452 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



and now the bark is smooth and healthy, and only 

 here and there is there a spot where he can be 

 seen. And I trust that these spots will yet be 

 made too bitter and slippery for a comfortable or 

 safe habitation. 



Now lam a believer in whale oil soap for trees. 

 Others may boast of the omnipotence of potash 

 water, and divers others may come down hard for 

 soft soap, but allow me to expatiate freely for 

 the whale oil ! It adheres, undoubtedly; to the 

 bark longer than potash or soft soap, and conse- 

 quently does not need so frequent use ; while at 

 the same time it is more easily prepared and kept 

 than ley (requiring great caution as to strength,) 

 and seems to be an effectual exterminator of the 

 bark-louse, and even otherwise healthful to the 

 trees. Any hard brown soap, I suppose, would 

 render the bark too slippery for the adherence of 

 the young louse, but whether it would kill the 

 old one or its eggs as readily as a kind more nau- 

 seous, I am not prepared to say. D. w. L. 



West Medford, Aug., 1861. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "I CANNOT AFFORD IT." 



Some writer has said that not one person in 

 ten dares to say "I cannot afford it," when truth 

 and justice to himself require it. 



Is this a strong assertion ? I think not. Let 

 us take but one class of men and women in our 

 community, farmers and their wives, and see how 

 this is. We will suppose a man commencing 

 farm life with few or many acres, it matters but 

 little for our purpose. How many things in one 

 year are presented to him for his notice, with the 

 assurance of some purely disinterested lover of 

 man and womankind, some being overflowing 

 with the milk of human kindness, that it is just 

 the thing he or she wants and must have — a com- 

 bination long sought of all that is desirable, — in 

 a word, that it is the thing of all others that he 

 must have, and much more that we have not yet 

 learned ? 



Now how many of our farmers that have never 

 thought of this desideratum, (I do not now refer 

 to really useful farm implements, or the many in- 

 door conveniences which render home attractive,) 

 will at once say, "No, sir, I cannot afford it ?" 



How many, when appealed to to give a sum of 

 money to some public enterprise, by some make- 

 believe philanthropist, soliciting them with an 

 earnestness, worthy of a better cause, dare to say 

 readily, "I cannot afford it," after they are clear- 

 ly convinced that it has no claim upon their time 

 or money ? 



The writer of this knows of a farming town 

 which was visited by a young man possessed of 

 great firmness in all his plans and actions, very 

 courteous, and consequently of great power to di- 

 rect. He designed to obtain subscribers for an 

 article which could be only of very doubtful ben- 

 efit to but a limited number of persons. This 

 the gentleman indirectly admitted to the writer. 

 Still, Mr. had been a close observer of hu- 

 man nature, and he said to me that, "although 

 he knew that not more than one in twenty to 

 whom he should present the article, had or would 

 have, the least desire for it — yet" said he, "I can 

 assure you, that I shall sell to about every family 

 in the place, excepting a few persons in deep pov- 



erty, whom I could not have a face to ask, per- 

 sons who do not in five years have, at one time, 

 the money sufficient to pay for it." 



"But, my dear sir," said I, "not more than ten 

 families in the place can afford to buy that." 



"Ah, do you think so ? Well, now, how many 

 will dare tell me so at once, giving that frankly 

 and honestly as a reason. Why, my good wo- 

 man, I've found the world over, that people who 

 cannot, are the last to say they cannot afford a 

 thing." 



His words proved true. Of course, quite an 

 amount of talk was necessai-y to aid the seller. 

 The writer has the means of knowing that in nine- 

 teen cases out of twenty, Mr. was not be- 

 yond the reach of "a stone's throw," before they 

 were provoked with themselves ; what under the 

 sun they bought it for they didn't know, and then 

 they vowed "they'd never touch it if it was 

 brought ;" and I also know that many women 

 mourned in silence, not a little, and to their bet- 

 ter halves considerably, "that they should have 

 been so foolish, when they were needing this thing 

 and that thing, and had wanted it for years, ' and 

 long was the list of their "going-withouts ;" and 

 they finally concluded that, "when it came, if they 

 had to take it, and had to pay for it, they'd put 

 it out of sight and hearing." 



"I shouldn't have taken it, for all his talk," said 

 many, "but there was Mr. S.and Capt. L. and N.'s 

 folks subscribed, and I didn't want to say I could 

 not afford it." 



There is the rub. By the way, my friends, you 

 make a decided mistake when you put of sight 

 these "can't afford things." You would dispose 

 of them far more profitably and to your best ad- 

 vantage, were you to frame them, granting they 

 were frameable, in splendid frames, and hang 

 them where you could view them daily, in their 

 different lights and shades, and let them teach 

 you lessons of truth and firmness. 



The farmer's wife goes to the neighboring vil- 

 lage, or may be the city, shopping, with not a 

 very long purse. The shopkeeper gathers the 

 rich, glossy silk in such pretty folds, or the rich 

 ribbon, which he knows how to "bow up" better 

 than any milliner, is temptingly exhibited. She 

 hesitates — she never thought of buying to-day, 

 but Mr. Such-an-one's wife steps in, dressed in a 

 better silk, and she dares not say before her, "I 

 cannot afford it," and she allows itto be cut off, 

 and it is too late. 



Let me privately assure you, my lady friends — 

 you will never, to use terms you will understand, 

 "set by" that dress, or take any comfort in wear- 

 ing it. 



Again, a farmer's wife of quite moderate means 

 is assured by half-a-dozen ladies of the parish to 

 which she belongs, that it is really shabby and 

 mean to let the sewing circle lose any in numbers 

 and interest, because it is the busy season of the 

 year. What if she has no help, and is com- 

 pletely worn down, is that any reason why the 

 cause- of benevolence should suffer? Ought she 

 to think altogether of self ? 



Why, Mrs. A. assures the aforesaid farmer's 

 wife "that she could see from her pew, that the 

 minister's old turnipy-looking thing of a silver 

 watch had two dents in the case, and for her part 

 she couldn't take any more comfort of the ser- 

 vices." 



