10 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



New York, or London, as Ledyard and others 

 have gone over Nineveh and Babylon. Stand- 

 ing before the remains of the State House, he 

 says : — "The people of that age must have been 

 partially civilized ; they understood the uses of 

 stone and mortar." Coming across the bronze 

 statue of Franklin, he pulls out his note-book and 

 writes, "Metn. — The Americans of the nineteenth 

 century were copper-colored, and wore cocked 

 hats !" 



Flying across the country in his balloon, he 

 lights on the ancient city of Gotham. The first 

 thing he sees is Barnum's collection of Indian cu- 

 riosities. "Note. — Manhattan — a small island for- 

 merly inhabited by savages." As we before re- 

 marked, this view of the case is rather humbling 

 to man's pride, but let no one mistake our moral, 

 which is, not that we should sit down and do 

 nothing because "the world passeth away," but 

 that we should be very careful to do the right 

 thing, so that though we may not figure largely 

 hereafter in the chronicles of earth, we may yet 

 find our names in the history which the record- 

 ing angel keeps above ! 



The year 1860 has had its incidents, some of 

 them of a startling character, and as they occur, 

 one after another, in the years that are wafting 

 us along, they admonish us that there are dan- 

 gers and temptations within, as well as around, 

 our beloved country, and they all ought to teach 

 us this important lesson, that tvhat we do shall 

 •well please the recording angel to enter upon his 

 book. 



And now to our friends, readers and patrons, 

 "A Happy New Year." May the sixties crown 

 those hopes and fulfil those plans which have 

 been marked out in the fifty-nines. May the 

 same loving eyes continue to beam upon you, 

 and the same kind voices fall on your ear which 

 have so joyfully wished you a happy new year 

 this morning. And yet, for some, we know this 

 cannot be. We know it by the past, for who is 

 there that can look about his family circle of a 

 New Year's day, with no sad memory of an ab- 

 sent face to mar his happiness ! Rejoice, we must 

 and should, over the day and the year that dawn 

 upon us now, but in every heart is a niche where 

 none may enter, sacred to the memory cf the 

 "loved and lost." We must and should ring out 

 our joy-bells over the new year, with its hopes and 

 plans, but for most, there is a deeper tone heard 

 by no other ear — a solemn toll for one, who, on 

 the first of January, 1860, or on some other 1800 

 which we well remember, looked up in our face 

 and said, "I wish you a Happy New Year !" 



Do you see the shade gathering on any brow in 

 your household to-day ? Which one shall it be ? 

 Which can you best spare ? None — none, you 

 say, as you gather them closer to your side ; but 



God knows who, and when, and how. Love them, 

 then, and cherish them as you will wish you had 

 when one of the number shall lie down by those 

 already gone, or shall fill that vacant lot in the 

 cemetery, which you have so carefully enclosed 

 and planted with flowers ! 



Once more, a Happy New Year to all. Let us 

 do with new ardor and new energy what our hands 

 find to do, — for 



"Time speeds away — away — away." 



GRASS TO THE WINDOW, 



There is all the difference in the world between 

 the shadiest and greenest public garden or park, 

 even within a hundred yards of your door, and the 

 green shady little spot that comes up to your very 

 window. The former is no very great temptation 

 to the busy scholar of rural tastes ; the latter is 

 almost irresistible. A hundred yards are a long 

 way to go with purpose prepense of enjoying 

 something so simple as the green earth. After 

 having walked even a hundred yards, you feel 

 that you need a more definite aim. And the grass 

 and trees seem very far away, if you see them at 

 the end of a vista of washing your hands, and 

 putting on another coat and other boots, and still 

 more of putting on gloves and a hat. Give me 

 the little patch of grass, the three or four shady 

 trees, the quiet corner of the shrubbery, that 

 comes up to the study window, and which you 

 can reach without even the formality of passing 

 through the hall and out by the front door. If you 

 wish to enjoy nature in the summer time, you 

 must attend to all these little things. What stout 

 old gentleman but knows that when he is seated 

 snugly in his easy chair by the winter evening 

 fireside, he would take up and read many pages 

 in a volume which lay within reach of his arm, 

 while he would do without the volume, if, in order 

 to get it, he had to take the slightest trouble of 

 rising from his chair, and walking to a table half 

 a dozen yards off'? Even so must nature be 

 brought within easy reach of even the true lover 

 of nature ; otherwise, on a hundred occasions, all 

 sorts of little fanciful hindrances will stand be- 

 tween him and her habitual appreciation. — Fra- 

 ser^s Magazine. 



Feeding Hogs. — It is suggested in the Rural 

 Americanih&i the usual process of feeding pump- 

 kins, potatoes, and other bulky substances for 

 several weeks before they are fed on heavier 

 food, is unphilosophical ; as the more bulky food 

 tends to enlarge the stomach and digestive or- 

 gans, so that from mere habit they eat a larger 

 amount of the more nutritious food than the sys- 

 tem requires — more than can be digested, and 

 more than they otherwise would do. 



Framingham Farmers' Club. — This old and 

 energetic club has commenced a new series of 

 meetings for the season. Its officers are — F. C. 

 Whiston, President ; WiLMAM Hastings, Vice 

 President; O. O. Johnson, Secretary; Benja- 

 min K. Haven, Treasurer. 



