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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



We like the month of June for pruning better 

 than all others. If the work is done soon after 

 the new wood begins to form, the wounds made 

 by the removal of small limbs will be nearly cov- 

 ered over the same season they are made. The 

 leaves make such a demand upon the wood for 

 sap that none of it escapes from the wounded 

 pores. It is also a favorable time for thumb- 

 pruning. By watching the growth of the shoots 

 upon young trees they may be brought into sym- 

 metrical shape without much use of the knife. — 

 Amcvican Agriculturist. 



THS MILLENNIUM COMING. 



By referring to Webster, Noah, not Daniel, we 

 find that the word "millennium" signifies a thou- 

 sand years, or a period of happiness ! An im- 

 pression is upon our mind — probably gained by 

 the early reading of an ancient book^that this 

 period of happiness is to be preceded by great re- 

 vulsions among men — by wars and rumors of wars 

 — by famine and pestilence, and untold hori'or and 

 sufi'ering occasioned by the unbridled ambition of 

 wicked men, and the atrocities of their deluded 

 followers. 



The latter part of these predictions is now cer- 

 tainly fulfilled to the letter. The war is upon us 

 in gigantic proportions, — a cruel and wicked one, 

 waged by those who had always enjoyed Heaven's 

 choicest blessings, — a causeless, unnecessary war, 

 and intended to destroy the best government that 

 ever blessed mankind. On the heels of this will 

 follow those dire calamities always consequent 

 upon war, — the destruction of public property, the 

 devastation of private homes and scattering of 

 families, — the debasing influence of camp life, the 

 breaking up of the usual channels of business, and 

 the want of that commercial confidence which 

 must exist among business men in order to secure 

 national prosperity. These evils will stalk like 

 spectres through all the southern land, where old 

 men will lie down and die for want of bread, and 

 the wails of starving women and children will fill 

 the air, as with hollow eye and sunken cheek they 

 seek a scanty subsistence from devastated fields 

 and the smouldering ruins of grain stacks set on 

 fire bv their infatuated hate. 



But we must not lose sight of the Millennium. 

 Although thick-gathering horrors rest upon our 

 deluded brethren of the South, i)lenty and pros- 

 perity dwell with us, in all the su])stantial wants 

 of Hie. The hum of industry is everywhere heard, 

 our granaries are abundantly supplied, labor is 

 everywhere rewarded, and every heart and hand 

 is fall of devotion to the cause of liberty, and the 

 special care of our sons, now in the field. 



In the midst of our New England towns there 

 is one that is a Model Republic — a forerunner 

 of tlie blessed Millennium ! During the Indian, 

 French and Revolutionary wars, though with a 



population not exceeding five hundred souls, it 

 sent one hundred and four soldiers into the field! 

 It has now a population of about ten or twelve 

 hundred souls, who have real estate to the amount 

 of a quarter of a million of dollars, and have a 

 million at interest ! Their taxes are about forty 

 cents on a hundred dollars. They also own 

 a fine town farm, which, for a long time, had 

 but one inmate, a poor soldier of the Avar of 1812. 

 The jjoorest man in town kills a good beef and a 

 hog annually for the use of his family, and keeps 

 one or two good cows ! There is not a lawyer or 

 doctor or sheriff" in the town ! They have never 

 dismissed a minister from the pulpit, and the peo- 

 ple have not had a case on the docket of their 

 county Court for more than ten years ! It is said 

 that no widoAV of this town ever had her "thirds'* 

 set oiT, and that wills are almost always settled by 

 the parties interested. There are eleven schools 

 in the town, usually taught by young women, and 

 it has always been the practice to send the boys 

 to college, who are "quick to learn." 



The soil of this little republic is high, moist and 

 warm, not frosty, and during extreme cold weath- 

 er, the thermometer does not fall so low, by ten 

 degrees, as in some other towns within ten miles 

 of it. The people are nearly all farmers, and are 

 remarkably healthy. Some of its citizens have 

 lived to be more than one hundred years of age, 

 many over ninety, and the "most of them have 

 lived to be from seventy-seven to eighty-five !" 

 Truly, they have found the "elixir of life." Ma- 

 jor S. says he has seen three-fourths of the world, 

 but never found a soil so good, or a people so 

 healthy. No liquor is sold in the town, except as 

 a medicine. An agent was appointed at a salary 

 of .f 40, and the first year his returns showed sales 

 to the amount of ten dollars ! At a central point, 

 stand two splendid liberty poles, throwing the glo- 

 rious stars and stripes to the breeze. It was on 

 this very spot "where the boys rendezvoused and 

 were inspected, and with their fowling-pieces 

 marched to join Gen. Stauk, at Bennington, dur- 

 ing the Revolutionary war. They had no music to 

 cheer the parting from the loved ones they were 

 leaving behind, and must have gone in silence and 

 sadness, had not an old gentleman by the name of 

 Roach — honored be his memory — placed himself 

 in front, and set up such a ivhistle as electrified 

 the whole party, and put new mettle into their 

 heels as well as their hearts ! 



Many other virtues and graces abound in this 

 delectable town — this little Utopia, where the mil- 

 lennium is dawning. The men, of course, are ex- 

 cellent husbands, and the women exemplary wives. 

 The daughters are from a healthy race, and are 

 fair to l)ehold, vigorous, and not "bad to take," 

 when they can be caught. The young men— ex- 

 cept the scholars — stick to the farms, take, and 



