354 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



For tlie New England Farmer, 

 PBEMIUMS ON FIELD CHOPS. 



Mr. EditoPv : — In your last number, (June 7th,) 

 your Western New York correspondent "H.," un- 

 der head of "E.ivalry in Farming," very sensibly 

 urges the importance of rivalry in this very im- 

 portant branch of business — but his idea of the 

 cause of a lack of the proper stimulus, or induce- 

 ment, seems to be "the manner in which i^remiums 

 are offered for field crops." He says "most of the 

 societies now offer a premium for the largest yield 

 from an acre and half acre of ground, regardless 

 of the expenses in producing it. Premiums 

 should," he continues, "be offered on not less than 

 five acres of ground, and for the greatest yield at 

 the least cost, taking the condition of the land be- 

 fore and after the crop is taken off, into consider- 

 ation." 



I think there are many New England farmers 

 "who, (with due respect for opinions of your West- 

 ern New York correspondent,) entertain different 

 ideas from those expressed by him in some partic- 

 ulars. Situated as many farms are among the 

 granite hills, how many of them would be deprived 

 of the opportunity of competing for a premium if 

 "five acres" of a certain specified crop wei-e the 

 least amount of ground that could be received or 

 entered for a premium ! Besides, if I rightly un- 

 derstand the subject, one object in offering or 

 awarding premiums is to create a stimulus, and 

 encourage the idea that it is far better economy to 

 cultivate and till a less number of acres and do it 

 rightly, than to try to cultivate or go over a great- 

 er amount of ground and manure it more sparing- 

 ly ; although for the first crop it may seem to be 

 more expensive, yet in the long run such farming 

 will prove to be the most successful. E. W. 



E. Westmoreland, June, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MUSINGS BY THE HEARTHSTONE. 



The shadows of evening have lengthened, and 

 ■widened, and deepened, and blended into one thick 

 veil of darkness. The moaning of the March 

 wind comes, waking in my breast the echoes of 

 dying memories. The flickering blaze, too, pic- 

 tures on the wall what imagination sees as the re- 

 flected images of departed loved ones, mingled 

 with flitting shadows, like those which cross the 

 lighted pathway of the memory of the heart. 

 What heart is there which has no fountain, from 

 which some deep floodtide of fond recollections 

 will sometimes spring forth, bearing on its bosom 

 the lights and sliadows of other years, — no hours 

 of heavenly inspiration, when not only the past, 

 with its fancies, but the present and future, with 

 their realities, are spread out in startling distinct- 

 ness before the mental vision ? 



Still, the bright hearthstone glows, and looking 

 into the mass of burning embers, I seem to see 

 contracted images of mighty structures and moun- 

 tains of living fire, rising and falling in wild con- 

 fusion, pushing each other up, and bearing each 

 other down, all to settle away at last, in one dead 

 mass, when the element which works the change 

 shall have exhausted their combustible properties. 



Thus do appetites and passions work in the hu- 

 man mind when we allow them its controlling 

 power. Ever conflicting with and jostling each 



other, they create an unceasing tumult, working 

 the ruin of our better nature. Love of ease wars 

 with animal appetites and ambitious flfesires. We 

 think we see a terrestrial heaven in rounds of 

 luxurious dissipation ; but the brilliant structure 

 proves a misty mirage, leading us into the midst 

 of a great desert of suffering and shame. Instead 

 of shady palms, and fruits, and flowers, and sil- 

 very lakes, the wilderness of ruined character, of 

 health and happiness, of body and mind destroyed 

 is spread out before us in all its grim desolation. 

 AVe have appetites and passions, and they have a 

 proper place in the human mind ; a proper sphere 

 in which to be exercised, but should be kept sub- 

 servient to our higher nature. Intellectual and 

 moral powers, the head — with benevolence, affec- 

 tion and reUgion, the heart — should be the con- 

 trolling elements of the mind. Because we have 

 an animal nature, it is not, therefore, necessary 

 that we should become all animal. Live a true 

 life, and in the end its goal is not uncertain. 

 Hopes now bright as the glitter of reflected rays 

 of winter sunlight on the clear snow, may, in- 

 deed, prove equally unsubstantial. But looking 

 toward the sunset of life, we see sketched on the 

 horizon, like a mountain of transfiguration, the 

 outlines of a good old age. Its clouds are few, 

 and tinted with colors of rainbow brilliancy, the 

 foreshadowing of a bright to-morrow, while its 

 lofty summit seems to pierce the lower strata of 

 the very heavens. A Monthly Reader. 



Franklin, 1862. 



WHAT IS IN THE MOON. 



The comparative proximity of our own satellite, 

 the moon, has necessarily rendered it an object of 

 the greatest interest, and it has, perhaps, in a 

 greater degree than the other celestial orbs, been 

 subjected to the scrutinizing observations of the 

 telescope. Since the completion of the great in- 

 strument of Lord Rosse, that nobleman has fre- 

 quently observed it, and its appearance, as seen 

 by the great telescope, is thus described by Dr. 

 Scoresby : 



"It appeared like a globe of molten silver, and 

 every object of the extent of one hundred yards 

 was quite visible. Edifices, therefore, of the size 

 of Yoi-k Minster, or the ruins of Whitby Abbey, 

 might be easily perceived if they had existed. But 

 there was no appearance of anything like water, 

 or of an atmosphere. There was a vast number 

 of extinct volcanoes, several miles in bi-eadth. 

 Through one of them Avas a line of continuance of 

 about one hundred and fifty miles in length, which 

 ran in a straight direction like a railway. The 

 general appearance, however, was like one vast 

 ruin of nature ; and many of the pieces of rock, 

 driven out of the volcanoes, appeared to be laid at 

 various distances." 



We have here a strong, nay, a complete confirm- 

 ation of the most interesting recent discoveries 

 of the continental philosophers, Maelder, of Dor- 

 pat, and Baer, of Berlin. The result of their curi- 

 ous and elaborate observations has been a map of 

 what may now, without a figure, be called the ge- 

 ography of the moon, in which the surface of that 

 satellite has been laid out with as much accuracy 

 as that of our own globe. Of this map, a singular 

 contrivance of human ingenuity. Dr. Nichol has 

 given a reduced copy, besides a number of plates, 



