150 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May* 
em woman. She is only one of a class, numer¬ 
ous perhaps, but not in the majority. The 
blinks of my lantern have fallen upon scenes of 
quiet contentment, happily wedded people, 
cheerful domestic circles, which, had they been 
more common when I dwelt in the flesh, would 
have materially improved my temper and my 
destiny. 
Mrs. Content Rogers \yas a sunny sort of a 
body as any one could see, by a glance at her 
front 3 'ard and windows. There was a honey¬ 
suckle trained upon each side of the door, a 
flower border running the whole length of the 
house, where the crocuses and snow-drops 
hailed the first genial days of Spring, and jon¬ 
quils, pinks, violets, lilies, roses, and asters lav¬ 
ished their blossoms all Summer long. The 
fence was picketed and painted white, indica¬ 
tive of the tidy housewife and the clean con¬ 
sciences within. The windows had green blinds, 
but they were kept joyously opened, as if the 
sun and friends were both heartily welcome to 
the best room, where Content Rogers was the 
presiding genius. I have sometimes thought 
that these strongly marked traits of character 
run in the blood, and that a croaker Or a jolly 
woman was quite as much indebted to her con¬ 
stitution, as to her training, for her peculiar 
development. Certain it is, that this woman 
came rightfully by her characteristic hopeful¬ 
ness and contentment. Her maiden name was 
Goodenough, her father was called Waitstill, 
and her mother Hope. The last child, (the 
twelfth by the way,) was named Content, as fill¬ 
ing the measure of their happiness. Patience, 
Faith, Hope, Charity, and Temperance were 
cherished female names in the family, that had 
been handed down for many generations. By a 
sort of manifest destiny, which seems to be as 
strongly believed in by the moderns as by the 
ancients, she had married Constant Rogers, and 
settled in this neat white farm house. 
Content took me for a belated beggar, as I 
called quite early at the door. “ Poor old man, 
you look tired and hungry,” said she, “ come in 
and breakfast, we are just at the table.” 
I found Constant Rogers at the morning meal, 
with a goodly row of children upon each side 
of the table, of all ages, from two to twenty. 
He had been expecting me, but not quite so 
early in the day. The whole group was order¬ 
ly, for the family was so much given to hospi¬ 
tality, that an unexpected guest was no novelty 
in the household. 
“ Pray how do you manage,” said I, “ to sup¬ 
port so large a family by farming? They say it 
is a very poor business.” 
“Well, my wife can tell you more about that, 
than I can. I keep the farm going out of doors, 
and she keeps the family going in-doors. I never 
find any difficulty in keeping the grain bins and 
meal chest well filled, and the larder well 
stored, and somehow there has always been 
enough to eat and drink, three times a day, 
ever since we began housekeeping, and that is 
twenty two years ago this Spring.” 
“ But who says that farming is a poor busi¬ 
ness?” asked Content with a surprised look, as if 
she had never taken that view of it. 
“ Why one of your townswomen by the name 
of Grimes,” said I. 
“Oh yes, I have seen her; she lives up in the 
other parish, and I haven’t much acquaintance 
with her. But I thought the Grimeses were 
rich and happy. They are sending their sons to 
College, and their daughters go away to school. 
Perhaps they feel a little above their business, 
which always makes things go L arcL” 
“ But don’t you find it hard to feed so many 
mouths, and to keep so many children looking 
tidy ?” I asked. 
“Well, I am busy most of the time,” said 
Content, smiling, “ but I never thought it hard. 
I do not know what we are to live for, if it be not 
to make others comfortable and bappy. I have 
always found so many things to be thankful for, 
that I never have found time to fret at the little 
worries of life. We named our first child 
Thankful, and somehow a blessing has seemed 
to follow us ever since. We have not had to 
wait till Fall for a thanksgiving, for we have 
had one about every month in the year. Be¬ 
fore I got over feeling glad for one thing, I al¬ 
ways noticed that another came. When the 
children were sick, I always felt bad, but they 
were never sick long, and when they got to run¬ 
ning round again, I forgot the past. They made 
us a good deal of care when they were small, 
but they save us a great many steps already, 
and will save us a great many more, as we need 
their services. It is a great comfort, sir, to have 
good children, and ours are the best in the 
world.” 
“But does farming pay ?” I inquired. 
“ That depends upon what jmu mean by pay¬ 
ing,” she continued. “ It pays us abundantly. 
We are happy in our work, and have no long¬ 
ing for the pleasures which others enjoy. If a 
man is only contented, I suppose it makes very 
little difference whether he have a thousand or 
a million of dollars. We have a snug, comfort¬ 
able house, all paid for, and our worldly sub¬ 
stance is increasing every year—I suppose we 
enjoy it as much as a king enjoys his palace 
and kingdom. We are able to have a good va¬ 
riety of books and papers for ourselves and the 
children to read, so that we are learning some¬ 
thing every day. I suppose we enjoy them quite 
as much as if we had nothing else to do but to 
read them. Our children are. in a fair way to 
make useful men and women. The children of 
the richest men will not make anything more, 
and many of them will fail of this. 
“ If our business makes us happy, we think it 
pays us quite as well as any business that does 
not make those happy who follow it, even 
though it gives them more money. But farm¬ 
ing pays well enough in money, i. e., in worldly 
comfort. Our means grow with our wants, and 
what can any reasonable being ask more ? The 
farm has grown larger, the soil deeper and rich¬ 
er, the cattle have increased, and grown sleek 
and handsome, the pile of milk pans is higher 
and brighter, father says, since Thankful was 
old enough to scour them. The garden is full 
of fruits and vegetables, and the grain bins are 
never empty.” 
I left, fully persuaded that Content Rogers 
had found the philosopher’s stone, if I had not 
found a farmer’s wife. 
--- — --- 
Troublesome House Insects. 
As warm weather comes on, innumerable 
insects will wake from their winter nap, 
or emerge from the larva state, to enjoy 
their life at the expense of our comfort. The 
buzz of the fly will be answered by the tiny 
horn of the mosquito, the flea will skip nimbly 
over the floor, and the moth and chinch will 
stealthily hide in the carpet or the bedstead. 
Scrupulous cleanliness will thwart most of them. 
Flies are nature’s scavengers, ever ready to con¬ 
vert putrefying matter into innoxious substances. 
Keep the yard free from decaying vegetables, 
refuse from the kitchen, and the drain of the 
sink, and sweeten the out-buildings with lime, 
and they will mostly emigrate to more promis¬ 
ing quarters. The few stragglers which remain, 
can be nearly excluded by frames covered with 
millinet, placed in the windows when open. 
These will also keep out the vexatious mosqui¬ 
to. Myriads of these latter insects are often bred 
in swampy spots adjoining the dwelling. Prop¬ 
er draining will rout them at head quarters. 
The rain water cistern is also prolific in mosqui¬ 
toes : place a few lively minnows or other brook 
fish there, and they will fatten on the larvae of 
the tormenting insect—thus the biter will be 
bitten. 
The flea delights in the dust and litter of the 
wood house, and the wagon shed. Remove all 
this, sprinkle fresh lime in its place, and white¬ 
wash the beams and boards, and the fleas 
will soon vanish. 
Take up all the carpets, beat them thoroughly 
with a slender rod, and scatter a little black 
pepper around the sides of the room where the 
edges of the carpet are to be laid. Then, once a 
fortnight, whip the outside breadths upon the 
floor with a light switch, and the remaining 
moths will be beaten out. 
The chinch or bed bug can be routed, by first 
washing all the parts of the bedstead with cold 
water, and then, with a brush, applying corro¬ 
sive sublimate dissolved in spirits, or an amal¬ 
gam of lard and quicksilver rubbed togeth¬ 
er. Or ask your druggist for sixpence worth 
of unguentum, mix it with lamp oil, and apply it 
with a brush to all joints and crevices, and the 
bugs will sleep and allow you to do the same. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
My Fresh Water Aquarium. 
[The following details of experience by Mr. West, one 
of the editors of the Commercial Advertiser, of this City, 
will furnish many useful hints, and we thank the writer 
for his interesting account. This subject will be found 
discussed at length, with several illustrations, in Volume 
XVII, (Nov. No.,) pages 256, 257.—Ed.] 
About four years ago I commenced keeping 
a fresh water Aquarium. To this day it is to 
me an unfailing source of amusement and in¬ 
struction. I began, as any reader of the Ameri- 
ican Agriculturist may begin, with an ordinary 
gold-fish globe, making at the bottom a bed of 
pebbles and coarse sand, first well washed. In 
this I set aquatic plants, then filled the globe 
with pure water to within about eight inches 
of the top, and allowed it to stand for four 
days in a moderate light. By that time the con¬ 
tinuous ascent, at midday, of minute globules of 
air,(gas,) told me that the plants were performing 
their important and necessary function, that of 
supplying the oxygen required to keep the wa¬ 
ter pure, and to sustain animal life. I then put 
in my animals, committing the error, however, 
which nearly every one makes when first under¬ 
taking the management of an aquarium—/ 
overstoclced it with animals. When this error is 
avoided, there is really no difficulty in keeping 
the animals alive and healthy, and the water 
perfectly clear and living. But the temptation 
to err is strong, and the error is always fatal to 
success. For an ordinary gold fish globe, well 
supplied with plants, three or four small fish, a 
couple of newts, and a few specimens of the 
lower orders of animal life, are all that can be 
preserved in health. The globe must not be 
placed where the sun’s rays will fall upon it, as 
it acts as a lens, soon heating the water to a high 
temperature. My experiment was so successful, 
that I soon manufactured a fair sized tank. 
These can now be bought so cheap, and so much 
