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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aprii 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DOGS, GUSTS, RODS. 



Mil. Editor : — I am a farmer, heart, soul and 

 hands. I work with a mIU in my vocation. I am 

 proud to be a hard-fisted, strong-armed, brown- 

 faced tiller of the soil. It is my ambition to keep 

 the largest amount, and the best quality of live 

 stock in town, according to my acres, and of course 

 to raise the largest and best crops for the size of 

 my farm ; and I do it, too, as the figures will show 

 on the records of our club. How do I do it? 

 "Why, by taking and reading the New Emjlaad 

 Farmer, Country Genileman, HoriicuUurid, and oth- 

 er periodicals and standard works pertaining to 

 the business of a farmer. I study them just as a 

 builder would study Avorks on architecture, an 

 apothecary the Pharmacopoeia or Dispensatory, or 

 tlie physician or lawyer works on their professions. 

 And here is the secret of my success. I would 

 earnestly recommend and advise all who are en- 

 gaged in agricultural pursuits, whether in a large 

 or small way, to study their profession. It will 

 be for their interest to do so ; it will bring money 

 into their pockets and respectability into their 

 houses and neighborhoods. To excel, will give 

 them influence in the community among whom 

 they live, and a position to be envied among their 

 townsmen. 



Although I work, as I stated in the beginning of 

 this article, still I am in favor of a reasonable 

 amount of recreation at proper times ; and I have 

 it and enjoy it. I am fond of gunning and fishing ; 

 I am fond of a good, well-trained dog, and I am 

 happy to say that I possess one who understands 

 his business. Show Pete a gun and he is on his 

 muscle at once ; and while I do not allow a small 

 bird to be killed on my premises, still, at proper 

 seasons, whatever is recognized by the statutes as 

 "game," must look sharp or I have them. 



Now I will tell you what I had in my mind when 

 I commenced this article. As farmers cannot af- 

 ford to take more than two or three papers, and 

 yet want a varied amount of information, I have 

 thought that if you would devote a part or the 

 whole of a column occasionally to the dog, gun 

 and rod, it would give additional interest to your 

 already invaluable paper. I do not want our boys 

 to be encouraged to shoot everything that wears 

 feathers ; on the contrary, tell them to "spare the 

 birds." But well engraved portraits of those rec- 

 ognized as game, also portraits of all useful breeds 

 of dogs, with descriptions of them, would be very 

 interesting to many of your readers. 



Brook and pond fishing would also interest the 

 boys, and is certainly a pleasant and healthful rec- 

 reation, and to kill a "trout, who swims in speck- 

 led pride," is verily an accomplishment. I read 

 with much interest and pleasure the articles you 

 have published on ornithology, as well as every- 

 thing else that appears in your paper. 



Your friend and constant reader, from the days 

 of good old father Fess.mden until to day, 



Lauderdale, Feb., 1863, j. l. m. 



Reinurks. — Excellent. Not only full of just 

 the right kind of pluck and fire, but every senti- 

 ment is such as beats responsive in our own bosom. 

 We, too, love the gun, the dog and the rod, and 

 our old English "double-barrel" is among the 

 things that we should last part with. It has often 



been the source of health, amusement and "sovie- 

 tliing good to eat." The quail, deer and wild tur- 

 keys have often heard from it to their sorrow, over 

 a considerable portion of that splendid country 

 from the base of the Cumberland Mountains to the 

 lower end of Chesapeake Bay, a country now del- 

 uged with human blood, and destroyed by fire and 

 sword. Many a day have we tramped M'ith it in 

 hand through the Mount Vernon forests, or on the 

 opposite Maryland shores, or sported among the 

 ducks on the broad bosom of the Potomac itself. 

 It was on these occasions that we learned the 

 strong instincts and the deep gratitude of the dog. 

 We love him still, — and yet, we sacrifice all our 

 partiality to the public good. If all dogs were 

 like yours, and kept in proper retirement, the 

 probability is that little damage would be done by 

 them. 



Will you set us an example of such articles as 

 you would like to see in the Farmer, on the sub- 

 ject of gun, dog and rod ? Do so. 



Fo] the Neio England Farmer, 

 THE OLD FOLKS OF THE STABLE. 

 No off"ence is intended by the heading of tliis 

 article, to the old folks at home. The writer has 

 no thought of ousting them from their cozy quar- 

 ters under the family roof, and stowing them 

 away in the barn, to make room for the young folks. 

 He would ratlier bespeak for them all a "sweet 

 home" to cheer their winter of life, and many a 

 comfortable doze in the old arm-chair, through 

 the long winter's evening, in blissful unconscious- 

 ness of trouble or care. But old age is not pecu- 

 liar to human life, though it claims in this connec- 

 tion peculiar reverence. 



Yonder stands the family horse. He is not yet 

 of age, and will never live long enough to be his 

 own master. He is but two or three years past 

 "sweet sixteen," and still the knowing ones call 

 him old. And there lies the family cov/, quietly 

 chewing her cud, with none to molest or make her 

 afraid. According to the standard of us mortals, 

 she is but a young miss yet, just entering her 

 teens. But yet she is a great-grandmother, and of 

 course, she, too, must be set down as aged. If 

 she could only "haul in her horns," she might, 

 like other females of a higher grade, disguise her 

 real age ; but those bony projections tell the un- 

 flattering tale. It is curious to contrast the pro- 

 gressive development of the mortal and the brute. 

 The mere boy looks at the horse, who was born on 

 the same day with him, and wonders that the beast 

 should be growing old, while he has so many years 

 left for growing young. And now the boy is re- 

 joicing in the flush of early manhood — but how is 

 it with the horse that was a sucking colt when he 

 was a puling babe ? Almost through with life's 

 cares and labors, when he is but just entering on 

 them ! Poor old fellow, to have so short a lease 

 of life ! Yonder toddles a wee bit of a girl to- 

 wards the barnyard gate, to peep at the now-born 

 calf inside. Strange to say, that maternal heifer, 

 so jealously nurturing her offspring, came into the 

 world the same day with that little, wondering, 

 innocent, held in its father's arms. And by-and- 

 by the gleeful maiden will be frolicking about, 



