46 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The Boy’s Tool Chest. 
We have known many an excellent mechanic 
made just from the fact that in boyhood they learn¬ 
ed the use of a few joiner’s tools. A boy if he be uot 
utterly stupid, takes to using a hammer, and driv¬ 
ing a nail as soon as his right hand can lift the one 
or the left hand hold the other. And as they grow 
older nothing engages their attention, or fixes their 
thoughts, when wanting recreation, like pottering 
about soine-thing-or-other, with a saw, a hammer, 
some nails, and a gimlet. No matter what they 
make—whether it be a martin or a wren box, a 
rat-trap, or a hen-coop; it is all the same, so that 
they make something, amuse themselves, and learn 
the use of tools. In fact, we consider a well furn¬ 
ished tool chest for boys, of as much consequence, 
and as profitable an investment as we do a set of 
school books; and a boy, who, at the age of fifteen 
years, cannot make a good substantial dry good’s 
box to pack his traps in, why—that boy’s education 
has been neglected. We do not confine these remarks 
to Farmers’ boys alone, they apply to everybody’s 
boys—city, village, and country. Nor, where there 
b a gardener, or farmer, should the little garuen 
tools be omitted. The boys should have the 
best of tools—and fitted to their own size and 
strength. We have seen many a bright, am¬ 
bitious boy driven out of the garden, the field, and 
the meadow, because he could make no headway with 
a miserable cast off tool given him, which no one 
else would use, but “ it was good enough for a 
boy 1” We consider it an outrage, as well as in¬ 
justice of the grossest kind to turn a boy out to la¬ 
bor with a poor tool. If you hire a man, and ex¬ 
pect him to do anything, he lias got to have good tools, 
and if a man of any spirit, he will not work with¬ 
out them. And so with boys; they should be 
taught that their labor is worth something, and no¬ 
thing will so readily convince them of the fact, as 
to furnish them with the best of tools, such as they 
are. 
This is an important subject, although many men 
and parents do not heed it. Boys are simply minia¬ 
ture men, and their little yearnings and tastes re¬ 
quire equal gratification, for they are far more in¬ 
nocent, and easily supplied than those of most men. 
We have had some experience in this. We have 
Known boys who had a little office or workshop of 
their own, well furnished with tools, where they 
would spend their leisure hours, or vacation days 
from school, happy as need be, when others of ..like 
condition, excepting the workshop-men, racketing 
about the streets full of noise and mischief, or wast¬ 
ing their time in idleness. It needs but little guess¬ 
ing to decide which of these boys grow up the most 
thoughtful, useful man. A boy’s workshop can be 
fitted up almost anywhere. It is not much used in 
Winter, the days being short, and the nights 
appropriated to reading, study, or social inter¬ 
course. Any small part of an outbuilding will an¬ 
swer the purpose. But it should be a '• workshop” 
partitioned off by itself, and devoted exclusively 
to the boys’ use, and be their property and nobody 
else’s. It should be well lighted; a little work¬ 
bench in it, a tool chest, nails anil hooks upon the 
walls to hang tools and other things upon, not 
stowed away in the chest ; and complete in all its 
little traps and furnishings. The whole affair costs 
but little—not half what a great many men spend 
in a freak of nonsense, and the boys are made hap¬ 
py, Then, furnish the shop with a little cheap 
timber, a few nails of various sizes, a paper of tanks, 
An oil stone to sharpen the tools, and they will 
soon learn to repair various little things about the 
house, and larger things alxmt the farm, which in a 
ehor* time, will save many a dollar paid for a pro- 
fnno.vl mechanic, and at much greater inconvenience 
The boy inus finds himself to bean important mem¬ 
ber of the family; be becomes self-reliant, and soon 
gains to hunself, a character. 
In all tins we do not propose the workshop and 
the tools as imposed on the boys as a labor, or a 
task; but simply as a thing of amusement and 
recreation. They will take to it as readily as a 
duck to the water. 
Bui few people we find have a definite idea of 
the real education of boys. Some think the book 
and the birch—and that all the time—the true meth¬ 
od ; while others, just the reverse, think boys 
will come up well enough of themselves. Our no¬ 
tion lies between the two: the book in its due sea¬ 
son ; the birch, when it is imperatively necessary 
— and that, not often ; play, frolic, and amusement, 
at stated times, with no period of either, and the 
workshop where they can go at will, when not at 
study, and employ their hands and thoughts to 
some useful purpose, and let their life be as it may, 
they will surely find the skill so acquired, to be 
useful. 
Blinks From a Lantern. 
BY DIOGENES (REmviVDs). 
In the olden time, when I was a younger man 
than now, with a lantern I sought diligently for 
a man among the Greeks. My success, on that 
occasion, was hot remarkable, and the people 
were accustomed to find fault with me, and called 
me a cynic, and other hard names, because I did 
not see in them, all those beauties and excellencies 
which they thought they saw in themselves But 
the public opinion of my character was egregiously 
wrong, for I was not to blame for seeing 
what my eyes, with the aid of my lantern, put be¬ 
fore me. It could not be fairly expected that I 
should see with other people’s eyes, and clothe 
them with all those extravagant colors, in which 
their self-love veiled their deformities. I did very 
little barking in my day, and if my words bit, 
teeth, and not words, were the dog’s weapons ; 
so that there was no propriety in calling me a 
cynic, or snappish cur. 
1 think my lantern might again be of service in 
the world, and I have concluded to relume its 
faded taper and go in search of a farmer. “ A 
farmer !” all the wise acres will exclaim. “ Pray, 
have we not farmers everywhere in the country? 
Are not four-fifths of the people of this mighty 
nation, farmers ? and very good ones, too, the 
backbone and sinews of the country, the intelli¬ 
gent yeomanry. ?” That is just what I want to 
ascertain. If the country is so full of them, a few 
blinks from my lantern will only make their good 
deeds shine so that the world can take knowledge 
of them. If farmers are rather scarce, or no¬ 
where to he found, it is time we waked up to the 
fact. I shall only report what I see with my own 
eyes amid the cracks and crannies, where sun¬ 
light does not always shine with sufficient dis¬ 
tinctness If the sights I see are painful for Ihe 
sensibilities of people, they can easily remove 
the objects of theii disgust, and so be rid of the 
annoyance I shall be very careful to keep out 
of all quarrels myself, and if my readers come 
to blows with the ghosts and hobgoblins, that the 
lantern scares ii[». I shall not hold myself respon 
sible for the bad temper, or broken bones that en¬ 
sue—And first, I ^ ill throw the light of my lan 
tern upon 
THE LEAKS Or THE FARM. 
“ Leaks !” exclaim the gentlemen ol leisure 
who amuse themselves upon the farm, and are 
better acquainted with rhetoncA than with ricks 
and their contents” Leaks pertain to ships, and 
other vessels. Farms do not leak. “ Leeks! " 
exclaim gentlemen of the old school, who have 
read Moses more faithfully than Liebig.” Leeks 
pertained to the Agriculture of Egypt, but are 
now a discarded crop. “ Leaks !” exclaim the 
disciples of John Johnson. “ What do you want 
better than leaks. The whole farm ought to he a 
leaky vessel, with tile drain four feet below the 
surface to carry of the drippings.” 
With all due deference to the men of literature 
and of science, and with suitable veneration for 
the gentlemen of the old school, who still remain 
in the Egyptian darkness of the old skinning me¬ 
thod of husbandry, I, Diogenes, assert that there 
are leaks in the farm, that ought to be stopped 
With your permission, Mr. Amateur, I will look 
over your premises with my lantern, and show 
you some of the leaks. 
Here is a fine house, to be sure, Italian style 
beautiful lawn, well grown evergreens, nice gra 
veled walks, and carriage drives, an assortment 
of the best fruits, ant! a garden that the gods 
might envy. Diogenes has nothing to say 
against all these things, if a man is able to own 
them and take care of them. In a poor man’s 
hands, they would be leaky perhaps. Let us look 
at the barn, where those beautiful black horses 
are kept. I do not need a lantern to delect the 
smell of ammonia, that is constantly steaming 
up from the stable floors—the floor is indeed 
cleaned every day, but nothing is put on to save 
this constant waste. Plaster is cheap, and muck 
is cheaper; either, would stop a constant leak 
in your stable. This ammonia is injurious both 
to the lungs and eyes of the horses, and the 
dosings to which they are subjected by ihe disci¬ 
ple of Dr. Dadd, might all be saved, if you would 
use plaster plentifully. Thus, the stopping of one 
leak, would stop another, and give your horses 
much better health. 
But when the manure is removed, I see that 
you throw it out under the eaves in the yard, 
where it is drenched by the water, evaporated by 
the sun, and blown away by the winds. The rain 
induces rapid fermentation, and the manure is 
very soon fire-fanged, and depreciated in value. 
You are losing at least twenty dollars per annum 
on these horses alone by these small leaks. The 
arangements for your cows and oxen are no bet¬ 
ter, and there is a dead loss to you, in the single 
item of maniiie, of over a hundred dollars per 
annum I am unable to say what the length of 
your purse is, Mr Amateur, hut this leak, where 
money is dropping out in dollars, eagles, andi 
double eagles, is not beneaih the attention of a 
rich man, if he means to keep his vessel afloat. 
It is the advice of Diogenes, that you pay less 
attention to his rhetorical figures, and more atten¬ 
tion to your manure. 
Put a cellar under your barn, and sheds around 
the yard, where muck and manure can be shelter¬ 
ed, and where you can exercise your skill in 
making composts There is a great leak in your 
establishment. 
And now, my friend, that regards leaks as an¬ 
tiquated, lei us look at your premises. Your 
house is very plain, and snug, and your barn al¬ 
together too narrow for your stock You boast 
of your economy, pay as you go, and have nothing 
hot what you can afford It is a *6ro utght, and 
