122 AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
f5rrp Corner. 
A DELAWARE BOY’S LETTER-CROFS-PRE- 
SERVING FRUITS, ETC. 
McDonough, Del., Oct. 6, 1854. 
Messrs. Editors : Some length of time hav¬ 
ing elapsed since my last letter, and there 
having been no boys’ letters in your papers 
for several weeks, I again take the liberty to 
write. But 1 fear you will think me pre¬ 
sumptuous in writing so many letters for 
your invaluable paper. I know there are 
many boys better able to write interesting 
letters than myself, but they do not seem to 
take hold. 
It is now a slack time with the farmers. 
The wheat is nearly all sown and it is not 
quite time to husk corn, though some have 
commenced, particularly in the lower part of 
the State, though the farmers are not all 
done sowing wheat. The drouth in the 
lower counties was more severe than in this, 
which accounts for the early husking. And 
this is not all; a great many farmers are 
husking, in order to put the ground in wheat. 
I think there will be one-third more wheat 
sown, in this part of the country, this year, 
than any previous one, although present 
prices are rather discouraging. 
The statement in my last letter, with re¬ 
gard to the last crop, has been fully confirmed. 
It was predicted by many, previous to har¬ 
vesting, who judged from the straw, that 
there would be one-fourth over an average 
crop ; but, it is now nearly all threshed, and 
they say there is not more than two-thirds. 
The largest and heaviest-looking wheat 
turned out the worst. On the other hand, 
the worst looking was comparatively good. 
The corn crop is also short here, and from 
the information which I have received from 
other parts of the State, it can not be more 
than three-fourths. 
Of potatoes, turnips, cabbages, &c., there 
is a complete failure. Potatoes are now 
being gathered which is unusually early, 
but the vines are dead, which is caused 
by the drouth, together with the heavy frosts, 
which we have had for a fortnight past. 
We have no apples this year and have not 
had a full crop for several years past. The 
farmers appear to take little interest in this 
delicious fruit. The orchards are declining, 
and, I am sorry to say, no new ones are 
being planted. Delaware is a great peach¬ 
growing State, but this season this crop also 
failed. The Messrs. Reybolds, who have 
hundreds of acres planted, had not enough 
to supply their own families. 
We have a new method of preserving 
peaches here. The difficulty is to get the 
air out of them. If this is done they will 
keep for years. We put them in bottles 
which hold about a quart; the air is taken 
out of the bottles, and they are then corked 
very tightly. This is a very profitable busi¬ 
ness, and, if well conducted, fortunes might 
be made. They will bring from 75 cents to 
$1 per bottle in England, and in our large 
cities they sell readily for 50 cents per 
bottle. Grapes, tomatoes, pears, cherries, 
and many other things that we can not get 
in Winter, may be kept in the same manner. 
As it is now about the time for farmers’ 
boys to go to school, probably you can give 
me some information concerning them. Are 
there no good schools near your city? 
Please give me your opinion of the “ Con¬ 
ference Seminary.” It is true we should 
encourage home , but it is equally true that 
there are no good schools in Delaware. 
I visited the Pennsylvania State Pair, 
Messrs. Editors, and it was really a sight to 
see 70,000 persons collected together, and 
of all classes, from the minister to the sot— 
from the millionaire to the beggar ; and there 
was such a confusion, and it was so hot, 
there was no comfort. The fact is, there 
were too many people there for comfort; 
but it was far better so, than to have had but 
a few in attendance. It seems that the 
agricultural interests of Pennsylvania are 
rapidly increasing; and that State will, in 
all probability, soon be able to compete with 
her sister State, New-York. 
THE DELAWARE FARMER’S SON. 
THE PROMPT CLERK. 
I once knew a young man, said an eminent 
preacher the other day, in a sermon to young 
men, that was commencing life as a clerk. 
One day his employer said to him, “ Now, 
to-morrow that cargo of cotton must be got 
out and weighed, and we must have a regu¬ 
lar account of it.” 
He was a young man of energy. This 
was the first time he had been entrusted to 
superintend the execution of this work; he 
made his arrangements over night, spoke to 
the men about the carts and horses, and re¬ 
solving to begin very early in the morning, 
he instructed the laborers to be there at 
half past four o’clock. So they set to work 
and the thing was done. About ten or 
eleven o’clock his master comes in, seeing 
him sitting in the counting-house, looks very 
blank, supposing that his commands had not 
been executed. 
“ I thought,” said the master, “ you were 
requested to get out that cargo this morn¬ 
ing ?” 
“ It is done,” said the young man, “and 
here is the account of it.” 
He never looked behind him from that 
moment—never! His character was fixed; 
confidence was established. He was found 
to be the man to do the thing with prompt¬ 
ness. He very soon became one that could 
not be spared ; he was as necessary to the firm 
as any of the partners. 
[London Youth's Instructor. 
EARLY CHARACTER. 
“ There is nothing I despise so much as 
to see a boy with a cigar in his mouth.” 
Thus remarked one of the wealthy and 
most respectable men of East Boston, stand¬ 
ing at the door of the Post-office, waiting 
for the distribution of letters, as a boy 
walked in, puffing a cigar. Sympathising 
somewhat with the gentleman, we fell into 
the following reflections : 
We imagined that, in the course of human 
events, this boy might be induced to apply at 
the gentleman’s counting room for employ¬ 
ment. The merchant’s remembrance of 
this act of youthful dissipation would proba¬ 
bly not be to the benefit of the applicant. 
The merchant would be likely to judge un¬ 
favorably of the young man’s character as 
to temperance and sobriety, and would think 
himself justified in doubting the independence 
and stamina of one who, evidently for no 
better reason than because others do, and 
probably because he thought it would give 
him a manly air, contracted the offensive and 
unnatural habit of smoking in his boyhood. 
The very act would seem to argue mental 
and moral deficiency, or perhaps both. Little 
things are sometimes attended with great 
results. The merchant, like a majority of 
well bred people, is exceedingly annoyed 
with the smell of cigar smoke. He despises 
the practice of smoking, and can not help 
noticing the boy who exhibits it, or thinking 
in such case, what the mental manifestation 
is. With the boy, the act was a trifle, noth¬ 
ing. To the man it was a revelation which 
told him something of a youth of whom he 
knew nothing before, and that something 
was to his discredit. 
How different would have been the result, 
if the first act of this boy noticed by the 
merchant had been one that as plainly spoke 
of integrity and good sense, as the act of 
smoking did of weakness and frivolity of 
character. The man would have remarked 
that boy ; and if it should ever have come 
in his way to render him a service, no testi¬ 
monials would be needed to secure his 
favor. 
We would fain impress upon the young 
the great importance of forming good 
habits. One may forsake his boyhood’s 
errors when he becomes a man; but the 
chance is that, instead of being forsaken 
they will be aggravated, and take on a rigidity 
which is like second nature to the individual, 
as he advances into manhood. Knowing 
this, people judge of young men by what they 
knew of them when boys—unless a subse¬ 
quent acquaintance gives them a better 
ground for the formation of an opinion. 
[East Boston Ledger. 
CHINESE PROVERBS. 
The ripest fruit grows on the roughest 
wall. 
It is the small wheels of the carriage that 
come in first. 
The man Avho holds the ladder at the bot¬ 
tom is frequently of more service than he 
who is stationed at the top of it. 
The turtle, though brought in at the area 
gate, takes the head of the table. 
Better be the cat in a philanthropist’s fami¬ 
ly, than a mutton pie at a king’s banquet. 
The learned pig didn’t learn it letters in a 
day. 
True merit, like the pearl inside an oyster, 
is content to remain quiet until it finds an 
opening. 
The top strawberries are eaten the first. 
He who leaves early gets the best hat. 
Pride sleeps in a gilded crown; content¬ 
ment in a cotton nightcap. 
Singular Encounter. —A few days ago, a 
common hen and a drake were observed in 
mortal strife by the side of the Oicb, at Fort 
Augustus. For upwards of an hour the 
combat was maintained with equal vigor and 
animosity. Fortune at last seemed about to 
decide in favor of her of the barn-door; 
when suddenly the aquatic, collecting all 
the energy of despair, seized his opponent 
by the head, dragged her into the pool, dived 
with her into the water, and there drowned 
her. It appears that poor “ chuckie’s male 
protector had on the previous day given a 
sound thrashing to the drake, and hence his 
revenge. 
A schoolmaster, not a hundred miles from 
Presteign, was one day questioning a class, 
and, among others, asked how many senses 
there were ? “ Seven, sir,” said a little fel¬ 
low with great confidence, drawing himself 
up to his topmost height. “ Prove it,” said 
the master. “Well, taste is one; feeling, 
two; smelling, three; two ears, Jive, and two 
eyes make seven /” 
A gentleman by the name of Slaughter, 
living in Alabama, being subpenaed as a wit¬ 
ness in a case pending in the Circuit Court, 
and being about to marry a Miss Lamb, wrote 
to the Court that he could not attend as a 
witness, as he expected “ to Slaughter a 
Lamb next Sunday.” 
A wag is said to have drawn the Jetter M 
before the Avord “ ice,” on one of the “ Cats- 
kill ice ” carts, in this city, Avhich made the 
sign read thus: “ Cats kill Mice.” 
Your character can not be essentially in 
jured except by vour oivn acts. 
