1*861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



381 



cow or the production of vegetables, while — most 

 important of all — the possession of a forty-shil- 

 ling freehold gives them a vote. To attain this 

 end they will hoard their savings until a sum of 

 five, ten, fifteen or twenty-five hundred dollars is 

 attained at immense labor and at the almost en- 

 tire sacrifice of all interest upon it while it is in 

 the process of accumulation, and receiving when 

 finally the purchase is completed scarcely any — 

 satisfied at the outside with two and a half per 

 cent." 



ON THE CBOSS-ROAD BY THE MILL. 



BT B. H. KINNEY. 



On the crosa-road, by the Mill, 



Where the turnpike crosses eastward, 

 Down the gently sloping hill, 



To the river running westward, 

 , By the cross-road and the Mill, 



Stood a farmer's humble cottage,— 

 And the cot is standing still, 



Cherished with a sacred dotage. 



There a sturdy yeoman dwelling. 



Tilled the stern New England soil: 

 Gaining by his generous tilling, 



Scanty harvests for the toil: 

 While his gentle housewife, moving 



Like the river deep and still, 

 Trained their little brood for loving, 



In the cottage near the Mill. 



Thus along life's cross-road, leading 



To the portals of the sky, 

 Nature's sacred volume reading, 



Passed this ancient couple by ; 

 At the time of ripened harvest. 



That the heavenly garners fill. 

 With the ones who travel farthest. 



On life's cross-road by the Mill. 

 fforcester, June, 1861. Palladium. 



An Old Field. — A correspondent of the 

 Northern New-Yorker and Saratoga Farmer, 

 makes the following statement of corn growing 

 on a piece of land in the town of Johnsburgh, N. 

 Y., near Lake George. "We copy it for the espe- 

 cial benefit of lazy, shiftless farmers ; and would 

 advise all such to emigrate to the aforesaid Johns- 

 burgh, as soon as may be. 



"Of corn Mr. Wm. Scripter has raised, father 

 and son, from the same piece of land, a crop since 

 1810, or for fifty years successively, and without 

 the aid of manure, ashes or plaster ! Can this be 

 beat ? He says he has never changed his seed, 

 and has a fair crop this year. His land is a 

 gravelly loam, filled with cobble stone." 



The Bark Louse. — In reply to a correspond- 

 ent who inquires for a remedy, the editor of the 

 Rural New-Yorker says the bark louse is a diffi- 

 cult insect to get rid of. After mentioning ap- 

 plications of soft soap, tar and linseed oil (?) and 

 a strong lye of tobacco, he adds that a gentleman 

 in the Western part of the State wrote to him 

 last season that he had entirely rid his orchard of 

 this pest by simply throwing unleached ashes 

 over the branches and trunk when wet. Care 

 must be used that the ashes do not touch the 

 leaves. The best time for this operation would 

 be early in the spring, before the buds push. 



For the New Englaritl Farmer. 



THE VALUE OF HEALTH, MORE THAW 

 WEALTH. 



Messrs. Editors : — Our happiness in this life 

 depends more upon good health, and a conscience 

 "void of off"ence," than every other circumstance. 

 What enjoyment can a diseased hypochondriac 

 have, unless he enjoys annoying his friends with 

 a detailed catalogue of his miserable feelings. 

 The causes for dyspepsia are numerous, some of 

 which will be mentioned further along. A dys- 

 peptic suff'ers physically and mentally; he is in- 

 capable of enjoying happiness in this life, or, 

 seemingly, fitting himself for future happiness ; 

 if his morals and religious creed have been of the 

 most approved kind, his gloomy mind bodes his 

 future destiny as one least hopeful and most to be 

 dreaded. Few who enjoy good health, realize the 

 value of it. Money is no equivalent, or substi- 

 tute for health, as many rich suff'erers can testify. 

 There are many causes for prolonged chronic dis- 

 ease ; overaction and inaction produce nearly 

 the same results, while well-adjusted labor is con- 

 ducive to health. Excessive labor debilitates the 

 system, and is followed by a train of morbid de- 

 rangements which unfit a man for the enjoyments 

 of social life. Headlong overdoing is the sin of 

 the age ; it not only produces a deranged state of 

 the stomach, but a deranged state of finance. In 

 what was pronounced "good times," thousands of 

 mechanics worked themselves into dyspepsia for 

 the purpose of earning extra pay ; now the result 

 of that overdoing is plain to be seen in the pros- 

 tration of business, and bankruptcy of merchants. 

 If men will do twenty years' business in ten years, 

 they may expect an abridgment of labor and life 

 accordingly. 



Every man is limited to perform a certain 

 amount of labor, and then is done. Some farm- 

 ers, like other folks, have a great desire to accu- 

 mulate property. Industry merits the highest 

 commendation, but overworking is sure to pro- 

 duce sickness, melancholy and regret. I have 

 known farmers doing a snug business, clear of 

 debt, a little money on hand, and living happily 

 in their families, suddenly seized with the land 

 fever, on a farm being for sale in the neighbor- 

 hood, make the highest bid, and at the same time 

 bid adieu to all comfort, involve themselves in 

 debt, multiply the labors and cares of the house- 

 hold department, disgust their sons by additional 

 labor to such an extent, that they leave for the 

 city in hopes to find relief, delve for a few years, 

 when they yield themselves an easy prey to old 

 age, and death, and their hard-earned property is 

 distributed to greedy city and other relatives, as 

 a lucky morsel. Inaction does not always imply 

 laziness. 



Those who live sedentary lives are often the 

 most industrious portion of our population, but 

 still, there is a degree of inaction in a part of the 

 muscular and organic system, which is detrimen- 

 tal to health. Children that are confined at 

 school the year around, often suffer from the ef- 

 fects of confinement; lassitude takes the place of 

 action, and a little exercise produces fatigue till a 

 disinclination to action predominates, and a poor 

 appetite and debility follows. Children designed 

 for trades or any kmd of labor, females not ex- 

 cepted, would form more vigorous constitutions, 



