1871. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



267 



or by raising berries, &c., he satisfied his ap- 

 petite by partaking of those imagined luxuries 

 which are found at taverns and saloons. In- 

 stead of trying to make home happy he made 

 it a place of sadness. 



Now I believe that this man might have paid 

 for his farm in a short time hy spending all 

 his time and energies upon it. Instead of 

 digging among the stones for a few bushels of 

 potatoes and corn, and gathering thinly scat- 

 tered spears of grass from a rough mowing, 

 he might have harvested good crops from a 

 smooth surface and a good soil. His cattle 

 instead of growing poor for want of proper 

 shelter, might have been made fat by nailing 

 the loose boards on the barn and by regular 

 feeding, not by his wife but by himself. His 

 family might have been made as intelligent, 

 comfortable and happy as any other family by 

 giving them books and papers to read, sending 

 the children to school, and going with them to 

 church, by making the house convenient and 

 attractive, and by attending to every other 

 home improvement possible. By so doing he 

 might also have increased in wealth. — C. //. 

 Farnsworth, in Vermont Farvier. 



WHITEWASHING. 



Good whitewash, well-applied to fences, rough 

 siding, and the walls and ceilings of buildings, 

 has a highly sanitary influence, as well as being 

 in the highest degree preservative in its effects. 

 To be durable, whitewash should be prepared 

 in the following manner : — Take the very best 

 stone-lime, and slack it in a close tub, covered 

 with a cloth to preserve the steam. Salt — as 

 much as can be dissolved in the water used for 

 slacking and reducing the lime — should be ap- 

 plied, and the whole mass carefully strained 

 and thickened with a small quantity of sand, 

 the purer and finer the better. A few pounds 

 of wheat flour mixed as paste may be added, 

 and will give greater durability to the mass, 

 especially when applied to the exterior surface 

 of buildings. With pure lime, properly slacked 

 and mixed with twice its weight of fine sand 

 and sifted wood-ashes, in equal ])roportions, 

 almost any color may be made by the addition 

 of pigments. Granite, slate, freestone and 

 other shades may be imitated, and without any 

 detriment to the durability of the wash. This 

 covering is very often applied and with good 

 effect, to underpinning, stone fences, roofs 

 and the walls of barns and other out-buildings. 

 — Germantown Telegraph. 



Sales of Improved Stock. — Wm. Wil- 

 liams, manager of A. W. Griswold's Short 

 Horn herd at Malvern Farms, Morrisville, Vt., 

 reports recent sales of the following bulls : 

 To W. F. Vail, Emporia, Kansas, Climax 

 4th, 9640 ; to Wm. F. Blanchard and another, 

 Manilas, N. Y., Royal Bridegroom, 10913 ; to 

 Henry M. Arms and others, Springfield, Vt., 

 Crown Prince, 9701, and The Baronet, 11057 ; 



to D. L. Wright & Sons, Weybridge, Vt., 

 Sultan, 9173; to C. P. Hatch, Brandon, Vt., 

 Constantinople, 7754, and to Mr. Bryant of 

 Vermont, Malvern Boy, 6995. 



A Rich Man's Girl. — Here is a girl who 

 happened not to be born poor. Her father is 

 rich enough to live in Fifth Avenue ; but he 

 does not live there. He gives her all the ad- 

 vantages of city education which she chooses. 

 Eight months in the year she spends in home 

 duties, charities, parties, concerts, operas, 

 theatre, her own music and the like. But in 

 the other four months she lives her own true 

 life. She has found a pure countiy town, un- 

 discovered yet by the tourists ; and there shei 

 goes, with a bloomer dress, and lives on a 

 farm and works like a farm-hand— up in the 

 morning with the men, helping take care of 

 the animals, then to the fields to work with 

 them, driving the oxen and pitching the hay. 

 She has a very definite idea of perfect earthly 

 happiness. It is to raise animals on a stock- 

 farm ; and, if she were thrown on her own re- 

 sources, I have no doubt she would do it. No 

 starving over the needle or stooping behind 

 the counnter for her. And yet she is no Am- 

 azon ; but a pure, womanly girl, without a 

 grain of coarseness, a true lover of nature, 

 with an insight almost like Thoreau. — Gail 

 Hamilton. 



THE HEBMIT-CRAB OP THE MAR- 

 QUESAS. 



Low trees or shrubs, called bay-cedar, com- 

 pletely cover these islands. Crawling upon 

 the branches were great numbers of hermit- 

 crabs, each with his stolen coat upon his back. 

 This is truly sij'reak of nature. Many of the 

 species are aquatic, but this one Is terrestrial, 

 and does not go into the water. With chest 

 and arms of formidable strength, this creature 

 ignobly tapers to a soft, worm-like posterior. 

 Like Richard, not shaped for sportive tricks, 

 curtailed of fair proportion, cheated of feat- 

 ure, deformed, unfinished, sent before its time 

 into this breathing world scarce half made up, 

 it seeks to usurp and intrench Itself within the 

 castle of another knight of the shore. « 



As soon as the young crab has attained 

 sufficient size and strength to assume its 

 wonted responsibility, and struggle for exist- 

 ence, it forthwith looks about for "its size" 

 among the cast off univalve shells ; first thrust- 

 ing a long claw into the chambers to make 

 sure that all is well and the castle vacant. 

 Should a smaller or weaker knight of his or- 

 der chance to be the occupant, battle is given 

 at once. The sally-port is closed by the stout 

 mailed arms, and the castle held strictly on 

 the' defensive as its only safety. The am- 

 bitious knight is on the alert, however, and 

 eventually succeeds by strategy. The weak- 

 er party relaxes a little, and peeps forth to 

 survey the field. A well-aimed blow and 



