AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
45 
1861.3 
natioD some months after, when the young were 
tully grown, he found the place to contain 
above a bushel of these ejected pellets ! 
It was formerly doubted whether this owl 
preyed upon fish or smaller birds, but the same 
author says that he was standing upon a 
bridge one evening* minuting the owl by his 
Watch, as she brought mice to the nest, when 
on a sudden she dropped perpendicularly into 
the middle of the stream, and shortly after he 
saw the owl rise with a fish in her claws and 
take it to the nest. 
In a recently published work, in our judg¬ 
ment of great popular excellence, entitled 
“ Routledges Illustrated Natural History,” the 
author, Rev. J. G. Wood, relates many interest¬ 
ing anecdotes of the Barn Owl. In speaking of 
one which had been domesticated by a friend, 
he says: “ It was a confirmed murderer of bats 
and small birds, as well as mice, and was accus¬ 
tomed to push its prey into a hole in an old wall, 
that had been occasioned by the fall of a brick. 
In this Odd larder were constantly found a 
strange variety of slaughtered game. Six or 
eight small birds were often counted when the 
hole was explored in early morning, and once 
the owl had poked fourteen bats into the aper¬ 
ture. On several occasions the bird had con¬ 
trived to pack a moderately sized eel into its 
storehouse, having always killed the eel by a bite 
across the back of the neck. The owl was al¬ 
ways attracted by bright and glittering objects, 
and once was seen to pounce upon a needle 
which lay glistening in the moonshine, and to 
carry it away to its usual receptacle. 
Its real size is much less than it appears; 
fbr its body is, in fact, scarcely larger than that 
of the common pigeon. It is, notwithstanding 
its diminutive size, a bird of extraordinary sav¬ 
ageness of disposition. When attacked, it has 
an ugly habit of falling on its back and dash¬ 
ing its powerful talons into any animal that at¬ 
tempts to interfere with it; and so fiercely does 
it strike, that instances have been known, where 
a dog has been blinded by a single stroke of its 
claws. While its young are helpless, it watches 
over their safety with unremitting diligence, and 
will dash at any animal that approaches it, irre¬ 
spective of its size, and regardless of conse¬ 
quences to itself. 
The nest is usually found in a hollow tree, and 
sometimes in the hole of the wall of a deserted 
ibuilding. The eggs are white, and generally 
four in number. It is said at times to be setting 
upon one brood of eggs while it is feeding the 
young of a previous hatching, but this needs 
^confirmation. It ought to be remarked that 
Audubon was unable to discover any propensi¬ 
ty in the American bird to fish, or capture small 
birds. We have no satisfactory authority for 
.denying the former part of his statement, but 
instances are frequent where the feathers and 
skeletons of small birds have been found in the 
castings of this bird, along the coast of the 
Southern States. 
Enough we trust has been stated to show that 
the Barn Owl, not only never injures the farrn- 
• er or gardener, but, on the contrary, that it is veiy 
useful in the destruction of multitudes of the 
•smaller quadrupeds, which live upon the fruits 
of the farmer’s labors. If there is a meadow in¬ 
fested with moles or shrews, which are destroy¬ 
ing the roots of the young grass or grains, or an 
out-house infested with mice or other vermin, 
and a pair of these feathered cats take up their 
abode in the neighborhood, instead, (as is too 
.often the case) of effecting their destruction, the 
•fanner ought to use as much care to protect 
them from vagrant boys and vagabond hunters, 
as is taken in the East for the protection of the 
stock, or in our Southern cities of the Black 
Vulture. Chittenden. 
- - 
Blinks from a Lantern—XXV. 
Since I announced my purpose to search for 
a fhrmer’s wife, I have had my hands full. The 
mail has been pouring in letters from everything 
in crinoline that can write, until I have my tub 
half full of manuscripts of every size, and hue— 
pink, rose color, gilt edged,. note size, and fools¬ 
cap—in the main well covered with passable 
English, and abundantly furnished with I’s. 
Nothing is in more striking contrast with my 
times, than these voluble letters from women. 
Then, women talked a good deal, and the sex 
had a well earned reputation for looseness of 
tongue. The fame of Xantippe—Mrs. Socrates 
in the modern style—has come down to these 
times, as a woman who could hold her own 
with her husband. But even she could not 
write. But in this last month, I have had a 
dozen letters a day, on an average, from all 
classes of farmer’s wives, setting forth the de¬ 
tails of their household management. I had no 
conception of the extent to which the cultiva¬ 
tion of the female intellect had been carried in 
this country. The hand writing is not only 
good, but the thoughts are well arranged, and 
well expressed, showing that the writers under¬ 
stand what they are about 
In these letters, I find a great diversity of 
opinion as to what constitutes a farmer’s wife, 
or what is the appropriate sphere of woman 
upon the farm. With many the idea prevails, 
that a woman married to a man who tills the 
farm, is necessarily a “farmer’s wife,” and they 
wonder that I should be so stupid as to go around 
with a lantern in search of an article that is to 
be found in every farmer’s dwelling. If I were 
to be driven from my position by words, or let¬ 
ters, I should have been converted by the first 
batch of letters. But I am not yet able to see 
that the farmer who marries a woman, necessa¬ 
rily has a farmer’s wife. There is something on 
this point well worthy of consideration, in a very 
old book, that I find very common in this age, 
though I never saw it while in the flesh. The 
woman was to be a “help meet,” and as I under¬ 
stand it, the farmer, though he have a dozen wom¬ 
en around, has no wife until he has found some 
one to help him along in his business. She must 
enter into his sympathies, love the sight and 
smell of green fields, the blossoming of grain 
and grasses, must hear music in the bleating of 
sheep, and the lowing of kine, and in all the 
voices of the farm-yard, from the opening of 
the Spring to the closing, of Winter. She must 
be deep in the mysteries of curds and cream, 
yeast and pastry, needle-work and knitting. In 
short, she must not rely upon her tongue as the 
chief glory of her woman-hood. In the farm¬ 
house there is work for the hands. 
I was revolving these thoughts in my mind, as 
I obeyed the summons of an old gentleman tc 
come and see his wife’s housekeeping. He had 
stated, in his letter, that he had made all his 
property by the prudent management of his 
wife, had brought up his children, and worked 
into a comfortable competence at the age of sev¬ 
enty years. I found the house, where he lived, a 
neat one-story dwelling, painted white, with a 
long ‘L’ at one end, in which were the well, wood- 
house, hennery, carriage-house, and work-shop, 
each having a separate apartment, and commu¬ 
nicating with each other upon the inside. Every 
thing was arranged for convenience in doing 
the housework, and I found both the old people 
still living in the age of homespun, though it 
has been gone in most parts of the land, full for¬ 
ty years. The farm was located a dozen miles 
from the nearest railroad depot, and it was the 
boast of them both, that they had never been 
inside of the cars, or upon a steamer. He said 
the old horse and carriage had never burst their 
boiler, or run off the track, and he rather 
guessed they were about as safe as any of the 
modern inventions for traveling. For his part, he 
never could see what folks wanted to be in such 
a hurry for. They were certain to get through 
life soon enough without going thirty miles an 
hour. 
I found the fundamental principle in then- 
idea of business prosperity was, to make every 
thing that can possibly be made upon the farm, 
and buy nothing that you can possibly do with¬ 
out. Both had acted strictly upon this princi¬ 
ple. They began life with it, before science had 
come so wonderful.y to the aid of labor, and 
manufacturers had so cheapened all the articles 
of domestic use. They were somewhat set in 
tneir notions, and their location, remote from 
the centers of social influence, had favored the 
development of their individuality. They 
never could see that a “ boughten ” thing was as 
good as a thing made at home. It might look a 
little better, in some cases, they admitted, but it 
had not the wear in it. 
The old gentleman, though sensible on most 
other topics, could not be made to see the ad¬ 
vantages of the division of labor, and of trade. 
He had made all the part of his house him¬ 
self, had done his own painting and glazing, had 
made his own carts and sleds, harrows and stone 
boats, yokes and cart ladders, and the shed 
where the tools were housed. He had been 
thinking of putting up a blacksmith shop, 
where he could do all his own tinkering, but he 
had now got to be almost too old. 
I found the old lady in her loom, weaving “all 
wool ” as she called it, for her winter wear. 
She took great pleasure in showing me her spin¬ 
ning wheel, where all the warp and woof of her 
fabric had been spun. She said she used to card 
all her rolls herself, but the last few years she 
had carried them to the carding machine—it 
saved so much labor. It had not occurred to 
her that she could save still more if she would 
only make kindling wood of her wheel, and 
loom, and buy the cloth she wanted. I hinted 
as much, but she said she had the time to weave, 
and she could not do much else to advantage. 
I suggested butter making, raising eggs for the 
market, and divers other things that were in the 
line of a farmer’s wife. Well, she said, she 
made all the butter she could in the summer, 
but the cows would not give milk in the winter. 
I suggested warm stables instead of a stack¬ 
yard, and roots and meal with clover, instead of 
corn butts and red top. But this was new doc¬ 
trine, and she looked incredulous. She said she 
had. read a good deal in the papers about milk 
