steep hillside. The soil is so sandy that pasture land here, as steep as this is, would be of little value. Mr. Wyman said it possibly might have been worth ten dollars an acre when he began on it. Most of his neighbors though, with whom I talked, thought five dollars an acre a fair valuation for such land. The trees are set out with the regularity of the hills in a cornfield, and are about twelve feet apart. Standing at one side of the grove you can look far down the long aisles which the brown trunks form. Of course, the setting out of the trees with this regularity is not necessary if it is being done merely as a measure of utility. This grove is directly beside the track of the Cheshire division of the Boston & Maine Railroad, formerly the Fitchburg, between the stations of East Westmoreland and Westmoreland Depot. It lies below the track, and no doubt the beauty of the trees and their regular arrangement have attracted the attention of passengers who may read this article. Mr. Wyman's home, for more than a quarter of a century, has been the little red farmhouse near the grove.

What this man has done, almost any farmer or his sons might do. Suppose a boy be given one, two, three or five acres of land to set out to trees each year. The work is so light that a boy ten years old could do it. If he followed out the process faithfully each year, when he became of age he would be the owner of a property which would be the equivalent of a handsome savings bank account, and there would be at least a possibility that he would

have developed an interest in the farm which would keep him living on it.

If we acknowledge the reasonableness of the farmer's plea that he be allowed to cut down the forest. in general, let us call attention all the more emphatically to one place. where he cuts the trees not only needlessly but with a lack of foresight which is financial folly. This he does when he cuts the trees by the roadsides.

The value of the lumber sawed from the trees which stand near enough to the roads to shade them is infinitesimal when compared with the damage, the actual money damage, which is being done in the New England States by the cutting of these trees. A recent official computation estimated the money brought into the state of New Hampshire every year by the summer visitors at an amount so large as to elicit expressions of surprise from every one. What is true of New Hampshire is true of almost all of New England. The people who come to these states, and leave their money behind them, come very generally because they are attracted by the beauty of the country. That there is no one element more potent to attract such summer visitors than the lovely shaded roads one has only to watch these visitors in their drives, or question the stable keepers and bicycle agents to learn. The farmer's foolish wife that killed the goose that laid a golden egg has served for centuries as an example of shortsightedness. Are we too dense to profit by her example?

T

IME has made them of a deep yellow color, and much thumbing has left them tat

tered, and in places torn.

In the older numbers every noun begins with a capital letter, and does not assume its modern shape save at the end of words till well into the 19th century. The earliest in date is, "The Almanack for the year of our Lord Christ, 1761. Being the First Year after Leap Year, and of the reign of King George II, ye 34th." In the center of the title-page is a wood-cut of an Indian, standing, and holding in his outstretched right hand an arrow apparently as big round as a base ball club. In his left hand is a taut bow, while an ostrich feather waves gracefully over his left ear. The table of contents is printed upon each side of the wood cut, and announces, "wherein is contained the Lunations, Eclipses, Time of High-Water, Courts Observable, Judgments of the Weather, &tc."

Every available fraction of an inch in the pages is crowded with matter. Three lists of days are given: First is the old style, which makes our modern first of January come on the thirteenth of January; the second list is like the one we are familiar with; and the third is after the Quaker form, each Sunday being marked D, and the days following, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In the next space are crowded aspects of the planets,

church festivals, times of high tides, great historical events, dates of Quaker meetings for the year, times of sittings of various New England courts, elections (these are always in large and peculiar print), judgments of the weather, and remarks probably supposed by the author to be appropriate to the season.

The judgments of the weather are always discreet, allowing the prophet many loopholes of escape. From the first of January, to the sixth, is trailed this, "perhaps cold, but as the planets are silent about the weather, I do but guess." For the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth, he prophesies, "Serene and wholesome air."

From

the ninth of July to the fourteenth is this bit, "Improve your season while you may, to gather in your grain and hay, for soon there'il be a rainy day." The year concludes with, "Snow every other day, if I mistake not."

Here are some of the "appropriate remarks": In February,-"Fleecy Snow now clothes the Wood, and Cakes of Ice rowl down the Flood;" in December,-"The Farmer to full Bowels invites his Friends, and what he got with Pain, with Pleasure spends."

Bushes seem to have been troublesome, for in every month save midwinter, the farmer is exorted to cut them, some days being set apart as particularly lucky. Each page is

headed by an extract from Pope or Dryden, and the book concludes with interest tables calculated for Connecticut bills of various emissions, and a description of the several post roads leading from Boston.

In the Almanac of 1762 the pages have brief poetical tail-pieces. December has this,

"Death levels all, the wicked and the just. Man's but a flower, his end is dust."

In this year political events are weighing upon the almanac maker's mind. The tenth of March he says,"Let the Cæsars of this Ides of March beware, for disputes now begun, to great Heights and Lengths may run." In October is this,-"Let the Poor be content with their present Lot, for when they come to make Bricks without Straw, their Case will be worse yet!" For the General Election held May 4, at Newport, Rhode Island, he predicts, "Much Altercation, and some bloody Noses." The remarks tucked in with the great variety of miscellaneous information, are significant.

"All men are by Nature Equal,
But differ greatly in the Sequel."
"The Public Good men oft pretend,
While private Interest is their End."

A table setting forth the values of the various sorts of coins then current in the Colonies, show how vexed the people were in their medium of exchange. The list reads as follows,guineas, pistoles, moidores, single johannes, double loons, English shillings, crowns and milled dollars." On the last page of this almanac is "A Page for the Ladies," in which in stately phrase is sung the praise of

tea.

"I dedicate the following Lines to the Fair

Sex," he says, "and as the Idea of Love and the Ladies are conected, I may be allowed to make use of the Word Love. I promise them that the Subject which I treat of, shall be the Object of their Love, that Shrub or Bush manufactured in the East Indies, the Decoction of whose Leaf makes that Liquor which so delights, and sometimes almost intoxicates, called TEA."

Later he says, "Tea is the Friend of the Muses, for it brightens the Intellects, and clears the Understanding."

In 1766 the capital letter disappears from all places save those in which it is at present in use. The almanac for this year begins with a long letter addressed by its author, Nathaniel Ames, to "The Generous Reader," in which he says in conclusion,

"I shall always endeavor to publish what appears to me most useful to the bulk of my readers, let individuals make what application of it they please, and next consider their innocent diversion, yet I hope I shall never be so bigoted in my own opinion, as not to lay open to the conviction of any error when it is offered in a candid manner, drawn from cool reason void of passion and prejudice. Here I should conclude did I not share in the general distres of my countrymen, and think it out of character not to condole with them in their present distressed circumstances who not only groan, but almost sink beneath a load of debt, our merchants continually breaking, no money to be had even for the most valuable articles, and all threatened with ruin without lenity or assistance of our superiors, yet so far from this, we are shocked by a new demand which it is thought by many, all the current specie among us will not be able to satisfy! and after that is gone, then go houses and lands, then liberties! And all the lands that we can get will be in vassalage to some haughty Lord, which Heaven avert !"

Perhaps fearing he has said too much, he adds,

"we have the happiness to be under as good

a king as ever reigned, and a very wise government, which knows we possess a true British spirit, and when they come to know our true circumstances they will certainly redress our evils, for, as we are a member of the whole body of the state, our interests are mutual, and we cannot think of independency."

But his discontent and distrust break forth in the next sentence, for he continues,

"But above all let us rely on the goodness of that Power which protected our forefathers, who sought shelter in this howling wilderness among savage beasts, from more savage men, that they might quietly worship Him, who has hitherto, and as long as we do our duty, will continue, to defend us from foreign and domestic enemies, and stamp with eternal infamy and disgrace those who would oppress and tyrannize over us."

Such sentences as the following, are scattered among the weather prophecies, dates of high tides, court notices, etc., regardless of continuity,

"The sole end of the government is the happiness of the people."

"How high shall we esteem the man who wears the manufactures of his own country in opposition to the ill taste of the age!" "If each blade would mind his trade, Each lass and lad in home-spun clad, Then we might cramp the growth of STAMP."

"When we hear the chains of slavery rattle, it is time to think of avoiding them. Liberty is more precious than all gifts." The numbers for 1767, 70, 73, and 74 are barren of direct political allusions -but here are some of the "Interesting Remarks" promised on the titlepages,

"A bean with freedom is better than a sugar plum in prison.

"To defend the Christian religion is one thing, but to knock a man on the head for being of a different religion is another."

"A child and a fool imagine that twenty shillings and twenty years can never be spent."

Here are some of the "weather judgments," September, 1767, "will be warm and pleasant, if not too windy and drizzling." December's first five days is to have "dubious weather," and in January, 1770, it is predicted, "that slyboots Jack Frost will skulk in your cellars, and it will be so cold all business will cease," but adds the prophet, "the tongue of Slander is always limber."

"Six Copper Single" was the price of these old treasures. In 1775, John Anderson addressed the public on the second page of his almanac. After some general remarks, and bragging of his success as an almanac-maker, he continues,

"I had intended to make several alterations for the better in my Almanack, but the Distresses of my Country, occasioned by the arbitrary and oppresive Proceedings of the British Parlement, or Assembly, having taken too much of my Attention to engage in such Alteration, I must omit it till some more convenient Season, and present my Readers with the following Production, which I trust will not prove inferior to the Labours of any of my Brother Astronomers in the Almanack Way. In troublesome Times I know it is expected by some, that an Almanack maker should foretell or predict how Affairs will turn out, etc. Now, tho' I don't think myself behind the choicest Astronomers or Astrologers, I pretend not to the Gift of Prophesy! Yet if the Inhabitants of these Colonies would follow my advice, I could put them in the Way to remain the freest and happiest People under Heaven. My Advice is first, Live sober, temperate Lives, be not extravagant in Dress; wear the Manufactures of your own Country, and stop all Trade with Great Britain till the Parlement shall recognize your Right to carry on Trade on an equal Footing with the

People of England, till they withdraw all their useless Creatures and Toads from this Country, and till they leave the sole Government of yourselves to yourselves;—I say, ay till they do this take a firm Resolution to have no further Connexion with them, and I'll warrant you within twelve Months you will have every Privelege you desire restored to you, and be courted in the most endearing Terms. That this may be the case, and that America may rise to the Summit of Freedom and Happiness, and prove the Guardian of Liberty to all the rest of the World, is the sincere and most ardent wish of the Public's devoted humble Servant,THE AUTHORS."

It will be noted that the old use of the capital letter is restored in this book.

On the last page of this almanac is a list of the exports of Great Britain to all parts of the world, exclusive of Bullion for the year 1774. To America she sent exports to the value of about £3,600,000. To all other parts of the world, about £2,000,000. "By which it appears that America takes off more of the British manufactures, etc., than all other parts of the World put together."

The following is then quoted from an English writer upon the British trade.

"As to our foreign traffic, the woolen Manufacture is still the great foundation and support of it. To Holland, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and the East and West Indies, Spain, Portugal and Ireland we export vast quantities, for which we receive the Produce of several countries in return, and from some places a balance in Treasure; but the most profitable Traffic we have, is from our own Plantations in America, which we furnish with most of their Clothing and Furniture, receiving either Treasure, or Merchandize from thence, which produces Treasure. And those Colonies, if duly incouraged

would in a short Time, be able to take off all the Manufactures we could spare."

From 1775 to 1784, the series is broken. Perhaps as the house-master and his sons were in the patriot army, almanacs were dispensed with as luxuries. Curiously enough, from 1784 to 1789, all the notable events of the Revolution are down in capitals, and then for several years they are omitted, even Independence Day, which elsewhere is down in extra capitals, is not noticed.

In the North American Calendar for 1786, "Being the tenth Year of American INDEPENDENCE, Copernicus Partridge, the Author thus addresses his readers-using the old method for the capital letter:

"I am a plain, honest, philosophical, benevelont man, of the Name, and Family of Partridge celebrated in Europe, in the last Century, and the beginning of this, for Almanacks with the best Calculations, most virtuous Sentiments, and pithy Sentences of brilliant Wit.-Indeed Partridge's Almanack there carried the Plume from all others, as Ame's did formerly in New Eng land. The famed Astrologer of our Name, John Partridge, who quitted this mortal Scene of Things in 1715 for those starry Regions with which he was so conversant, hath his Name enrolled in the List of eminent Men in the Tablet of Memory.—I mention this not out of Vanity, but merely to shew that our Family have been of some Consequence in the Almanack Way, and may claim some Attention as well as the Bickerstaffs. There are Almanack-Makers of all Characters-Astronomers, Philosophers, Divines, Lawyers, Physicians, and even Quacks and Empirics, when aided by Plagiary have published Almanacks, sometimes in their real Names, sometimes in borrowed ones. Poor Richard's Almanack so famous in the Southern States, is said to have been the Production of that great American Philosopher, who taught,