354 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



drive the seven miles and reach the city by the Hndson River 

 railroad ahead of the one direct. This is not all the fault with 

 that old fogy managed road. On Satm-day he picked forty 

 bushels of those fine beans to send by the Harlem freight train 

 Sunday evening. They were all ready at the station, but the 

 officials did not think proper to be accommodating enough to put 

 them in the cars. Perhaps they wanted to punish him for trying 

 to get part of his freight down at a cheaper rate. So the beans 

 lay over till Monday evening. On Tuesday morning his agent 

 could have sold them if he could have got them in market; but 

 by a rule of the company freight is not delivered until after 10 

 o'clock. The beans having laid three very hot days shut up in 

 close packages, were found to be just in the condition of the 

 management of this unaccommodating company — a good deal 

 rotten at the heart. It is to be hoped that the time will come 

 when railroad officers will learn that the true way to make their 

 roads profitable to any one beside those who receive salaries is to 

 offer every accommodation and facility within reason to the 

 farmers along the line. 



A CONVENIENT FARM-GATE. 



I want to mention a convenient farm-gate that Mr. Waring has 

 erected on the road that leads out of the farm to the railroad-station, 

 which, of course, requires to be often opened. It is tlie one patented 

 by Woodruff, of Newark, N. J., who exhibited a model to the club 

 some time since, which was then admired for its simplicity. As 

 you drive up to the gate upon either side, the wheel passing over 

 two iron rods connected with the latch, which is tripped, and 

 immediately the gate opens upon its center post, like a turnstile 

 and swings half round and catches on a post. It now stands up 

 and down the road, with a wagon-way open upon each side. As 

 the wheels pass out on the other side they go over another rod 

 that uncatches the latch and the weight which operates it carries 

 it forward and closes the gap. It has simply changed ends; the 

 next wagon will change it again, and so on till the weight runs 

 down. It is wound up again by reversing the motion and giving 

 the gate a rapid whirl by the hand. This little farm is still in a 

 rude state, but it will be a monument to Horace Greeley, long 

 after the Greenwood marbles have gone to decay. The swamp 

 that has been drained and made like a garden-spot, will never be 

 a swamp again ; and the barren hill-sides that have been black- 



