AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
41 
showing a net increase in the number of 333,- 
000, being equal to fifteen per cent, over last 
year. The report embraces 260 points, and is 
the most complete ever published. 
Fire Kindlek. —A very convenient material 
for kindling fires, may be made by melting to¬ 
gether, in any iron kettle, a quantity of tar and 
rosin—putting in rosin enough to render the 
mixture moderately hard when cold—and while 
hot stir in a large quantity of charcoal dust, or 
even saw-dust. When the mass is cold, break 
it up with a hammer into lumps, of a conveni¬ 
ent size, say about as large as a hen’s egg. The 
smaller fragments produced in breaking, can be 
re-melted, and again broken to the required 
size. It will facilitate the breaking operation, 
to pour the mass while hot upon a flat stone or 
hearth, that it may spread out into a flat cake. 
MAKE FARMING ATTRACTIVE TO THE YOUNG. 
In no point do farmers fail more in the edu¬ 
cation of their sons and daughters, than in neg¬ 
lecting to make their rural homes attractive. 
With little beauty in or around their dwellings, 
with few objects upon the farm in which they 
have a direct personal interest, and taught by 
the conduct and language of those around them, 
that there are higher and easier paths to wealth 
and distinction, it is little to be wondered that 
so many farmers’ sons long to escape from their 
laborious occupations and engage in commercial 
pursuits. Mr. C. L. Flint, Sec. Mass. Board of 
Agriculture, alluded to this subject very hap¬ 
pily in a dinner speech at the September meet¬ 
ing of the Norfolk County Agricultural Society. 
The following is an extract: 
It has always seemed to me, sir, that the great 
want of New-England was to make farming at¬ 
tractive. And here I can only echo the beauti¬ 
ful words of jmur orator to-clay. If we would 
have our children follow farming as a pursuit, 
we must interest them in it, and tit them to pur¬ 
sue it intelligently. If the mind is not engaged, 
the toils of the hand are irksome and tasteless. 
If the mind is interested, if every thought, every 
passion is aroused to improve and excel, no labor 
is wearisome, no exertion too severe. To make 
farming attractive to the young, they should be 
educated for it. And since life is short and 
knowledge infinite, they need not, perhaps, 
spend years of the best part of their lives in 
such studies as are necessary only to success in 
the law or in divinity. The time will come, 
when the farmer will have more ample facilities 
for educating himself and his children. In the 
meantime a thousand objects, if properly ob¬ 
served and brought to notice, will begin the 
work, and that in the very points of greatest 
practical importance. 
Suppose the young are taught to observe the 
character of soils and their adaptation to differ¬ 
ent crops;, the structure and nature of plants, 
the habits of insects injurious'to vegetation, the 
habits of the beautiful birds so often accused of 
theft, the great striking peculiarities in the dif¬ 
ferent breeds of animals, and the means of im¬ 
proving them — will they not have subjects 
enough to interest them in farming ? They will 
find means of cultivating the finest fruits and 
ornamental trees, to beautify the house, and give 
it an air of neatness and comfort. A little taste 
in arrangement of trees and plants, added to a 
cultivated mind, soon finds within itself untold 
resources of living well and happily. 
But the young, it is said, are ambitious, and 
cannot be satisfied with the reputation of good 
and successful farmers. They must go into the 
counting-room to make money, and be known 
as men of wealth, or they must embark in the 
intricate studies of the law, and through that 
upon the greater uncertainties of politics, and 
achieve distinction, and, as they think, honor, 
(they don’t always go together,) in the eyes of 
the world. They forget the brighter and purer 
reputation of conferring some permanent benefit 
on their country in the improvement of its ag¬ 
riculture. They forget that the very men who 
fail at farming are men who would fail at any 
thing else, and that their chances of success are 
equal in farming to what they would be in other 
pursuits, perhaps even greater, since the field is 
wider and nobler. I would rather have the re¬ 
putation of doing something to improve the ag¬ 
riculture of my country, than to have the repu¬ 
tation of Napoleon. 
Written for the American Agriculturist. 
REMINISCENCES OF A FARMER’S DAUGHTER. 
No. IV. 
BY .MINNIE MYRTLE. 
An “ Octogenarian” thinks I must be at least 
three score years and ten, in order to have worn 
Linsey-woolsey when a child, and to have been 
educated so thorough a farmer’s daughter in 
principle and practice. Well, he cannot expect 
a lady to tell her age, but I can assure him that 
Linsey-woolsey is not yet out of fashion in New- 
England, and scattered all over its hills and val¬ 
leys yet, arc those who adhere to the primitive 
tastes and habits of the olden time. 
But I am not one of those who think that 
every custom which is old, is better than any 
which are new. I believe in progress, and I 
think there is great need of progress among 
farmers all over the land, in the way they till 
their soil, in the way they build their houses, 
and the way they manage their households. 
May the day never arrive when they shall be¬ 
come luxurious and effeminate, when they shall 
wish to spend a fortune in furnishing their 
houses, and in surrounding themselves with 
luxuries, which add very little to the real com¬ 
fort and happiness of life. 
But in most of the rural districts, there is too 
little attention paid to the cultivation of courte¬ 
ous manners and refined habits in the every¬ 
day intercourse with one another. Among 
many, it is considered a matter of course, that 
farmers should live any way—that is, that the 
parents should be coarse, and the children 
awkward, that there should be little attention 
paid to those formalities which are, not in reality 
politeness itself, but very desirable accompani¬ 
ments. It is to show what can be done in the 
way of cultivating the habits of what is called 
genteel society, and at the same time retaining 
strength of character, and simplicity of dress, 
and right ideas of labor, that I have introduced 
the family in the old farm-house on the hill. 
Those who dwelt there, were surrounded by 
many who associated effeminacy and a low de¬ 
gree of worth with order and taste, but they 
determined to prove that they could be farmers, 
and still be gentlemen and ladies. The father 
said that the daughters should enjoy all the ad¬ 
vantages of education which the best schools 
afforded; but they must also learn every spe¬ 
cies of toil—they must do with their hands all 
the work of a household till it was familiar, and 
they could do it efficiently and expertly. This 
was not necessary on account of their circum¬ 
stances, for they were abundantly able to pro¬ 
cure servants, but lie said they might be so sit¬ 
uated some day that they must depend on them¬ 
selves, and knowledge of any kind never came 
amiss. The same rule was made and carried 
into effect concerning the sons. They were told 
that they might go to college if they wished, 
but they must also learn to hold the plow and 
wield the scythe. I have often thought of the 
firmness and perseverance it required to en¬ 
force such a discipline, whilst all around were 
families pursuing so different a course; and 
children were continually saying, “others are 
not compelled to do so; it is hard; father and 
mother arc cruel,” &c., &c., but there was no 
swerving. It was an instance, though not the 
only one I have seen, where wealth did not en¬ 
ervate, and those who possessed it did not be¬ 
come luxurious. 
Three sons preferred a college education, and 
were liberally supplied with the means to ob¬ 
tain it; but through all the years of study, the 
summer vacations were spentin the field with the 
mowers and reapers ; and in the winter, if they 
did not choose to teach, they went into the 
woods and felled trees, and chopped them 
and sawed them when drawn to the door. 
Their hands were kept hardened by toil; 
but their heads were not on that account in 
danger of being left vacant, or filled with 
what was not substantial and enduring. Many 
times have I heard them express their gratitude 
for such a training, and attribute their success 
to the business habits and practical ideas of life 
which they thus acquired. One of them is now 
a distinguished professional man, and his favor¬ 
ite morning exercise is to saw the wood for half 
a dozen tires during the day; while many with 
the same health and strength and no more means, 
take a listless walk, or go without the exercise 
they need, and hire done what they might as 
well do themselves. They arc all laboring 
earnestly to procure the means of purchasing 
farms upon which to educate their sons and 
daughters ; and none of them would think any 
of the offices which they performed in their 
youth undignified or beneath their attention 
now. Some of them are familiar with law and 
politics, science and literature, and every spe¬ 
cies of learning, and say knowledge enables 
them to hoe corn better, and to dig potatoes, to 
cultivate fruit, and prepare flower-beds. There 
is no labor which knowledge does not aid and 
dignify, if applied as it may be. 
But it is with the house and house-work that 
I intend to linger, in order to illustrate the im¬ 
portance of knowledge, and its influence in 
making pleasant the rough pathways of life. 
So I must introduce you more particularly to 
the old house, which stood on a hill far back 
from the road; and when I first remember, it 
was not painted, and had no fence around the 
door-yard; the barns and piggeries were not in 
good repair, and the green sward was covered 
with chips and straws, and the garden overrun 
with weeds. It had been the abode of those 
who thought these things of little consequence. 
They had been farmers in the rude, old-fash¬ 
ioned way, and lived very much like the pigs, 
of whom they took better care than they did of 
themselves. They had a bed in the best room, 
and in every other room besides; they swept, 
but seldom dusted ; they cooked, and prided 
themselves on their “good living;” but the pre¬ 
parations of (he Greenlander or Hottentot would 
be almost as palatable to one who knows whal 
wholesome food is. They were uncouth in 
