the idea seems preposterous, that insects, 

 bv the mere act of eating or sucking potatoes, on 

 which they subsist, and which are necessary to 

 their subsistence, should infuse a deadly poison 



