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most that can be made of their manure and litter. They are to be counted regularly, that no false reports may be made; and missing ones, if any, hunted for until found, or the manner of their going can be accounted for satisfactorily.

14th. A weekly report, as usual, is to be handed to Mr. Lewis. In this report, that I may know better how the work goes on, mention when you begin to plough, hoe, or otherwise work in a field, and, and when that field is finished. The increase, decrease and changes are to be noted as heretofore—and let me ask—

15th. Why are the corn harrows thrown aside, or so little used that I rarely of late ever see or hear of their being at work 1 1 have been run to very considerable expense in providing these and other implements for my farms; and to my great mortification and injury, find, generally speaking, that wherever they were last used there they remain, if not stolen, till required again ; by which means they, as well as the carts, receive so much injury from the wet weather and the heat of the sun as to be unfit. for use: to repair or supply the place of which with new ones, my carpenters (who ought to be otherwise employed) are continually occupied in these jobs. Harrows, after the ground is well broken, would certainly weed and keep the corn clean with more ease than ploughs. I hope, therefore, they will be used. And it is my express order that the greatest care be taken of the tools of every kind, carts and plantation implements, in future—for I can no longer submit to the losses I am continually sustaining by neglect.

16th. There is nothing I more ardently desire, nor indeed is there any more essential to my permanent interest, than raising of live fences on proper ditches or banks; yet nothing has ever been, in a general way, more shamefully neglected or mismanaged; for instead of preparing the ground properly for the reception of the seed, and weeding and keeping the plants clean after they come up—the seeds are hardly scratched into the ground and are suffered to be smothered by the weeds and grass if they do come up: by which means the expense I have been at in purchasing and sending the seeds (generally from Philadelphia) together with the labor, such as it is, that has been incurred, is not only lost, but (and which is of infinite more importance to me) season after season passes away and I am as far from the accomplishment of my object as ever. I mention the matter thus fully to show how anxious 1 am that all these seeds which have been sown or planted on the banks of the ditches should be properly attended to; and the deficient spots made good if you have or can obtain the means for doing it.

17th. There is one thing I must caution you against (without knowing whether there be

cause to charge you with it or not)—and that is not to retain any of my negroes who are able and fit to work in the crop, in or about your own house, for your own purposes. This I do not allow any overseer to do. A small boy or girl for the purpose of fetching wood or water, tending a child, or such like things, I do not object to j but so soon as they are able to work out I expect to reap the benefit of their labor myself.

18th. Though last mentioned, it is not of the least importance, because the peace and good government of the negroes depend upon it—and not less so my interest and your own reputation. I do, therefore, in explicit terms enjoin it upon you to remain constantly at home, (unless called off by unavoidable business or to attend Divine worship) and to be constantly with your people when there. There is no other sure way of getting work well done and quietly by negroes j for when an overlooker's back is turned the most of them will slight their work, or be idle altogether. In which case correction cannot retrieve either, but often produces evils which are worse than the disease. Nor is there any other mode but this to prevent thieving and other disorders, the consequence of opportunities. You will recollect that your time is paid for by me, and if I am deprived of it, it is worse even than robbing my purse, because it is also a breach of trust, which every honest man ought to hold most sacred. You have found me, and you will continue to find me faithful to my part of the agreement which was made with you, whilst 3'ou are attentive to your part; but it is to be remembered, that a breach on one side releases the obligation on the other. If, therefore, it shall be proved to me that you are absenting yourself from either the farm or the people without just cause, I shall hold myself no more bound to pay the wages than you do to attend strictly to the charge which is entrusted to you by one who has every disposition to be

Your friend and servant,

Geo. Washington.

AGRICULTURAL PREMIUMS.

The Editor of the "American Agriculturist," amongst some excellent advice, as to the manner of conducting agricultural exhibitions, remarks,

" We now come to a very important suggestion—it has been asserted that committees as heretofore formed, were little better than secret conclaves, whose reasons for their decisions were just as impenetrable as those of the Venetian Senate or Spanish Inquisition; and very many have consequently declined exhibiting, till they can publicly know by what principles their ani-

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mals or manufactures are judged. For these reasons we would respectfully suggesl, that on the second day of the exhibition, the chairman of each committee mount the rostrum, the animal or manufactured article be brought out before the public, and then the explanations for their decisions be set forth at large.

" We are free to assert, that there can never be any general fixed scientific improvements made till such a course is adopted; and if a member of any committee has not sufficient confidence in his knowledge and judgment, and the moral courage to proclaim the same publicly and his reasons therefor, he is undeserving a place on that committee. What a school would this be to the rising, and aye to much of the risen generation. A person might learn more by attending one such day's exhibition and explanation, than from studying books, and plates, and animals, unaided by the opinions of others, for a month.

"As awards are now managed, they become as variable as the wind. What was declared to be best yesterday, is denied to-day, and both subverted to-morrow ; while, perhaps, on a fourth exhibition, the first may again come uppermost; and all this without the slightest enlightenment and explanation to the public. All, therefore, but the few who stand aloof with superior knowledge are at a loss, and left to grope in the dark, without chart or compass to steer by."

That the grounds of the award should be fully explained, there can be no manner of doubt, not only for the satisfaction of the competitors, but for the instruction that judicious comments may afford the spectators. But instead of " the chairman's mounting the rostrum" we would respectfully prefer the example set in the full and elaborate reports made in writing by the committees generally of the Agricultural Society of Henrico, and amongst these, we would point particularly to the report of the Farm Committee of 1841, which we esteem a model of that kind of wi inner.

For the Southern Planter. BLIGHT AND RUST IN WHEAT.

Botanists have long known that the blight and rust in wheat are occasioned by the growih of minute parasitic fungi on the leaves/stems, and glumes of the living plant—though the question has been raised, whether they are not diseased parts of the structure on which they appear rather than the product of separate germs, but it is now generally admitted that they originate from distinct germs introduced from without. In order to show that this is probable, it is necessary to premise that the striped appear-

ance of the surface of a straw, which may be seen with a common magnifying glass, is caused by alternate longitudinal partitions of the bark ; the one imperforate and the other furnished with one or two rows of pores, or mouths, shut in dry, open in wet weather, and well calculated to imbibe fluid whenever the straw is damp. By these pores, which exist also on the leaves and glumes, it is presumed the seed of the fungi gain admission, and afterwards germinate and push their minute roots into the cellular texture beyond the bark, where they draw their nourishment by intercepting the sap that was intended for the nutriment of the grain. Sir Joseph Banks thinks that the leaf is first infected in the spring or early in the summer before the plant sends up its shoot of straw, and that the fungus is then of an orange color; and after the straw has become yellow the fungus assumes a deep chocolate brown: each individual is so small, that every pore on a straw will produce from twenty to forty fungi, and every one of these will at least produce an hundred seed : in this way a few diseased plants scattered through a field will soon infect a whole neighborhood. Sir Joseph thinks that a fungus will mature its seed in a week, so that by the latter end of summer from this prolific increase the air is loaded with seed, ready whenever a gentle breeze, accompanied with humidity, shall give the signal, to intrude themselves into the pores of thousands of acres.

Mr. Knight entertained the opinion, that so much water is, under particular circumstances, absorbed by the leaves that it produces a derangement of function to which he ascribes the attacks of mildew, fungi, upon plants. He supposed their attacks to depend upon the want of sufficient moisture from the soil, while there is an excess of humidity in the air. At a particular season if damp and cold weather succeeds that which has been warm and bright, the wheat crop is generally much injured by mildew. He suspects that in such cases an injurious absorption of moisture by the leaves and stems of the wheat plants takes place, by which a retrograde motion of the plant's fluids are produced, so that the ascent of the true rays or organizable matter contained in the seed vessels is retarded, and thus becomes the food of the parasitical fungi, which then only may grow luxuriant and injurious.

It has been long admitted b} r farmers that wheat in the neighborhood of a barberry bush seldom escapes the blight—and it is well known lhat near the village of Rollesly, in Norfolk, England, where barbeny bushes abound wheat seldom escapes the blight—and it is well known to botanists that the leaves of the barberry are very subject to an attack of a yellew parasitic fungous, longer but not otherwise different from the rust in wheat. Sir Joseph Banks observes,

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it may be well to remark, that although the seeds of wheat are rendered by the exhausting-power of the fungus so lean and shrivelled that scarcely any flour fit for the manufacture of bread can be obtained by grinding them, these ! very seeds will answer the purpose of seed-corn as well as the fairest and plumpest sample that j can be obtained, and in some respects, better; for a bushel of much nubbed corn will contain | one-third at least more grains in number than a bushel of plump com; so that three bushels of the one will go as far in seeding as four of the | other. Eighty grains of the most blasted wheat ' of the year 1804 were sown in a pot and seventy-eight produced healthy plants. There are ten species of fungi described by botanists is at- i

tacking wheat, viz* iEcidium and Puccinia. iEcidium, sometimes known as the red gum— this species usually grows inside the glumes of the calyx, and when it bursts it emits a bright orange color, and is thought not to injure the grain materially. Puccinia—this attacks the stems and leaves of wheat principally—having at first an orange colored appearance, and then changes to a chocolate brown color, and is very hurtful to the quality of the grain of such plants as it infests.

The views of some of the most distinguished writers on the subject of Blight and Rust are submitted to the Editors of the Planter by their correspondent.

A Naturalist,

HOISTING MACHINE

» B

The cut above is taken from the American Mechanic, and represents an apparatus admirably adapted for the hoisting of ponderous bodies. It is thus described. Two horizontal axles with pivots at the ends, A, A, and B, B, have their bearings in an iron strap which has an eye at C, at the top, and another D, at the bottom. On the axle A, is a drum, round which is coiled a small rope ; and at each end of the drum is a small pinion. On the axle B, are two geer wheels, the teeth of which work in those of the pinions. Another rope is attached to this axle by one end, while the other end passes down

and through a block with a single pulley, and up again to the eye D. Now we suppose the drum to be ten inches in diameter, and the pinions two inches; the geer wheels fourteen inches, and the axle D, two inches. Then a force of one pound being applied to the small drum rope, would be equal to five pounds on the teeth of the geer wheels, and thirty-five pounds on the rope of the axle D; and this force being doubled by the single pulley, would produce a force on the weight attached below, equal to seventy pounds. Thus one man alone would be able to hoist a weight of 7,C0O lbs.

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Although this simple and admirable fixture may appear to be more peculiarly valuable to the mechanic, the merchant, and the sailor, we have presented it to our agricultural readers because it has occurred to us that it might be advantageously used by them in constructing a machine for which at this time there is a great and growing demand in Virginia. We mean a Hay Press. How can a simpler or more efficient press be constructed than by means of this apparatus ? Prepare a box of the usual form for the reception of the hay; let another box moving up on guides fit in it; fill this last with stones, or any heavy weight, until the required pressure is obtained. This box will, of course, be the weight attached to the pulley to be hoisted by the apparatus we have described, the power of which can be increased at pleasure. We have no doubt that the necessary pressure may be thus obtained with more facility and economy than by any other means we have ever seen employed. We should be glad if some of our farmers or mechanics would try the experiment, and apprize us of the result.

Red Hills, Aug. 20, 1842. To the Editors of the Southern Planter:

Gentlemen, —Below you have for publication in the " Planter," a condensed report by a Committee of the "Albemarle Hole and Corner Club, No. 1," of experiments made by various members of the Club on the relative weight of wheat gathered in various stages of ripeness. It may be proper to remark that the greater weight of the wheat gathered in the dough state over that thoroughly ripe in the experiment made by Dr. F. Carr, in which respect his observation differs from those of the other experimenters, is probably owing to the fact that the wheat (thoroughly ripe) in his statement was taken from a shock in the field which had been exposed to much wet weather, and therefore was very damp. Respectfully, &c.

Frank Carr,

Cor. Sec'y, Albemarle Hole and Corner Club, No. 1.

ALBEMARLE HOLE AND CORNER CLUB,

No. 1.

The Committee, to which the reports of Experiments on Wheat cut in different stages of ripeness were referred for the purpose of extracting the general results for publication, have discharged thedut}', and make the following report:

All the experiments seem to the Committee to have been made with commendable care and accuracy; three parcels of wheat were cut in

every case,—one in the rn.Uk state, that is, when the milk could be pressed in small quantities, and the straw under the head was still green. One in the dough state, that is, when the grain was tough, though still compressible between the finger and thumb, and the straw yellow— and one in the ripe state, that is, when the grain was hard, and the straw apparently dry. The samples of wheat were all cured in the shade; when rubbed out they exhibited the following results:

Experiment by Daniel F. Carr.

The same measure containing, Of ripe wheat 462 grains, weighed 252 grains,

Apoth. weight. Of dough wheat 499 grains, weighed 258 grains,

Apoth. weight. Of milk wheat 623 grains, weighed 241 grains,

Apoth. weight.

Experiment by Dr. Frank Carr.

The same measure containing Of ripe wheat 827 grains, weighed 8 drachms

17 grains. Of dough wheat 874 grains, weighed 8 drachms

20 grains. Of milk wheat 1000 grains, weighed 8 drachms

3 grains.

Experiment by William W. Minor.

The same measure containing Of ripe wheat 35 grains, weighed 24£ grains,

Apoth. weight. Of dough wheat 45 grains, weighed 24 grains,

Apoth. weight. Of milk wheat 45 grains, weighed 22 grains,

Apoth. weight.

Experiment by Richmond Terrell.

The same measure containing Of ripe wheat 58 grains, weighed 35 grains,

Apoth. weight. Of dough wheat 60 grains, weighed 33 grains,

Apoth. weight. Of milk wheat 79 grains, weighed 31 grains,

Apoth. weight.

Experiment by Hugh Minor.

A measure of ripe wheat containing 387 grains of wheat, balanced exactly, the same measure containing 415 grains of wheat in the dough state —and the same measure containing 559 grains of wheat in the milk state, required 66 grains more to make it balance the other samples.

Taking the ripe wheat as the standard, the Committee conclude from the foregoing experiments, that the loss by cutting wheat in the dough state is between 5 and 8 per cent, and the loss by cutting wheat in the milk state is between 40 and 50 per cent.

Notwithstanding the result of these experiments clearly prove the advantage of cutting wheat ripe, yet the Committee respectfully sug-

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gest the opinion that it would be better to begin to cut a crop of wheat in the dough state, than to wait until it gets fully ripe; inasmuch as the loss and labor are both greater in cutting ripe wheat, and the risk to the crop from storms and other causes is also considerably increased by letting it stand to get ripe. All these certain and contingent losses this Committee estimates at more than 8 per cent, while the loss from cutting in the dough state ranges from 5 to 8 per cent, supposing that the entire crop were cut in that condition—but in truth, by beginning to cut a crop of wheat in the dough state, at least one-half the crop would necessarily be cut in the ripe state, so that the loss would be only 2| to 4 per cent.—a loss so trifling as fully to warrant the Committee in the expression of opinion they have made.

All which is respectfully submitted to theClub. Hugh Minor, Franklin T. Minor, Wm. W. Minor,

Committee. August, 1842.

TOBACCO. Some curious and interesting facts elucidating the chronological history of this valuable plant, published in the Northern Light, have been copied into the congressional document to which we have already referred. We make the following extracts:

CHRONOLOGY AND STATISTICS OF TOBACCO.

BY JOEL MUNSELL.

In 1496, Romanus Pano, a Spanish monk, whom Columbus on his second departure from America had left in that country, published the first account of tobacco, with which he became acquainted in St. Domingo. He gave it the name of cohoba, cohabba, givia.

In 1519, tobacco is said to have been discovered by the Spaniards near Tobasco, though it is assigned to the next year.

In 1535, the negroes had already habituated themselves to the use of it, and cultivated it on the plantations of their masters. Europeans likewise already smoked it. We also find a passage in Carder's Voyage, that it was used in Canada.

In 1559, tobacco was introduced into Europe from St. Domingo by a Spanish gentleman named Hernandez de Toledo, who brought a small quantity into Spain and Portugal. In the same year, Jean Nicot, envoy from the court of France to Portugal, first transmitted thence to Paris, to Glueen Catharine de Medicis, seeds of the tobacco plant; and from this circumstance it acquired the name of Nicotiana.

In 1565, Conrad Gesner became acquainted

with tobacco. At that time several botanists cultivated it in their gardens. The same year Sir John Hawkins carried tobacco from Florida to England, where " all men wondered what it meant."

In 1570, they smoked in Holland out of conical tubes, composed of palm leaves, plaited together.

In 1575, first appeared a figure of the plant in Andre Therot's Cosmographie.

In 1585, the English first saw pipes made of clay among the natives of Virginia, which had just been discovered by Sir Richard Grenville. It appears likewise that the English soon after fabricated the first clay tobacco pipes in Europe.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, they began to cultivate tobacco in the East Indies.

In 1604, James I. of England endeavored, by means of heavy imposts, to abolish the use of tobacco, which he held to be a noxious weed.

In 1610, the smoking of tobacco was known at Constantinople.

In 1615, tobacco began to be sown about Amesfut, in Holland, which afterwards became famous for its cultivation.

In 1616, the colonists began to cultivate tobacco in Virginia. It is not known whether the plant was indigenous, or whether it came from a more southern country. It is supposed the seeds were from Tobago. But it seems to have been in use among the Virginia Indians at the time they were visited by ihe English, and was called by them pelun or petum. Clarigero says " tobacco is a name taken from the Haitino language."

In 1619, James I. wrote his counterblast to tobacco, and ordered that no planter in Virginia should cultivate more than one hundred pounds a year. He also prohibited its sale in England or Ireland until the custom should be paid and the royal seal affixed. Ticcnty thousand pounds were exported this year from Virginia to England, the whole crop of the preceding year.

In 1620, ninety young women were sent over from England to America, and sold to the planters for tobacco, at one hundred and twenty pounds each.

In 1622, the annual import of tobacco into England from America for the last seven years, was 142,058 pounds.

In 1639, the Grand Assembly of Virginia passed a law, that all tobacco planted in that and the two succeeding years should be destroyed, except such a proportion to each planter as should make in the whole 120,000 pounds, and that the creditors of the planters should receive 40 pounds for every 100 pounds due them.

In 1653, smoking began in the canton of Ap-penzel, in Switzerland.

In 1690, Pope Innocent XII. excommunicated

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all who should be guilty of taking snuff or tobacco in the church of St. Peter, at Rome.

In 1709, the yearly exports of tobacco from America, for the last ten years, were 28,858,666 pounds; of which 11,260,659 pounds were annually consumed in Great Britain, and 17,598,-007 pounds in the countries of Europe.

In 1719, the Senate of Strasburg prohibited the culture of tobacco, from an apprehension that it would diminish the growing of corn.

In 1724, Pope Benedict XIV. revoked the bull of excommunication published by Innocent.

In 1732, tobacco was made a legal tender in Maryland, at one penny a pound.

In 1747, and the two years previous, there were annually exported to England from the American colonies 40,000,000 pounds of tobacco, 7,000,000 of which were consumed in England. The annual revenue was about 4,500,000 dollars.

In 1775, the annual export of tobacco from the United States, for the last four years, was one million pounds; for the last thirty years, it averaged 40,000,000 pounds. Of the total seven years exportation, 33,974,949 pounds were captured by the British.

In 1789, the quantity exported from the U. States, together with the two previous years, averaged about 90,000,000 pounds.

In 1820, the quantity of tobacco grown in France had doubled in three years, being 32,-887,500 pounds.

In 1828, the revenue on tobacco in the State of Maryland was $27,275.

In 1830, the revenue on tobacco and snuff in Great Britain was nearly $13,000,000.

In 1834, the value of tobacco used in the United States was estimated at $16,000,000, of which $9,000,000 were supposed to have been for smoking Spanish cigars, $6,500,000 for smoking American tobacco and chewing, and $500,000 for snuff.

In 1838, the annual consumption of tobacco in the United Stales was estimated at one hunted million pounds, valued at twenty million dollars cost to the consumers, being seven pounds to each individual of the whole population.

In 1840, it was ascertained by a committee, appointed to procure and report statistical information on the subject, that about one million Jive hundred thousand persons were engaged in the manufacture and cultivation of tobacco in the United States, one million of whom were in the States of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Allowing the population of the whole country to be seventeen millions, it will be seen that nearly one-tenth are in some way engaged in the cultivation or manufacture of this article. The value of the export during that year was nearly $10,000,000.

Albany, September, 1841.

WHEEL CARRIAGES.

Doubts are entertained whether, in the improved state of our roads, the dishing of wheels is not highly objectionable. The greatest strength is undoubtedly obtained by having the spoke perpendicularly under the weight; on a level surface this would be obtained by a flat or level wheel, with the felloes in the same plane with the spokes, and with a straight axle; but it was imagined that from the inequalities of the ground, the axle was oftener inclined than level r and when one side is lowest the weight coming upon it, the spoke is placed at right angles under it by the dishing of the wheel. Much even of the doubtful advantages of dishing, it will be seen then, depends upon the liability of the axle to be thrown out of level. But the uncertain advantages of this form are more than counterbalanced by the indubitable increase of friction derived from it. The wheel, instead of being disposed of itself to run forward in a straight line, as it would be if cylindrical, is thus converted into a frustrum of a cone, and if left to itself, when rolled forward would describe a circle round a point which would be the apex of the cone if complete. Hence, there would be a constant tendency to rub against the lynch-pin, which is obviated, without decreasing the friction, by the bending forward of the axle, called the gather, whereby the fore part of the wheels are thrown nearer together than the back.

But the most objectionable form of all is that, wherein the wheel is dished, but the axle is bent downwards, so as to bring the lower spokes perpendicularly under the axle. Here, you have all the friction of the dished wheel, without any of the advantages of the inclined position of the spoke when the carriage falls into a rut. Indeed, it is but making one evil to remedy another, and by means of the two to bring you back to the point from which you started. As to the appearance, no one can doubt that our preference for dished wheels is entirely the effect of custom, and if some of our amateur coachmen would lend their aid to the introduction of level wheels, Fashion would soon render them pleasing, and her potent ladyship, for once in her life, might boast of having rendered herself useful.

PATENT MANURE. We alluded rather jocosely in a former number to the pretensions of a Mr. Bommer, of Con-

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necticut, to the discovery of a process, by which, for a mere song, manure of the best quality was to be made of any thing and every thing. The following extracts from Mr. Bommer's circular will interest even those whose late experience has rendered them a little wary of grand schemes for sudden riches. The truth is, the daj' is so rife with humbug, that even a good thing, if it pretends to too much, is looked on with suspicion, but we should remember that an excess of scepticism is not less dangerous than an undue degree of credulity.

"A new invention has been made to produce as much manure as we may please in fifteen days wilhout any cattle, a manure, as rich as farm manure, and more lasting, and at very little cost; by which also is made earth manure, to be used as a substitute for common manure and compost; by which farmers are taught the means of increasing considerably stable and yard manure, and the method of preparing manure of different degrees of strength, and dressing for early garden produce. This method, teaching the whole art of making and preparing manure for use, holds decidedly the most important place in the system of agricultural economy!

" This invention is the fruit of many years of exertion and chemical labor, and the result of repeated and various experiments.

" The secret of the invention to make the manure is accurately described and specified in my method secured by patent. The preparation of said manure is very simple and easy, and every farmer by following my method can exactly count upon certain success.

" This manure is a composition of animal, mineral, and vegetable substances, consequently designed by nature for their nutriment.

" We may, therefore, abandon, for the future, the partial use and application of every kind of merely stimulating manure, such as lime, plaster of Paris, ashes, &c. the more readily, as these stimulants are not only expensive, but when employed alone they draw all vegetable moisture from the soil hy their corrosive heat, and sooner or later make the ground entirely barren. This is a truth which all enlightened farmers will readily admit.

11 The merit of my method essentially consists in the four following important points:

"1. In being able to reduce in a short time all kinds of straw and ligneous weeds to a rich, nutritious and durable manure, such as wheat straw, bailey, rye, buckwheat, and other black grains; stalks of Indian corn, rice, and other plants ; dried or green potato tops, leaves, stalks, and roots of all kind of plants; green or dried reeds, green rushes, sea weeds, sea rushes, heather broom, stubble ; in fact, every thing belong-Vol. 2-29

ing to the vegetable kingdom, and a great many other things lying about farms which are often allowed to go to waste. Even the ground itself may be converted into the best manure, or compost.

" 2. In the combination or alliance of fecundating substances, the use of which when separated, would not and could not produce the desired effect.

" 3. In the production of a considerable quantity of factitious water, which, when combined with other ingredients, forming lees, furnishes the farmer with a fertilizing liquid, the commixture of which in either vegetable or mineral substances, gives a manure of the richest kind.

"4. In the production of a quantity of nitrate of lime and caustic potash; of ammonia and saltpetre—four substances which modern chemistry has found to contain the most fecundating properties possible.

" From all this it is clear that my method employed on farms offers the following advantages :

"1. That those who have straw will be able to change the same into manure immediately after the crop is housed, or at any required time. Those who have not straw may use any green or dry substance instead, and that those who have neither straw or the substances above mentioned, may change the very soil itself into a very good earth manure, and in any spot they may choose.

"2. That a farmer can make with the greatest ease, in a few days, earth manure, or compost which will answer all the purposes of animal manure, and excel in their fecundating properties all other ordinary composts, which by other means can be had hardly in one year, more frequently only in three years. That this earth manure may be used in the spring to quicken the growth of seed that has suffered from the rigors of the winter; to manure wheat previously sown without manure; it will be a great benefit in planting Indian corn ; for top-dressing of artificial and other meadows; it is the greatest use in gardens, mulberry and other fruit trees, keeping at once the ground moist, and producing rapid vegetation.

" 3. That the farmer will have the advantage of being able to make his manure heaps when, where, and as he pleases; he will be able to open them when they are in the best state without losing any of the fecundating moisture.

" 4. By means of the lees, which this method will inform him how to make, it will be easy for him to give to his farm-yard manure more invigorating properties, and he may increase its bulk at pleasure. Farm-yard manure, in fact, should be used only as the leaven to make the different heaps required.

" 5. By the great quantity of moisture entering into the materials, the weight of such of

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them as are dry, will be increased fourfold ; that of the others is more than doubled.

" 6. This method enables the farmer to connect entirely his manure heaps, that is to say, he will be able to make them in all their parts equally good and fertilizing. The lees, which distribute the saline and soluble particles in a regular and uniform manner, will produce an even crop throughout the field.

" 7. By the high degree of heat to which in that course of making it attains, the germinating power of all weeds found the materials thus submitted to decomposition will be utterly destroyed. Hence manure made after this method never reproduces weeds.

" 8. The farmer will also be able to graduate his manure. He may have it of any degree of strength he wishes. This will enable him to forward the growth of plants in a manner hitherto unknown.

" 9. By means of manure thus graduated at will, market gardeners will have their produce much earlier in the market than heretofore.— They will be able also to heat their hot beds anew by means of the lees without distributing the frames.

" 10. In fine, the lees by which the manure is made are prepared cold, and without any previous chemical preparation ; the majority of the ingredients may be found at hand on almost every farm, and cost nothing; and water which is the basis of the system, is of no more expense. All here concur to render the method trulyeconomical. Such are the principal grounds on which the system is recommended.

" My method rests solely upon facts which are the results of numerous experiments. I have explained it in simple terms, without making use of any technical expressions; it is as easy to understand as to put in practice. Thus clearly and simply detailed I present it to the public, having proved by repeated public experiments in presence of enlightened farmers, that all I have said is true, and that the advantages to be derived from its adoption are real, and not visionary.

" Therefore, agents, having all due authorization, and furnished with printed copies of the method, have been appointed in all the principal towns in each State. These agents will deliver a copy to each purchaser, on his declaring the name, residence, and extent of cleared land.

" To facilitate the purchase of the method, the price is fixed at the following moderate rates:

" Cleared land, intended for agricultural purposes, (wood land excepted,) under thirty acres, $8; more than thirty, ten cents per acre additional. On payment of this sum the method becomes the property of the purchaser for ever.

" The following commendatory notice of this valuable discovery is from Professor Eli Ives,

M. D. one of the Vice-Presidents of the United States Agricultural Society:

11 Rev. E. Barnett : Sir, —I have examined the pamphlet of Mr. Bommer on the subject of manufacturing. His method is founded on correct philosophical principles, agreeable to those recently advanced by Leibig. If the farmers can be induced to purchase the right and thoroughly execute his plan of making manure, in my opinion, it will very much increase the value of the farms in the State of Connecticut."

For the Southern Planter. TOBACCO.

I noticed in the two last numbers of the Planter some reports and observations on the subject of tobacco, which, to my view, seem a a little defective. I design briefly and in a condensed manner to supply one important omission only at this time. As the time approaches for putting the knife to the crop, my observations will be confined to the operation of cutting and the flavor. The most common arrangement is cutting and housing, but as flavor depends upon the time of putting the knife to the plant, I have united them, as no one quality is more essential to tobacco than a good fine flavor. One of the greatest errors in the management of this crop consists in cutting it prematurely. Premature cutting is, if I may so express it, a radical defect, which no subsequent management can supply or remedy; as all tobacco cut before it is fully ripe, will be defective in flavor, color, and weight; and I believe that from twenty to thirty per cent, is generally lost on this crop from want of attention to this single point. I maintain, that no principle is better established than that a dull, dingy hue will inevitably be the aspect of all that is cut green, cure it as you may, and that much of the substance, as well as weight, will thereby be lost; and that any rich plant cut in perfection, fully ripe, no matter on what soil it is grown, may be cured of good color and flavor, that will be lasting.

A gentleman of my acquaintance, twelve or thirteen years ago, subjected himself and a piece of ground to my control and instruction in the cultivation and management of a crop of tobacco. He had ceased to cultivate the plant for some years before, his bad success in the first instance having lead him to abandon its culture. The Blue Prior was chosen, as being less sub' ject to those defects while growing, the offspring of unpropitious seasons, than any other kind of tobacco with which I was acquainted. The crop was permitted to remain in the field until it was fully matured. My engagements not permitting me to see the crop about this time, my instructions were that the knife should not be put to the plants until ten days had elapsed after he considered the crop ready for cutting

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When exposed in market, it very readily commanded ten dollars per cwt. In what manner is this simple unsophisticated fact to be explained? The gentleman had no confidence in his own skill in the management of tobacco, but by permitting it to mature fully, he sells readily at greatly more than the average market price. The true secret of the whole matter is comprised in the simple fact, that the crop was permitted to mature fully, the soil was good, and this was the one thing needful to insure all the rest, and to supply any deficiencies or errors in other respects.

As many planters have very indefinite ideas on the subject of ripe tobacco, I will give a criterion by which they may be governed. Let the yellow spots which first appear on the upper side of the leaf be fully visible on the under side. This appearance will rarely deceive them in the Blue Prior, and indicates the plant in its highest state of perfection. When your plants are fully ripe, always cut before a rain. Tobacco is an aromatic plant, and is composed of the richest, strongest, and most delicious ingredients, as well as the most delicate and volatile ; all of which lie on the upper side of the leaf, and are liable to be washed off and destroyed by rain, and if the growing season is far advanced, the plants never recover these qualities. By this process, the alcohol, the oil, the sugar, the mucilaginous wax and gums, the acids, and nitre, with all the volatile salts, are protected and retained.

The next process in order is that of firing, curing, or more properly drying. Such a degree of heat only is required as to throw off the watery particles of the plants, without causing any action among its chemical properties, whereby a decomposition would be effected and all the valuable and volatile substances cast off. Excessive firing destroys the elasticity of the leaf, and makes it crisp. There is a rule which I have found to apply very w r ell in drying. I increase the temperature of my barns ten degrees every four hours, until the leaf is dry. The curing has always been pronounced to be perfect.

I have already written more than I intended or promised I would do, so I cannot at this time enter into further details,

G.

Wyllicsburg, Charlotte.

We are sorry we did not receive the above in time for our last number, when it would have been more in season. However, it is never too late to do good. We have no personal acquaintance with our correspondent, but, knowing his real name, we learn he is one of the most experienced and successful planters in the celebrated county of Charlotte. We shall be much obliged to him to furnish us any " further details,"

For the Southern Planter. DISTEMPER IN DOGS.

Messrs. Editors, —I believe that it would be gratifying to many of your readers, who are lovers of the sports of the field, to know a certain cure for that dreadful malady in young pointers and setters, commonly called distemper. I have frequently tried it, and have never failed of a cure in a single instance, where the puppy was strictly attended to.

As soon as the animal is discovered to be sick, give it a table spoonful of table salt forced down its throat, holding the mouth together until the animal has swallowed it—turn him loose, and watch him closely, and if he does not vomit in twenty minutes, repeat the dose until he does; let him rest from the exertions half an hour, and then burn under his nose tar, feathers, and a small quantity of brimstone, until a running at the nose is discovered. Repeat the dose of salt every morning, and the smoking three times a day until a cure is effected. I have raised many valuable dogs, and have had the distemper among them often, and have never yet lost one.

Yours, very respectfully,

A Venator.

KEEPING EGGS. The following is an extract from a letter published in the Cultivator. We have seen the plan frequently recommended before, and call the reader's attention to it at this time particularly, because the present low price of eggs affords a fair opportunity for trying it.

11 Having tried many ways of preserving eggs, I have found the following to be the easiest, cheapest, surest and best. Take your crock, keg or barrel, according to the quantity you have, cover the bottom with half an inch of fine salt, and set your eggs in it close together on the small end; be very particular to put the small end down, for if put in any other position, they will not keep as well, and the yelk will adhere to the shell; sprinkle them over with salt so as to fill the interstices, and then put in another layer of eggs, and cover with 6alt, and so on till your vessel is filled. Cover it over tight and put it where it will not freeze, and the eggs will keep perfectly fresh and good an}' desirable length of time. My family have kept them in this manner three years, and found them all as good as when laid down. I believe we have never had a bad egg since we commenced preserving them in this manner. The trouble is comparatively nothing, for when we have a dozen or so more than we wish to use, we put them in the cask and sprinkle them over with salt j and when at any future time we wish to

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take them out, they are accessible and the salt is uninjured. But mark! the eggs should be put down before they become stale, say within a week or ten days after they are laid.

" Every man by this process may have eggs as plenty in winter as in summer; and farmers who make a business of selling their eggs, may easily calculate the profits of preserving them m summer and selling them in winter. Eggs where I live, sell frequently in summer at eight cents, and in winter as high as thirty-seven and a half cents per dozen. In view of these various considerations it must be evident that no investment that a farmer can make, will yield so great a profit as a few dollars in domestic fowls. They will cost, probably in no case, more than fifty cents each per year for their food; the trouble of taking care of them is fully counterbalanced by the pleasure they give; and they will or may be made to produce each on an average, from 200 to 250 eggs, besides an occasional brood of chickens.

11 The theory of your correspondent B. in your March number respecting animal food being necessary to the production of eggs, does not correspond with my observation of facts. I have for years been obliged to shut up my fowls during most of the summer, where they could neither get insects nor any kind of animal food, and yet they continued to lay as much as any I have ever known to run at large.

" The banishment of cocks too, which he recommends, I have tried, and abandoned it as unnatural and worse than useless; for with a good attendance of the male, say one to six in summer, and one to four or five in winter, I have always found the hens to be most profitable.

H. A. P.

Buffalo, March, 1842."

BUG WASH. Dr. Feuchtwanger is, we believe, a great man ; we therefore copy the following from the American Agriculturist:

" The following preparation will effectually exterminate all caterpillars, snails, bugs, beetles, earth fleas, leaf lice, ants and other insects on fields, trees, bushes, and hedges:

" Take diluted Pyroligneous acid, one gallon ; white oak bark, one pound; urine, half gallon ; garlic, half pound. After soaking the oak bark and garlic for two days in the acid and urine, strain them off and sprinkle once a week or of-tener, the trees infected with insects, or the pea, cabbage, &c. and they will be preserved for the season.

" This fluid has proved very successful in the experiments made by

Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger.

New York, April 20, 1842."

POTATO. The introduction of this valuable root to the gardens and tables of the people received for more than two centuries an unexampled opposition from vulgar prejudice which all the philosophy of the age was unable to dissipate until Louis XV. of France wore a bunch of the flowers of the potato in the midst of his court on a day of festivity: the people then for the first time obsequiously acknowledged its usefulness, and its cultivation as an article of food soon became universal.

GRAFTING.

Some of our most beautiful forest trees, as the holly, the hickory, &c. are most difficult to transplant. It has sometimes occurred to us that country gentlemen, desiring to domesticate these noble ornaments of the forest, might amuse themselves by making experiments in grafting them upon stocks more readily removed. We have been induced to call their attention to the subject, by meeting with the following paragraph, communicated to a southern paper by Mr. Scott, of South Carolina:

" This season T grafted the different species of lilac on the common ash, in accordance with some information I received from a friend, (Mr. WolrT, Jr.) while I lived in Paris. I do not recollect to have seen any account of any one having tried the same in this country. We have grafted about three dozen ashes, varying from four feet to ten feet in height, with the common and Persian lilac: and I am happy to say that the result has exceeded my most sanguine expectations; for we have grown about twenty-five healthy plants, with branches from one foot to eighteen inches long, which I hope in another year will be covered with bloom. They were grafted in April, after the lilacs had made considerable shoots. I would, therefore, advise that the scions be taken off in January or February, in order to retard their vegetating too soon for the stocks. Would not the pendulous ash form a beautiful object by having its branches grafted with Persian lilac % n

NECESSITY OF ECONOMY.

There have been few years in which the necessity of economy in the farmer, and general prudence in the management of his affairs, has been more apparent, than the present. The low price of produce, and small decline in the price of labor; the difficulty with which remunerating sales arc made of animals and farm

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crops, and the general firmness of price in the articles he is compelled to purchase ; all indicate the propriety of paying particular attention to his income and his expenditures. This is particularly the case with him who is in debt; or who having little in advance, is dependant on the annual proceeds of his farm, and his labor, for support. There are a few classes that the pressure of the times, the price of produce, or the scarcity of cash, scarcely reaches. They are those who subsist on the fees of office, or the interest of their money. Such do not stand in need of lessons of economy.

But it is well for all to remember, that there is a wide difference between economy and parsimony ; between prudence and covetousness. If reform in expenditure is proper, the farmer should see that it falls on those things which are least essential to his present or future prosperity. It would be the height of folly to commence a system of curtailment by dispensing with any of the necessary implements of the farm ; the want of these, would certainly produce the evil he designs to avoid. Equally erroneous would he be were his retreschment to fall on any of those things necessary to enlarge and inform the mind ; and thus promote the intelligence, respectability, and consequent happiness of himself and family. Far better would it be to dispense with a new coat, than with the means of instruction; to forego the dainties or luxuries of the table, than to starve the mind. The importance of this point cannot be too strongly urged on the mind of the farmer; or the truth too forcibly or frequently impressed, that economy, or w T e should rather say parsimony, here, is a serious crime, and the means of inflicting irreparable injury. So too, if the farmer concludes to have little to do with his mechanics, when he requires the product of their skill, and is able to reward their labor, he is indirectly injuring himself, and positively injuring them. He is compelling them to forsake their work benches, or their anvils, and commence farmers, a result which w T ould have a tendency directly, by increasing the quantity of produce thrown into the market, to reduce the price of his own, and thus injure himself. Besides, the mechanic cannot be dispensed with by the farmer, and the soundest dictates of economy would demand that he should receive the encouragement and support, his merits and his wants require; or his services, when most wanted, may not be •within reach, or available. It is not in these and similar things, that economy should be begun ; but let the farmer, when he is tempted to purchase any thing, ask whether it is necessary to possess it: and if he will further make it a rule to invariably pay down for what he purchases, he will be astonished at the aid it will give him in becoming properly economical.— Thousands of farmers have been ruined by having such excellent credits. A man's credit is in

some respects like his stomach ; neither can be overloaded or overtasked with safety ; and the surest sign they are in a healthy condition, is when their functions are performed without his cognizance or attention.— Cultivator.

The Troy papers state that Mr. Burden, the ingenious worker of iron in that city has invented and successfully applied machinery to the fabrication of horse shoes. A bar of iron is put into the machinery, which converts it rapidly into well fashioned horse shoes, punched with nail holes, and ready to be put on.

SOUTHERN PRODUCTS.

A great many baneful errors have prevailed with respect to the capabilities of our climate and soil that are daily fading before the light of experience and a better system of husbandry. Amongst these we reckon the idea formerly very prevalent, that our climate was too hot to grow hay, that it would burn, and that we must depend upon the North for this great article of animal consumption. The truth is the greater attention of the northern farmer to the lesser crops has been followed with a success that had induced the belief, that we could grow nothing but wheat and tobacco, rice and cotton, in the South. Those great staples have engrossed too much of our attention—they have appropriated our best lands, and secured our entire care; whilst the hay crop, the most profitable that is made, has been neglected, with the unauthorised presumption, that the climate was unsuitable, the ever ready excuse for bad husbandry. It is a little remarkable, that as our lands became more and more worn, the climate became un-suited to a greater number of crops, until we had begun to believe that the generous products of nature were confined to the frigid regions of the North. But as necessity drives us to a better system of cultivation, it is astonishing to find how much better the climate is adapted to vegetable growth. Strange to tell, in the sunny fields of the South, where we have but a glimpse of the chilling storms of winter, we are beginning to raise fruits almost equal to those that are matured by the glimmerings of sunshine that illumine the miserably curtailed summer of the North. We have even seen Irish potatoes sold in the Richmond market fully equal to any that are exhibited in Boston, and our poor taste has confirmed us in the opinion expressed by naturalists generally, that it is to the glowing regions

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of the South that we are to look for highly flavored fruit. Let us make our lands rich and cultivate them carefully and we may trust to our climate, inferior to none in the world, to do its part. We have formerly expressed the opinion that rich land is the best antidote to all the evils

to which the wheat crop is subject: we will here add that we know a gentleman who has four lots of ten acres each, made extremely rich, from one of which he never fails to raise a splendid growth of wheat in defiance of the casualties to which the balance of his crop may be subjected.

ESPY'S VENTILATOR

We present above, a sectional view of Mr. Espy's Invention for ventilating Ships, Hospitals, Prisons, Mines, Cisterns, Vats, Sinks, &c.—also for producing a strong draft in Chimnies, flues of Steamboats, Locomotives, &c.

Description. —A, denotes the chimney. B, a sheet iron pipe secured upon the top of the chimney. C, a collar of sheet iron fitting loosely over the pipe B. D, a hollow cone, also made of sheet iron, into which the collar C, enters.

E, a vane, to keep the cone pointed to the wind.

F, a perpendicular iron rod, on which the cone and collar revolve, a, a, b, b, c, c, and e, arrows showing the course of the current of air.

Now suppose the wind to blow in the direction of the arrows a, a, —it will pass along the surface of the cone to its base, when it will converge as represented by arrows b, b, and c, c, and produce a vacuum at O, the open end of the cone, thereby causing a strong current of air to rush up the chimney A, in the direction of the arrow e.

This apparatus is, we believe, perfectly adapt-

ed to effect the object for which it is intended, and may be invaluable to such of our readers as are afflicted with that greatest of human evils a smoking chimney. The inventor deserves almost as much of mankind as if he had freed them from its usual concomitant, a scolding wife; though that Mr. Espy is that inventor, we are not so clear for an apparatus, exactly similar in principle to the one described, has been, to our certain knowledge, revolving round an old chimney top in Richmond for the last twenty years. At any rate, it is simple and cheap, and no one hereafter should complain of a smoking chimney.

DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD.

In the course of some experiments on a young Canadian's stomach, by Dr. Beaumont, the following facts in regard to the digestibility of various articles of food were ascertained :

Farinacea. —Rice, boiled soft, was digested in one hour; sago, an hour and three-quarters. Tapioca and barley, two hours. Bread, fresh, three hours; stale two.

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Salmon, salted and

Vegetables. —Potatoes, roasted, two hours and a half; boiled, three hours. Parsnips and beans, two hours and a half. Carrots, boiled, three hours and a quarter. Cabbage, raw, two hours —vinegar much assists in digestion. Beets, three hours and three-quarters.

Fruits. —Apples, sweet and ripe, one hour and a half; mellow, two hours ; hard and sour, nearly three. A mellow peach, an hour and a half.

Fish and Shellfish. —Trout, boiled or fried, one hour and a half. Codfish, cured and boiled, two hours. Oysters, undressed, nearly three hours; roasted, three hours and aquarter; stewed, three hours and a half, boiled, four hours.

Poultry. —Turkey, roasted, two hours and a half; boded, five minutes more. Chickens, fricasseed, two hours and three-quarters. Wild goose, roasted, two hours and a half. Fowls, boiled or roasted, four hours. Roasted ducks, four hours; and, if wild, half an hour more.

Butcher's Meat. —Soused tripe,pig's feet,boiled or fried, one hour. Venison steak, boiled, one hour and thirty-five minutes. Liver, calf's or lamb's, two hours. Sucking pig, two hours and a half. Mutton, broiled or boiled, three hours; roasted, a quarter more. Beef, fresh, boiled or roasted, three hours; lightly salted and boiled, thirty-six minutes more—old hard, salted, four hours and a quarter. Pork steak, boiled, three hours and a quarter; stewed, three hours ; lately salted and boiled, four hours and a half; roasted, five hours and a quarter. Veal, boiled, four hours—fried, half an hour more.

Eggs. —Raw, two hours; roasted, a quarter more; soft boiled, three hours; hard boiled or fried, half an hour longer.

Milk. —Two hours. Custard, baked, two hours and three quarters. Butter and cheese, three hours and a half. Apple dumplings, three hours. Suet, four hours and a half. Oil, somewhat longer. Calves-foot jelly, half an hour.

It wdl be seen that of farinaceous substances, rice is digested more easily, and old bread more rapidly than new ; and that oily food is particularly indigestible.

BLUE INK.

Dissolve one ounce of gum arabic in a pint of water. In a part of this gum-water, grind a small quantity of Prussian blue; you may thus bring it to any depth of color you choose. Indigo will answer this purpose very well, but it is not so fine a color, nor will it remain suspended so uniformly in the water.

COLIC. Under this head we have chosen to place the following extract from the valuable report forwarded to us by Dr. Harrison, of Prince George.

We know, by experience, the value of laudanum as a remedy for the violent pain to which the horse is subjected under the common name of colic. We have never known it fail to afford temporary relief which would be rendered permanent by the action of oil, or any gentle purgative.

We hope Dr. Harrison will not forget his promise of continued contributions to the Planter.

" Our animals generally are exempt from epidemic diseases of a fatal character, and our knowledge of the other diseases are so limited that their description and treatment would possess but little interest; but we would take this occasion to declare the convictions of our mind that too little attention is paid to veterinary practice. Frequently fine animals are lost from sheer ignorance on our part. The most prevalent disease, and at the same time the most distressing and fatal, to which that noble and valuable animal, the horse, is subject, is colic. It is produced from indigestion, impropriety either in the quantity or quality of food, over exertion, hard rides, suddenly cooling when over heated, large draughts of cold water when very warm, and other irregularities. This and its kindred affections of recent origin is manifested by restlessness, rolling over, lying down, turning up the nose, or the head to the side, abdominal distension, loss of appetite, and sometimes flatulence. A variety of remedies are in general use for the cure of this disease, and each practitioner has his favorite remedy. An ounce or two table spoonsful of laudanum has invariably succeeded in our hands. This remedy has been productive of such salutary effects, that we are almost induced to pronounce it a specific for colic and other spasmodic affections suddenly introduced. Our mode of administering this remedy is somewhat peculiar. It is first combined with a pint of water, poured into a bottle, the horse's head is elevated, the neck and mouth of the bottle is introduced into one of his nostrils, and the remedy is administered with a great deal of facility and in a much shorter time than is customary.

" The above remedy has frequently succeeded after the ineffectual exhibition of other remedies, and in one instance when a prepossession existed against the remedy, it was stubbornly opposed, and only recurred to, as a dernier resort, but with its accustomed success. This remedy operates, and its action is based upon, true physiological grounds, for its action is twofold, both acting as an anodyne and anti-spasmodic, which effects being produced, the disease is overcome. If constipation should succeed, it may be easily overcome by any of the neutral salts.

" The above course of treatment is only applicable to the primar}' form of the disease, and that immediately after its occurrence, but when

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the disease has existed for some time, and fever and its attendant symptoms exist, bleeding, purgatives and injections constitute our safeguards against injury."

For the Southern Planter. TOBACCO.

Messrs. Editors, —My object is to say, or rather to ask, something about tobacco. Does it not seem to you, that there can be no substitute for the tobacco crop in all that section of Virginia lying within tide water and the mountain, the ridge of lands dividing the waters running south into the James, and North Carolina?

A querist from Nottoway has asked some questions touching this subject, which I do not think have been attended to;—I should be glad to see some answers to them.

He asks, can we afford to make tobacco at five dollars ? I should think not, if the system of things, which has been in operation for many years past, should be attempted to be maintained. But let reckless speculation cease, and ruinous extravagance be curtailed,—let men stop the creation of artificial wants, let not quack legislators be eternally making infractions upon the laws of nature, which must always sooner or later, be followed by the appropriate penalty— let such things be done, and, I think, we may get on pretty well with five dollars for our tobacco.

But our lands in this part of Virginia are well nigh all cleared up, and farmers are beginning to use the axe with a more cautious and sparing hand. What then is to be done? Something must be done, which has not been practised for the last twenty years, for if the sterility and poverty of our lands are suffered to go on in the same ratio for the next twenty years, there are numbers of farms, which I could name, that could not afford a livelihood to those who now inhabit them.

For tobacco, it is quite certain, we must have manured lots. How shall a farmer with ten hands so manage, as to have a lot of a hundred thousand tobacco hills in cultivation every year ? or say, seventy-five thousand 1 I have seen no accounts of experiments made on high land, but I believe it is pretty well known that low land lots, when once made rich, may be kept so, by being sowed in oats, and cultivated in tobacco, alternately.

I have high land lots only, and am convinced I shall not be able to keep them up by any supplies of manure, which my farm-pen and stables may yield. I must try and make them help themselves. I commenced the trial in the spring of 1S41, by sowing and turning in a crop of oats.

The season proved rather dry for oats, and when turned in (about the middle of July) the

crop was not so heavy as I wished. To make amends for the deficiency, and to shade the ground, I sowed corn and covered it in with the oats. The corn soon came up, and grew rapidly. Just before the setting in of frosts, I turned that in also—not fully, however, for the ground was so very light from the previous fallow, and the crop so abundant, that it was impossible to hide the whole of it.

In the spring, when preparing the land for tobacco, I found that many of the stalks, which had been put well under ground, still preserved their green appearance, but were soft, and when mashed, would throw out a juice that was thick and acid. I liked such appearances very well.

But here is the 17th August, and the experiment determines nothing in its results. The tobacco was planted the 24th May, and grew off finely. The rains set in, and have kept up till now, which checked the tobacco, and caused the leaves to be narrow and small. And now it is firing rapidly.

Well, I have another lot, which I am subjecting to the same experiment. The crop of oats was very heavy. The corn sown, when they were turned in is now growing with great rapidity, and by frost, will be four to six feet high. I am hesitating about the best plan to dispose of this corn. Must I turn it in as I did last year, cut it down and let it lie and rot on the ground, or take it to the laboratory of the stable and farm-pen %

A. Z.

Amelia, 17th August 1842.

For the Southern Planter. SASSAFRAS.

Messrs. Editors, —In the number of the Planter for the present month a correspondent inquires how a certain mode, recommended as calculated to destroy the growth of sassafras bushes, must be carried into effect under certain circumstances, which he mentions. Now, although I cannot give him the exact information that he desires, yet I think that I can put him upon a plan, by the adoption of which, the evil of which he complains can be exceedingly alleviated, although not eradicated, for that I believe is next to an impossibility. It is simply this. Let him turn his horned cattle upon those parts of his fields where the sassafras is growing, in the months of August and September, and he will find that they by biting and trampling will so disable and cripple the bushes, that their growth will be retarded in a very great degree in the following spring. I think that this mode of treating them is preferable to that of keeping the sheep upon the fields for such a length of time. As to the destruction of the clover, which "An Inquirer" wishes to avoid, 1 think that he will find that the injury done the clover will be amply coun-

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terbalanced by the benefit he will derive from the crippling of the sassafras bushes. I have been informed of another mode of preventing the encroachments of the sassafras ; it however has not come under my immediate observation, and I can merely tell it to you as it was told to me; it is to permit some one or two sassafras bushes, in different parts of the fields where there seems to be a probability of being a patch of them, to assume the shape of trees, in which case they are not so apt to send forth shoots as when constantly and entirely grubbed up; for in this plant, like the fabled hydra, when one head is destroyed it is instantly replaced by two others. There is, I understand, in this county a remarkable proof of the efficacy of the mode here described of destroying the sassafras. In two adjoining fields the two opposite methods have been pursued, and in that where the bushes were allowed to become trees, there are few or no young ones to interfere with the grain crops, whilst in that where they were grubbed up, they are exceedingly numerous and troublesome.

If you think this communication likely to be beneficial, you of course are at liberty to publish it.

I am, &c. &c. X.

Hanover, July, 1S42.

STONES ON CULTIVATED LAND.

It is an error to suppose (says the Boston Mer. Journal) that stones should be entirely removed from land which is under cultivation.— Those stones, which would be in the way of the scythe while mowing, of course should be removed, but all the smaller stones should remain ; and if wholly or partially embedded in the soil, they preserve the moisture during a drought, and thus serve materially to increase the crop. The following article from the Gentlemen's Magazine, published in 1773, is to (he point:

" It has been long known to experienced farmers, that taking away very small stones and flints is detrimental to ploughed lands in general; but more particularly so to thin light lands, and all lands of a binding nature. It was, however, never imagined that the damage could be so great, as it is now found to be, since unusual quantities of flints and other stones have been repeatedly gathered for the use of turnpike roads. In the parish of Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, there is a field known by the name of Chalkdell-field, containing about two hundred acres; the land in this field was formerly equal, if not superior, to most lands in that county; but lying convenient for the surveyors of the roads, they have picked it so often, and stripped it of the flint and small stones to such a degree, that it is now inferior to lands that were formerly reckoned not much above half its value, acre Vol. 2-30

for acre. Nor is it Chalkdell-field alone that has materially suffered in that county by the above mentioned practice; several thousand acres bordering on the turnpike roads from Well-wyn to Baldoch have been so much impoverished, that the loss to the inheritance forever must be computed at a great many thousand pounds. What puts it beyond a doubt that the prodigious impoverishment of the land is owing to no other cause but picking and carrying away the stones, is, that those lands have generally been most impoverished which have been most often picked; nay, I know a field, part of which was picked, and the other part ploughed up before they had time to pick it, where the part that was picked lost seven or eight parts in ten of two succeeding crops; and though the whole field was manured and managed in all respects alike, yet the improvement was visible where the stones had been picked off, and extended not an inch farther; an incontestable proof of the benefit of the stones."

For the Southern Planter. BRIERS.

Messrs. Editors, —In looking over your August number I find a request from Mr. William Massie for information as to the best mode of getting rid of briers. 1 presume he alludes to those briers which run upon the ground, commonly known by the name of dewberry. The blackberry brier grows up with a perpendicular stem, and is easily eradicated; but the brier in question, is surprisingly difficult to remove.— This arises from the depth of its roots and their various branches, which run and spread over the land at the distance of six or eight feet, and from the multiplicity of joints in those spreading branches, which put out roots and enter the earth, and ultimately, if undisturbed, form a complete mat over the ground. Some of my fields were formed}'' much infested with this pest, which has been happily nearly removed. The best mode to get rid of them that I have discovered, is to have them cut up (or at least the tops cut off below the surface) several days before ploughing for corn or other grain, and suffer them to wilt or dry before following with the plough; else every branch will produce a new growth from each joint, thereby increasing the crop of briers, probably, tenfold: especially after the spring ploughing for corn, when the earth is cool and moist, will the branches multiply. If the land is planted in corn, in the month of June, just before harvest, turn in all hands with grubbing hoes, and take up by the roots, the remaining briers, which may have escaped the implements of cultivation, and then again in the month of August, use the same process.

Uprooting on the wane of the moon in August, the Dutch say will prove most destructive.

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Remember to cut them up several days before ploughing, so that the tops are lifeless before being turned in. The strict observance of this process will effectually eradicate this great annoyance of the farmer.

S. Davis.

Brucetoivn, Frederick. Va.

GRANARY.

On a late visit to a branch of the Cooper family, New Jersey, I observed that the granary, or place for stowing away grain of different descriptions, was fitted up with bins in the shape of very large and strong iron-bound casks of the usual shape; and in these the wheat, &c. was preserved for any period, no matter how long, without fear of weevil, grain-worm, or any other species of vermin, or damp and mouldiness; the grain being introduced by means of a funnel through the bung-hole, which, when the cask is full, is very carefully closed and made air-tight; the casks also being kept in repair and perfectly air-tight, the hoops being driven occasionally to cause them to become so. Now by this very simple arrangement, the whole crop of grain on a farm may be preserved for years, as perfectly free from dampness or disease of any kind, as though it had been kiln-dried ; the convenience of stowage being as great as in open bins; the casks standing on low tressels or sleepers, admitting a bushel measure under, they can be rolled on to the bung; or the grain might be drawn off by a large tap made for the purpose.

And this mode of packing would be efficient in the preservation of many other articles, which, if too bulky for admission through the bung-hole, could be performed by removing one of the heads and replacing it when the cask was full, seeing that the hoops were driven so as to insure perfect closeness. Thus might fruit-trees, flowers, and fruit itself, be preserved during long voyages, and we could be supplied with the choicest specimens of either, from the most distant parts of the globe.— Farmers' Cabinet.

SICK HEADACHE.

Two teaspoonfuls of finely powdered charcoal, drank in a half tumbler of water, will in less than fifteen minutes give relief to the sick headache, when caused as in most cases it is, by superabundance of acid on the stomach.

For the Southern Planter.

HARVEST DRINK.

Messrs. Editors, —In former times, my husband (John Dumpling) and all 6ur neighbors, used to think there was no getting through har-

vest without drinking whiskey. Three black bottles a day, he and his hands used to drink ; four or five cutters there were, and as many ty-ers. They drank an amazing quantity of water, too: it kept a stout lad of fifteen, constantly agoing, with a pail on his head. 'Twas the water that alwaj's hurt them, when \hey were hurt. They would often have a cramp in the stomach, and drop down in the hot sun, as if dead, after drinking so much : and then, the whiskey always recovered them. The whiskey never made them fall: no, no, it gave them new strength and briskness. To be sure, other bad accidents did sometimes happen. Cradles and blades got broken. Ugly cut the mowers would give, in pushing to take the row from one another. Quarrels arose of evenings; and now and then, the folks fitt. A mighty heap of wheat was left uncut, or lying helter-skelter about the field. And when harvest was over, the cradlers were so broken down, that it was almost a week before they could well do any other work.

The change now is a wonder to every body. For three years, John's hands or himself have had no whiskey, at any kind of work. Well, you would laugh to see how different harvest is, from what it used to be. The folks don't drink a fourth part of the water: a small one of the drap-shot gang brings a plenty for them, besides shocking after two good tyers. No bad accidents seem to happen. Nobody has cramp in the stomach, or falls down with the heat, as if dead. No broken cradles, or blades—no ugly cuts—no quarrels, or fights. Then, after harvest, the people are all as fresh, and ready for other work, as if they had only been planting peas, or pulling fodder. And the wheat is so much closer cut, and cleaner got up, that my old man says the crop turns him out a'most a fourth more than it used to. Capting Jones and Major Crane, and at least a dozen besides in our neighborhood, all do like John, and say the same. The Capting and he said the other day, that two hundred farmers in Albemarle went through last harvest without any intoxicating drink. What they gave their hands was buttermilk, or molasses and water with a touch of vinegar, or plain water.

A happy change it is, Messrs. Editor, forme. I am a happy wife now. John never comes home from court cross and staggering. He does not go security for an} T body unless it is perfectly safe; never games, or fights, or falls off of his horse. The children run to meet him, not at all afraid. And I have not dreamt that I was sleeping with a whiskey barrel these two years. We are all cleverly dressed ; the windows are glazed, the door hung on good hinges; the fences and farm all in neat order; very, very different from old times. And the little Dumplings ! It would do your heart good now to see

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them. For rosy checks and healthy, full shaped limbs, they are a match for any body's children. I do wish, gentlemen, you would tell all the farmers and planters who read your paper, that the main point in farming is to take the pledge, like my husband and neighbors. At least, any person would say so, judging by the alteration in their houses and lands, and wives and children, since they took the pledge. Your friend,

Dorothy Dumpling.

P. S.—John says, that he, Capting J. and five or six others at meeting t'other day, under the big oak before sermon, all agreed that their negroes don't now drink half so much whiskey of their own getting, as they used to—don't go the groceries a fourth as often, and don't do a tenth of the stealing. For (says the Capting) nine-tenths of negro roguery is for the sake of whiskey. By not having it at any of their work, they have lost the relish for it. D. D,

Albemarle County.

GALVANIC PLANT PROTECTOR

The above is a very ingenious and philosophical apparatus for the protection of plants from insects. We imagine, however, that it is likely to prove more interesting in description, than useful or economical in practice.

"Editors of the Cultivator, —The London Mechanic's Magazine contains an ingenious application of galvanism, for the purpose of preventing the attacks of molluscfe on dahlias, and other delicate plants. I send you the above drawing of it, in hopes that it may prove useful to that portion of your readers who are florists, and that some similar arrangement may be de-

vised for preventing the ascent ot worms and insects on our fruit trees. The original inventor of this apparatus has tested its utility during twelve months, and not a plant thus protected was injured ; while those which were unprotected, suffered severely. The Protector is a conical ring of zinc, four inches deep, adjusted to the interior of the flower pot, the top end of which, a, 6, is flanged off about half an inch, and cut into vandyked points; immediately under the flange, and on the outside of the ring of zinc, a ring of copper, E, F, is neatly fitted.

" In order to use the Protector, press the inferior edge of the zinc ring, c, d, into the earth, until the inferior edge of the copper ring, x, y i is

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about one and a half inches above the surface of the soil. The molluscee may crawl up the zink with impunity; but on coming in contact with the copper, they receive a shock which causes them to fall back to the ground. If the larger of this tribe attempt to stretch across and above the copper belt, avoiding contact, they would be incapable of holding by the points. The Protector acts in wet or dry weather, and is always in action. There is nothing said in the memoir, respecting the influence of the instrument on the growth of the plants under its protection, but my impression is that the constant electric action must stimulate the growth of the plant, and increase the size and beauty of its flowers.

N. N. D."

RAISING CHICKENS.

It has been remarked that a hen with one chicken will scratch as many hours in a day as a hen with a dozen. If you would raise a large brood let three hens have their eggs to sit on, all commencing at one time. After hatching, put one of the hens in a coop in the garden, and in the evening take all the chickens from the other two and put them under the first. She will take charge of all, and leave the other hens at liberty to lay more eggs.

TO PREVENT THE ROTTING OF POSTS IN THE GROUND.

Place ashes or lime on the surface of the earth around the posts. This will render them twice as durable, and will prove a great saving where the fence is costly. Lime mortar has been recommended to encase all that part of the post which is under the surface; but this is not necessary, since the bottom of the post will often last as long as the top.

GERMINATING SEEDS UNDER COLORED GLASS.

The following remarks by Mr. Hunt, the Secretary of the Royal Polytechnic Society, in England, relate to a most curious discovery— and one which may prove very useful to the cultivators of rare exotics. We hope some of our readers will be stimulated to repeat the experiments, and to send us the results.

" It is scarcely necessary to explain that every beam of light proceeding from its solar source, is a bundle of different colored rays, to the absorption or reflection of which we owe all that infinite diversity of color which is one of the greatest charms of creation. These rays have been long known to possess different functions.

11 The light which permeates colored glass, partakes to some considerable extent of the cha-

racter of the ray which corresponds with the glass in color ; thus blue glass admits the blue or chemical rays, to the exclusion, or nearly so, of all the others; } 7 ellow glass admits only the permeation of the luminous rays ; while red glass cuts off all but the heating rays, which pass it freely. This affords us a very easy method of growing plants under the influence of any particular light which may be desired.

"The fact to which I would particularly call attention is, that the yellow and red rays are destructive to germination, whereas under the infiu-ence of violet, indigo, or blue light, the process is quickened in a most extraordinary manner.

" The plants will grow most luxuriantly beneath glass of a blue character; but beneath the yellow and red glasses the natural process is entirely checked. Indeed, it will be found that at any period during the earfy life of a plant, its growth may be checked by exposing it to the action of red or yellow light.

"It is with much satisfaction that I find the results to which I have arrived, corroborated by Dr. F. R. Horner, of Hull."

Blue glass for hot-beds could be very conveniently employed.— Neiv Genesee Farmer.

VELVET CARPET.

Most people have seen a beautiful article of paper hangings, usually termed "velvet paper," the figures on which resemble fine cassimere of brilliant colors. The velvet carpet is made on a similar principle. The base is of cheap and strong cotton sheeting. The figures are formed of old woollen cloths of various colors ground up fine, and secured to the base by a strong copal cement. The rich and elegant figures are rapidly formed by a peculiar process and operation of machinery. This carpet is calculated to be very durable, and will come into market cheaper than any other kind, for handsome floors. American JSIechatiic.

SURPRISING PROPERTY OF OIL.

The action of oil, in stopping the violent ebullition of various substances, is truly surprising. It is well known, that if a mixture of sugar and honey, or the like, be boiling upon a fire, and boiling over the vessel, the pouring in of a little oil, makes it immediately subside. In many cases, the marking of a circle round the inside of a vessel, in which liquor of this kind is to be boiled, with a piece of hard soap, will, like a magic ring, confine the ebullition to that height, and not suffer it to stir any further.

This is wholly owing to the oil, or fat, contained in the soap; but there is, besides these, another very important use of oil, on a like occasion, which is, the pouring of a little of it on any metalic solution while making. This re-

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strains the ascent of the noxious vapors, preserves the operator from danger, and at the same time, by keeping down the evaporating matter, gives redoubled strength to the menstruum.— Pliny has mentioned an extraordinary effect of oil, in stilling the surface of water, when it is agitated with waves, and the use made of it by the divers, for this purpose.

HOW TO COOK CUCUMBERS.

We have seen a recipe to cook cucumbers, somewhat after this fashion :

Take the cucumbers and after cutting off the rind, cut them into slices, then cut up a few onions with them, pepper and salt them to your liking, and add vinegar to them—and then,— open your window and throw them away.

This is the usual way of preparing them for the table, and doubtless, the recipe is so worded as to impress the idea of their unhealthiness, and we must confess, that we are among those who have so esteemed them. But if cooked as below stated, we conceive them not only to be wholesome, but among the most palatable vegetable dishes with which the table can be garnished. Our method is this:

Pare off the rind, then cut the cucumber into slices lengthwise, dust either side of those slices with corn meal or wheat flour, pepper and salt them to please your taste; this done, fry them brown, and you will have one of the most delicious dishes that you can imagine, combining in their flavor those of the oyster plant and egg plant. Of their healthfulness, thus cooked, there can be no question, and of their palatableness, it is only necessary that you try them, to say with us that they are exquisite.— Am. Farmer.

HOGS. The following article, from Bell's Life in London, pointing out as it does a new use for that valuable, and now fashionable, animal, the hog, may furnish a valuable hint to the breeders of the different varieties, whereby their manifold qualities may be much enhanced ; and the stock, that next arrive at a thousand w r eight on a gallon of corn, may, possibly, excel their competitors in the more sportsmanlike quality of pointing.

"A Pointer Sow.—A correspondent, under the signature of ( Norwich,' asks in your paper of the 6th instant—' Was there ever a sow in this country that would find and point at game, and was shot to as a regular pointer V Allow me to state that there is a notice of one having been taught to perform the service of a pointer, and find game. A gamekeeper of Sir Henry Mildmay broke a black sow to find game, back, and stand to her point nearly as steadily as a

well-bred dog. The sow was a thin, long-legged animal of the New Forest breed. When young, it manifested a great partiality for some pointer puppies, and it occurred to the gamekeeper that as he had often succeeded with obstinate dogs, he might attempt to break a pig. He enticed her to follow him by bits of barley-meal pudding, which he carried in one of his pockets, while the other was filled with stones, which he threw at his pupil when she misbehaved, as she would not allow herself to be caught and corrected like a dog. Under this system she proved tolerably tractable. When she came on the cold scent of game she slackened her trot, and gradually dropped her ears and tail till she was certain, and then fell down on her knees. As soon as the game rose she returned, grunting for her reward of pudding. When the gamekeeper died, his widow sent the pig to Sir H. Mildmay, who kept it for three years, and often amused his friends by hiding a fowl among the fern in some part of the park, and bringing out the pig, which never failed to point at it in the manner described. Some time after, a great number of lambs were lost, nearly as soon as they were dropped, and a person being sent to watch the flock, detected the sow in the act of devouring a lamb. This carnivorous propensity was ascribed to her having been accustomed to feed with the dogs on flesh; but it obliterated the memory of her singular sagacity, and she was killed for the benefit of the widow of the gamekeeper who trained her.

GRAFTING A WHOLE TREE.

A neighbor of Van Mons, the celebrated Belgium horticulturist, having a good apple tree of some ten feet in height which he was obliged to cut down, Van Mons determined to make an effort to preserve it entire, by grafting it on one of his own, but of inferior fruit. A tree of the same size was selected, which was cut square off a little distance above the ground, the surface of both made smooth, and the graft or rather tree placed in its new position by the operation of pin grafting. Grafting clay was placed around the junction, earth heaped over the spot, and the tree strongly secured by stakes. A union between the parts was soon effected, and the second year the tree fruited as well as formerly.

TO CURE SHEEP-SKINS W^ITH THE WOOL ON,

Take a spoonful of alum and two of saltpetre ; pulverise and mix well together, then sprinkle the powder on the flesh side of the skin, and lay the two flesh sides together—leaving the wool outside. Then fold up the whole skin as tight as you can and hang in a dry place : in

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two or three days as soon as dry take down, and scrape with a blunt knife till clean and supple. This completes the process, and makes you a most excellent saddle cover. If when you kill your mutton you treat the skins in this way, you can get more for them from the saddlers than 3'ou can for the wool and skin separately disposed of otherwise.

N. B.—Other skins which you desire to cure with the fur or hair on may be treated in the same way.— S. W. Farmer.

APPLES FOR STOCK.

Under this head, a " Practical Farmer," in the Boston Cultivator, says—" Last year I butchered a hog sixteen months old which weighed 500 lbs. For some weeks before bringing him to the tub, he ate nothing but boiled apples." Corn meal cooked was offered him, but refused; the pork was of the best quality, and though moon was not consulted in killing him, the

"Meat ne'er shrunk a bit i' the pot."

MISCELLANY

At the earnest request of some of our most valued subscribers we have determined whenever we can do so conveniently to renew our head of Miscellany, which we have for some time permitted to be crowded out by the press of Agricultural matter.

PASSION.

Horace Walpole tells the following story of a passionate man:

" Gen. Sutton, brother of Sir Robert Sutton, was very passionate: Sir Robert Walpole the reverse. Sutton being one day with Sir Robert, while his valet de chambre was shaving him, Sir Robert said, 'John, you cut me'—and then went on with the conversation. Presently, he said again, 'John, you cut me'—and a third time—when Sutton, starting up in a rage, and doubling his fist at the servant, swore a great oath, and said, ' If Sir Robert can bear it, I cannot, and if you cut him again I'll knock you down.' "

CROWDING THE PROFESSIONS.

One of the ablest periodical writers of Great Britain, speaking of the ambition in that country of adopting professional life of all kinds, and of the rush, if we may so call it, into the professions of "law, physic and divinity," thus points the mind's eye to the general consequences, or some of them:

" But thousands have died of broken hearts

the

in these pursuits, thousands who would have been happy behind the plough or opulent behind the counter; thousands in the desperate struggle of thankless professions look upon the simplicity of a life of manual labor with perpetual envy; and thousands, by a worse fate still, are driven to necessities which degrade the principles of honor within them, accustom them to humiliating modes of obtaining subsistence, and make up, by administering to the vices of society, the livelihood which was refused to their legitimate exertions."

STAYS.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague says: " One of the highest entertainments in Turkey is having you to their baths. When I was introduced to one, the lady of the house came to undress me—another high compliment to pay to strangers. After she had slipped off my gown, and saw my stays, she was much struck at the sight of them, and cried out to the ladies in the bath, 1 come hither, and see how cruelly the poor English ladies are used by their husbands ; you need not boast, indeed, of the superior liberties allowed you, when they lock you up thus in a box.'"

FIGHTING ON ONE'S OWN HOOK.

At the battle of Yorktown, whilst the aids of the American Chief were issuing his orders along the line, a man was discovered a short distance from it, who presented rather a grotesque appearance, being dressed in the coarse common cloth worn at the time by the lower orders in the back country, with an otter cap, the shape of which very much resembled the steeple of a meeting house, and a broad leather apron. His equipment consisted of a small woodchuck's skin, sewed together in the form of a bag, and partly filled with buck-shot, an ox-horn filled with powder, and an old rusty gun; which measured about seven feet eight inches from the muzzle to the end of the breech, and which had probably lain in the smoke ever since the landing of the pilgrims. One of the aids passing him in the course of his rounds, inquired of him to what regiment he belonged. " I belong to no regiment," said the fellow; after he had fired his "long carbine." A few moments after, the officer rode by again ; but seeing the fellow very busy, and sweating with exertion, he once more inquired to what regiment he belonged. "To no regiment," was the answer, the speaker at the same time levelling his piece at a "red coat," who was preparing to fire, but who dropped dead before he had half raised his gun. " To what company do you belong ?" " To no company!" "To what battalion do you belong ?" " To no battalion !" " Then where the devil do you belong, or who are you fight-

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ing for T " Dang ye," said the fellow, " I don't belong any where, I'm fighting on my own hook!"

MARRYING YOUTH AND AGE.

Gumilla relates in the History of the River Oronoco, that there is a nation which marries old men to girls, and old women to youths, that age may correct the petulance of youth. For, they say, that to join young persons equal in youth and imprudence in wedlock together, is to join one fool with another. The marriage of young men with old women is, however, only a kind of apprenticeship, for after they have served for some months, they are permitted to marry women of their own age.

IT NEEDS GENIUS TO DISCOVER GENIUS.

Strange as it may seem, Robinson Crusoe was hawked about through the trade, as a work of neither mark nor likelihood, and at last accepted as a proof of especial condescension, by an obscure retail bookseller. It is singular, but not less true—and we leave our readers to draw their own inference from the fact—that almost every book of any pretensions to originality, has been similarly neglected. Paradise Lost with difficulty found a publisher; while the whole trade vied with each other in their eagerness to procure the works of such dull mechanical writers as Blackmore and Glover. Gulliver's Travels lay ten years in manuscript for want of due encouragement from the booksellers ; and in our time, and in a higher branch of literature, the Miseries of Human Life, and the still more ingenious Rejected Addresses, were refused by the trade with indifference, if not contempt. To crown the list of works thus misunderstood, Sir Walter Scott has left it on record, that Waverly was actually declined three several times by the acutest publisher of his day; and at last ushered into the world, after it had lain twelve years unnoticed in its author's desk, with doubt, hesitation and indifTerence.-r- Credite Posteri.

imposed on us in every station in life. There is nothing worth having that can be had without it, from the bread which the peasant wins witli the sweat of his brow, to the sports by which the rich man must get rid of his ennui. The only difference betwixt them is, that the poor man labors to get a dinner to his appetite, the rich man to get an appetite to his dinner. As for knowledge, it can no more be planted in the human mind, without labor, than a field of wheat can be produced without the previous use of the plough. There is, indeed, this difference, that chance or circumstances may so cause it, that another shall reap what the farmer sows ; but no man can be deprived, whether by accident or misfortune, of the fruits of his own studies; and the liberal and extended acquisitions of knowledge which he makes are all for his own use. Labor, my dear boy, therefore, and improve the time. In youth our steps are light, and our minds are ductile, and knowledge is easily laid up. But, if we neglect our spring, our summers will be useless and contemptible, our harvest will be chaff, and the winter of old age unrespected and desolate."

Again: "Read, my dear Charles, read, and read that which is useful. Man differs from birds and beasts, only because he has the means of availing himself of the knowledge acquired by his predecessors. The swallow builds the same nest which its father and mother built, and the sparrow does not improve by the experience of its parents. The son of the learned pig, if it had one, would be a mere brute, only fit to make bacon of. It is not so with the human race.— Our ancestors lodged in caves and wigwams, where we construct palaces for the rich and comfortable dwellings for the poor; and why is this, but because our eye is enabled to look upon the past, to improve upon our ancestors' improvements, and to avoid their errors? This can only be done by studying history, and comparing it with passing events."

WHY WOMAN WAS TAKEN FROM THE RIBS.

Mathew Henry says: " Woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam ; not made out of his head, to top him—not out of his feet, to be trampled upon by him—but out of his side, to be equal with him ; under his arm, to be protected ; and near to his heart, to be beloved."

WALTER SCOTT'S ADVICE TO HIS SON CHARLES.

"I cannot too strongly impress upon your mind, that labor is the condition which God has

JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE.

A member of Congress made a three days 3 speech. In the course of it, discovering symptoms of impatience in the House, he remarked that " he spoke not for that House nor for that generation—he spoke for posterity." Mr. Randolph interposed, "you will speak to them, sir, if you speak much longer."

WOMEN.

Francis I. of France, was the first monarch who introduced ladies at his court. He said, in a style of true gallantry, that a drawing-room without ladies was like the year without the spring; or rather like the spring without flowers. At no time of life should a man give up the