1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



101 



attention as we have spoken of, an acre ought to 

 bring twenty-five bushels. 



6. The Farmers' mid Planters' Encyclopedia, as 

 a single book, is the best we are acquainted with ; 

 but this must be used cautiously, as much of it re- 

 lates to English practices and climate. Buel's 

 Farmer's Companion and the Manual of Agri- 

 culture, just prepared by Messrs, Emerson and 

 Flint are also excellent works. 



A BARN CELLAR OUTSIDE. 



I intend to build a barn on steep land, with a 

 cellar outside to keep roots, over Avhich I intend to 

 have a cart road to a high floor. Will a coating 

 of Avatcr-lime cement make it water proof, and save 

 the planks with two or three feet of earth, 



Wm. F. Gibson. 



Ryegate, Vt., Jan., 1862. 



Remarks. — We should think not. The cement 

 might prevent the water from percolating through 

 to the planks, but the moisture of the cellar would 

 keep them damp — unless with a complete sys- 

 tem of ventilation — which would eventually rot 

 and ruin them. Can you not throw one or two 

 stone arches over the cellar, and thus make per- 

 manent work of it ? Would not such work be 

 cheaper in the end ? 



SALES FROM SHEEP. 



Will you please ask Mr. Nathan Bottum, of 

 Shaftsbury, Vt., to inform us how liis sales from 

 175 sheep amounted to $2000 ? 



Jan. 1, 1862. WiLLLVM B. Ward. 



moles and WOODCnUCKS. 

 I wish to ask through the Farmer, what is the 

 best way to get rid of moles and woodchucks ? 

 Eatjleld, Jan. 1, 1862. 



FAKMEBS' HIGH SCHOOL. 



We have before us a catalogue of the Officers 

 and Students of the Farmers' Hiqli School of 

 Pennsylvania, for the year 1861. The college 

 year of ten months will commence about the mid- 

 dle of February next. The Faculty says : 



The student has an opportunity of seeing all the 

 practical opei'ations of the farm, garden and nurse- 

 ry, in the most approved manner, with the use of 

 the best manures, seeds, tools and implements ; 

 and, what is of more importance than this, he 

 studies in the class-room and laboratory the scien- 

 tific principles involved in all he does, and by be- 

 coming a scientific man and analytical chemist, he 

 is enabled to protect himself and others against 

 the frauds and cheats that are continually being 

 practised upon the uneducated, by dealers who are 

 themselves either ignorant of science, or use it to 

 impose upon the community. He learns how to 

 study the geology, mineralogy and chemistry of 

 the soil he cultivates, the botany of the plant he 

 grows, and the laws of health and diseases of the 

 animals he uses. 



In a word, he is made thoroughly acquainted 



with the laws and phenomena of the material world 

 with which he is in immediate contact, a knowledge 

 of Avhich is essential to their material success, or 

 intellectual pleasure, in the pursuit of the duties 

 of rural life. 



Those desirous of learning more of the institu- 

 tion, may do so by addressing Dr. E. PUGll, Fai'm 

 School, Penn. 



"WINTER-TIME. 



Though Winter reigns, Beauty still holds her throne ; 

 She moulds the snow-flake to its lovely form, 

 And the fjw crinkled leaves that mock the storm, 

 And laugh and chatter while the sad winds moan, 

 Beauty hath stained with mingled gold and brown. 

 The patches of bright sky between the showers. 

 The robin's breast, and moss-floors of lone bowers, 

 For naked trees and funeral-clouds atone. 

 Beauty dies not, she walks through forest dim 

 With feathery feet, when the strange cuckoo-note 

 Like a friend's voice on the calm air doth float, 

 And lisping zephyrs chant Spring's advent-hymn ; 

 With the swart Summer and brown Autumn dwells ; 

 And marries Winter in the ice-flower dells. 



AMEKICAN SOCIETY. 



In America, even more than in Europe, there is 

 but one society, whether rich or poor, high or low, 

 commercial or agricultural ; it is everj'where com- 

 posed of the same elements. It has all been raised 

 or reduced to the same level of civilization. The 

 man whom you left in the streets of New York, 

 you find again in the solitude of the far West ; the 

 same dress, the same tone of mind, the same lan- 

 guage, the same habits, the same amusements. 

 No rustic simplicity, nothing characteristic of the 

 wilderness, nothing even like our villages. This 

 peculiarity may be easily explained. The portions 

 of territory first and most fully peopled, have 

 reached a high degree of civilization. Education 

 has been prodigally bestowed ; the spirit of equal- 

 ity has tinged with singular uniformity the domes- 

 tic habits. 



Now it is remarkable that the men thus educat- 

 ed are those who, every year, migrate to the des- 

 ert. In Europe, a man lives and dies where he 

 was born. In America, you do not see the repre- 

 sentative of a race grown and multiplied in retire- 

 ment, having long lived unknown to the world, 

 and left to his own efforts. The inhabitants of an 

 isolated region arrived yesterday, bringing with 

 them the habits, ideas and wants of civilization. 

 They adopt only so much of savage life as is ab- 

 solutely forced upon them ; hence you see the 

 strangest contrasts. You step from a wilderness 

 into the streets of a city, from the wildest scenes 

 to the most smiling pictures of civilized life. If 

 night does not surprise you, and force you to sleep 

 under a tree, you may reach a village where you 

 will find everything, even French fashions and car- 

 icatures from Paris. The shops of Bufl'alo or De- 

 troit are as well supplied with all these things as 

 those of New Yoi-k. The looms of Lyons work for 

 both alike. 



You leave the high road ; you plunge into paths 

 scarcely mai'ked out ; you come at length upon a 

 plowed field, a hut built of rough logs, lighted by 

 a single naiTow window ; you think that you have 

 at last reached the abode of the American peasant ; 

 you are wrong. You enter this hut, which looks 



