358 



NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Aug. 



Pot the New England Parmer. 



MIND TOUR BUSINESS. 



Mr. Editor: — This short sentence, mind your 

 business, is very imperative and expressive. It 

 is also very comprehensive in its application, and 

 meaning. It applies equally to you, and to me, 

 and to all mankind ; and it says, to each and to 

 all, as plain as language can say, mind your busi- 

 ness. It has no respect for particular persons, 

 or professions, or pursuits, nor will it allow any 

 one to dodge the consequences of his own per- 

 sonal responsihility. Its significance will, per- 

 haps, be better understood by a few illustrations 

 of its application and meaning in the language of 

 common, every-day life. 



1. It is the language of all in lawful authority, 

 •who "say to this man, go, and he goeth ; and to 

 another, come, and he cometh ; and to their ser- 

 vant, do this, and he doeth it." It applies as well 

 to civil, as to military authority ; and it requires 

 attention to the word of command ; otherwise, 

 there would be no such thing as authority ; but 

 all would be in a state of anarchy and confusion. 



2. It is the language of the master to his slaves. 

 I do not intend to touch the merits of slavery, 

 nor to consider the master's right to use this lan- 

 guage ; but, so long as slavery exists, his lan- 

 guage to his slaves is, and must be, in the very 

 nature of the case, do this — do that — do as I tell 

 you — mind your business. 



3. It is the language, not only of parental au- 

 thority and family government, but of Divine au- 

 thority, addressed to the young, and exhorting 

 them "to obedience. "Children, obey your par- 

 ents in the Lord ; for this is right." Mind your 

 business. 



4. It is the language of the wise and virtuous, 

 addressed to "evil doers and intermeddling busy- 

 bodies in other men's matters." Their language 

 to such is, mind your business. 



And why may it not be regarded, also, as the 

 language of farmers, of friends, and of equals, 

 mutually addressed to each other, and earnestly 

 urging "the importance of attention to_ business ? 

 Mind your business, brother farmers ; if you have 

 anything to do, attend to it, for it will_ not do to 

 neglect it. Farming requires mindj it requires 

 thought and reflection ; it requires discrimination 

 and good judgment ; and it requires present per- 

 sonal attention. The mind must be engaged in 

 the work. The head, the heart and the hands 

 must co-operate and be united in the work. 

 "Whatsoever your hands find to do, you must do 

 it with all your might." You must work with a 

 will and determination to accomplish your object. 

 You must mind your business. 



Many of those who complain that farming is 

 unprofitable, are persons whose minds have never 

 been earnestly engaged in the business. They 

 have been trained up, perhaps, in some other 

 kind of business, and through want of attention 

 to it, and skill in the business, they have failed 

 therein. They have attended to farming only as 

 a kind of fashionable amusement. They have 

 never taken hold of the work in good earnest, and 

 directed all their energies to it. They have had 

 something else to do all the while, and something 

 else in mind to think about — some great specula- 

 tion, perhaps, by means of which they have been 

 in hopes of accumulating a fortune in a very short 



time — something else, besides farming, on which 

 they have relied, to enable them to "turn an hon- 

 est penny," and to get a living ; and they have, 

 therefore, only occasionally directed their atten- 

 tion to farming, as a kind of dernier resort, when 

 all other means of subsistence fail. To such far- 

 mers I would say, with all due deference and re- 

 spect, mind your business. If farming be your 

 business, attend to it ; if speculation be your busi- 

 ness, attend to it ; but do not think of becoming 

 rich by the former, while you are wasting all your 

 energies upon the latter. You cannot serve two 

 professions any more or any better than you can 

 serve two masters. You will be certain to fail in 

 the one or in the other, and perhaps in both. 

 And you have no right to impute your failure in 

 the business of farming to any other than its true 

 cause, your want of skill and attention to the 

 business. Therefore, mind your busings. 



There is an old proverb which says, that "if 

 any thing be worth doing, it is worth doing well." 

 Nothing can be done well without particular at- 

 tention — without painstaking — without skill and 

 effort. At all events, there must be mind in the 

 work. We are so constituted, that we can do 

 nothing skilfully and well, while our minds are 

 inactive, or engaged on something else. Our 

 thoughts must be directed to, and interested in, 

 the particular work we wish to do. If farming be 

 that work, we must mind our business. 



Warwick, Mass., 186L ^^^^ Goldsburt. 



Por the New England Farmer. 



THE SOURCE OF CARBON TO THE 

 PLANT. 



Mr. Editor : — It is the prevailing opinion 

 among most farmers that the carbon of cellulose 

 and woody fibre is obtained from the manure and 

 the soil ; and heVice the land is manured for t^e 

 purpose of increasing the amount of carbonaceous 

 matter in it, which is regarded as the true souree 

 of carbon. That the growth of the plant is in 

 proportion to the amount of organic matter in the 

 soil, there is no doubt ; but, that the plant gets 

 its carbon from this organic matter, I deny, and 

 I shall endeavor to show that the carbonic acid 

 of the atmosphere is the great source from 

 whence the plant derives its carbon. For, if we 

 accept the geologic theory of the earth's forma- 

 tion, we evidently conclude that the first plants 

 did not get their carbon from the soil, but from 

 the carboniferous atmosphere, which contained 

 carbon in great abundance, and was so well adapt- 

 ed to that luxuriant vegetation, which gave rise 

 to the coal formation. And it has been shown 

 by Prof. Liebig, the German chemist, that a plant 

 will assimilate as much carbon growing upon a 

 soil that contains no organic matter, (but it must 

 be well supplied with soluble inorganic materi- 

 als,) as upon a soil of vegetable mould. 



De Saussure ascertained by chemical analysis, 

 that about 1-1000 part, by weight, of the atmos- 

 phere was carbonic acid; of which 27 3-11 per 

 cent, is pure carbon. And we find by mathemat- 

 ical calculation, that there are upwards of 25,000 

 pounds of carbon, locked up by the oxygen of the 

 air, to every acre of land. 



The green leaf is enabled, by the chemical in- 

 fluence of the actinic rays of the sun, to deodorize 



