NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Feb. 



rus Japonica, and especially the Moutan Peonies 

 and the Weigelias, the last two introduced lately 

 from China, by Mr. Robert Fortune. Evergreen 

 shrubs, on the contrary, we cannot recommend ; 

 unless the cultivator has ample space and shade 

 for them, they will not, in spito of all that has 

 been said in their favor, stand our New England 

 autumn and winter suns, but turn brown and din- 

 gy when we most want them bright. The Howcr- 

 garden in its perfection is of course unattainable 

 without great care and expense ; but five dollars 

 a year, judiciously laid out in seeds and bulbs, 

 will, from one tiny plat, yield, from the first cro- 

 cus to the last crysanthemum, a perpetual joy. — 

 Christian Examiner. 



For the Neu> England Farmer. 

 CITY AND COUNTRY. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



It is rare that we "talk politics" in the Farmer, 

 but just now, when a new administration is com- 

 ing into power, and when those who have so long 

 been Outs, are about to be Ins, there may be oc- 

 casion for a short sermon to young farmers, as to 

 their duties to their countiy and themselves. 

 With a new administration, comes the idea of 

 change, and our young men look about them for 

 some new road to fortune. It would be difficult 

 to estimate how many of our readers are just now 

 meditating some change in their affairs, how many 

 are hoping to get away from their farms and 

 workshops into easier and more lucrative posi- 

 tions. How many of you have not already been 

 asked to use your influence to get some friend an 

 office under President Lincoln, and how many 

 are spending watchful nights in the anxious hope 

 that some clerkship or Custom-House place may 

 fall to his share in the grand division of offices .' 



A mania for getting out of the country into the 

 city has always possessed the young, while busi- 

 ness men in the city are carefully investing their 

 money, hoping by-and-by to purchase a home in 

 the country, and spend yet many peaceful years 

 on a farm. Of the disappointments which await 

 the latter in their ignorance of the management 

 of the affairs of the farm, we will not now speak; 

 but content ourselves with some words of warning 

 to the former. 



Don't leave home for an office in the city ! 

 There is no place which you are fit for that is 

 worth your taking ! It is true a salary of fifteen, 

 ten or even five hundred dollars a year, just for 

 four or five hours daily work in a comfortable of- 

 fice in Washington or Boston, seems very com- 

 fortable to a man who lives on a milk-farm, and 

 rises at three or four o'clock in winter mornings, 

 to milk a dozen cows, and works all day long, 

 and barely supports his small family at that. 



We all know men who have left their wives 

 and little children, or younger men who have 



broken ties only less near, and gone to distant 

 cities, to hold some government office, really be- 

 lieving they were doing better for themselves and 

 those most dear to them, than by pursuing their 

 regular avocations at home. Possibly this may be 

 so, but usually it is not. 



If you take an office, of course you expect to 

 wear a collar with your master's name upon it ! 

 You are somebody's subordinate, unless you 

 chance to be President, and then you are every- 

 body's servant ! Tou are to talk, and think, and 

 vote, as the head of your .office does, and pay a 

 per centage of your salary to carry out his politi- 

 cal schemes. You live, like the king of old, with 

 a sword over your head suspended by a single 

 hair ; and must soon lose your manhood or your 

 office, and probably both. The longer you remain 

 in place, the less are you fit for any position 

 which requires energy, and self-reliance. 



And especially, young man, if you have a wife, 

 make no arrangement which shall separate you 

 from her. You have vowed to share your fortune 

 with her, for better or for Avorse, and though she 

 may, with breaking heart, submit silently to what 

 you decide to be best, no money nor earthly pros- 

 perity, can compensate for a long separation. If 

 your new position will not maintain you together, 

 it is a temptation of the adversary, and not a 

 good Providence, that calls you away. 



Again, the comparative expenses of country and 

 city life are little understood by farmers. They 

 are not apt to appreciate how much the farm con- 

 tributes to their support. We often hear persons 

 in the country talk in this wise : "It cannot cost 

 much more to live in Boston than here in the 

 country. Flour and groceries are cheaper in the 

 city, and so is clothing of all kinds, and meats of 

 all descriptions bear about the same price as 

 here. Fuel cannot be much more expensive, be- 

 cause coal is far cheaper in the city, and coal is 

 about as cheap as wood, already, fifty miles in- 

 land. To be sure, rent is a little higher, but not 

 much," — and so the temptation to desert the soil 

 for any little salary in the city is very great. 



Now this sort of estimate is far aside from the 

 truth, not so much in the details given above, as 

 in the deductions from them. Let us look at a 

 small farmer, as we know them in great nnmbers 

 in New England. He has a fifty or one hundred 

 acre farm, with a dozen or twenty head of cattle, 

 a horse or two, a small but eomfoi-table house, 

 schools for his children the greater part of the 

 year, the meeting-house and lecture-room not far 

 off, and good voads and good neighbors. 



He works hard, lives prudently, and adds but 

 little to his substance. He is a man, self-reliant, 

 independent, as good as his neighbors or anybody 

 else, commands his own time, and is no man's 

 servant. He thinks, talks and acts according to 



