1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



279 



NEW BOOKS. 



Thb Life op William T. Pobteu. By Hobaci Bbiiobi. 

 New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1860. 



Although this volume was published some three 

 years ago, it is but recently that it met our eyes. 

 Mr. Porter was born in Newbury, Vt., in 1809. 

 After an apprenticeship at the printing business 

 in Andover, Mass., he was connected, for a few 

 months, with papers in St. Johnsbury and Nor- 

 wich, Vt., which latter place he left in 1830 for 

 New York. Here, in December, 1831, he com- 

 menced the publication of the N. Y, Spirit of the 

 I'imes, a paj)er which soon became quite popular 

 with the class for whom it was designed ; and as 

 editor of wLich the biographer claims for Mr. 

 Porter the distinction of being the "father of a 

 school of American sporting literature." Among 

 the compoeitors who were employed on the first 

 volume of this paper was IIouace Gkeeley, now 

 of the N. Y. Tribune, and Stii.Man Fletcher, 

 Esq., cur able Reporter of the cattle markets, 

 who had also worked for Mr. Porter in Norwich, 

 Vt. 



IntiTWoven with the biography of William T. 

 Porter, are sketches of his four brothers, three of 

 whom assisted more or less in the management 

 of the paper. One of these brothers abandoned 

 the profession of medicine and another of law, to 

 write reports of horse races, criticisms on theatri- 

 cal performances, and descriptions of other scenes 

 of sport and recreation. The great popularity of 

 the Spint of the Times attained is evidence of the 

 ability and tact of these brothers. 



And here, perhaps, we ought to close ; as we 

 can commend the volume only as a beacon or 

 warning against the 'fast" life which it chronicles. 

 We have too long and too earnestly sought to en- 

 courage and honor useful labor and straightfor- 

 ward industry, to be pleased with the boast on 

 page 87, that the patrons of a certain club-house, 

 among whom the Porters were prominent, "de- 

 spised anything like mercantile pursuits ;" or that 

 on page 270, which exults that, "This literature," 

 — that represented by the Spirit of the Times, — 

 "was not stewed in the closet, or fretted out at 

 some pale, pensioned laborer's desk." If ever 

 we find ourselves hard pressed by the complaints 

 of any farmer's family of their unending toil and 

 drudgery, we may prescribe as an antidote the pe- 

 rusal of this book. None of the four brothers, 

 we believe, who were associated as editors, ever 

 married, and all died comparatively young. Of 

 William, shortly before his death, the biographer 

 says : Care, disappointment and that sickness of 

 heart which he concealed from the world, began 

 to tell on face, and form, and mental activity." 

 In an obituary of another it is said : "His tem- 

 perament was of a character that, added to disap- 

 pointments and private griefs, with which the stran- 



ger intermeddleth not, occasionally clouded his 

 mind with fits of morbid gloominess and abstrac- 

 tion." For a third of the brothers, regret is ex- 

 pressed that he left his profession, as in it "with 

 one-half the persevering industry which he exhib- 

 ited while connected with the press, he must have 

 risen to eminence." 



In conclusion, we may say that the biography 

 of these talented brothers is an illustration of the 

 sad mistake committed by those who make enjoy- 

 ment and happiness, instead of duty and usefulness, 

 the great object of life. 



FAKMINQ IN NEW MEXICO. 

 A correspondent of the Wisconsin Farmer, 

 writing at Barclay's Fort, New Mexico, gives an 

 interesting statement of facts in relation to this 

 portion of the country, from which we copy the 

 following : 



The lands which are cultivated are productive 

 to a degree perfectly astounding to a stranger, 

 when the mode of cultivation they have un- 

 dergone, and exposure suffer^'d for all past time, 

 are taken into the account. Sometime in the 

 month of April, May or June, and the people 

 are not very particular about the time, all the 

 weeds and vegetables on the land are burned 

 up, and the water is let out of the ditch upon the 

 piece of land to be cultivated, and is made to rua 

 over every part of it. Without this the land is 

 too hard for ploughing. The seed, if wheat, oats, 

 barley or peas, is then sown over the land, and 

 ploughed in, generally, with a Mexican plough, 

 never more than three inches deep ; after which a 

 log is drawn sidewise over the land and the small 

 ditches cut for future waterings, and the work is 

 done till watering time arrives. Corn is planted in 

 the same manner, except the seed is placed in the 

 bottom of the furrow at proper distances apart, 

 and is covered by the next furrow. Crops require 

 about two waterings to perfect them. The )ield 

 exceeds belief. Wheat, which excels all other 

 crops, not unfrequently gives fifty times the 

 amount sown, and is of a superior quality. A 

 hundred to one has been known. 



NEW VAKIETIES OP GRAPES. 

 The Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Uor- 

 ticultural Society, in their report, by Mr. Cabot, 

 thus notice two new varieties of the grape : 



"There have been some new or hitherto little 

 known varieties of grajjcs exhibited, of which 

 brief notice may not be thought out of ]>lace here- 

 in. One, which attracted the attention of the 

 Committee by its good qualily, was called the Cre- 

 I veiling. But a single bunch of it, grown in Sa- 

 I lem by Mr. Bosson, was exhibited at the Annual 

 Exhibition. It was a black, not large berry, sweet 

 and spirited, that made a favorable im])ression on 

 I the Committee and all who tasted it; it is an early 

 grape, ripened the past year on a vine trained 

 against a fence, on Sept. i4th. This variety may 

 not be new, but it has never, as is believed, been 

 before fruited in this vicinity ; it is, as is under- 

 stood, an accidental seedling and comes from Mr. 

 Goodwin, of Kingston, Penn. Some specimens 

 of a new seedling grape were presented by .Mr. 



