lity, the gentility of their own profession, before they can be induced to take the proper measures to insure a thorough professional education for their sons. They must cultivate a spirit of respect for themselves and their profession; and consider no other class of men, no other profession superior or more respectable than their own. They will most assuredly never attain it. There is a should do as other professions do, associate and consult together upon their own professional affairs; establish schools and colleges for the education of the young; and, in fact, do as all other professions do to advance their own interest. Let us sketch a plan of education, and as a model we will take the medical profession. What does a man do who has a son that he wishes to make a doctor of? He selects some good physician, and puts his son with him to study, two or three years. This is to give him a theoretical knowledge of the rudiments. The physician will instruct him as to the books he must read, make him acquainted with the minor practical duties of the profession, and give him opportunities for such practice as may be considered proper. This is an apprenticeship. After a proper length of study in the office, he is sent to the medical college, where he completes his theoretical studies, and has the advantage of the clinical practice in the infirmary or hospital, and at a proper time, after sufficient examination, he receives his diploma. Now, farmers should do the same with those of their sons they intend for farmers. They should instruct them in the principles as well as the practice of their art; they should put books into their hands to be studied; they should, in fact, be carried through a regular apprenticeship. When they have gone through with this preliminary study of theoretical and practical farming, such as can be given them at home, or with some respectable farmer, they are prepared for the higher school studies. Every county should have at least one high Agricultural School, established and supported by the farmers, both in the science or theory, and practice of agriculture. Until the farmer adopt a system of this sort, it is impossible that they can ever attain to that high professional standing that is enjoyed by other professions. What, let us ask, is the system at present in vogue? The boy grows up on the farm, and sees as little of the farm-work as he possibly can. No one explains to him the why and because of any operation. If his parents are able, he is sent to some neighboring school, where he learns to read and write, and possibly to "cypher" some; but he learns to envy the condition of the schoolmaster, the clerk in the store, the doctor's students, and the lawyer's young men, and to hate the idea of returning to the work of a plain farmer. Here is the root of the evil, and I do not see how it is to be eradicated, except by a radical change in the school system, and in the minds of the farmers themselves, as to the standing and character of a farmer's profession. If the young be induced to consider the profession of a farmer as dignified and genteel as that of any other class, they would not so readily imbibe a dislike for it. This can be accomplished by a proper systematic course of instruction at home, and by schools properly in stituted and managed. As a general rule, every class of people enjoy precisely the character and standing in society that they themselves select. If the members of any profession, as a body, select a high grade of standing, and use the means for attaining it, they must and will occupy it. But if they merely look upon this high grade with an envious eye, and take no measures for securing it to themselves, they very prevalent idea among practical working people, that other people look upon them as a degraded class. In all my experience, I have found this idea to have originated with themselves, and that the other classes, without their suggestion, would never have thought of such a thing. Selfrespect should induce every man to put a proper estimate upon his own claims to the respect of others, and preclude the idea that any one else can, much less does, underrate them. FARM ECONOMY. "I am not rich enough to be economical," said a young friend of ours, when we strongly recommended to him the profits of a certain improvement. "The want of means compels me to work constantly to a disadvantage, and I cannot enjoy the privileges and profits of my richer neighbors." This is a difficulty in which many intelligent farmers have found themselves placed, and from which they would inost gladly be extricated. Innumerable instances are occurring in their daily practice, where they could secure golden results, had they only the lever of capital placed in their hands; but as they are now situated, they seem to themselves like the man who is digging the earth with his unassisted hands, or the one who is compelled to carry water in an egg-shell, while their more fortunate neighbors are turning up the deep soil with the most perfect instruments, or sending streams of refreshment and fertility through easy channels over their entire farms. Now, we are not about to plan a "royal road" of escape from this difficulty; it must be met and conquered. If the attack is rightly made, the conquest will be comparatively easy; if wrongly, it will be the discouraging and formidable task of a life-time. The eager inquiry is now made, What is the easiest mode of conquest? We answer, the first and great leading means, is a large fund of thorough and practical knowledge. The man who, by a close observation of results in his own practice and in the experience of others, in connection with the immense amount of useful suggestions (to say nothing of distinct practical directions) contained in the best publications of the day, possesses, even with a very short purse, a vast advantage over the short-sighted, ignorant, and unobservant capitalist. He will turn to advantage, even with his very limited means, a thousand resources which others would allow to sleep unemployed for ever. We once had occasion to observe the contrast in the condition of two young farmers, one of whom had a four-hundred acre farm "left" to him; the other had but fifty acres, which he had paid for in part, by previously laboring on a farm for some years by the month in summer, and teaching a district school in winter. The one had the capital of money which his own hands had never earned; the other possessed the more valuable capital of knowledge and indomitable perseverance. The young heir was more interested in riding about, in parties, balls, &c., than in the to thrash his grain, saw his wood, drive his churn, details of farming, and knew the contents of every turn his grind-stone, and slit picket-lath. It is newspaper much better than of any agricultural true, he has thrown this rude machine aside for journal. His farm became an exact reflection of the greatly improved endless-chain power, but it its owner's character. Fences were soon obscured answered his purpose for the time, before the days by belts of alders, blackberries, and burdocks; of improved machinery. But among all his outand buildings showed marks of premature age, lays for the sake of economy, there is none which and became dilapidated. There was a thirty-acre he thinks hes repaid him equal to the subscription marsh, which might have been drained, but it money applied in taking two agricultural periodinever was. And there was a patch of Canada cals, costing him $14 yearly besides postage, thistles which filled one twelve-acre field, and part and which, in connection with his own of another, which he could have destroyed in one perience and good judgment, have been the chief season, had he known how others had done. One guides in most of his great improvements. He hundred and eighty loads of manure, as estimated has been enabled to add sixty more acres to his at one time by a neighbor, were allowed to lie aand, and the whole presents a beautiful specimen whole year about his barn, without application. of neat, finished, and profitable farming. prac SOWING CLOVER WITH CORN. ex Mr. Editor,-Some person may inquire about ways sow our corn fields with clover seed. We His cattle were of the long-horned, big-headed, None of this is fiction. It was gradually accomsharp-backed breed. His swine were the Long-plished by years of constant, steady, intelligent bristled Racers. His profits in farming may be perseverance. easily guessed. There was a general complaint among his neighbors, that his debts were never met within six months after the appointed payday, and that he endured a sharp dun with extra-sowing clover among corn, and as it is a common ordinary patience. It is true, necessity drove him practice here, and our manner of doing it appears to retrench his expenses, and the improved ex- would give you a brief account of it. to be somewhat different from others, I thought I amples about him induced him to amend his As our oat tice, but not until his farm was reduced to less crop here brings but a poor price, and is generthan half its original size, by portions sold off at ally considered an exhausting one to our soil, a three different times to satisfy mortgages. number of our farmers have ceased raising it, and Well, what became of the young fifty-acre far-instead of following our corn crops with an oat mer, we are asked. He has ceased to be a "fifty-crop, as was our usual rotation here, we now alacre farmer." He began by examining closely what improvements could be made, of whatever character and kind, whether cheap or expensive, Among these he was compelled to select first, the cheap improvements, or those which promised the largest profits for the smallest outlay. One of the first of these was the draining of a threeacre alder swamp, a large portion of which he did with his own hands in autumn, between seeding and threshing. He had read of success with brush drains; he constructed all the side or secondary channels by filling them at the bottom with the bushes cut from the ground, which enabled him to accomplish the work at less than half the usual price. These brush drains have now stood many years, and the brush being wholly excluded from the external air, has not decayed, and they carry off the little water required, being numerous, and at regular intervals. Now, observe the result: The alder swamp would not have sold originally for five dollars an acre; it now brings crops of wheat, broom-corn, and meadow grass, more than paying the interest on a hundred and fifty dollars per acre, besides all expenses. He doubled his manure by drawing from the most peaty portion of this drained swamp, large quantities of muck to his farm-yard, where it was kept comparatively dry till wanted, under a cheap slab and straw shed. By paying a small sum yearly, he was enabled to improve immensely the breed of his cattle, sheep, and swine, which he thinks has returned the money thus expended at least twenty fold. The same keen attention to his business in other points, enabled him to effect many additional improvements, among which we may briefly mention a cheap and simple horse-power of his own construction, consisting of a rope running on the ends of radiating arms, which enabled him, by means of one or two horses, as necessity required, fails. directly after the plough, while the ground is We always sow it immediately after a rain, or fresh and mellow, and it will then start at once, and if the drouth does not kill it, you will have a fine crop of clover. HILLING CORN.-At a late meeting of the New Hampshire Legislative Agricultural Society, all the speakers objected to hilling corn. One farmer, who had experimented by hilling and leaving the earth level, found no apparent difference in the product, but found the hilled portions more likely to be broken down by storms. The other stood more firmly; or if bent, sooner recovered itself. Was not this owing to the better maturing and hardening of the roots? CLIMBING PLANTS. "As graceful as a vine," is a very common expression. Every one thinks the phrase quite poetical, and that is the end of it. Grace and Beauty are well enough to talk about, and serve as excuses for writing fine sentences, say our utilitarians; but were you to advocate that these are "qualities as positive as electro-magnetism,' you would at once be set down as a hopeless sentimentalist. Still, we are about to propose something which has no other recommendation than simplicity, beauty, and grace. It costs nothing, and will afford no pecuniary income; but it looks pretty. We wish to talk about the propriety of planting climbing plants to shade the windows, to relieve the monotonous colour of the exterior of the house, to cover up everything ugly, and to heighten the charm of everything pretty and picturesque. No matter how rude and unarchitectural may be your dwelling, vines will give it a new character, and make it look home-like and cheerful. There never was a grand old mansion or princely palace, that would not look grander and more kingly for a vine to twine about its great pillars, whose green leaves and bright flowers would relieve its stern and imposing appearance. A decoration of this kind, you have not to wait years to have completed; nor to consult with architects, or spend much time yourself to secure it. A wish will almost bring it. We quote Mr. Downing's remarks as to the vines most suitable for cultivation : "Our two favourite vines, then, for the adornment of cottages, in the Northern States, are the double Prairie Rose, and the Chinese Wistaria. Why we like these best is, because they have the greatest number of good qualities to recommend them. In the first place, they are hardy, thriving in all soils and exposures; in the second place, they are luxuriant in their growth, and produce an effect in a very short time-after which they may be kept to the limits of a single pillar on the piazza, or trained over the whole side of a cottage; in the last place, they are rich in the foliage, and beautiful in the blossom. "Now, there are many vines more beautiful than these in some respects, but not for this purpose, and taken altogether. For cottage drapery, a popular vine must be one that will grow anywhere, with little care, and must need no shelter, and the least possible attention, beyond seeing that it has something to run on, and a looking over, pruning, and tying up once a year-say in early spring. This is precisely the character of these two vines; and hence we think they deserve to be planted from one end of the Union to the other. They will give the greatest amount of beauty, with the least care, and in the greatest number of places." the one hand, a lattice house or arbor is too expensive for persons of moderate means, and perhaps less taste, while on the other, ladders and stakes are forever rotting and breaking down just when they should not. "It is simply procuring the trunk of a cedar tree from 10 to 15 feet high, shortening in the "side branches to within two feet of the trunk, and still shorter near the top, and then setting it again, as you would a post, two or three feet deep in the ground. "Cedar is the best, partly because it will last forever, and partly because the regular disposition of its branches forms naturally a fine trellis for the shoots to fasten upon. "Plant your favourite climber, whether rose, wistaria, or honeysuckle, at the foot of this tree. It will soon cover it, from top to bottom, with the finest pyramid of verdure. The young shoots will ramble out on its side branches, and when in full bloom will hang most gracefully or picturesquely from the ends. "The advantage of this mode is that, once obtained, your support lasts for fifty years; it is so firm that winds do not blow it down; it presents every side to the kindly influences of sun and air, and permits every blossom that opens, to be seen by the admiring spectator." THE MAJOR-And what has been the re sult of your monthly labours, Mrs. Grundy? MRS. GRUNDY.-Not much, but still enough to enable our fair Canadian readers to render still more attractive their already pretty faces and fine figures. (Mrs. Grundy reads): DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. CARRIAGE COSTUME.-Albanian dress of grey silk. The skirt ornamented with rows of flowers woven in the silk. A small pelisse mantle of black satin, trimmed with Canada sable. Bonnet of bright groseille-colored velvet, trimmed with velvet flowers of the same color. Under-trimming, white flowers and blonde. Strings of broad white gros-de-naples ribbon. PARISIAN FASHIONS FOR JANUARY, 1853. Dresses for morning and general wear will have the bodies more or less open in front, some quite to the waist; these styles have small square bas quines; fringe is the most favorite trimming for this style: the plain high body closing to the throat has the waist round, with ceinture of broad ribbon, the ends floating. In cloaks, Talma's are still in great favor; the Balmoral is the most novel of the season; it is exceedingly graceful and becoming to the figure. Bonnets are still worn open, the corners nearly meeting under the chin. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON LONDON FASHION AND DRESS. THE season has called forth a vast variety of eleThe Prairie Rose is of uncommonly rapid gant novelties in ball dresses, &c. For young growth-shoots of twenty feet in a single year, ladies, jupes of tulle, white or colored, are ornabeing a not uncommon sight. The Chinese Wis-mented with braid or embroidery, and worn over taria is of a more compact growth, and its blossoms hang in large bunches, from eight inches to a foot long. A climbing vine in the garden, in the "front door yard," and in pleasure-grounds, is particularly desirable. One great difficulty in the way of planting vines, is a want of some support. On slips of silk or satin of the same color as the tulle. The dresses of black tulle, worked in flowers of natural colors, which have so long maintained their hold on fashionable favor, are this season more splendid than ever; and those worked with yellow silk have perfectly the effect of gold embroidery. |