1871 ] 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



185 



later in life, return to the country, worn out 

 and broken down, to lay their bones in peace 

 near their early homes ? 



Farmers are supposed to live longer than 

 those of most other occupations, but statistics 

 seem to show this is not fully so. Travellers 

 and natural philosophers average the longest 

 lives, and even clergymen, with little exercise, 

 comparatively, live longer, as a class, than 

 farmers. This should not be so, and perhaps 

 we may find what is the reason for it, and the 

 remedy. 



It is found that incessant thinking on any 

 one thing tends, more than anything else, to 

 unhinge the mind and body. Travellers use 

 all their powers — their eyes, feet, brain, and 

 ail, and thereby give a healthy action to all 

 parts. On the contrary, book-keepers, 

 writers, and all people of "one idea," strain 

 their one idea to the destruction of the rest of 

 tlie body. 



The gTeat mass of farmers seem to be given 

 to this one idea. It is dig, and grub, and toil, 

 day after day, year after year, with the mind 

 never raised above this every-day toil. The 

 remedy, to me, is plain. We are to look be- 

 yond our cattle, our potatoes, our grass, and 

 take a portion of our time for searching out 

 the causes and effects of the various operations 

 in which we have a hand. Book l^'arming 

 gives us a chance to work our brain, while our 

 hands do the mechanical part. This is where 

 I think our Farmer's Club does the most good. 

 We have done our day's hard work, and now 

 comes in play another set of muscles, more 

 delicate perhaps, but for that reason more im- 

 portant to be exercised. It enlarges our 

 minds, and gives a healthy action between the 

 brain and hand, which will not be found when 

 either is used to excess. 



Prof. Pierce, of Cambridge, who has given 

 much thought in this direction, remarks, as the 

 result of his observations, that, "taking classes 

 in the average, those are the first to die who 

 are the dullest and most stupid, while, as a 

 general rule, those who exercise their brains 

 most constantly, thoroughly, and faithfully, 

 are the longest lived." This is in relation to 

 students of Harvard. It is the same among 

 farmers. 



It is noticed in prisons, that many of those 

 sent in for long terms, or for hfe, become 

 idiotic, but of these, few are to be found who 

 have had a liberal education or mental culture 

 in any direction. In foreign political prisons, 

 highly cultivated persons have spent the gi-eater 

 part of their lives in the darkness and solitude 

 of a dungeon, and even then come out in their 

 old age, with mental and physical activity un- 

 impaired. Mary, Queen of Scots, lingered 

 eighteen years in prison, and then went forth 

 to the block with her full vigor of mind, "while 

 an uninstructed farmer," says Dr. Hall, "who 

 can feed on the fat of the land, — who passes 

 near three-fourths of his existence in the 

 blessed sunlight, -greedily drinking in the lus- 



cious out-door air in all its purity, with no re- 

 straint of bodily liberty, but abandoning himself 

 to the dull routine which comprises about noth- 

 ing but to work, and eat, and sleep, — often 

 finds in less time than fifteen years, that vigor 

 of mind and health of body are both on the 

 wane." 



It is no longer considered all sufficient for a 

 farmer to have a vigorous frame and intelli- 

 gence enough to skilfully use a tool or drive a 

 team. There is something further. "Re- 

 munerative farming is the reward of those 

 who have made themselves familiar with the 

 analysis of soils, who have some knowledge of 

 botany and vegetable chemistry, and who have 

 given some study to ascertain the surest way 

 of obtaining the best seeds, and the best breeds 

 and who have 'method in their book madness,' 

 in the selection of scions, and grafts, and roots, 

 and plants. Such not only make money by 

 farming, but have a positive delight in their 

 labor, and in waiting for results : for one of 

 the sweetest sensations possible to the human 

 mind is the development of useful facts, as the 

 result of trials and experiments." 



This is what is wanted to lengthen a farm- 

 er's life, and add increased enjoyment to such 

 a life, — more time to be taken from the hand 

 and added to the mind. 



For the ]}7ew England Farmer, 

 MILLET AU"D BXTNGABIAN GKASS. 



Mil. Editou : — Every one familiar with ag- 

 ricultural reading knows that Dr. Loring is 

 decidedly down on green corn as a soiling 

 crop, and reconunends the use of millet in- 

 stead, — sugar millet he calls it, I suppose to 

 distinguish it from Hungarian grass. 



Last spring, after planting as much sweet 

 corn for fodder as I thought I could use in a 

 green state, and having a half acre of land to 

 spare, as an experiment I sowed it with millet 

 and Hungarian grass, one-half of the lot to 

 each, using a bushel of seed to the acre. On 

 account of the difficulty of curing it, I have 

 never considered corn fodder a very good 

 crop to raise for winter feeding. I thought 

 as millet could be easily dried, a surplus of it 

 would be better than a surplus of corn fodder. 

 In spite of the dry weather I had a very good 

 crop of both kinds of the millet. The Hun- 

 garian grew much the finest, and I should 

 think would require less seed per acre than 

 the other kind. I think a bushel of either not 

 too much for an acre, and of the millet I 

 would sow five pecks. It was cut as soon as 

 it had reached its full height, and before it 

 was in full blossom, which I thought should 

 be the time to make from it the best quality 

 of hay. The day it was cut I took a small 

 load to the barn, keeping the Hungarian and 

 millet separate, that I might know if the cows 

 had any preference for either. I could not 

 see that they had any choice, for they could 

 not be made to eat either kind. It was all 



