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farmers are not a reading and intellectual portion of the community, is fast losing its force: let there speedily be an end to it. Why should they deny themselves one of the purest sources of enjoyment within their reach? Reading, in fact, has become indispensable to the farmer, if he would reach the highest point of success in his profession; in no other way can he obtain an adequate knowledge of the improvement made in farm implements, the different breeds of stock, and the various operations and accessories pertaining to the tillage of the soil. We regard agricultural and horticultural journals as occupying a very important position in the periodical literature of the day; and every wise farmer will subscribe for at least one of them. A good publication of this kind, carefully read and digested, can hardly fail to make him a more thoughtful man, and a better master of his profession. We shall contribute our mite toward this end, so far as our limited space will admit.

CLEANING FRUIT TREES.-After the fruit is gathered, trees seldom receive any attention till the following spring; and in the hurry which then necessarily takes place, many important things are overlooked or neglected, and perhaps a thought is never given to the fact that multitudes of insects, in various stages of formation, have been left to multiply, and in many instances blight the farmer's hope. The larvae and eggs of insects may be found in the soil, and under the bark and along the limbs of trees: the larvæ in the soil are most readily destroyed by late fall plowing, which brings them under the influence of winter frosts, and insures the death of most thus exposed. But we wish to direct attention now to the eggs deposited under the bark and on the limbs, and to the various species of coccus, or scaly bug. To destroy the former, the trunk of the tree should be scraped; for this purpose an old hoe may be used. It is only necessary to scrape off the loose outer bark; after this has been removed, the trunk may be washed with a weak solution of whale-oil soap, The tree will be benefited by the operation, independently of the destruction of insects. The nests and nits on the limbs must be destroyed by hand. The labor is somewhat tedious, but it is labor well bestowed, and effects the purpose more surely, and in much less time, than when the trees are covered with leaves. If the destruction of insects is left till summer, much damage is done before any attempt is made to prevent it; and the labor then is greatly increased, as the worms are scattered all over the tree, and hidden from sight by the leaves. It is much better to destroy them when you can do so in mass. You will find the birds willing and cheerful co-laborers with you in destroying your insect enemies; those that escape you during the winter, they will probably destroy during the summer. You should therefore encourage the birds to abide with you, and protect them from wanton destruction by senseless boys, whether of a larger or smaller growth.

or even common soap.

We will now add a few words in regard to the coccus or scaly bug, which too often entirely escapes observation. In shape, they re

semble a very small turtle, and in appearance seem like small scales; hence their name. They are a great pest, and adhere to the bark by suction; suckers, in fact, would have been a significant name for them. They increase rapidly, and spread from the trunk all over the tree, which in consequence becomes sickly, and unable to ripen its fruit. The scaly bug is more frequently found on the pear than the apple; and so seldom attracts notice, that it is not often molested by the hands of man. In winter it is not difficult to destroy; it is then torpid, and easily rubbed off. It is generally found on smooth bark, and is readily destroyed by soap-suds applied with a brush: the scrubbing, however, must be done in good earnest. The whole subject of insects is deserving of serious attention, and we hope our readers will employ a portion of their winter leisure in efforts to destroy them.

FENCES.-The fence is one of the last improvements made on the farm, and generally one of the worst. It is a poor economy, however, to build a poor fence. Where stone is abundant, it makes in the end, if well laid, the most economical, as it is the most durable fence; but one made of locust posts and chestnut rails will last a lifetime. It should by all means be made straight; a crooked rail fence is an abomination, a waste of land, a harbor for weeds, and forever needing "fixing up." It is quite a common practice to divide the farm into small lots; this is both expensive and useless. Where cattle are soiled, very few fences are needed; and soiling is a practice much to be commended, especially on small farms. Look at your fences now, note what repairing is needed, and endeavor to do it before spring work is upon you.

THE PEACH BLOW POTATO.-We have tried this new variety of potato, and consider it one of the best grown. It boils dry, is mealy, and good flavored. It is also productive, and has been but little affected by the rot. The eyes are prominent, and there is consequently little waste in peeling. We saw it last season in several different localities, and found it uniformly good, and in much favor. The finest patch was on the farm of Peter L. Bogart, Esq., at Roslyn. We measured some of the stalks, and found them to be over six feet in length, and very stout. We recommend our readers to give the Peach Blow, and also the Washington, a trial.

A NOBLE LEMON TREE.-In a recent visit to Manhassett, L. I., we were invited to examine a large lemon tree belonging to one of the neighbors. Our surprise may be imagined when we beheld the largest specimen of the kind we had ever seen. Our surprise would have been less if we had seen the tree in some spacious green-house; but it is a "room-plant," and has always been such. Its age is about twelve years, and it had on it when we saw it one hundred and sixty-two lemons! many of them of very large size. Last year it produced one hundred and thirty-four lemons. We have seen specimens more symmetrically and skillfully grown, but none in better health and condition. It is about seven feet high and six feet in di

ameter. To increase the wonder, we have only to add, that this noble tree is owned and was raised by a lady, Miss Mary Bogert. It has been the special object of her affectionate care since it was a "wee bud," and it has, no doubt, beguiled many a weary hour, and added sunshine to the brightest.

CAHOON'S MAMMOTH RHUBARB.-Last fall we had an opportunity of examining this new variety of Rhubarb or "pie-plant," at Mr. Fuller's, in Brooklyn. It is truly a mammoth, its size not having been exaggerated by our Western friends. One of the stalks measured twelve inches in circumference, and weighed eight pounds and a half! We advise our friends to procure this variety, as well as the Linnæus and Downing's Colossal. The soil should be trenched and manured to the depth of at least two feet, for the Rhubarb is a gross feeder. If stalks are wanted early, the plants should be covered with manure in the fall, which may be forked under in the spring. The exposure should be a warm one, well open to the sun. The plants should not be placed near a grass or box edging, as the leaves will inevitably kill it. The Linnæus may be cut during the whole season, the stalks being at all times crisp and tender, with a fine vinous flavor. Care must be taken, however, not to push the cutting too far; for repeatedly stripping the same plant of its stalks greatly weakens it, and sometimes kill it. This may be avoided by having two sets of plants.

PARLOR PLANTS.-These will need watching, to prevent them from being frosted. When the nights are very cold, the table should be moved back from the window, which can be readily done if the tables are made as directed in a former article. Means should be taken to keep the temperature of the room above the freezing point, especially at night; and watering should be carefully attended to. The plants should not be watered until the surface of the soil becomes dry, and then enough should be given to go through the pot. This is a very important point to attend to, and its neglect is a source of frequent failure. Dead leaves should be picked off, and the surface of the soil occasionally stirred; and the plants will be benefited by an occasional syringing

overhead.

NANTUCKET GIRLS.-Until recently we had supposed that Nantucket was nothing but a sand bank, ornamented with a few fishermen's huts; but we were under a delusion. Nantucket is a great place, and raises smart girls. Nantucket has churches, public schools, newspapers, a gas-house, etc., and an Agricultural Society two years old, with a surplus fund of about a thousand dollars! They had a grand time at their annual fair, in which the women and girls took a prominent part, not only in making the arrangements, but as exhibiters and judges. This is as it should be. We find them writing odes and songs, exhibiting a great variety

of needle work and domestic manufactures, and even fruit, besides contributing very materially to the spirit and life of the entertainment at the close. The Nantucket girls, we take it,

excel in growing peaches, for quite a number presented them for exhibition at the fair, and Miss Coleman's, we believe, took the first prize. We missed something in not having been there; if we live so long, we shall be on hand at the next annual fair of the Nantucket Agricultural Society. The part which the girls took in this fair pleases us greatly, and receives our emphatic commendation. We saw something of the kind in Boston a couple of years since, and were so favorably impressed with its propriety, and the spirit it gave to the occasion, that we could not help wishing the practice were common all over the land. We have plenty of young "misses" here in New York; we wish our Nantucket friends would take some of them, and make "girls" of them.

During the past month there has been much excitement in New York in consequence of the position in which the working classes are placed from the want of employment. Meetings of unemployed men were held in most of the principal squares, at which many speeches of an incendiary character were made, chiefly by noisy politicians, who endeavored to make capital at the expense of the poor men by urging them to break the peace. They were, however, unsuccessful in their efforts, and failing to produce what they wanted, notoriety, they abandoned all idea of disturbing the public peace, and exthe workingmen, who most sensibly disclaimed erted themselves to procure employment. Many of them were successful; but we regret to say there are thousands still idle, and the sufferings they and their families are enduring, from hunger and cold, are terrible. It is the most melancholy winter ever seen in New York, and happy would it be for thousands if it had passed. In other cities the same melancholy tale has to be told, and unless business is speedily resumed, it is feared the consequences will be disastrous. Late accounts from Honduras state that the surveying corps of the projected interoceanic railroad had reached Comayagua, a point midway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The survey had thus far proved satisfactory, and the party of engineers were in good health and capmaking warlike preparations to repel an appreital spirits. At Omoa, the authorities were hended attack from Walker's filibusters, and a British vessel of war was daily expected to arrive to aid in the defense of the town. Throughout all Central America the mention of Walker's name appears to inspire alarm and lead to an immediate overhauling of rusty cannon and small arms. Apropos of Walker, it may here be stated that he wrote a letter to General

Cass, in which he repudiated the idea of his infringing upon the Neutrality laws, by enlisting men to make war upon a state with which we are at peace, and in a few days afterward left New Orleans in the Steamer "Mobile," for Mobile, when he was transferred to another steamer, the "Fashion," lying there with a force of four hundred men, and an abundance of arms and munitions of war. The steamer sailed at once for

Nicaragua. On it becoming known at Washington, the government immediately dispatched the revenue cutters at New Orleans to intercept this band of filibusters, and as soon after as possible the president recognized General Yrassari as

minister from Central America. At length the government will be compelled to take active and decisive steps against the Mormons. Official reports have been received in Washington of the burning, near Green River, by the Mormons, of three government trains, (seventy-five wagons:) also intelligence of the belligerent stand taken by these infatuated men; the proclamation of Brigham Young, placing Utah under martial law, and his threatening speeches, letters, etc., declaring it to be his intention to prevent the troops from entering his dominions. These violent measures admit of no palliation. The government must act energetically, and at once..... Quick justice, when administered by due course of law, is seldom more strongly exemplified than in a late case at Chicago. William Young and John Powers shot William Crozier on board a canal boat, for the terrible crime of breaking a pane of glass. The murder was committed on Monday night. The same night both Young and Powers were arrested; on Tuesday they were lodged in jail; on Thursday they were indicted; on Friday they were arraigned, tried, and convicted; on Monday they were sentenced to solitary imprisonment for life; and on the same evening, just one week from the commission of the crime, they were lodged in the State Prison. If this course of rapid justice was oftener pursued, crime would be less abundant, particularly in the city of New York, where crime is terribly on the increase. Murder succeeds murder so rapidly, that even when the party is brought up for trial, we forget all about the crime with which he stands charged, we have so many to remember, and so tardy are the authorities in bringing to trial the rascals who commit the deeds. The month of November presented the most horrible calendar of crime in the annals of the city, most of the murders committed being of a cruel, fiendish, and bloodthirsty character. The news from Mexico is highly important. Congress has suspended the political guarantees of the new constitution, and invested President Comonfort with supreme authority. Serious difficulties have occurred between the Spaniards and Mexicans in Cuernavaca, and martial law has been proclaimed in that district in consequence. Adrices from Yucatan represent the whole population of the province as in arms. The accounts of the ravages of the Indians are fearful. The towns of Chiciaconot and Tekax were sacked under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and the people of the Eastern district were flying from the savages in all directions. The citizens of Merida had addressed Governor Barreda on the subject of protection, when that official assured them that a war of extermination will be waged on the Indian race. He attributes their insolent war action to the unsettled state of the country produced by the revolutionists. . . The Great Republic, our largest and swiftest of clipper ships, seems to have had a narrow escape from foundering off Cape Horn, on the 3d of September, (the same date, it will be remembered, of the heavy gale in which the Central America was lost, though at so great a distance.) The Great Republic was on her way from the Chincha Islands to Callao, with guano, and when off the Horn was struck by a gale of such violence as to blow all her sails to atoms, carry away part of her spars, and finally a sea struck her on deck which broke away four of her beams, tore up her hatch-combings, and partially filled her with water. She reached the islands on the 7th, her crew having had no food for four days, and the ship almost in a sinking condition. . Last month the Barnegat Light House, on the Jersey coast, fell with a loud crash in a severe storm. The sea had been for some years undermining it,

and in order to prevent danger, a temporary house had been put up, to which the keeper and his family had removed a day or two before. A new house is to be immediately constructed, as the light is one of the most important ones on the American coast..... Judge Buchat, of Bridgehampton, Michigan, has been arrested and thrown into jail, charged with the brutal and inhuman murder his little child of three years, by beating it and burning on a stove. The child had been reported burned to death by accident and buried, but was dug up to furnish proof of the crime.. A serious and fatal collision took place in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 15th ult. At midnight, the Texas Steamship Opelousas, from Berwick Bay, for Galveston, came in contact with the Galveston, of the same line, and was so much injured that she sunk immediately. The captain and crew of the Opelousas were all saved, but twenty or twenty-five persons went down with the vessel, among whom was General Hamilton, of South Carolina, a well-known and influential man. James

G. Birney died in New Jersey, on the 24th of November. He was a native of Kentucky, born in the year 1793. He graduated at Nassau Hall, N. J., at the age of nineteen, and devoted himself to the study of law. On attaining his majority and coming into the possession of slaves, he nobly, and at great pecuniary sacrifice, set them all free. He afterward edited an antislavery paper with distinguished ability, and was the candidate of the Liberty party for President of the United States in 1844. His name will fill a conspicuous place in the history of reform when that history shall be written.. Funeral services in honor of Major General Worth were celebrated in this city on the 25th of November, on occasion of removing his body to the site of the monument about to be erected to his memory. There was an imposing display of military, and a funeral oration was delivered by the mayor. Mr. Samuel C. Nowlan, a civil engineer, has executed a plan for bridging the East River between this city and Brooklyn. The semi-annual Report of the New York Bible Society, shows that the receipts of the past year have been $18,700, a diminution as compared with previous years. The society has, however, been able to meet all its engagements, and donate $1,000 to the American Bible Society. The total number of persons at present in all the public institutions of NewYork, penal and charitable, under the charge of the ten governors, is about seven thousand, which is an increase of eleven hundred over the number in charge last year at this time. . . . A scrupulous politician has been found in Georgia. General John W. A. Sandford, of Baldwin County, lately elected to the state senate, refused to take his seat in that body, because he could not conscientiously swear that he did not obtain the office in any degree by "bribing, treating, etc.".. Bees for California, it may not be known to everybody, that there were no bees in California when first discovered by the Yankee family, and that several attempts made to carry them there at an early day were unsuccessful. Of late several persons have been more successful, and we suppose, have made the business of sending bees to the Golden State a gold-producing speculation. The steamer of Nov. 5 was engaged by J. S. Harbeson, of New Castle, Lawrence County, Penn., to take out sixty colonies of bees, destined for Sacramento and neighborhood. This is the largest shipment ever sent out. . . . . The Easton (Pa.) Argus mentions an incident of an old gentleman recently deceased in Lehigh County, who had been suspected of having considerable money in his house, although no one knew the amount

A

MONG the multitude of American generals who distinguished themselves in the Revolutionary war, no one is more widely known than Israel Putnam. Unlike many of his compeers, whose reputation is confined to the readers of history, his name and deeds are known to all. His fame is as universal as that of Washington. The delectable history of " Old Put and the Wolf," always a favorite selection in class-books, is the wonder and delight of school-boys, while his daring ride down the rocks at Horse Neck is the admiration of innumerable children of larger growth. In common with some hundred thousand or more of the latter, I remember witnessing, some years ago, a drama of "the times that tried men's souls," the strong VOL. XII.-8

point of which was a representation of the general's break-neck feat. I sat through I know not how many acts, just to see an ordinary actor ride an ordinary horse down a declivity of pasteboard! The play ran a fabulous number of nights, and, for anything that I know to the contrary, may be running still; if so, I wouldn't advise any one to see it. It is a bore.

The life of a man like Putnam cannot be written at length in a paper like this. Narrated in detail, his adventures would fill volumes. Besides, the age in which he lived being one of the most memorable which the world has yet seen, his history is more or less a history of the age. The most that can be given here, is a running account of his life, with a glance at some