CORN POETRY. On yet another point your opinion would be very We find in the Iroquois Free Press some poetry upon "In-acceptable-with respect to the feasibility of estabdian Corn" written in a style a little homespun, but after all with a kind of ring about it which may commend it to the boys, The verses go off in a real strong Mormon sort of way. The West can boast of glorious streams, And prairie's grandest lawn- Large fields of Indian corn From peaceful sleep the plowman wakes, Long rows of Indian corn. 'Tis sweet when summer suns go down, I love to pull it from the stalk And husk it out its sheath, and talk Its glossy floss, its silk. And when at noon aside we dash Hot ears of tender corn. I'll take it with a true delight, For nothing tempts the appetite Sweet ears of roasted ccrn. Then when its sheaves stand thick about, The yellow, golden corn. Where freedom floats on every breeze, Are spread out on the land like seas! Blessed land of Indian corn. lishing an orchard in less than the ordinary time, by grafting young trees where they stand, without subsequent removal, instead of transplanting grafted trees. For instance, in this quarter, although situated in the farthest north and east, and exposed to the icy blasts of the northern Atlantic,* apple trees appear to spring up spontaneously. Whole fields are dotted over with them. I have such a field. The soil is gravel, on limestone rock. It never was much cultivated; and for many years, not at all. The white weed, or ox eye daisy, has been in undisputed possession of it, during forty years; but it contains numerous young apple trees, no doubt sprung from seed that has been casually dropped. There are old trees not distant, supposed to have been planted in the time of the French occupation of the country. They may be eighty or one hundred years old, and still thrive luxuriantly, in defiance of all sorts of ill treatment. Might not this field be expeditiously converted into a valuable orchard, by grafting the young trees where they stand? The question afterwards would be-ought they to receive any cultivation, and of what kind? They appear not to require it in the natural state. A reply to these questions would, undoubtedly, prove interesting to others, as well as to Sept. 12th, 1855. FAR EAST. *As late in the season as 17th of May, I have witnessed the sea filled with floating masses of ice as far as the eye could reach. A GOOD INVESTMENT. We had the pleasure last week of going over the farm belonging to J. W. Patterson, Esq., the present Mayor of our city, and noting the results of some experiments he has been trying during the past season. This farm is about a mile east of the bridge, and is principally a clayey loam. About 45 acres of it last year was covered more or less with bushes, being that part from which wood had been cut for market. Last summer, during the height of the drought, he employed some persons to cut the bushes, but soon after beginning the work, some boys thought they would set fire to a hornet's nest which they met with among the bushes. The fire spread from the hornet's nest and soon burnt over the whole piece, and was with difficulty restrained from doing damage elsewhere. For the New England Farmer. GRAFTING YOUNG TREES. MESSRS. EDITORS:--My attempt to graft the pear upon the Amelanchier, or Shad bush, has not been successful this year, mainly in consequence, as I It now became necessary to put the land into a think, of hasty and imperfect operation. None of condition to bear crops. Accordingly, late in the the grafts have taken; but as I am perfectly aware fall, just before the frost had shut the ground up, that they did take on the same stock, and grew vig- Mr. Patterson had a portion of the ground harrowed, orously, forty years ago, as mentioned in my last and on it he sowed winter rye, together with herds communication, I do not consider the point decided grass, clover, and red-top. This was suffered to reagainst the use of the shad bush for a stock in lieu main without being harrowed at all, and the winter of the quince; and I look for a more favorable issue soon setting in, none of the seed germinated until of the next trial. the spring. After the spring opened, a part of the Allow me to bring to your notice another horti- rye came up, and to appearance all of the herds grass cultural question. Possibly some of your corres- and red top, but not much of the clover. The rye pondents may have determined it already, from their that came up grew very well, but the herds grass own experience. It is presumed that seedlings are and red top came on vigorously, and produced a often raised from garden or orchard apples for the bountiful crop of grass which was cut and secured purpose of forming stocks. The question is, will at the usual season. such stocks be serviceable for grafting with scions Mr. P. estimates the amount of hay obtained from those trees from which the stocks derived their from the grass seed thus sown in the fall, and which origin? Is it probable that trees so obtained would did not come up until spring, to be not less than derive either advantage or detriment with regard to twenty-five tons. We did not note what probable the quality of the fruit, or the duration of the tree? number of acres of the forty-five were thus laid Or would the case be simply immaterial ? down. The balance of the piece was laid down this last spring, and is covered with a heavy crop of raised the coffee plant in the open air, from seeds grain, and the catch of grass is excellent. brought from Cuba. It grows about two feet high The crop consists of four bushels sowing of spring and produces its berries in pods, something like peas. wheat, and thirty-three bushels of oats. The wheat The plants, he says, hsve matured, even this cold is the variety known by the name of Scotch Fyfe season, and the berries ripened without injury from wheat, this is a variety not usually cultivated frosts. He has promised us some of the coffee of among us. It is a bald wheat, straw of medium this year's growth to plant in our own garden, for height and the berry is white and plump. It is now he desires that we also should test the truth of his ready for the sickle, though not sowed until the 25th experiment. and 26th of May last. We saw no signs of weevil or rust among it, and we should judge that it would yield twenty-five bushels to the acre. For the New England Farmer. THE WEATHER AND CROPS. But what we wished more particularly to remark is this, viz: that the money invested in this enter- NOTES ON THE WEATHER AND CROPS IN THE YEARS prise is well invested. We find that our farmers 1854 AND 1855. may be divided into two classes in regard to the MESSRS. EDITORS: - Notwithstanding all our subject of expending money in agricultural improve- boasted knowledge and progress in the various ments on their farms. 1st. Those who would, but branches of farming, we see it verified that "Paul cannot. 2d. Those who can, but will not. may plant and Apollos water, but it is God which Mr. Patterson expended not less than $600 on giveth the increase." Deep plowing, scientific manthis 45 acres. This is a great deal of money to be uring and improved cultivation, do not warrant us thus used in our latitude. Many of our farmers, great crops. We see that from different causes our instead of putting $600 to such a use, would look crops have fallen short the two past seasons, under at it a long time before doing any such thing, and any system of management which intellect could demost probably would have used it in skinning some vise. I shall commence my notes at the first of poorer neighbor by shaving his note so closely that May for each year. I have not gone to the accurathe discount would far outweigh the principal-the cy of stating the degrees of heat and cold by the princi-ple, too. thermometer. But this investment has proved a very safe and 1854. profitable, and, what is better yet, a very honest May 1, moderate; 2, very warm and pleasant; one. Mr. Patterson will realize at least a return of 3, rainy with lightning; 4, great rain from north$400 on the $600 invested, and that too in one east ; 6, snow squalls, very cold; 7, Sunday morn, short year, and the land still be in a condition to re- froze so hard as to bear my weight on a puddle in turn as much another year. Can any of your note- my barn-yard! the coldest day I ever saw in May; shavers and fancy stock jobbers show a better re- 8, cool; 9, warm and pleasant; 10, do; 11, thunturn for cash invested?-Me. Farmer. For the New England Farmer. der shower and plenty of rain; 12 and 13, warm and pleasant; 14 and 15, rainy, very growing time; 16, very warm and pleasant; 17, wind east, apple trees begin to blossom; 18, showery all day; 19 and 20, fine and fair; 21, light thunder showers; 22, fair; 23, cool; 24, slight frost; 25, rain; 26, MR. EDITOR:-Dear Sir,-permit me, through eclipse of the sun, and cool to the end of the month. the columns of the Farmer, to express my views in June 1, slight frost, grows dry; 2 to 7, continanswer to J. W. W., as I, too, have suffered from ues dry; 8, soaking rain; 9, growing time; 10, the same cause, viz: frozen sap blight on the trunks showery; 11 and 12, cool; 13, little shower; 14, of apple trees. When it is recollected that the first part of last winter was very mild, and that the lat- rain; 16, 17 and 18, good weather; 19, thunderwarm; 15, warm, thunder-shower and plenty of ter part was the coldest we have experienced for shower and little rain; 20, ground well soaked, thirty years, I think we may safely conclude, that rose-bugs appear; 21, sudden change in the weathduring the mild weather, the sap had been attracted to a certain extent up into the trunks of the trees, wind north-east, and continued so till 24, when it er, wind northeast, very cool; 22, cloudy and cool, when the intensity of the cold which followed, caused cleared off; 25 and 26, cool and dry; 27, do; 28, the sap vessels to burst, and hence the dead bark. warmer, thunder-shower and plenty of rain; 29, I have one fine Hubbardston tree on which there is a fair and warm; 30, cloudy, cool and rainy, vegetaabout eight inches wide, killed entirely around tion looks well, corn shows the tassel earlier than the tree; this having pealed off, I prepared eight for many years. space scions, taken from a young Greening tree, and in- July 1, fair and cool; 2 to 11, very warm and serted one end of each under the live bark, above dry; 12 and 13, cool and dry; 14 and 15, rainy and below the dead part, and covered the wounds and cool, wind north-east, ground well soaked; 16 with grafting wax. They soon united and have and 17, foggy, 18 and 19, good hay weather; 20, made a fine growth, and the tree ripened several ap-21, extreme heat; 22, cloudy, wind north-east; 23, ples. I have about one hundred and fifty apple great heat and soaking shower; 24, warm thundertrees, of ages from two to twenty years, that have rare- showers all day, wind south; 25, the third rainy ly escaped a wash of soap-suds twice in the course day; 26, cloudy; 27 and 28, cooler, good hay of each year, but I have no reason to suppose them weather; 29 to 31, warm and dry. any the worse therefor. East Bridgewater, 1855. E. C. H. August, 1, 2 and 3, warm and dry; 4, fine rain; 5, great dew-through July to this date, but little dew. 6 to 12, cooler and dry, no dew; 13, very THE COFFEE TREE IN MAINE.-Mr. Drew, of the hot and dry, no dew; 14, cooler, wind north-west, Rural Intelligencer, says that a friend of his in the very dry; 15, light frost, dry; 16 and 17, fair, cool town of Mt. Vernon, has for the last three years and dry; 21 to 30, very dry, no dews, fires raging in many places; light frosts on the mornings of 28 with the above title, edited and published by C. and 29; 31, warm and dry. REAGLES, Esq., New York city. It is illustrated September 1, rain, first since August 4; 2 to 10, with landscape sketches, fruits, plans of buildings, plenty of rain, weather fine, fires extinguished, grow- &c. It is printed in convenient 12mo. or small 8vo.. ing season at an end. From the 4th to the last of August the drought was the most rapid, and the form, and filled with well written, practical articles. evaporation the greatest I ever knew in so short a Among the contributed articles is an excellent one space of time, which may be accounted for from the on shade trees, by our old friend and correspondent, circumstance of the great heat and deficiency of WILLIAM BACON, Esq., of Richmond, Mass. The dews. articles, generally, are attractive, and indicate a knowledge of the wants of the people on the part of the editor. We wish the enterprise great suc 1855. May 1 to 8, cold, frosty and dry; 9 and 10, wind north-east, cold and cloudy; 11, moderate; 15, warm and dry; 16, began to rain, which contin- cess. ued through the night; 17, fair and cool; 18 to 23, very cold and cloudy, a few drops of rain; 24 frost, A. M.; warmer, with lightning, P. M.; 25, warm; 26, cold and windy; 27, 28 and 29, frosty mornings and cold dry days; 30 and 31, cool and dry, apple blossoms begin to fall. May has been a cold, dry month who can wonder that the crops of English hay should be short and the other crops backward at the end of such a May? tion. EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL. "There is, on an average, about one-fourth of a pound of potash to every one hundred pounds of soil, and about one-eighth of a pound of phosphoric acid, and one-sixteenth of a pound of sulphuric acid. If the potatoes and the tops are continually removed from the soil, it will soon exhaust the potash; if the wheat and straw are removed, it will soon exhaust the phosphate of lime; if corn and the stalks, it will soon exhaust the sulphuric acid. there is a rotation, or the material that the plant run out, though the soil may continue rich for other requires, supplied from abroad, your crops will soon plants." Unless June 1 to 3, violent south wind lasting three days doing much damage, accompanied with clouds and little rain; 4, 5 and 6, cool and dry; 7, very rainy, wind north-east; 8, windy and cold; 9 to 12, light showers and cool; 13 and 14, cool; 15, rain; 16 and 17, cool; 18, frost; 19, rain through the night; 20, cool, all vegetation very backward; 21, warmer, with soaking showers; 23, warm and grow- An acre of soil twelve inches deep would weigh, ing weather with plenty of rain up to the 27th; say 1,600 tons. According to the above figures, it 28, 29 and 30, extreme heat and a little rain to fin- would weigh 8000 lbs. of potash, 4000 lbs. of phosish out the month. phoric acid, and 2000 lbs. of sulphuric acid. EstiJuly 1 and 2, hot and dry; 3 and 4, fine weather; mating that potatoes contain 20 per cent. of dry 5 and 6, showers ; 7 and 8, great north-east rain; 9 matter, and that 4 per cent. of this is ash, and that and 10, fair and cool; 11, rainy; 12 to 19, warm, half of the ash is potash, we only remove in a crop good haying; 20 to 31, showery, poor hay weath- of 250 bushels, 60 lbs. of potash. Say that the er. July has been a favorable month for vegeta- tops contain 20 lbs. more, and we have potash enough in an acre of soil to produce a crop of 250 August 1, the first fair day for a long time; 2, 3 bushels of potatoes, each year for a century! and 4, good hay weather; 5, 6, fair, plenty of dew; A crop of wheat of 30 bushels per acre, contains 7, fine shower; 8, cool; 9, soaking rain; 10, fair and about 26 lbs. of ash, and half of this, say, is phoscool; 11 to 15, cool; 16 to 17, showers; 18 to 22, phoric acid. Allowing that the straw, chaff, &c., cool and frosty mornings; 23, warmer; 24 and 25, contain 7 lbs. more, we remove from the soil in a fair and warm; 26, light rain; 27, very cool; 28 to crop of wheat of 30 bushels per acre, 20 lbs. of 30, fair, cool and frosty mornings; 31, a hard frost phosphoric acid. According to the above estimate, which put a check to the growth of vegetation, in- then, an acre of soil contains sufficient phosphoric jured the corn and other crops, and nearly ruined acid to produce annually a crop of wheat and straw the cranberry crop, and put an end to the growing of 30 bushels per acre, for two hundred years! season for the present year. We will pursue the calculation no farther. The Thus we see in defiance of all our wise plans and writer of the paragraph quoted above, selected out anticipations, our corn, cranberries and many other the crops and elements best suited for his purpose; productions were cut off or injured last year by heat but it will be seen, that even according to his own and drought, and the present year by cold and estimate, there is sufficient potash and phosphoric frosts; but, thanks to a good Providence, we have acid in the soil to give the present wicked generaenough of every good thing left but gratitude to the tion all the potatoes and wheat they may need. bountiful hand which has dealt with us so liberally But let us take another view of the subject. No heretofore. Our best policy will be to "go ahead" intelligent farmer removes all the potatoes and tops, with renewed energy in preparation for another all the wheat, straw and chaff, and all the corn, year by collecting materials for manure. I have stalks, &c., from his farm. According to Dr. Salislately dug out and carried on to the "field of oper- bury, a crop of corn of 75 bushels per acre removes ations" some 300 loads of mud in preparation for from the soil 600 lbs. of mineral matter; but the another attempt at supplying our bodily wants, in- grain contains only 46 lbs. The remaining 554 lbs. dependently of any nation living at any of the four is contained in the stalks, leaves, sheaths, husks, points of the compass. Wilmington, Sept. 12, 1855. S. BROWN. NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL REVIEW.-Some time since, we received the first number of a work tassels, &c., all of which are generally retained on the farm. It follows from this that, when only the grain is sold off the farm, it takes more than 13 crops to remove as much mineral matter from the soil as is contained in the whole of one crop. Again, the ash of the grain contains less than 3 per cent of sulphuric acid, so that the 46 lbs. of ash in 75 cattle. And some persons, who are bound to stick bushels of corn contains less than a pound and a to the old methods of saving and making manure, half of sulphuric acid, and, thus, if as is estimated, would do well to pay him a visit and observe the an acre of soil contains 2000 lbs. of sulphuric acid, capital arrangements he has, in connection with his we have sufficient for an annual crop of 75 bushels barns, to save the refuse (which is often swept out per acre for fifteen hundred years! and made unavailable for farming purposes;) he Intelligent wheat-growers seldom sell their straw, carefully preserves all he can, and causes it to be or chaff, and frequently consume on the farm nearly passed into his manure cellar, where it is compoundas much bran, shorts, &c., as is sent to market with ed with the rest of the waste matter which goes to the grain. In the Natural History of New York, make up the dunghill. ; For the New England Farmer. AN EASIER WAY THAN FARMING. BY ICHABOD HOE. part 5, it is stated that a crop of wheat, in Western Altogether, this is one of the best farms we have New York, of thirty bushels per acre, including seen on Cape Cod, and those who contemplate imstraw, chaff, &c., removes from the soil 144 lbs. of proving their land and barns, would do well to call mineral matter. Genesee wheat usually yields upon Mr. Howes and see what industry and scienabout 80 per cent. of flour. This flour contains tific farming can do towards turning the desert into only 0.7 per cent. of mineral matter, while fine mid- a fruitful field.-Barnstable Patriot. dlings contain 4 per cent. Coarse middling, 54 shorts, 8; and bran, 8 per cent. It follows from this that, out of the 144 lbs. of mineral matter in the crop of wheat, less than 10 lbs. is contained in the flour. The remaining 134 lbs. is found in the straw, chaff, bran, shorts, &c. Even, however, if none of the shorts is returned to the farm, the 30 "What is the use in digging on the farm, where bushels of grain remove from the soil only 26 lbs. of one is exposed to all sorts of weather, wet and cold, mineral matter; and it would take more than five hot and dry, just barely squeezing along and makcrops to remove as much mineral matter as one ing the ends of the year meet, when one can work crop contains. Allowing that half the ash of wheat in a shop where it is warm and dry, and in the is phosphoric acid, 30 bushels remove only 13 lbs. shade at least in hot weather? Dig as hard as we from the soil, and if the soil contains 4000 lbs., it will, we can't make as much as those who work at will take 207 crops of 30 bushels each to exhaust it. boot-making, and don't work much more than half We commend these facts to the consideration of the time either. I'm going to quit farming and the writer of the paragraph we have quoted. If his turn one of the rooms of my house into a shop, estimates are correct; if the soil contains as much and I and my boys will go to making boots, and I potash, phosphoric acid and sulphur as he states, advise you to do the same." we need have few fears of waking up some morn- "I know there are hardships in farming, and ing to find all the precious elements of crops de- rather slow pay, but it's a pretty sure pay, and I parted from our soils forever. believe I will keep digging. It is said to be hard We should just observe that the idea, embodied to learn old dogs new tricks.' Farmers have to be in the latter part of the paragraph, has no founda- exposed to all sorts of weather, but if they are tion in fact. If a soil is exhausted of potash, or of careful, it is no worse than being shut up in a shop phosphoric acid, it will not "continue rich for other all the time and confined to a bench." crops." Not a plant that we commonly cultivate, "O, a man needn't work all the time on the bench, can grow upon soil destitute of any of the mineral elements of plants.-Country Gentleman. he can make his dollar and a half a day in the shop and not work much more than half the time, and the rest of the time he can work out of doors, if he has a mind to." FARMS ON CAPE COD. "Yes, but that 'mind to' is apt to be lacking; I Yesterday we were conducted over the excellent have noticed in those who get accustomed to the farm of James Howes, Esq., who for the last few shop, they don't like to go out doors to work." years has made great improvements upon his land "Ah! that's because it is so much easier to work and barn. He has brought a patch of land he owns, in the shop, and I'm not disposed to expose myself which is situated upon a high hill, into a good state to all weathers and work like a dog when I can get of cultivation. Though upon this land he has ex- along a great deal easier, and a good deal faster, pended much labor and money, he has begun to another way. The thing is 'done' with me, and I reap the advantage of what he has done. His crops advise you to follow suit, and do as all the rest of of carrots and ruta baga turnips are most excellent. the world-that are smart enough-are doing, get When he sowed his rye last season there was mixed a living some other way than digging on the farm with his seed considerable quantities of wheat; by for it." this accident he has discovered that a portion of his Up to this time, these two neighboring farmers land is adapted to its cultivation, for when his crops had maintained a sort of friendly rivalry in the was matured, he found that the ears of wheat were management of their farms. Mr. Russel, the one well filled out, and in fact, were in every way equal who was going to quit farming, had the largest, and to what he had seen in any part of the country. naturally the best farm, but Mr. Burton, his neighThis fall he has sown a piece of his land with wheat, bor, "took the papers," and brought a little more and the recent rains, combined with the clemency judgment and skill to bear upon his acres, and selof the season, have caused the young and tender dom failed to raise a little the largest crops on less blades to appear, and altogether, present appear- land. Taste and inclination, too, made farming ances seem to indicate that his experiment will be lighter,to Mr. Burton than to his neighbor, who successful. the reader has already observed, thought a good The barns of Mr. Howes are large and airy; he deal of getting on easily and without exposure. has accommodation for twenty or thirty head of His sole stimulous and principle of action in man aging his farm, was, to get the most possible for the these "pull backs," they made more money than present, without reference to the future. Under they did at farming, and could see more at the end this system, he found that every succeeding year of the year. required closer engineering to make the ends meet, Meantime farmer Burton kept on the even tenor and this, too, notwithstanding his two boys had got of his way-improving his farm somewhere every big enough to do almost a day's work each. Mr. year; sometimes reclaiming a piece of low ground Burton had followed quite another system in the by ditching and draining, and improving the high management of his farm, and by the help of his ground with the muck from the low, and the boys, who were twins, about the age of Mr. Russel's low with the sand or loam of the high. As the second boy, he found his income from the farm "twins" grew up toward manhood, they felt, like all slightly increasing. Farming at that time was at a young men, as though they could do wonders for pretty low ebb, and every body, as Mr. Russel said, themselves by leaving the old hive and striking out seemed to be leaving it to get a living and property to make their fortunes on their own hook; but the some other way. father's experience had taught him that "in union The most casual observer would see at a glance there is strength," and he advised them to remain that Mr. Russel was not a man of much taste, at home with him and he would allow them so much from the appearance and arrangement of his build- a month, or if they preferred, they would all work ings. His house, which he had built himself, stood in common, and each share such a part of the proclose by the road-side, and his barn stood nearly fits. The advice of the father, aided by the peropposite to the house on the other side, still nearer suasions of an excellent mother and affectionate sisthe road than the house. No trees or shrubs shel- ters, who all aided in making home pleasant, overtered or adorned either the house or barn. His came all inclinations to go abroad. The father and neighbor Burton's was somewhat unlike this. His sons formed a sort of joint stock, or rather, joint place manifested no particular refinement of taste, labor company out doors, and the mother and but it had a different "air" about it. It stood far- daughters its counterpart in the house. The mother back from the road, and had several fine large ther was a very intelligent woman, and acquainted cherry trees near it, and two towering pear trees, with the ways of the world to more than an ordiand there were shrubs and flowers around and near nary extent for one in her place-having taught it, which gave it a cheerful aspect. And then the school in her younger days. barn and out-buildings were back from the house, As has been said, Mr. Burton's farm consisted of and nearly out of sight, hid by the apple trees be- less than a hundred acres, containing, in fact, but tween them and the house. seventy. For a while he thought of buying a part Mr. Russel had the shop-room soon finished off, of his neighbor Russel's, but he found the more and and a hand hired to come and learn both himself better a piece of ground was cultivated, the more a and sons to make boots. He had three sons in all, great deal it produced. Acting on this hint, it was but the youngest was too young to do much; he not long before they found they had as much land had one daughter. Mr. Burton had two sons-the as they could manage with profit. Their farm was twins-and three daughters. situated ten miles from Boston, and in two or three Russel applied himself with a will to his new years from the time to which this story refers at trade, and Burton dug away upon the farm, with, its commencement, a railroad was constructed perhaps, a little more energy and determination through the town, and not far from the farms of than ever. For two or three years Russel gained Mr. Russel and Mr. Burton. This gave facilities upon his neighbor in worldly thrift. Times in his for getting the products of the farm, its fruits and new business were good, and money flowed in easily, early vegetables, to market, and Burton and his but, some how, it seemed to get away unaccountably sons found each year added to their income. fast. The first season after Russel and his sons be- There came to be a great difference between the gun on their boot-making, they planted a piece to two homes of the two families here spoken of. The potatoes and a small patch of corn, and had what Russel family were all engaged upon boots in some was called a garden too, but it was very little at- form or other. The mother and daughter "bound, tention they all got. Occasionally Mr. Russel him- stitched and fitted" boots, and the father and sons self would get out with a hos, but the boys usually made them, and when the boot business was good, shunned that kind of recreation, and after the first they handled a good deal of money. But all must season, they all concluded they had rather take a have times for recreation, and the only recreation few more stitches, or drive a few more pegs a day, that suggested itself to the younger members of and buy what was needed in the family, in perfer- Mr. Russel's family, was some game, or a ride, or ence to working out doors for exercise, to raise it, hunting and fishing, or something of this sort. and to take their exercise in more agreeable ways. Home was a place to work, to eat, and to sleep in; But these agreeable ways were extremely apt to but they never thought of it as a place to enjoy cost money in some shape, or to lead to it, at least. themselves, and there was little in fact there attrac A "quarter" or two every little while, and a dollar tive. Scarcely a newspaper was to be found there, now and then, were but trifles, and soon earned! and few books beside the Bible, psalm-book and the So it went to the end of the year, when it was found greasy "dog-eared" school books, that had been that there were not half the "shot in the locker" used in school. We say, "had been," for since the they expected to see there when the year began. boot-making had begun, little time had been spared Óne cause of this was found to be owing to the to going to school. amount of doctors' bills they had to pay; for, from But it was quite otherwise in the family of Mr. some cause or other, there had been a good deal of Burton; each member of the family took a periodisickness in the family of late. In the winter they cal of some kind! so there were no less than four were some of them on the borders of a fever from weeklies and three monthlies. Among these were a "terrible cold," and in summer all sorts of com- some of the best agricultural and horticultural periplaints troubled them. But, notwithstanding all odicals published in the country, the rest were re |