HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 367 



better off? Not if lie has an orchard. For Passengers and Brakemen, 

 and Stokers, and Baggage-master, and Engineer and Conductor all agree 

 on two points, 1st. That the Farmer's fruit is public property — 2d. That' 

 they are the public ! So they help themselves. If, because the switch' 

 tender was sleepy, or a cow was on the track, or the Engineer didn't see the" 

 signal, or the traek had spread, or a rail was misplaced, or a screw was looser 

 the train gets off the track, at midnight or in midwinter, the "nearest farm' 

 house" is entered as if it were an inn, and the farmer, "mine host." And 

 if any of the patrons of his house or his orchard should forget to shut the' 

 gate or put up the bars, and thereby an unfortunate and confiding cow or 

 two should stray on the track, and become a prey to that benevolent 

 machine, shaped and armed like the lower, jaw -of an alligator, and very pro-' 

 perly called a "cow catcher," — who. cares whose choice Devon, or Ayrshire^ 

 or Durham is impaled ? " The fellow ought to keep his fences up, and not 

 endanger our lives and property," say the public. The engine snorts, and 

 the groans and struggles of the creature's last agony are drowned in the noise' 

 of the passing train. 



The right of way to steam, smoke and noise. When the Farmer grants' 

 this he grants also the right of colonization to his worst foes the weeds. In 

 the broad band right through his possessions these enemies entrench them-' 

 selves. Here a little fastness of the Iron-weed. There a camp of Canada 1 

 Thistles. Yonder a citadel of May weeds. Further on a stockade of wild 

 carrots, and discontented colonists they are too. Regarding neither picket, 

 "Virginia," post and rail, or any other fence, and the thorniest hedge as 

 little. Perfect " filibusters" who "go it strong" for " extending the area of 

 weed-dom." All they need, as Decatur said of his countrymen is an oppor- 

 tunity, and this comes along with every train. Mid the involucres of the 

 Vernonia and the Carduus, on the receptacle of the Chrysanthemum and" 

 among the umbels of the Daucus do these adventurers lie in.ambush. The' 

 whistle of the locomotive is the signal for the rising of these clans, nor were 

 Roderich's more prompt to the call of their chieftain. The Engineer is' 

 more successful in "getting up a breeze" then either Lopez or Kossuth and 

 away go the flying legions some to the forest and orchard, others to the"' 

 lawn and garden. All who survive are sure to settle, "make a location" 

 and ere long dispute with true squatter audacity, the Farmer's pre-emption' 

 right. 



From Dr. Kennedy s address before the MontgoYnery County Agricul- 

 tural Society. — Oct. 1853. 



