20 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



summer, Ipomcea purpurea, to those who 

 awake betimes to be greeted by its early fresh- 

 ness ? Does it not say, — there is a land of 

 beauty and of joy foi-ever, there is a heaven ? 

 When labors and cares oppress us, when friends 

 forsake and disappoint us, when misfortunes 

 wound and gi-ieve us, let us ask counsel of the 

 smiling, loving flowers. Will they not say, 

 "Peace be still. In your patience possess ye 

 your souls. God is good, God is love ; all will 

 yet be well." 



Each order and genus of plants has its pecu- 

 liar language. A few only say, "Begone;" 

 nearly all say, "Come, and we will bless you." 



We will briefly notice what seems to be the 

 language of one of the orders ; the Labiata, 

 mint family. The little modest flowers, all with 

 open mouths are saying: "We are a large, 

 squai-e-stemmed family of 125 genera and 2^550 

 species. Do not fear us, for we are all honest 

 and true ; we are warm and cordial in our 

 friendship, and our mission is to do good. Do 

 not rudely trample us under foot, lest we be com- 

 pelled to waste our perfume in unavailing en- 

 deavors to attract you. For your g£)od we 

 will surrender our pleasant lives, and you may 

 pluck us in the bloom of youth and lay us by 

 ibrgotten ; only remember us when you are in 

 sickness and in pain, that we may come and 

 bless you." 



The immortality of flowers. Not the visible, 

 tangible flowers — nothing is more perishable 

 than they. The things that are seen are tem- 

 poral, but the things which are unseen are 

 eternal. The artist may have such an accurate 

 conception of a beautiful object as to be able 

 to paint it, or construct it of wax or other ma- 

 terial. Now there can be no doubt in this case 

 which is the perishable and which the durable, 

 which the shadow and which the substance. 

 The materials of the tangible flower are not its 

 essence in any sense. They are mere materi- 

 als and may form various objects. Nor is 

 their combination, merely, the essential flower ; 

 but their combination in conformity to a plan. 

 Hence the plan — the idea — is, afler all, the 

 essential, indestructible, immortal flower. Ev- 

 ery essential beauty of the creation, before it is 

 shadowed forth in materiality, must have exist- 

 ed in the Divine mind, and must continue to 

 exist wliere there is no forgetfulness or oblit- 

 eration. There may be kinds of knowledge 

 which will vanish away, but the knowledge of 

 such things as are essentially invisible and 

 eternal is itself eternal. 



It is a most encouraging and consoling sen- 

 timent, that in tracing out the plans of the 

 great Creator, and thus thinking the thoughts 

 of God, we are making mental ac(|uisitions 

 which like the moral and religious will endure 

 forever. I. J3. IIautwell, 



Wdkinsonville, Mass., 186G. 



Tuio fannei's of Ru])ert, Vt., and vicinity 

 have formed an association for making cheese. 



CAPITAL ANH LABOB. 



The great objection to my fanning is, that I 

 "spend too much money for hired help." But 

 I cannot get along with less. And I find the 

 best farmers expend the most money for labor. 

 "I have always kept a great many men," said 

 John Johnson, "but I was always with them 

 and kept them at work." This is the point. 

 If the labor Is well directed, and is judiciously 

 employed — If the farmer plans his work so that 

 there will be no loss of time, he can better af- 

 ford to hire extra help, than to let teams lie idle. 



We cannot fai-m now as when the country 

 was new. If we attempt it as many do, poor 

 crops and run down farms will be the result. 

 We must expend more labor and more capital. 

 We must cultivate our land better, feed higher, 

 make richer manure, and see that it does not 

 run to waste. I am fatting over fifty hogs. 

 "It would pay you," said a good old-fashioned 

 farmer in the neic^hborhood, "to let a man de- 

 vote his whole time to feeding them." No 

 doubt about that ; but you say I keep too many 

 men already. My horse barn is separate from 

 the other buildings. The litter Is thrown out 

 Into a loose heap, and if suffered to remain so, 

 soon heats, and becomes lire-fanged. I dra^ 

 It with a one-horse cart Into the barn-yard, and 

 the pigs work it over and make it into the rich- 

 est kind of manure. But this takes labor. I 

 clean out the pig-pens every day, and give fresh 

 litter. But this, too, takes labor. One of my 

 neighbors says, I wash my pigs with wann 

 water and castlle soap. This was one of his 

 jokes ; but I do try to have the pigs and pens 

 washed occasionally, by throwing water on 

 them with an aquarius. The pigs evidently 

 enjoy It, and thrive better ; but this, too, takes 

 labor. I am drawing the potato tops into the 

 barn-yard for the stock to tread into manure. 

 It will pay twice over, but it takes time. The 

 diseased potatoes I steam up ibr the hogs, and 

 mix corn and barley meal with them while hot, 

 mashing up the potatoes. It makes splendid 

 food, and is the Ijest way to use potatoes par- 

 tially decayed. But the sorting out the decayed 

 ones, washing them and steaming and mashing 

 with meal, involves considerable work. It 

 would be much easier to have a pen ol' rails on 

 tlu3 ground, to throw all ears of corn into the 

 mud, and let the ])igs do their own shelling, 

 grinding, and cooking. 



To farm ])roperly, we need capital and labor. 

 The latter we are now getting at fair rates, as 

 compared with tlie price of living. We have 

 land enough and work enougli. But we need 

 moreca])ital and a lower rate of interest. And 

 suirly these men are to be honored who, hav- 

 ing lai'ge capital, (1 could wish I was one of 

 tlieiii,) go on to a farm and einjiloy It in devel- 

 oping the resources of the soil. There are 

 huiKhcds ol' such men, and the number is rap- 

 idly increasing. Tlicir influence and example 

 must tend to the improvement of our general 

 system of agriculture. — Joseph Harris, in Am. 

 Agriculturist. 



