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NEW ENGLAND FAKMEB. 



Sept. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 AGHICUIiTUBE. 



Agriculture was the first occupation of man. 

 Many of the most distinguished men, in every age 

 of the world, have been cultivators of the soil. 

 They thought it no dishonor to obey the Divine 

 injunction, and earn their daily bread by the sweat 

 of their brow. Some of the ancient nations es- 

 teemed agriculture as the most honorable of pur- 

 suits. Indeed, it is the foundation of all other pur- 

 suits. Were it not for the produce of the soil, 

 there would be no commerce, no intercourse be- 

 tween nations, ships would rot at their docks, 

 merchants would have to leave their counting 

 rooms, and the whole human family would soon 

 experience a day as dark as the one Lord Byron's 

 imagination saw. 



Agriculture spreads the table from which we ob- 

 tain nourishment, to strengthen these weak and de- 

 caying bodies. The manufacturer cannot flourish, 

 without the aid of the farmer. Every new wheel 

 which is set in motion depends upon the farmer 

 for the raw material to manufacture into cloth. 

 Where the cultivation of the soil is held in low es- 

 timation, we see no thriving cities, no centres of 

 commerce or trade, no railroads or telegraphs, no 

 civilized society ; nothing but a low, degraded race 

 of barbarians. No nation can be pi'osperous and 

 wealthy, without the development of its agricul- 

 tural resources. The agricultural classes are the 

 sovereigns of our country, and will conti'ol its po- 

 litical destinies in future ages. 



How many young men we see, who act as 

 though they thought it beneath their dignity to till 

 th» soil and earn their daily bread ! They seem 

 to think that everlasting disgrace would come upon 

 them, if they should be seen hold of the plow or 

 the hoe ! So they look with scorn upon the farm- 

 er's lot, and die in the poor-house. How many 

 people there are, who think that the ignorant 

 ought to cultivate the soil, and the more learned 

 follow other pursuits. It is' a great mistake. Ag- 

 riculture is a science ; and ought to be studied 

 just as much as any other science, if we wish to 

 be successful farmers. A few more brains with 

 the muscles, would improve the soil very much. 



Some complain that it is unpleasant work to cul- 

 tivate the soil. I do not agree with that class of 

 persons. I delight, with a good team and plow, 

 on a beautiful spring morning, when the merry 

 birds sing sweetly upon the sunny hill-sides, and 

 all Nature seems alive with music, to go forth in- 

 to the field, and turn the furrows over, and view 

 Nature in her most beautiful aspect. The sur- 

 rounding scenery points me upward to Nature's 

 God, and fills my heart with gratitude and praise 

 to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. There 

 is no class of people in the world who enjoy life 

 so well as independent farmers. The man who 

 owns the land which he cultivates, (perhaps it has 

 cost him many years of hard labor, or it may be it 

 is the old homestead, where his father lived before 

 him, and his heart is bound to it by a thousand 

 sacred ties,) is truly in a position to enjoy life's 

 sweetest blessings. Oliver P. Mead. 



Middlebury, VL, 1862. 



THE ELM TREE "WOBMS. 



A successful mode of eradicating these pests 

 would seem to have been discovered in Connecti- 

 cut. A few years since. New Haven, very prop- 

 erly designated "the Elm City," bid fair to lose its 

 right to the cognomen, by the total destruction of 

 its elms, so completely were they overrun and 

 stripped annually by the worms. The authorities, 

 however, very wisely took under theii' charge all 

 the trees, whether before private property or in 

 the public parks and grounds, and commenced a 

 uniform plan for their protection. Around each 

 tree was placed a bandage of fine straw, so ar- 

 ranged as to jiresent a bristling barrier to the up- 

 ward march of the worms ; above this a leaden 

 trough was placed, surrounding the tree, which 

 was filled with oil and furnished with a projecting 

 roof of the same metal. If any of the worms suc- 

 ceeded in surmounting the barrier of straw, they 

 were caught in the oil, and care was taken to have 

 all so caught regularly taken out and killed, so 

 as to leave the trap cleai-. The effect of these pre- 

 cautionary measures seems to have been to eradi- 

 cate the worms almost entirely, and the noble elms 

 of New Haven never appeared to better advan- 

 tage than at the present time. 



The violet grows low, and covers itself with its 

 own tears, and of all flowers yields the sweetest 

 fracjrance. Such is humilitv. 



Yankee Inventions Abroad. — The London 

 Times thus notices a feM" of the machines in the 

 American Court of the Great Exhibition : — 



After the models and gigantic engines in the 

 Western Annexe, the very ingenious small hand- 

 labor saving machines in the American Court are 

 tlie most looked after. One of the most curious 

 of these is the machine for milking the four teats 

 of a cow at the same time, and in a manner pre- 

 cisely similar to the action of the calfs mouth 

 upon the teat. In point of time, labor and clean- 

 liness, the operation of the machine is said to far 

 surpass milking by hand ; and the right to use the 

 patent in this country was yesterday sold, we be- 

 lieve for a very large sum. In this court also is a 

 very ingenious machine for making paper bags, 

 which turns them out folded, packed, dried, and 

 finished at the rate of forty a minute. The cork- 

 cutting, "planting," and rope making machines 

 here are especially worthy of minute examination, 

 and some of the washing machines are quite mar- 

 vels of inventive skill — almost approaching to the 

 inspirations of genius in the simple means by which 

 their great results are efl'ected. This court is wor- 

 thy of even a more extended notice than it has 

 yet received from the mass of visitors. 



Flannel. — Flannel should be worn summer 

 and winter, during the day, but should be taken 

 off at night. In summer it allows the perspira- 

 tion to pass oft' M'ithout condensing upon the skin, 

 and prevents the evil effects of the rapid clianges 

 of temperature to which we are liable in our 

 changeable climate, when out of doors. In win- 

 ter, as a non-conductor of heat, it is a protection 

 against cold. At night, the flannel jacket or jer- 

 sey should be exposed to a free current of air and 

 allowed thoroughly to dry ; it should never be put 

 in a heap of clothes by the bedside. Flannel is 

 usually only worn over the chest and abdomen. 



