imgtufr ta import \\t farmer, tj \t flant-er, inter tjje (&i\xk\m\ 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY , THE MOST USEFUL , AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN- Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
VOL. XI.] 
m»FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, frc., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
DREADED JOBS. 
With what a comfortable, exultant feeling one 
sits down to his fireside of an evening, after fin¬ 
ishing up a tough, ugly piece of work, which he 
has dreaded to undertake, and somewhat doubt¬ 
ful of its answering the purpose when done, but 
out of which he has come triumphantly at last! 
It is not a victory won over a fallen foe at an 
expense of physical force, bad temper, and fu¬ 
ture remorse; nor that over perverse brute 
strength and will, with corporeal suffering as 
the penalty of long continued contumacy; but an 
absolute creation of something valuable, tangi¬ 
ble, and comely to the sight, out of what was not 
only, in itself, nothing, so far as good was con¬ 
cerned, but worse than nothing in effect—offen¬ 
sive to the sight, and a nuisance on one’s prem¬ 
ises. 
We have just been doing one of these very 
things—creating a broad, rich space of pasture, 
plow, or meadow land—it will bear any thing, in 
fact, that we want to grow on it—out of a 
brushy, frog-hidden swamp of some acres in ex¬ 
tent. The various sources of supply for water 
had draggled, ever since Noah’s flood, over 
scores of acres of the best of soil, lying so level 
that the listless water scarce knew which way 
to run, and impeded throughout, even if it had 
at any time a will of its own, by tussocks of 
rushes, brushwood, and fallen trees. These, lat¬ 
ter, to be sure, had been cleared off with the ad¬ 
joining forest, years ago—after the fashion; but 
instead of ditching it at the time, it was left for 
a more convenient season, and in hopes, too, that 
the sun would dry it up and the water find its 
own channel away. But it did no such thing. 
There the water lay, and there the rushes, and 
the flags, and the water-grasses grew, and the 
alders with them; and there continued the frogs, 
and the lizards, and all creeping things which 
find a home in such stagnant receptacles. The 
final pool into which these miscellaneous waters 
centered, was a shallow basin, crusted round by 
a broad, low ridge, just high enough to prevent 
the water from escaping, only at an unusual 
flood, and the basin itself just deep enough to 
give a good bottom for all its vegetation to grow 
upon—drying up every summer for six weeks 
or two months, but yielding nothing for good, 
either to man or beast. 
This was a job we had long threatened to do; 
but other labors pressing more^upon us, we had 
from year to year postponed it, until, during the 
past fall, a couple of fresh, stout-handed English¬ 
men presenting themselves for work at ditching, 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1854. 
we set them at it. A tough, weary, wet, and 
dirty job it was too. It is useless to describe it, 
as probably the reader has no one of his own 
just like it; but the result to us is, a fine, clean, 
free piece of ground, with the water running 
into what was the bowl of the swamp, by vari¬ 
ous little channels of open drain, (we intend it 
for pasture,) and emptying themselves into a 
broad, shallow one along the center until it 
reaches the boundary ridge, where it pushes 
through a cut of full four feet in depth, and 
worki out again on the level of a gentle slope, 
and spreads itself away in a fertilizing stream 
over a broad bottom below. Thus, at the ex¬ 
pense of fifty dollars, we have drawn off the 
water which had absolutely spoiled half a dozen 
acres of the best land on the farm, and made 
twenty acres more so cold and sour that its pas¬ 
ture was of little or no value. Now, is not this 
a victory worth exulting over? It should have 
been done before, to be sure, but all things were 
not made in a day, and we cannot do up all our 
improvements as we would, even with the am¬ 
plest means at our command. A few more jobs 
of the kind are left for future execution, at 
which we intend not to be so dilatory as in this. 
There is no particular moral in the above 
-rather egotistical narrative; but as we appre¬ 
hend many of our readers may have a forbid¬ 
ding, rough spot of earth, or water, or brush¬ 
wood, or stones upon their farms, quite as re¬ 
pulsive to the sight, and the touch, as was this of 
our’s, we can freely say, that when once you get 
engaged in a job of the kind, you will not find 
it half so bad as you anticipated; andyvhen ac¬ 
complished, it will give you a grateful, pleasu¬ 
rable feeling every time you see the spot here¬ 
after, and every time you .think of it, besides 
being repaid the outlay much sooner than you 
had expected. 
ARE GEESE PROFITABLE OR OTHERWISE 1 
We have heard an adage that “geese devour 
all before them and poison every thing behind.” 
We know nothing positively as to the truth of 
this very charitable accusation against the poor 
goose, although we have for several years kept 
them on our farm. At all events they are no 
favorite with farmers generally, being difficult 
to fence against, where there is not abundance 
of water; and where they have access to the 
grounds about the house are untidy intruders. 
The common goose has little beauty to boast of, 
and certainly no music in its voice, but its feath¬ 
ers are a great item of comfort in housekeeping, 
and in flesh no poultry exceeds them in delicacy 
of flavor. They are easily and cheaply raised; 
living, after a few days old, on the coarsest grass 
and other herbage, and when they can have ac- 
[NUMBER 21. 
cess to a considerable stream, or pond of water, 
require but little food during winter. 
The Chinese .r c -e is nearly as beautiful as the 
swan, sitting gracefully on the water, and having 
a shrill, clarion cry, harmonious, even at a mod¬ 
erate distance. Some are very dark colored, 
with black bills and feet; others are pure white, 
with orange-colored bills and legs. Besides 
these, is the great Guinea or African goose, 
nearly resembling, but much larger than the 
Chinese, with black bill and orange-colored legs 
-and feet, and the same graceful figure and musi¬ 
cal cry. To these may be added the Bremen, 
purely white in color, of double the size of the 
common goose, but otherwise of the same figure 
and style. Neither of these foreign varieties are 
as prolific, or hardy as the common kind, but 
better fleshed. They are the most ornamental 
water fowl we have, and a beautiful addition to 
a pond or stream in a park, or large lawn. For 
profit, they have little to recommend them, while 
the common goose is hardy, prolific, and yields 
a delicate carcase of flesh when less than a year 
old. 
In some sections of the country, particularly 
where there are extensive commons, great num¬ 
bers of them are bred, mostly by the poorer 
class of people who have little land of their own, 
and they are sometimes kept by large farmers 
as an article of convenience. We should like 
some information as to the value of geese as a 
branch of farm stock where they are well ac¬ 
commodated with water, and the fences of such 
description as to prevent them from depredations 
upon the crops. 
NEW-YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Fourth Conversational Meeting , Jan. 23 d, 
1853. Mr. Plaice in the chair. Subject—The 
Cultivation of the Camellia. 
R. R. Scott read an essay on the introduction 
and history of the Camellia, which embraced 
brief remarks on its improvement in European 
countries, its popular character, and the success 
with which it has been cultivated in the United 
States. 
A few specimens were furnished from the 
garden of D. Boll to illustrate the improve¬ 
ment in Hybrid varieties. A seedling from the 
Single Red, very similar to the original, showed 
the primitive characteristics of the genus, which 
is of a natural order Ternstrojiiacej:, and a 
closely allied family to the teas, Thea Bohea, 
T. Viridis, and T. Assamica or Assam Tea; 
which indeed were once ranged under the genus 
Camellia, and which plant they much resemble. 
All the above named species, except T. Assa- 
mica , are natives of Japan and China. Camel¬ 
lia olei/era is the only other species of Camel- 
