1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



141 



transactions are deficient — viz. : One on Pioad- 

 sters, by J. Cummin^s, Jr., of Woburn ; one on 

 3Iilch Heifers, by Winslow Wellington, of Lex- 

 ington ; one on Poultry, by E. Wood, of Concord ; 

 one on Bread, by Minot Pratt, of Concord ; one 

 on Apples, Class 1, by Saniuc4 H. Pierce, of Lin- 

 coln ; on Apples, Class 2, by Andrew AVcllington, 

 of Lexington; on Peaches and Plums, by E, H. 

 Warren, of Chelmsford ; one on Grapes, Frxiit 

 and Melons, by John B. ]Moore, of Concord ; on 

 the process of Wine-Malcing, by E. W. Bull, of 

 Concord ; on Vegetables, by James Gammcl!, of 

 Lexington ; on Household Muimfacturcs, by Lil- 

 ley Eaton, of South Reading ; on Floiccrs, by E. 

 W. Bull, of Concord ; on Bidls and Blood Stock, 

 by Peter Lawson, of Lowell. These reports are 

 somewhat extended, and state valuable facts, or 

 maiie interesting suggestions, which give the Tran- 

 sactions a value which they could not possess 

 without them. The names of the officers for 1862 

 Ave have given heretofore. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE USES pF LABOR TO MATT. 



Mr. Editor :— :Man's nature is such as to fit 

 him for the world which he inhabits. He was 

 created in the image of his Jilaker— that is, God 

 endowed him with mental faculties similar to his 

 own, only that they were infinitelv lower in the 

 degree of their development. These higher pow- 

 ers, M-ith his peculiar physical organization, distin- 

 guish man from the lower animals, placing him 

 but "little lower than the angels, crowning him 

 with glory and honor," and giving him dominion 

 over the whole earth and sea, and'all living things 

 that inhabit them. 



Man's physical organization is such, constructed 

 ■with its limbs, its bones and muscles, cords and 

 sinews, as to make it capable, under, and with the 

 meiital powers which guide and direct it, of ob- 

 taining all needed supplies for its sustenance and 

 comfort. But, high as is the position which man 

 occupies in the scale of being, labor is to him a 

 necessity. Without it, in both departments of his 

 two-fold nature, the efiects of that immutable law 

 are felt, according to which each faculty, not used, 

 degenerates and wastes away like the share of the 

 rusting plow. God, in His all-wise providence, 

 has fitted the earth for man's peculiar nature. 

 The riches it contains are not called forth simply 

 at his bidding. He is compelled to call into ac- 

 tion the exercise of all his faculties and suscepti- 

 bilities, to _ obtain the necessaries of his life, and 

 this exercise nut only preserves, but strengthens 

 and develops them. Use is the parent of develop- 

 ment. Thus it is evident that the necessity which 

 compels us to labor, is the result of one of the 

 most benevolent of laws. Labor was a necessity 

 before, as well as after the fall of our first parents, 

 who in the beginning tilled and dressed the gar- 

 den ; therefore the poet mistakes in speaking of 

 labor as the "primal curse softened to a blessing." 

 Our first parents were removed from the garden, 

 but outside of it, they could form and cultivate 

 another, and wliile earning theii- food by the sweat 



of their brow, increase the health and strength of 

 body and mind. 



_ Our food is composed of elements which repose 

 in earth s bosom, or float in the air and sea. Each 

 seed IS qualified to draw into its form the elements 

 which Its nature requires to start the germ and 

 form the plant, and grow, develop, and mature. 

 And at last the sun and air ripen it, and fit it for 

 our use. 



But all the time we must obey the laws of pro- 

 duction which govern the growth of the iilant, bv 

 placing it m the right soil, in a proper manner, 

 and removing whatever obstacles may obstruct its 

 growth. It might naturally be supposed that the 

 less labor we were compelled to ijcrform, and the 

 more leisure hours we could gain, the greater 

 would be our mental acquisitions. But as we look 

 over the world and see a rough region like New 

 i^ngland, where severe and protracted labor is ne- 

 cessary, standing in an intellectual point of view 

 pi-e-emineut among the people of the earth, and rd 

 gions where a tropical sun and fertile soil remove 

 the necessity of labor such as we perform, among 

 the owest mentally, that theory is disproved. 



Ihe labor doom of "honest poverty" should not 

 be scorned. Poverty has comjielled* many of the 

 mightiest intellects to develoj) those jiowers which 

 would otherwise have lain inert. Many of the 

 mightiest minds sprang into being in the home of 

 poverty. \\ ashington, though the son of wealthy 

 parents,_ surveyed in his youth among the forests 

 ot Virginia. AVebster was the son of a New 

 liampsme farmer, and labored with liis fother, in 

 his childhood and youth. Burns, the plow-boy 

 poet, first drew breath beneath a straw-thatched 

 cottage in Scotland, and his 



"A man's a man for all that," 



was composed in consequence of sneers at his toiJ- 

 hardencd hands, the scorners themselves, with 

 their_ delicate fingers, never having performed that 

 ph}sical labor which disciplined and energized the 

 muid, and gave force to the character of Burns. 

 Elihu Burritt, "the learned blacksmith," Hugh 

 Miller, the geologist, and thousands of other ex- 

 amples, might be cited to prove poverty and se- 

 vere protracted labor to have been of great value 

 in bringing out the latent energies of many of the 

 leading minds, both of j)rcsent and past ages. 



But one great fact should be kept iiAiew by 

 the child of wealth, and that is, riches, if iiroperly 

 used are a blessing. AVashington, though weal- 

 thy labored, and so can you. And by such labor, 

 with only common talents, you can rise to such a 

 position as to illustrate the truth of the proposi- 

 tion, that "those possessions which arc, when 

 abused, man's greatest curse, are, when iiroperly 

 used, his greatest blessing." 



Jan., 1862. A Monthly Reader, 



TEKTACITY OF LIFE TN A FISH. 



It is not unusual for the dealers in fishes for 

 aquaria to find that some of them, the gold and 

 silver carp especially, have leaped out of the wa- 

 ter, and lie partially shrivelled up on the floor. 

 They return them to the water, and they resusci- 

 tate, without apparently having suffered injury. 

 AA^e have known fish to be frozen in the aquarium 

 for hours, and be as healthy and lively as ever 

 when gradually thawed out. But a most remark- 



