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Title: The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side
Vol. 1, (1820)
Author: Various
Release Date: September 29, 2014 [EBook #46995]
Language: English
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THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY
_EVENING FIRE-SIDE_.
[Illustration: "Venerate The Plough."]
PHILADELPHIA:
PUBLISHED BY RICHARDS & CALEB JOHNSON,
_No._ 31, _Market Street_.
1820
INDEX.
ADDRESS, preliminary 1
---- Tilghman's to the Philadelphia Agricultural Society 104
Adams, John, original letter from 50
Agriculture, treatise on 13, 54, 90, 129, 165, 211
Arabian horse, account of 31
Ants of Valencia 115
Agricultural education 100
Antediluvian oak 148
Antique nugea ib.
Anecdote 149
---- ib.
Air jacket ib.
Africa 154
Agriculture, essay on 169
---- letters on 332, 370
Agricultural memoranda 172, 227, 317, 380
Appraisement act 182
Agricultural discourse 267
Almanacks, origin of 276
American ginseng 380
---- saltpetre 397
Anecdote of Lycurgus ib.
Agriculture, honour paid to, in China 407
Agricultural school at Hofwyl 205
---- hints 292
Abstracts from Philadelphia Agricultural Society's memoirs 293
Absence of mind 429
American plants and minerals 172
Anecdote 432, 315
African people, the 325
Ants, natural history of 448
---- wars of 458
Advice and Caution 475
Antidotes to poison, vegetable 474
Anecdote 472
Boerhaave, notice of 78
Barrett, Starr, decease of 116
Backster, George, decease of ib.
Botany bay, a view of 141
Bear, sagacity of 147
Boring, legalized 152
Breweries, London 154
Brewing, family machine 248
Benezet, Anthony, anecdote of 273
Bulls, Irish 278
Boots without seams ib.
Bones, &c. as manure 216
Bank note exchange 280, 240, 320, 360, 400, 440
Benevolence 394
Books, on 234
Bees, attack by 422
Banks, Sir Joseph 427
Boon, colonel, death of 472
Botany, curious fact in 475
Cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, wine, statistical account of 23
Coffee plant 27
Cow tree 29
Cattle, Herefordshire, breed of 35
Cowley, Robert, decease of 117
Congress, list of members of 39
Cottage Society, account of 36
Chestnut wood, for dyeing 115
Cobb, Christopher, decease of 117
Cattle, mill feed for 127
Cow, singular account of one 147
Coaches 148
Charity, ladies ib.
Chimnies ib.
Catwg, wisdom of ib.
Combustion, spontaneous 151
Cold, severe 153
Cotton, exportation of, from New Orleans ib.
Cameronians, account of the 185
Comfortable discovery 196
Cambricks, flax for 380
Characters, weight of great 394
Cave, Weir's in Virginia 396
Camels 398
Corn pounder, Lincoln 220
Caterpillars 172, 223
Curious phenomenon 231
Cattle, valuable breed of 295
Chester Agricultural Society 306
Cider, on making 339
Cabbages for cattle 340
Culinary poisons, letter on, &c. 348
Correspondents, notice to 120, 160
Carpets, cheap and elegant 453
Cement, Turkey 473
Chemistry applied to industrious economy 475
Corrosive sublimate, gluten an antidote for 471
Council Bluffs 473
Christians, new sect of 474
Desultory Remarker, 45, 81, 121, 161, 201, 244, 283,
321, 361, 401, 441
Domestic economist noticed 78
Deaths, list of, in the principal cities of the United States 117
Deaf and dumb marriage 197
Delametaire, Etienne, death of 236
Death, instance of premonition of 290
Diving bell 120
Domestic manufactures, premiums for 174
Drink, parallel of enjoyment and suffering, 314
Diamond, the 461
Drought 474
Druids 477
Dreaming ib.
Disputants 476
Education, agricultural 100
Ellery, William, decease of 116
Economy of Nature 150
Ephraim, my neighbour 262
Education 382
Ellery, Mr. account of 75, 232
Earth, the productions of the 328
Europe, statistics of 352
Edgeworth, Richard L. esq. memoirs of 412
Excursion from Edinburgh to Dublin 444
Economical bread, receipt for making 465
Fig tree, American 28
Fire places, improvement in 37
Franklin, Dr. original letter of 44
Fry, Mrs. account of 126
Flax, on dressing 170
Franklin, Dr. anecdotes of 179
Fulton, Robert, steam-ship 192
Family brewing machine 248
Foreign tongue, the English a 274
Franklin's, Judge, address 366
Farmers, hint to 380
Flemish husbandry 219, 303
Fruit trees, on the oiling of 222
Fruit garden 226
Fruit trees, method of forcing 228
Firmity and Hominy 291
Farmers, encouragement for, on poor land 332
Fuel, economy in 339
French women, 352
Forest trees, on the culture of 223
Fiction, works of 231
Flax for cambricks 280
Fata Morgana 451
Flowers in Holland 453
Food, cheap 457
Fox, Charles J. character of 467
Gas lights 151
Green crops, manures of 168
Glass, method of rendering it less brittle, 195
Grape vine, native 247
Gossip, view of a 262
Glass making, introduction of into France 273
Gimcrackery, on 326
Garrick, anecdote of 355
Ginger 457
Governors, mode of electing 477
Gil Blas and Don Quixote 476
Gourd, Jonah's 465
Grape vine, on the 69, 101
Horses, disease among 30
---- wild, of the west 31
---- cheap food for, &c. 246
---- cure for foundered 227
History, on the study of 49
Holkham sheep shearing 379
Honey, on taking, without destroying the bees 224
Historical sketches 229
Horse, the Arabian 31
Hams, to cure, Westphalia fashion 172
Hartford fair 431
Horse, running 470
Jewish emigrants 76
"Is it peace, Jehu?" 88
Indian jurisprudence 116
Jones, David, decease of 116
Intemperance, expose of the causes of 133
Iron boat 277
Indian corn, its good and bad culture 364
Internal wealth 397
Indian corn, new method of preserving 228
Ice, power of 235
Ivory paper 474
Indian, double-jointed 473
King, the, death of, &c. 145
Letters of a citizen, to his friends in the country 5, 47, 89
Letter to the editors 3
---- from an Englishman in this country, to his friends at
home 11, 51
---- original, from John Adams 50
---- ---- from Dr. Franklin 44
---- On Mrs. Fry's proceedings in Glasgow 126
Light, without heat, or combustion 36
Libraries, public, of Germany 80
Law case 113, 231
Longitude (new theory of) 115
Lane, Thomas, decease of 116
Library, apprentices' 146
London 151
Lapland 152
Leeches 153
Lybia 154
Longevity, extraordinary 155
Law suit 184
Lord Thurlow 277
Locust tree, the 412
Lincoln corn pounder 220
Lycurgus, anecdote of 308
Law work, new 476
Ladies, learned ib.
Lands, public 468
Moral plough boy 15, 59
Mummies 79
Miscellany 75, 115, 145, 193, 223, 274, 314, 354, 394, 433, 471
Modes of salutation 115
Mill feed for cattle 127
Mine, silver 150
Missouri, boundaries of 152
Maple Sugar, on the culture of the 164, 218
Manufactures, domestic, premiums for 174
Manner, on the importance of 177
Mortgage act 184
Maine 275
Modern inventions 278
Madeira, island of 387
Missouri, staples of 418
Marivaux 230
Microscope, beauties of the 345
Martial glory 233
Marriages, list of 155, 197
Mammoth cave in Kentucky, account of 464
Nicholson's prize essay 17, 62, 93
Natural curiosity 386
Niagara falls, route to 289
Needle, variation of the 351
Natural history, curious facts in 428
Nunneries in Rome, visit to two 454
Narrow resources, advantages of 462
Otto, Joseph, decease of 117
Oil spring 145
Oil stones 276
Oxen, on the use of, &c. 309
Oranges 227
O'Groat's, John house 430
Oil, cotton seed 470
Political Economics 26
Peruvian bark, singular effect of 29
Pumpkin seed, oil of 30
Pleasure, on the pursuit of 43
Phenomenon! 147
Paint, a newly discovered 149
Potatoes, seed 151
Portugal 153
Poultry houses, method of preserving from vermin 155
Peaches, to dry 173
Plum trees, canker on 174
Poultry 196
Pickle, Frederick, decease of 197
Pennsylvania hospital 276
Prices current 239, 280, 320, 360, 400, 440
Parmesan cheese dairy 376
Punctuality 384
Prompter, the 391, 417, 466
Plaster, remarks on 223
Pear tree, on the 226
Potatoes, young, in the winter 227
Peaches, to preserve from frost 227
People, the African 325
Pompeia, present state of 341
Potatoes 338
Pyroligneous acid, antisceptic power of 456
Population in America, increase of 474
Ruth, story of 125
Ralp, Elizabeth, decease of 116
Russia, 153
Republican manners 175
Rain gauge, state of, at Philadelphia 197, 239, 280, 320, 360,
400, 440, 479
Rhode Island 275
Rivers, machine for crossing 277
Rain, cattle scenting 278
Rice, wild 377
Rags, conversion of, into sugar 224
Ruta Baga, experiments 225
Rural Magazine, a friend of, to its readers 281
Riddle, Baron Smyth's 476
Raindeer 475
Slavery, extension of 6
Sugarcane 27
Savannah, fire in 76
Straw bonnets 80
Seeds (from the plough boy's cottage) 85
Starch, to make 115
Staughton, Don Juan, decease of 116
Sweden, latitude of, trees in 150
Spider, anecdote of ib.
Snow, red 152
Smokers, hint to 155
Shoes, wooden scaled 175
Sentiments of an old soldier 179
Shepherd's dog 190
Snow Storm, the 253
Seeds, on 378
Salt, remarks on, as a manure 411
Speech, natural to man 419
Strawberry, improved method of cultivating 222
Spanish inquisition 232
Sullivan, O. Theodore, death of 236
Sugar, domestic, on the increase of, in the United States 330
Steam coach, 419
Subscribers, address to 240, 281
----, notice to 480
Scottish adventurers 355
Salt mines of Meurthe in France 357
Stone Floors, &c. 421
Sounds, increase of, during night 476
Silk, domestic sewing 476
Seduction 472
Thermometer, state of, at Philadelphia, 40, 240, 280, 319, 360,
400, 440, 479
Trees, new method of inoculating 173
Turkeys, cheap food for 272
Tortoise, land 276
Turkmans, the 383
Turks, account of the 392
Trees, to prevent decay in 223
Turnips, on the culture of 308
Thrift, lessons on 344
Transplanting wheat, on 434
Travels, Burckhardt's 469
Tooth, drawing the wrong 475
United States, congress of the 471
---- ---- square miles of the 474
Vine dressing, near Vevay 25
Village teacher, 41, 83, 123, 163, 203, 241, 286, 322, 403, 443
Vine grape 173
Variety 363
Vineyards at Vevay 295
Watt, James, Life of 32
Whale fisheries 36
Wool, imports of, into England, 74
Wolf bounty 78
Water, preservation of, at sea 116
Writing, legible 150
Webb, Margaret, decease of 156
Wayne, William, decease of ib.
Winchell, J. M. decease of ib.
Whimsical conflict, 184
West, Benjamin, death of 232
Whale, surprising vigour of a 310
Wild horses and asses, 313
Workmanship, premiums for 313
Waste of life 343
Wooden soaled shoes 175
Whale, Spitzbergen, zoology of the 423
Wonders of nature 452
Wirt, extracts from 461
Whale fishery, Nantucket 470
Wheat, cutting, before it is ripe 472
Yeast, receipt to make 278
POETRY.
The aspen tree 118
Song of gratitude ib.
The hamlet ib.
Verses written after seeing Windsor castle 119
Finland song ib.
Quiet mind ib.
Moonlight and calm at sea 120
Go, idle lays! ib.
The graves of my fathers 157
Auld age ib.
Dreadful hard times 158
Winter 159
To ---- ib.
Versification from the book of Ruth ib.
The peasant and his wife 160
Agriculture ib.
Time 198
Winter evening's amusement for Jane and me ib.
Youth and old age ib.
Cure for trouble ib.
Lines inscribed to M. Wiltshire ib.
On intemperance ib.
Hope ib.
To my wife 200
The Icelander's song ib.
To the snow drop ib.
The soldier's adieu 279
Evening ib.
On the return of the new year ib.
The fox and the cat 399
Stanzas, from Barton's poems ib.
Memory ib.
The deaf and dumb boy 237
On man's dependance on his creator ib.
Ode to imagination 238
An invocation to poverty 239
Glory to God ib.
Prayer and praise to God ib.
Hymn to resignation 318
The beau and the bedlamite ib.
Silent worship 319
Paddy M'Shane ib.
The braes of Yarrow 358
The ivy ib.
To a country girl 359
On prayer ib.
On the duke of Bridgewater 438
On the kitten ib.
An autumnal tale 439
The Cherokee's grave 478
Hope ib.
Angler ib.
The mother's lament 479
Church Fellowship, ib.
THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.
[Illustration: "VENERATE THE PLOUGH."]
VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA, _First Month_, 1820. _No._ 1.
It is not without feelings of anxiety that the editors of the RURAL
MAGAZINE issue forth their first number to the public; for they
are aware of the lasting effect of a first impression, and that
they have now fairly embarked in an adventure, the success and the
termination of which are alike uncertain. Diffident however as
they are of their own abilities, they have full confidence in the
excellence of their plan, and the kindness and assistance of their
friends. Of the value of this assistance, the work itself will
testify; of the plan which they have marked out, it is but fair that
the reader should be informed.
A leading object of the _Rural Magazine_ will be to furnish correct
views of the science of Agriculture, and the various improvements
which are daily made or suggested in it. For this purpose the best
and most recent European works on the subject will be consulted,
and selections made from the American newspapers that are devoted
or friendly to the cause. The best information on the subject will
thus be condensed in a form less unwieldy than a newspaper, and more
popular than in scientific books. We also expect original papers
from our agricultural friends, being confident that there is much
in the farming of our neighbouring counties, well worthy of being
widely known and imitated.
Yet, as we wish our Magazine to have an extensive circulation, and
to be interesting not merely to the farmer, but to the citizen and
the general reader, a considerable part of every number will be
occupied with topics of general literature, selections from approved
new publications, particularly Biography and Travels, Essays, and
information on scientific subjects; and original miscellaneous
communications. To original and well written essays, our pages will
always be accessible; and we particularly solicit such as will
throw light on the history, antiquities, geography, curiosities,
and productions of our own country. With the genuine productions of
the Muse we shall always be glad to adorn our pages; but we have
no desire to patronize the unfledged attempts at versifying, the
lamentable ditties with which the public is weekly besieged, for we
hold that in poetry there is no tolerable medium.
But to an American and a philanthropist, there are still higher
objects to be gained by the circulation of such a paper, than the
mere diffusion of agricultural intelligence or general literature.
He lives under a system of government which is ideally perfect;
and he sees it distorted by the vices and the passions of its
subjects. He is the disciple of a religion which breathes good-will
to mankind; and on whichsoever side he turns, are to be seen
oppression, the darkness of ignorance, self-inflicted wretchedness,
and amalgamating corruption. He sees a large portion of the human
family held in chains by the very nation that has pronounced all
men to be free and equal. The condition of that unhappy race, even
when emancipated, excites his deepest commiseration and most anxious
fears. He sees the aborigines of our country, a noble race of men,
perishing like the beasts of the forest before our approach; and
that under every circumstance of wretchedness and degeneracy.--Above
all, the great and fatal delusion of war, more bloody than the
superstitions of Moloch, still overspreads the world, and renders
man the destroyer of man.
To all these subjects will the _Rural Magazine_ be watchful and
alive; for the editors believe them to be subjects of the deepest
interest, and having relation to our highest duties. He who tills
his field, or pursues his occupation with diligence and skill, is
a deserving and honourable citizen. He who, in addition to this,
cultivates his mind, and stores it with useful and ornamental
knowledge, raises himself in the scale of being, and adds to
his capacities both for happiness and usefulness. But when he
adds to this industry, and to these talents and accomplishments,
the benevolence of a Christian philanthropist, and renders them
subservient to the welfare of his species, he attains to the highest
dignity of his nature, and fulfils all the obligations which devolve
on him as a citizen and a man.
Such are the general outlines of our plan; and as we feel no
local or political prejudices, they shall never have place in the
discussion of any subject which may appear in our columns. Combining
in this manner an agricultural, a literary, and philanthropic
journal, we look with confidence to the support of our enlightened
fellow citizens; and assure them, that no exertions on our part
shall be wanting to fill up the measure which we have meted out, and
render the _Rural Magazine_ deserving of their patronage.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
_To the Editors._
You are about embarking in a literary voyage, calculated, if ably
and prudently conducted, to subserve the best interests of society.
Previously, however, to your taking a final leave of terra firma,
and before its shores shall recede from your view, it may be the
part of wisdom to contemplate the nature and object of your journey,
by the steady lights of experience. The legitimate end of every
enterprise of the kind, is to enlighten the understanding, and
improve the heart. To produce a result so important, no exertion
should be omitted, and no means neglected, to impart a useful
interest to your miscellany. Of the truth of these preliminary
observations, you are no doubt sufficiently impressed. To please
every taste, however fastidious, or to gratify in all respects,
the wishes of the million, would be a task altogether hopeless;
and which a temperament the most sanguine, would scarcely indulge.
However transcendent may be the merit of any periodical journal, and
however brilliant its success, should the editor listen at all the
avenues of public opinion, his ear will notwithstanding be saluted
by many an ungrateful sound. Some readers will complain of what they
are pleased to call its dull monotony; while others will lament the
sacrifice of what they conceive to be matters of importance, in
the pursuit of endless variety.--Those who seek for novelty alone,
will sometimes be disappointed; while others will start objections,
because sufficient respect is not accorded to the venerated opinions
of the olden time. The gay may sometimes meet with nothing to excite
the smile of merriment, and the grave and reflecting may regret
to find so little solid food for the mind. He, however versatile
his talents, who would be a favourite with them all, must first
be successful in his chase of the ignis fatuus; or obtain from
that fairy region in which the rainbow reposes its brilliant arch
upon the earth, its treasures of gold. But if your labours should
happily tend to give "energy to virtue, and confidence to truth,"
you will not fail to gratify the wishes of those whose approbation
alone is worth desiring--_the well principled_ of all parties.
It has been said, and repeated times without number, that to call
a rose by any other name, its odour would be equally delightful.
Although the fact may be so, the inference that a name is altogether
unimportant, cannot be supported on just principles of deduction.
Authors, who have reflected the brightest honours on the cause
of literature and virtue by their writings, have encountered
a difficulty at the very threshold, in selecting for them an
appropriate name. It was after some time anxiously devoted to the
subject, by which it would appear _they_ considered it a matter
of no trifling consequence, that the pious and elegant _Addison_
adopted that of a Spectator, and the _Sage_ of Litchfield that
of a Rambler; under which, with such signal effect, to inculcate
the lessons of moral truth. It has been observed by one who knew
something of the world, that few circumstances contribute more
essentially to general success in life, than an engaging first
appearance. So, likewise, the garb in which it appears, as well as
the name by which it is distinguished, is more intimately connected
with the extensive popularity of a work, intended for the general
reader, than at first may be supposed. It is gratifying therefore
to find, that both these considerations have had with you their due
weight.
The _Rural Magazine_ will not only be a repository for articles of
miscellaneous interest, but peculiarly so for every thing connected
with agriculture, and a country residence. It is to rural scenes,
and rural innocence, and rural employments, that man is principally
indebted for many of those blessings and enjoyments, which impart
a charm to human existence, and lighten its load of cares and
sorrows. The man, whoever he is, that has long been confined to
a populous city, will at length with _Shenstone_ sicken with the
unceasing recurrence of artificial life, and long to breathe the
pure atmosphere of the country. He will hail with delight the blue
bird, earliest harbinger of spring, and welcome the primrose,
eldest daughter of Flora, and contemplate with rapture the vernal
season, in which youth, and beauty, and melody, walk hand in hand,
over verdant lawns, variegated with flowers, inhaling the zephyrs
of health. Then he will witness summer, with brown, vigorous, and
manly aspects; and autumn, groaning with her ripe and mellow fruits;
succeeded by winter, clothed in storms and glittering with pendent
icicles; who notwithstanding a sternness of mood, and a manner
somewhat uncourteous, is in the hands of a beneficent Creator the
minister of great good to man. The fury of the tempest may rage,
and the clattering hail beat against the windows; the driving snows
may deform the face of day, and nature assume the appearance of
old age and decay: notwithstanding all this, that portion of the
circling year, of which we are speaking, will continue to have its
positive pleasures. These will be closely and intimately united
in the domestic circle, where in charmful confederacy they will
be found clustering round the _Evening Fire-side_. Who does not
associate with this delightful scene his earliest images of innocent
gayety and exquisite enjoyment; in which garrulous old age and
lisping infancy mingle their voices, and where carking care never
intrudes? But as the hours are hastening on with feathery footsteps,
they should likewise minister to the cause of mental and moral
improvement. The _farmer_ should cultivate a taste for reading, and
store his mind with useful knowledge; and thus become qualified to
assume the dignified station to which, in this happy country, he
is fairly entitled. He should remember, that the plough has been
guided and venerated by the "awful fathers of mankind;" and that a
profession, to which _Cincinnatus_ and _Washington_ were zealously
and practically devoted, and for which the emperor _Charles_ V.
exchanged his sceptre and his crown, must be intrinsically elevated
and respectable. It is among the yeomanry of our country that the
love of literature, by whom it is already cherished to a creditable
degree, should be more widely and universally disseminated.
In order to promote an object so desirable, may you succeed in
assembling at your _Evening Fire-side_ a cheerful happy group, who,
bidding defiance to the rude clamours of the storm without, shall
entertain topics of public utility, while cultivating and improving
the domestic virtues; and with warm and expansive gratitude ascribe
their blessings to a benignant Providence, _from whom alone they are
all derived_.
E.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
_Letters of a Citizen to his Friends in the Country_.
NO 1.
The establishment of a periodical work, designed in part for
circulation among my agricultural fellow citizens, furnishes
an opportunity which I have often desired, to address you. In
contemplating the dignity and utility which are combined in the
occupations of an American husbandman, in estimating the extent of
influence which belongs to his character, and regarding his elevated
independence, I have long since been led to the conclusion, that the
_Farmers_ of the soil form the basis of the nation's strength, and
ought largely to contribute to its ornament.
In the occasional communications which I propose to make to you
through this medium, I shall adopt a plain, familiar, and candid
manner; and endeavour to point not only at those errors which
certainly exist, but also attempt to suggest how they can be most
effectually removed.
"What!" methinks I hear some hardy son of the field exclaim--"who
is this that promises to improve our mode of farming?" _A Citizen,
forsooth._ Now let us at the threshold understand each other.
I do not intend to meddle much, if at all, with your system of
agriculture, though I conceive it quite possible for a man who has
been born and educated in a _city_, to furnish important hints for
the improvement of rural affairs. My purpose is to interest your
attention with subjects which may tend to enlarge and elevate your
_minds_. It is a lamentable fact, that too little regard is paid to
_intellectual cultivation_, among those who till the earth.
A well managed farm, supplied with substantial buildings, and
under good fence, is creditable to its possessor, and forms a
part of the public wealth. Every individual who thus improves his
land, not only enriches himself, but should be considered as a
benefactor of the commonwealth. Here, unhappily, the energies of
the farmer are limited. This is a radical error. With the pecuniary
means which his industry has accumulated, he should increase his
own intelligence, and confer upon his children the benefits of
_substantial education_. I do not admit as truth, what is frequently
asserted, that the best examples of morality and virtue are to be
met with in the country; for whereever the improvement of the mind
is neglected, those ennobling qualities will be rarely found. It is
idle to suppose that our intellectual capacities will yield fruits
which dignify and adorn our nature, if they be solely devoted to
increase our worldly possessions. The plough turns up from the
soil no nourishment for the mind, neither do the scythe and sickle
prostrate the vices of the heart.
Abstractedly, therefore, a man may be as destitute of good
principles who lives amidst rural scenes, as he whose pursuits
confine him to the busy haunts and contagious influences of the
multitude.
But I am beginning to lecture before I have an audience. I took up
the pen merely to introduce my proposals to your notice. You have a
specimen of my way of thinking. If you like it, so much the better;
if not, I cannot promise to serve a more palatable dish--but am
always your friend,
CIVIS.
[The subject of the Missouri state bill, involves, in our
opinion, an agricultural question, important to the last degree
to the farmers of America:--Whether that great country west
of the Mississippi, compared with which all the United States
are small, shall, in future ages, be dotted over with pleasant
villages and comfortable farm houses, and cultivated by the
industrious owners of the soil, each vieing with his neighbour
in beautifying the face of nature: or be blotted and defaced by
innumerable wretched habitations of miserable slaves, with here
and there, on distant eminences, the _lone_ mansions of their
masters. Whether that great country, now left rich by nature,
shall be converted into barren wastes by continued exhausting
crops of tobacco and Indian corn, without one shovel-ful of
manure to invigorate the expiring soil, as has been the case
in some of the fine districts of Virginia and Maryland; or
whether it shall be covered with luxuriant fields of wheat, rich
meadows and innumerable herds.--Viewing this great national
question, so intimately connected with our favourite subject, we
feel the more interest by giving an insertion to the following
communication of our correspondent SANDIFORD.]--_Ed._
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
_Extension of Slavery._
It is the great and distinguishing feature of our free government,
that it is built upon the eternal principles of justice and
rectitude. The passions and the interests of its subjects or
administrators may pervert its original design, and wield the power
it confers to the purposes of oppression or licentiousness. So long,
however, as we have access to the charter of our constitution,
the great original fountain of our laws, we may renew or purify
those streams which have become choked up or polluted. It forms a
perpetual and unerring standard by which to judge of principles and
policy; and whatever measures are found wanting in its scale, may
safely be pronounced to be unwise and unsound. The flux and change
of opinions and interests, the perpetual encroachments of wealth and
power, the decay of old prejudices and jealousies, and the rise of
new ones, wear away continually the old landmarks, and imperceptibly
give to our institutions a new aspect and new bearings. While we
admit this flexibility to be in a certain measure necessary for the
conservation of peace and union, we must steadily insist upon its
being limited by the great leading features of the constitution, and
that reference should constantly be had to first principles, as to a
fountain of life and strength.
Never, surely, has there been a question agitated, in which those
principles were so deeply at issue, as in the one which is now
before the American people. I need scarcely say, that I allude
to the Missouri state bill, and to the introduction of slaves
beyond the Mississippi. This subject has been ably and repeatedly
discussed. A universal expression of sentiment has gone forth from
the people of the northern and middle states, and it has awakened
powers of eloquence and argument that have seldom been surpassed.
That first burst of emotion has subsided; and now that the question
is upon the point of being settled, it may not be altogether useless
to recall the attention of the public to the subject.
That slavery is a crime against God and nature, and that its
existence in our free country is a most dangerous and lamentable
evil, cannot be doubted. Our only apology as a nation for its
existence, is, that we found it among us, and that an overruling
necessity obliged us to leave its extirpation to the hand of time
and experience.
The august founders of our republic have not once named it in
the constitution, as if they were unwilling that so foul a name
should stain the purity of our escutcheon, as if it were a crime
against humanity too execrable to be uttered. They looked forward
to a period when it should cease and be forgotten, and made ample
provision for its future annihilation. Their solemn declaration
to the world, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain _unalienable_ rights, and that among these are life,
_liberty_, and the pursuit of happiness," had otherwise been the
worst of mockeries.
The words of the constitution, "The migration or importation of such
persons as any of the states _now existing_ shall think proper to
admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress, prior to the year
1808; but a tax may be imposed on such person not exceeding ten
dollars for each person,"--clearly show, beyond the possibility of
a cavil, that the right to legislate concerning slaves is vested in
the general government, and that the convention was fearful that
the attempt to exercise it might be made, before the southern
states were prepared for any laws upon the subject. The Congress
has, in fact, uniformly exercised this right in all its laws for
the government of the new states and territories. It prohibited the
importation of slaves and their migration into the northwestern
territory. The states which ceded the territory south of the Ohio,
and east of the Mississippi, were fully aware of this power of
Congress; and they ceded it with certain stipulations in favour
of the slave holder. Yet even over the states which were formed
in this region, has Congress exercised its power, and secured to
the slave the right of trial by jury and of the habeas corpus. All
these laws were passed without exciting any suspicion that Congress
was transcending its powers in thus clogging the constitutions
of the new states. They were regarded as decent and becoming in
a government founded in justice and freedom, "as extending the
fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty." That
northwestern territory offered no inducement to the slave holder,
or to a slave agriculture. Now, however, the case is altered. A
province adapted to the cultivation of cotton and tobacco, and
in obtaining which the government made no stipulations in favour
of slavery, claims to be elevated to the rank of a state. It is
a desirable situation for the planters, and holds out from its
situation and fertility a golden prospect. They claim accordingly
to be admitted there, with their slaves; and a clamour is raised
because the people of the United States are unwilling further to
extend slavery--to sacrifice the principles of our republic upon the
altar of avarice.
The pretence--it scarcely deserves the name of argument--is, that
such restriction would be _unconstitutional_, _oppressive_, and
_inexpedient_.
It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!--The refutation is a part of our history,
and is written in the pages of our statute book. It is OPPRESSIVE!
It would exclude the southern states from sharing in the benefits of
these new settlements. Are not the lands open to all, and disposed
of at public sale? They can only be made valuable, it is true,
by incessant labour, under severe privations. But this the hardy
yeomanry of the eastern and middle states are willing to endure for
the sake of independence and an establishment for their families.
We see them accordingly in the van of our empire, subduing the
forest and filling the wilderness with the busy sounds of industry
and contentment. Are the slave holders of the south a privileged
order, that these labours would demean them? Are they oppressed by
being placed on an equality with their brethren of the north, who
leave behind them all the artificial distinctions and luxurious
indulgences of society? Are not their arms and limbs as capable of
labour, and their bodies of fatigue? Where then is the inequality
and the oppression? A citizen of a slave holding state, at home, and
under his state laws, may be a petty monarch; and he is apt to fancy
that he derives the power from an inherent birth-right. But out of
his state, and from under its laws, he is an individual unit, a mere
citizen of the United States; and can claim no privilege which is
not granted to every American, or which is opposed to the spirit
and intent of the constitution. That constitution pays no respect
to persons. It does not recognise the existence of slavery; and the
petition to admit it in the new states, is a glaring mockery of its
character.
It has been contended, that after the state was organized, the
inhabitants might assemble in convention, and alter the constitution
in this respect. Such an assertion betrays the grossest ignorance
of the true principles of the Union. Our government is emphatically
a _compact_, originally between the people; and since then, between
Congress as their representative, and the new members. It is binding
on both sides, and the terms of admission are, that Congress
approves of the constitution which the state has formed. Its power
of rejection, it is true, is limited to certain points. But upon
those points that power is absolute; and amongst them, without a
shadow of doubt, is _slavery._ The state which, having accepted of a
limitation to its power in this respect, should presume to alter it,
would set that power at defiance.
But the restriction is INEXPEDIENT! And what is the amount of
inexpediency? Some thousands of dollars less to the public
revenue--some hundreds of thousands less in the sale of public
lands! Forbid it, Justice! forbid it, the Genius of the
Constitution! that we should barter our free inheritance for a
mess of pottage; that the countrymen of Washington should coolly
calculate the profits of a desertion of principle. But not only is
the restriction not inexpedient, it is called for by the clearest
dictates of sound policy. We are now entering upon a region of
almost boundless extent and fertility, destined at some future day
to be the abode of millions of human beings. Upon the decision of
the present question, in all probability, will it depend, whether
that population will be a free and industrious race, or whether the
great majority will be bound in the chains of slavery, stinting the
growth and paralyzing the energies of the community.
If it be fairly decided that slavery shall not exist to the west
of the Mississippi, we shall soon see the rich vallies of that
territory occupied by industrious farmers, proving what is no doubt
the fact, that freemen can cultivate the staple commodities of
that country more advantageously than slaves. Let us for a moment
contrast the opposite pictures which are here presented.
The privileged order of the southern states have, it is true, every
temporal blessing they can desire, save that of security. But their
hordes of slaves--a million of labourers, chained down to cheerless
and incessant toil, shrouded in utter intellectual darkness, cut off
from all that ennobles and adorns existence, stationary amidst the
general march of improvement, and sold and driven about like herds
of cattle;--is there not in this picture, retouch it and soften it
as you may, subject for bitter regret? and is there nothing to cheer
the heart of the patriot in the reverse? A country studded with
villages and farms; a smiling and contented population; intelligent,
virtuous, and industrious, and the strength and the pride of the
nation, and becoming in its turn the hive for fresh swarms of
emigrants. This is no exaggerated or romantic representation. These
opposite conditions exist in our country; and Congress have now to
decide which of them shall give its features to the western valley
of the Mississippi.
But it is from motives of humanity and security, say some, that
we plead the extension of slavery. The evil will thus be diluted
and lessened. Admirable politicians! profound economists! A
poisonous plant has overgrown one of your fields, and you seek to
extirpate it by spreading the seeds throughout your possessions! A
concealed fire is smouldering in your house, and you would prevent
its conflagration by scattering the embers upon your neighbours'
dwellings!
It is not thus that slavery is to be mitigated or done away. Confine
slavery within its present limits, and we may then hope to see it
extinguished. We are young, and may outgrow it. There is a great
body of active and enlightened philanthropy in the southern states;
and it may yet devise means for its extinction. Build around it a
circumvallation of freemen, and you render impotent its fearful
threatenings. But give to it that principle of indefinite increase
which our white population derives from the inexhaustible extent
of our country, and you spread it over the face of the Union; you
clothe it a hundred fold with terrors; you render it coeval with our
empire.
But not only this. The slave trade from Africa to the United States
will never be abolished, if we allow of slavery to the west of the
Mississippi. So great will be the value of slaves along the rich
bottoms of that territory, that no laws, however severe, can put a
stop to their importation. That accursed traffic is even now carried
on with impunity, and to an incredible extent. Fifteen thousand
victims have been worse than immolated at its shrine within a single
year. With greater temptations to engage in it, in more remote
situations, and along an unguarded frontier, no human power can
altogether check it.
Nor will it be merely a foreign slave trade that this extension will
encourage. An internal traffic will take place. The poorer and more
healthy states will become the breeders for the new and unhealthy
districts; and it will happen as it has ever done, that the pursuit
of a trade, wicked and cruel in itself, will entail the commission
of crimes, the violation of every moral law, _the begetting of
offspring for the purposes of an unholy traffic_. A deadly taint
will spread over the morals and character of our country, which
not all our professions of liberty can purify; and if there be any
prophecy in history, the rights of these long degraded beings will
one day be vindicated with awful retribution.
I have treated this subject with warmth; with more warmth, perhaps,
than has served my cause. But I cannot think without indignation of
the attempt which is now making to extend the empire of slavery--a
despotism in the bosom of a republic; and which I believe to be
pregnant with the most disastrous consequences. It is necessary that
the public mind should be kept awake on the subject; and I cannot
refrain from lifting up my feeble voice on the occasion.
One word more, and I have done. The division in Congress upon
this subject, has been truly called a geographical division. The
members from the south, with scarcely an exception, voted for the
introduction of slaves. Yet from the same quarter do we hear of
splendid schemes for colonization and emancipation, for eradicating
slavery, and pouring the light of civilization and religion upon
ravaged and benighted Africa. Many of the most conspicuous actors in
this great scheme of benevolence, are the men who have exerted all
their talents upon the floor of Congress to increase the evils over
which in another place they mourn; to sink us still deeper in the
dangers into which they have confessed we are plunged.
What are we to think, Gentlemen, of the purity of your motives,
or the sincerity of your professions? Is it that your fears, and
not your benevolence, impel you; that you wish to rid yourselves
of the free blacks, and rivet and extend your dominion over the
slaves? If these imputations are false, show yourselves at least
to be consistent. Do not by your own act extend the evils you so
eloquently regret. Give us that proof of the sincerity of your
benevolence (the only one we can believe) that it is stronger than
your sense of private interest. Prove to us that you are honestly
bent upon exterminating slavery, and there are thousands who now
stand aloof, that will join you with all their strength in any
scheme that can effect it; thousands, whose daily prayer is, that
the mercy of an all-just Providence may avert from our country the
calamities of a servile war and a divided empire.
We ask of you no extravagant or impracticable scheme of
emancipation; We do not wish to see your Helots invested suddenly
with privileges which they would only abuse; nor do we look _for
your relief and theirs_, to any other means than those which time
and cautious experience may suggest. But we beseech you, as you are
sincere in your plans of colonization, as you value the fair fame of
our common country, as you regard the security and prosperity of all
future generations--to stay the plague of slavery from spreading,
and to give to the inhabitants of the Missouri a charter which shall
not disgrace the great principles of our revolution, nor _allow man
to be the tyrant of his fellow man_.
SANDIFORD.
FAMILIAR LETTERS
_From an Englishman in this country to his Friend at home_.
(Communicated for the Rural Magazine.)
No. I.
PHILADELPHIA, _Sept_. 8, 1819.
My dear G.--You will perhaps be surprised at my dating this letter
from this place, but I shall shortly explain to you the reason. We
arrived in perfect safety at Baltimore on the 6th inst., after a
very pleasant passage; not unusually short, but rendered exceedingly
_comfortable_ (that dear English word, although they have here
naturalised it, as they do almost everything that comes from us,)
by the kind, social, and attentive manners of Capt. ----. To
give you a detail of all the circumstances of our voyage would
be unnecessary. I do not wish to nauseate you with the revolting
particulars of a landsman's initiation to the ocean. We had not
that humiliation to undergo which would have been our lot if the
equinoctial had unfortunately crossed our path; but we had enough
to inspire us with a perfect sense of our own inferiority to, and
dependence on that Power that can rule the winds and the waves.
However, our dear Mrs. and Miss ---- were so much affected by the
motion of the ship, and other associations, that we enjoyed very
little of their company. The first appearance of land, even that
land, which since my recollection has been supposed to be inhabited
by spirits, hostile in late, although similar in early habits to
ourselves, was greeted with most sincere satisfaction. That land was
inhabited by Christians, by men like ourselves, derived from the
same origin, boasting of equal laws adopted from our code in general
principles, and operating like our own upon freemen. We were landed
in consequence of an unfavourable wind, at Norfolk; where, although
we staid but a few minutes, I was sorrowfully convinced that all the
inhabitants of the land I was visiting were not freemen.
A public sale of blacks was about to take place, and my first
introduction to the country I had so joyfully pictured, was
associated with feelings to which I had till then been a stranger.
Poor wretches, thought I, as they passed badly clothed and manacled
through the streets, you give an alien a strange idea of the
consistency of your rulers, and a lamentable evidence of the truth
of the political axiom, that those who feel power, forget right. As
I shall probably visit Norfolk in common with the other maritime
towns of Virginia, before I return, sufficient interest has been
excited in my mind to enable me to assure you, that I shall give you
further details of the situation of that unfortunate class of human
beings.
From Norfolk our voyage to Baltimore surpassed all my former ideas
of rapidity. We passed up to Baltimore in so short a space of time,
and in _such_ a steam-boat, that I dread your incredulity were I to
give you particulars. Let it suffice that _but a few hours_ brought
us to Baltimore, reputed to be in commercial importance the fourth
city in the Union. You know it was my first object to visit the
respectable gentlemen in this place to to whom I have letters, and
most of whom have at one time or another done business with our
house. But on the instant of my arrival I was utterly confounded by
the intelligence that the yellow fever, that scourge of America,
and so justly dreaded by all Europeans, but more particularly by
the inhabitants of northern climates, had made its appearance at
a place called Fell's Point, either in the vicinity of the city,
or forming one of the suburbs; I was in too much consternation to
learn which. Indeed I was so much annoyed by the continual reports
of the _yellow fever_ at _the Point_, and what they called the _bank
fever_ in the city, that I could hardly tell where I was, or what
I was to do.--Luckily, a very good looking gentleman, seeing my
perplexity, and imagining--for I cannot tell how else he happened
to fix upon me--that I was an Englishman, told me that I could not
get out of the city of Baltimore too soon, because it had had the
curse of Cain upon it ever since the celebrated mob business (that
we heard our Maryland friend R. speak about) some years ago, that it
had the plague at the Point, and the yellow or white fever, he did
not care which, at the other end of the town. This would have been
news almost enough to frighten our lamented friend General R. (if he
ever could have known fear;) and instead of visiting the spot where
he terminated his brief career in this world, which I intended to
have done on the moment of my landing, as performing the last pious
act of duty to his memory that affection demanded, I determined to
fly from this new enemy with almost as much precipitation as the
Yankees (by _our_ official accounts) fled from our departed hero
in his various incursions in the states, adjoining the waters of
the Chesapeake. I ordered a post chaise _instanter_. The servant
replied, "it went before day, sir." Is it possible, said I, that
at a house frequented as this is, (Mr. G's.) there is but one post
chaise. Get me one at any rate, I returned in a pretty quick tone,
and have my baggage put to it immediately. "Why, master," rejoined
George, (I thought the better of him for his name, and perhaps,
novice as I am, because he was black) "there is no other post chaise
till to-morrow; but the steam-boat will go at five o'clock, master,
if that will suit you." It wanted but a few minutes of that hour. I
leaped into a hackney coach, (which by the way I was surprised to
see in such a new country, unless it had been moved by steam) and
ere the hour had struck, was safe on board a very commodious vessel,
furnished with every thing to make a night passage pleasant.
It is upwards of one hundred miles from Baltimore to Philadelphia,
by land, even by their lately improved roads; yet, with no
interruption except being transported some sixteen or twenty miles
over good roads, in very bad stage coaches, we enjoyed ourselves in
our births till I was awakened before nine the next morning, by the
steward, who informed me we were at the wharf, in the place of our
destination.
I forthwith repaired, as my previous instructions directed, to the
large and commodious hotel of Mr. R.; where I met with several of my
old friends, and some quondam fellow-voyagers, who, influenced by
business, or perhaps the same instinctive dread of yellow fever with
myself, had found their way to this city.--Here, my dear W., I still
remain. In the twenty-four hours that have scarcely elapsed since my
arrival, I have seen nothing distinctly; for after the monotony of
a sea voyage, and the dizziness consequent on an exchange from the
ocean to _terra firma_, some few days must be allotted to repose.
_Treatise on Agriculture_.
SECT. I.
On the Rise and Progress of Agriculture.
The origin of this art is lost among the fables of antiquity, and
we have to regret, that in the present state of knowledge, we
are even ignorant of the _time_, when the plough was invented,
and of the _name_ and _condition_ of the inventor. When therefore
we speak of the beginning of the art, we but allude to certain
appearances which indicate its existence, and the employment given
by it to the minds, as well as to the hands, of mankind. Such were
the artificial canals and lakes of Egypt. Menaced at one time by a
redundancy of water, and at another by its scarcity or want, the
genius of that extraordinary people could not but employ itself,
promptly and strenuously, in remedying these evils, and eventually,
in converting them into benefits; and hence it was, that when other
parts of the world exhibited little more of agricultural knowledge
than appertains to the state of nature, imagined by philosophers,
the Egyptians thoroughly understood and skilfully practised
_irrigation_, that most scientific and profitable branch of the
art.[1] Like their own Nile, their population had its overflow,
which colonized Carthage and Greece, and carried with it the talent
and intelligence of the mother country. The former of these states,
though essentially commercial, had its _plantations_, and so highly
prized were the agricultural works of Mago, that when Carthage was
captured, they alone, of the many books found in it, were retained
and translated by the Romans. A similar inference may be drawn from
the history of Greece; for assuredly that art could not have been
either unknown or neglected, which so long employed the pen and
the tongue of the great Xenophon.[2] It must however be admitted,
that of the ancient nations, it is only among the Romans, that we
find real and multiplied evidences of the progress of the art;
_facts_, substituted for _conjectures_ and _inferences_. Cato,
Varro, Columella, Virgil and Pliny, wrote on the subject, and it is
from their works we derive the following brief exposition of Roman
husbandry.
[1] The best practical illustration of this opinion is found in the
valley of the Po--where "every rood of earth maintains its man."
[2] Xenophon wrote several treatises on husbandry, and gave public
lectures on it at Scillonte, whither a weak and wicked government
had banished him.
The plough, the great instrument of agricultural labour, was well
known and generally used among them; it was drawn exclusively by
horned cattle. Of fossile _manures_, we know that they used _lime_,
and probably _marle_,[3] and that those of animal and vegetable
basis, were carefully collected. Attention to this subject, even
made part of the national religion; the dunghill had its god,
and Stercutus, his temple and worshippers. Their corn crops were
abundant; besides _barley_ and _far_,[4] they had three species
of _wheat_; the _robus_ or red--the _siligo_ or white--and the
_triticum trimestre_, or summer wheat; they had besides millet,
panis, zea (Indian corn) and rye, all of which producing a
flour convertible into bread, were known by the common name of
_frumentum_. Leguminous crops were frequent; the lupin in particular
was raised in abundance, and besides being employed as a manure,[5]
entered extensively into the subsistence of men, cattle and
poultry. The cultivation of garden vegetables was well understood
and employed many hands; and meadows, natural and artificial,
were brought to great perfection. Lucern and fenugrec were the
basis of the latter, and peas, rye and a mixture of barley, beans
and peas, called _farrago_, were occasionally used in the stables
as green food. Their flocks were abundant, and formed their first
representatives of wealth, as is sufficiently indicated by their
word _pecunia_. Vines and olives, and their products (wine and oil)
had a full share of attention and use. The rearing of poultry made
an important part of domestic economy, nor were apiaries and fish
ponds forgotten or neglected.
[3] For the first part of this assertion we have the authority of
Pliny; for the latter, the practice of their colonies both in Gaul
and Britain.
[4] Of this last, there were three kinds, neither of which is now
cultivated.
[5] The lupinus albus of Linneus: "many other vegetables are used
for this purpose, particularly the _bean_, but do not answer as well
as the _lupin_; when this is heated in an oven and then buried, it
forms the most powerful of all manures." T. C. L. Simonde. _Tableau
de L'agriculture Toscane_.
If we pause for a moment, to glance at the civil institutions of
this wonderful people, we discover how soon and how deeply it
entered into their policy, not merely to promote, but to dignify
agriculture and its professors.[6] When Cicero said, that "nothing
in this world was better, more useful, more agreeable, more worthy
of a free man, than agriculture;"[7] he pronounced, not merely
his own opinion, but the public judgment of his age and nation.
Were troops to be raised for the defence of the republic? The
_tribus rusticus_ was the privileged nursery of the legions![8] Did
exigencies of state require a general or dictator? he was taken from
the _plough_! Were his services rewarded? this was done not with
ribbands or gold, but by a donation of _land_.[9]
[6] Tanus and Numa were deified for services rendered to agriculture.
[7] Cicero de officiis. L. 2.
[8] This continued till the time of Marius.
[9] As much as he could plough in a day.
With such support from public opinion, it was not to be supposed
that the laws would be either adverse or indifferent to this branch
of industry. We accordingly find the utmost security given to
the labours of the husbandman;[10] no legislative interposition
between the seller and buyer, neither forced sales--nor limitation
of prices--and a sacredness of boundaries never disturbed;[11]
fairs and markets multiplied and protected against invasion or
interruption,[12] and highways leading to these every where
established, and of a character to call forth benedictions and
admiration.[13]
[10] To cut or destroy in the night the crop of his neighbour,
subjected the Roman to death.
[11] Terminus was among their gods.
[12] Assemblies of the people on days designated for fairs, and on
subjects other than those of trade, were not lawful.
[13] The Appian way, yet remains the wonder and reproach of modern
times.
Nor were these regulations confined to the proper territory of Rome.
What of her own policy was good, she communicated to her neighbours;
what of theirs was better, she adopted and practised herself. Her
arts and arms were therefore constant companions. Wherever her
legions marched, her knowledge, practices, and implements followed;
and it is to these we are to look for the foundation of modern
agriculture in Italy, France, Spain, &c. _[Albany Argus_.
(To be continued.)
_The Moral Plough Boy_.
"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not
thine hand."
The words of our motto were probably addressed by an Eastern monarch
to those of his subjects, who followed husbandry, and to whom the
importance of early rising was the greater, as the climate was
excessively warm, and the stoutest labourer found the noon-tide
heat too powerful for the energies of his frame to encounter.--This
is the case in most of the oriental climes, where the morning and
the evening are improved by the cultivator of the soil, as well as
the man of business of every class, cast or profession.--The middle
or hottest part of the day is, in those countries, given to ease
and relaxation; and the charms of conversation, and the sweets of
refreshment, are then the substitutes for toil and care.
But the time thus spent is not lost, because they attend strictly to
the advice of the sacred moralist, and make it up by the fidelity
of their morning and evening labours in the field, the workship or
the counting-room. Besides the earth is there more prolific than
in colder climes, like ours, and to less labour yields a greater
supply, a more abundant harvest.
But abundantly as the earth yields her products, beneath an oriental
sky, still it was there that man was first taught by his Maker,
that she would not yield them without the sweat of the human brow.
Implicit obedience was the first law given to our progenitors in
Eden, as the condition of enjoying life without labour, of being
surrounded by the perpetual verdure of spring, and regaled by
the never-dying fragrance of its odours: But this fair condition
violated, and they were doomed to know, that fruitful as the earth
had come from the hands of its Creator, they should cultivate it
with toil, and care, and anxiety, before it should yield them the
means of enjoyment and subsistence. But for one fatal mistake, they
would never have been called upon to sow their seed in the morning,
and at evening to watch over it with a careful hand.
We have seen then, that the first Plough Boys were obliged to work
early and late; and their successors in the same climes, are still
subjected to the same diurnal labour.
But the American Plough Boy enjoys a milder clime, and may perhaps
think himself less obliged to rise with the dawn of day, or pursue
his labours with the declining sun. He may perhaps flatter himself
that the morning may be spent at a neighbouring bar-room, and the
evening at a shooting-match or a horse-race, and the day still
afford time enough for all the labour that he may have to perform.
But this is, indeed, an error the most fatal to his present, as well
as future happiness. The mid-day beams of the sun are not so fierce
on the hills or vales of America, as on the plains of Asia, where
our first parents were doomed to earn their bread by the sweat of
their brow. But they are still fierce enough to make the PLOUGH BOY
feel their enervating effects, and to impress upon his physical as
well as mental frame the necessity and importance of _sowing his
seed in the morning_, and of extending to it the _vigilance of his
hand in the evening_.
If our American Plough Boys would, one and all, adopt with energy
and perseverance this injunction of oriental wisdom, how different
would be the face of our country, in many places, from what it now
is! How many orchards would be planted; how many fruit trees, of
every kind, would be seen growing in beauty and luxuriance, where
now the eye of the traveller, or sojourner, is obliged to rest upon
nought but wilds and weeds? How many fields would be ploughed and
sown, and cultivated with success, which now lie waste, and barren
as the deserts of Arabia. How many cattle, and domestic animals of
every description, fit for the use of man, would be seen thriving
and healthy, awaiting a profitable market, where now there are none,
or those whose sickly and squalid appearance, bespeaks the indolence
and neglect of their owners! How many substantial rail fences would
be erected, where there is now scarcely a brush bulwark against the
encroachments of man or beast? How many neat stone walls would take
the place of rail fences, and remain as lasting monuments of the
virtue of their owners--for _industry_ and _virtue_ are synonimous
in agricultural life! How many ditches would be seen running through
our swamps, and yielding or restoring to wholesome vegetation, those
nurseries of wild, unprofitable, and poisonous plants; whose dark,
damp shades are not only lost to agriculture; but send forth daily
their pestilential vapours, spreading disease and death among the
Plough Boys!
It is not the industrious Plough Boy who will feel the application
of these remarks. He will take care that his fields and his fences,
his flourishing fruit-trees, his overflowing cribs and barns, and
his fat cattle, plump and smooth as a turtle-fed alderman, shall
prove to the world that he never fails to attend to the admonition
of our motto.
But it is to the slothful that this short essay is addressed. Pluck
up the weeds, and the useful plants will take care of themselves.
Reform the indolent, and the industrious will find a new spur to
exertion. Ye careless and slothful Plough Boys, then, be advised by
a friend. Cast off the sin of idleness, which so easily besets you,
and imitate your industrious neighbours. Resolve for the future,
_in the morning to sow your seed, and in the evening to withhold
not your hand_; and you will soon find, that the blessings of
Heaven await those who deserve them; and that health, prosperity,
and a quiet conscience, are the never-failing rewards of virtuous
industry. H. H. Jr. _[Plough Boy_.
Mr. Nicholson's Prize Essay.
_On a Rotation of Crops, and the most profitable mode of collecting,
preserving, and applying Manures_.
(Communicated to the Albany County Agricultural Society.)
Some soils are peculiarly adapted for the growth of particular
plants, and in such case many successive yearly growths of them
may be raised, without manure, and without material diminution
of product. We have known an instance of 14 good crops of wheat
raised successively on the same ground; another of 18 crops of
oats; others of at least 10 of barley, and nearly of 20 rye: But
these were peculiar soils; and although this sameness of culture
was found successful, no inference is therefore to be drawn that it
was the most profitable, or that such soils would not eventually
tire of their favourite crops, and then be found exhausted and
unfit for others. Generally speaking, we conceive that one of the
most important points in husbandry is a judicious rotation of such
crops as are most profitable for culture, and at the same time best
adapted for the particular soils which are to be cultivated. Lands
seem naturally to require a change of growths. Where the oak has
disappeared, after it had lifted its head to the springs of ages,
another oak will not naturally rise, but some other tree. Instances
have been known of lands covered solely with trees of deciduous
growth, where the knots of the pitch pine were still to be found;
a proof that pine was once a tenant of the soil. In the southern
states, where lands have been exhausted with injudicious cropping,
and then thrown out to common, they soon become covered with growths
of trees different from those they originally bore. Some plants are
so unfit for long continuance in any particular place that they are
endowed with migratory powers, either by their winged seeds, which
are wafted abroad by the winds; by their roots, by which they change
their places of growth beneath the surface; or by their vines,
by which they travel above ground, and thus locate themselves in
different situations. Of the first description are the varieties
of the thistle, the milk-weed, and the fire-weed; of the second,
the potato and some other bulbous rooted plants; of the third, the
straw-berry, the black-berry, the different species of the gourd
tribe. The stalks of erect plants fall when they ripen, and thus
the seed reaches the ground at a distance from the roots which
produced them. There seems, indeed, to be generally a disposition
in the earth to require changes in the plants it nourishes, in order
that it may impart the food that is best adapted for each; and
Providence, in his infinite wisdom, has endowed these while growing
in a state of nature, with such properties as are best calculated to
effect the changes. Let the cultivator, therefore, study nature, and
follow her dictates, if he wishes either success or applause in his
employment.
In regard to changes of crops, a general rule has been recommended
of alternate growths of leguminous and culmiferous kinds, and of
green crops and grain crops; but perhaps it would be quite as
philosophical to insist upon alternate growths of fibrous, and
tap-rooted plants; the former deriving their food from the surface
of the earth, the latter from greater depths. But the value of
crops, and the expense of raising each, should be duly estimated in
making selections for rotations. Let us say, for instance, that the
average crops of wheat, barley, and Indian corn, at their greatest
extent, may average 50 dollars in value to the acre, after the grain
is ready for market; crops of rye, oats and peas, not more than two
thirds of this amount; buck-wheat, considerably less. From lands
suitable for ruta baga, or mangel wurzel, it would seem that from
five to six hundred bushels to the acre may be expected with good
culture; which at 18 cents per bushel, a price certainly not beyond
the proportionate value we have just given to the grain crops, will
average about a hundred dollars to the value of an acre. The entire
expense of either of these crops of roots, when ready for use, is
not essentially greater than the expense incurred in producing grain
crops; of course, it must be evident that these afford from 30 to 50
dollars an acre less of clear profit than a crop of either of the
roots first mentioned. With a proper application of the requisite
quantity of manure to ruta baga, it may be successfully grown on
almost any dry soil, when well and deeply mellowed, from the sandy
to the deep rich loams. Soils of the latter description are best
adapted for mangle wurzel. Either of these roots, when steam boiled,
and especially with the addition of some meal, will answer all the
purposes for which grain is used for feeding cattle of all sorts,
from the horse down to the hog. Even stage horses, which, from the
severity of their labour, require the most nourishing food, have
been kept in England on hay and steam-boiled ruta baga. Mr. Cobbett
says, "a hog of a good sort may be sufficiently fatted with this
root when steam-boiled." Allowing, what we believe can hardly be
admitted, that a bushel of oats contains as much nutriment as three
of this root, still it is evident that the usual product of one acre
of it will go as far in keeping horses as four of oats. Neither of
these root crops require any considerable expenditure in seed, and
on this account, if on no other, they are preferable to crops of the
potato and of the Jerusalem artichoke, which in the article of seed
are perhaps the most expensive of any whatever. We however consider
crops even of these roots more profitable than those of grain, and
particularly the potato, when judiciously cultivated in climates
most suitable for its growth. For the various uses of this root
for culinary purposes it stands indeed without a rival. In point
of profit we would also give to the carrot, the parsnip, and the
onion, a preference to crops of grain; but the soils well adapted
for them is more limited, and their culture is more expensive;
and although they should form a part of the products of the farm
we cannot recommend them as being in all instances proper for a
judicious rotation of crops. The common turnip, and the cabbage, are
also entitled to attention. The pumpkin is as nutritious as the
same weight of any root or vegetable whatever, and its culture is
cheap; but whether its product, in weight, can be made to compete
with that of roots, is a matter of which we are not informed. If 15
tons to the acre could be usually obtained of this species of gourd,
we should be induced to pronounce the crop, in point of profit and
use, unrivalled as a preparative for a crop of winter grain. The
crop would be found among those which are least expensive in seed,
in culture and in gathering; none would occasion less exhaustion of
soil, nor require less for manure, as a little gypsum to the hills,
or drills, will be found to have a powerful effect on its growth,
but of its more complete cultivation we shall presently speak.
In Pennsylvania, and farther to the south, a successful mode of
culture has been put in practice of growing Indian corn and potatoes
in alternate rows or drills, and in this way about a sixth more of
product in the aggregate, is obtained from the ground, than if these
two sorts of crops were cultivated separately. Such is found to be
the fact, and the reason for it seems to be that each crop has, in
this way, more space given for the extension of its roots in search
of its favourite food, and each has the like room above ground
for deriving from the air the nutriment that is most suitable.
Corn, in particular, it is well known, is liable to much injury,
if planted too closely. There is, indeed, a variety of cases where
this mingling of growths is found very advantageous, and whenever
we shall venture to recommend the practice, it will be founded on a
conviction of its utility. There are also some instances, even in
this northern latitude, in which two crops may be had in a season
from the same ground, and any case where it may be advisable shall
be duly noted.
It should farther be observed that in suggesting what may be deemed
the most suitable changes of crops, no reference will be had to
the actual state of farming among us, but merely what the state of
farming ought to be; and in pursuance of this course, we shall,
in a great measure, discard the idea, too long prevalent in this
country, that we should make the most of our labour, not the most
of our land; we shall, on the contrary, insist that, generally
speaking, making the most of our lands, under a proper course of
husbandry, is the right way to realize the most from our labour. We
shall therefore begin with the most usual soil of this country, the
dry, arable lands, which are usually suited for a variety of crops.
Of the stiff clays, the hard gravels, and light sands, soils which
abound but little here, we shall speak in particular. In ploughing
we shall advise that the usual depth be about six inches, or about
a third deeper than our farmers commonly plough: but that the depth
should sometimes be greater than this, and sometimes less. We
shall also insist on the ploughing being done in the most perfect
manner, and not in the slight way too often practised; and we shall
farther premise that the plan of culture we recommend is necessarily
connected with the business of the dairy, to greater or less extent,
and with that of the grazier, in feeding and fatting cattle of every
description. Such we conceive to be the only true and profitable
course to conduct farming in this country, but deviations from
this may in some cases be found equally profitable. In general,
however, we advise to this course of farming, for in this way the
greatest quantity of manure is afforded, and for most lands manure
is essential for obtaining the greatest crops, and of course for
realizing the greatest profits.
We shall begin with the ground in wheat or rye stubble, as at the
end of our course we propose to leave it. Let the stubble ground be
well turned over in the fall, to the depth of, say, six inches. It
should not be turned over until a sward of white clover has covered
the ground, which is to be produced by giving it a top-dressing of
gypsum, in the spring. Under the subject of manures the reasons for
this will be explained, when treating of gypsum. In the spring give
the ground one or two ploughings more, as the nature of the soil
may require, and of the same depth, and let the last ploughing be
just before the proper time for planting Indian corn; for this crop,
with an intermixture of other plants, is what we propose to begin
with. Say, for instance, that the intermixture shall consist of the
potato, of the pumpkin, and of the common pumpkin, a third part of
each. We propose planting these crops in drills, in preference to
hills, from a well founded conviction that in the former method
considerably more may be obtained from the ground. Let furrows be
run, at a good depth, for the drills, at the distance of about every
three and a half feet. In these furrows lay off the shortest and
best of the fresh barn dung, at the rate of about 20 wagon loads
to the acre. For the drills intended for potatoes the longer sort
of barn dung is as good as any other. If the different sorts of
barn dung can be applied to the soils most suitable for each, as is
mentioned in speaking of manures; this should always be attended to;
that is, sheep and horse dung for the moister parts of the land, and
cow dung for the drier. As fast as the dung is laid, it should be
well covered, by a furrow, moderately deep, thrown over it from each
side; but where potatoes are to form the alternate drills, let the
seed for these be laid on the dung, previous to covering; and for
this purpose, let the potatoes be cut in halves, lengthways, so as
to give each about an equal number of eyes, and then wet them and
roll them in gypsum before laying them down, which should be at the
distances of about 15 inches. The potato drills being thus covered,
by the furrows thrown from each side, the same process serves to
cover the dung in the other furrows, and thus the beds are formed
for planting the other crops in the drill method. Indian corn may
be drilled in at one operation by a drill machine for the purpose;
the same may be observed of the turnip crop, and probably of the
pumpkin; but though attended with more labour, it may usually be
expected that they will be drilled in by manual operation. We should
advise that the seed in the turnip drills be liberally strewn, in
order that if part of the plants be destroyed by the flies, enough
may still be left. The corn and pumpkin seed may be dropped at the
distances of six inches, and thinned at the first hoeing, so as
to have the growing plants of the former about a foot apart, and
the latter about 16 inches. If any vacant places should happen in
any of these drills, such vacancies may readily be supplied by
transplanting sets, taken from parts where more plants are standing
than are necessary. Any young plants may be transplanted after they
have attained a suitable size, which is usually in from two to four
weeks growth. The vacancies may be quickly filled by transplanting,
and it is a matter well worthy of attention.
The practice, lately introduced, of laying barn dung at a good
depth, and then covering it with mould to the depth of about three
or four inches, and planting the seeds over the manure thus covered,
seems to answer the best purpose for every drilled crop except
potatoes, and we would therefore recommend this method of using barn
dung in preference to every other, as far as it may be wanted for
drilled crops. In this way this manure may be profitably applied
while fresh; but in many instances we consider it more efficacious
when applied after the process of rotting or fermentation has
commenced. Such is the theory of Sir Humphrey Davy, and we have full
confidence in its correctness. When thus buried in the earth, the
growing plants, placed above the manure, have the utmost means of
absorbing all its garious and soluble parts, while the process of
its decomposition is going on.
In preparing seeds we would, as a general rule, advise to their
being soaked about 12 hours in a strong solution of saltpetre, or
of common salt, and then rolled in gypsum before being committed to
the earth. The effect of this mode of preparing the seed seems to
be, that the young plants start with more vigour, and grow larger
than they do where this treatment of the seed is neglected; and the
solution of saltpetre has the further effect of bringing plants to
maturity from one to two weeks sooner than they otherwise would
ripen.
In selecting seed for the corn crop, take such stalks as bear two
ears, and select the best ear from each of such stalks, the grains
on each end to be rejected. In all cases where it is practicable,
the seeds should be taken from the largest and most perfect plants,
or roots, as the case may be. By attending to this mode of selecting
seed the product of the corn crop in particular will soon be found
greatly augmented; a discovery, the honour of which is due to Mr.
Cooper, of New Jersey. It is said that sprinkling a little gypsum
on the silk of the ears of corn, will make them fill to the ends.
Nipping off the blossoms of the potato crop, as fast as they appear,
is found, by accurate experiment, to increase the growth of the
roots about one sixth part. Salt and gypsum have each a powerful
effect on their growth, though by applying too much of the latter
it may cause them to run too much to vines. To the corn and pumpkin
crop apply some of this latter manure after the plants are up. What
effect it has on turnips we have never understood.
In ploughing between the drills let it be to a good depth, first
turning the furrows from the plants, running about four inches from
them, and then turning the furrows back, when the hoeing and hand
weeding are to follow. The second ploughing should be similar to
the first, but farther from the plants; and in general, we believe,
it will be found advantageous to plough and hoe the crops the third
time. We have seen it highly recommended to plough among Indian
corn as late as in August. Frequent deep ploughing is certainly
the best means of keeping the ground moist, and should never be
omitted in case of drought. Ground that has become quite dry will
be found moist after a thorough deep ploughing. At all events, the
ground should be so cultivated as to prevent any weeds from going to
seed in the fall, for if this be suffered, the ground will remain
constantly stocked with the seeds of weeds.
We advise to the cultivation of the common turnip, the potato, and
the pumpkin, in the manner we have mentioned, for the purpose of
affording the early supply of food for feeding and fatting cattle in
the fall and the forepart of the winter, before the ruta baga crop
should be used, of which we shall presently speak. We also advise to
this variety of crops, in order that the cattle may have a greater
variety of food, a matter of considerable importance in feeding and
fatting cattle. For this purpose also the culture of the cabbage is
worthy of attention. Horses, and all sorts of cattle, fatten well on
pumpkins, but for swine they should be steam boiled, and the seeds
taken out, as these prove injurious to those animals, by causing too
great a secretion of urine. The seeds afford an oil equal to that of
the olive, and are well worth preserving for this purpose.
As soon as the ears of the corn crop have somewhat hardened, the
crop may be cut up and set in shocks, with the tops tied closely
together to keep out the rains, in which way the grain will harden
as well as in any other, and a great addition of fodder may thus be
acquired.
During the next season we propose to take two crops from the ground,
to wit, a crop of ruta baga, preceded by such spring crop as ripens
sufficiently early to be harvested in time for preparing the ground
for a full growth of this root. In the meridian of New York, Mr.
Cobbett says that from the 26th of July until some of the first days
in August, is the proper time to transplant this crop, the plants
for the purpose being previously grown. The method of cultivating
the crop by transplanting, he insists, is the preferable way, and
from our own experience we are fully disposed to agree with him.
Advancing to the northward, from New York, the seasons are shorter,
and of course the crop should be transplanted earlier, while at
the same time the spring crops are later in ripening. At New York,
barley could be taken from the ground in time sufficient for
preparing for ruta baga; farther to the north this could not be the
case. In the more northerly parts of this state, it would, perhaps,
be difficult to find any crop, now raised in this country, with the
exception of flax, that would be sufficiently early. The fact is, we
want a particular crop for this purpose; and that would seem to be
the new sort of spring wheat lately introduced into France, which
is there called _le ble de Mai_, in English, the wheat of May. It
is said to be a very productive species of wheat, affording a grain
from which flour is made of about a medium whiteness between that
of rye and wheat, and in that country it is fit to harvest in the
latter end of May. In this state it would probably ripen no where
later than the first of July, which would be in time sufficient
for the crop of ruta baga. Until we can procure this wheat, we can
only recommend that the preceding crop be such only as will ripen
sufficiently early, and where none can be had for the purpose, to
be content with raising the crop of ruta baga only in the course of
the season. Where previous spring crops can however be obtained, let
them be taken from the ground as quick as possible, and the ground
deeply turned over, and mellowed by three deep ploughings, then
furrowed at the distances of about 30 inches, the manure laid in,
and covered by furrows thrown over it from each side, and the plants
of ruta baga immediately set on the ridges, by transplanting, at the
distance of about a foot from each other. From our own experience we
are fully convinced that the plan of transplanting is, in the end,
much the cheapest, and most advisable. We would, however, recommend
not to transplant before the appearance of a heavy shower, but at
any time afterwards; that the plants be of good size, say of five
or six weeks growth, and that in setting, special care be taken to
have the lower parts of the roots well enclosed with earth. For
further particulars in regard to the culture of this crop, the time
and manner of using it, and of saving it, we refer the reader to Mr.
Cobbett's book on the subject, from a conviction that it is the best
essay that has ever been published on the culture and use of this
valuable plant.
It will be seen, however, that we differ from Mr. C. in the
distances in which the plants are to be set, and in the manner of
forming the ridges. He forms his ridges by four gathering furrows,
by which the ridges are each about 4 feet in breadth. We propose to
form the ridges by two gathering furrows, and at the distances of 30
inches. In England, the plan we recommend is generally pursued, and
the ridges are usually but 27 inches wide.
(To be continued.)
FROM NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER.
_Cotton, Rice, Tobacco, Sugar, Wine._
The National Intelligencer informs us that in New York 133 bushels
of Indian corn have been gathered this year from _one acre_; and 714
bushels of potatoes from one acre. This has led to the following
statistical facts.
COTTON.--In 1817 the export of cotton from the United States was
(85,649,328_lbs._) more than eighty-five million. One acre yields,
at a moderate estimate, 250lbs. of clean cotton. The whole export,
therefore, is the product of only 535 square miles: this is less
than the 108th part of Georgia, and less than the 520th part of the
cotton regions of the U. States.
RICE.--The maximum export of rice was 73,329 tierces, (in 1790,)
or (43,997,400_lbs._) nearly forty-four million pounds. This, on
an average crop, is the produce of only sixty-five square miles,
which is less than the 440th part of South Carolina, and less than
two-thirds of the District of Columbia.
TOBACCO.--The maximum export of tobacco was 12,428 hogsheads, in
1791. A hogshead is about one thousand weight; and, on average,
one acre will yield one hogshead. The export, therefore, was the
product of about 176 square miles, which is less than the 363d part
of Virginia. Each of the 97 counties of that state contains, on an
average, more than 659 square miles, viz: more than three times the
quantity of land which furnished the above export.
SUGAR.--Such is, generally, the fertility of the equinoctial regions
of America, that all the sugar consumed in France, estimated at
twenty million kilogrammes, (about 54,000,000 pounds,) may be
produced on an extent of 7 square leagues, which is not equal to
one-thirtieth part of the smallest department of France.
WINE.--About 1,600,000 arpents, or 1,350,400 acres, are in France
employed in the culture of the vine. The value of the annual product
is about 100,800,000 dollars, at about twenty cents a gallon. In
1790 Bordeaux alone exported more than fifteen million gallons of
wine. The 1,600,000 arpents are less than one 80th part of France,
and less than one 20th part of Pennsylvania.
The value of the annual produce of these five interesting articles,
may be thus estimated:
Cotton, at 15 cents, $12,847,399
Rice, $20 a tierce, 1,466,580
Tobacco, $60 a hogshead, 6,745,680
Wine, 20 cents a gallon, 100,800,000
Sugar consumed in France,
at 10 cents a pound, 5,400,000
-------------
$127,259,659
For the product of these articles the following quantities of land
are cultivated, viz.
Square miles.
For cotton 555
rice 65
tobacco 176
sugar 63
wine 2110
----
2969
This is little less than three-fourths of the state of Connecticut.
The authority for cotton, rice, and tobacco, is Seybert's
Statistical Annals, and the personal information of gentlemen of
experience in the culture of those articles.
For sugar I have the authority of Humboldt's _Essai Politique_.
For wine I depend on Chaptal: his "Treatise, theoretical and
practical, on the culture of the vine, and the art of making wine,
brandy, spirits of wine, and vinegars, simple and compound," is a
truly classic work, in which he had the aid of Rozier, Parmentier,
and Dussieux. It contains all that the chemist, or botanist, or vine
cultivator, or enlightened statesman can reasonably ask or wish to
know. It is in two octavo volumes, of about 500 pages each, with 21
plates.
This admirable treatise should be translated for the use of our
fellow citizens who occupy our wine-yielding regions. For, in a
few years, the United States will produce wine for their domestic
consumption and exportation.
A revolution of our planet on its axis would present to the eye of
an observer, at the distance of a few thousand miles, a few spots or
specks (China or Holland) fully cultivated. The rest would be as a
desert. Pauperism in England, now so extensive and so dangerous, is
fulfilling the prophecies of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
"Political economy (says Jean Baptiste Say,) is founded on
statistical knowledge, or (what is the same thing) history;" and
that "the American confederacy will have the glory of proving that
the loftiest policy is in accordance with moderation and humanity."
The most active mind has not yet conceived an adequate idea of the
vast resources of the United States.
_Washington City_.
NOTES AND REMARKS--BY THE EDITOR OF THE REGISTER.
The _general_ average value of the products of the United States
exported, may be estimated as amounting to 45,000,000 dollars, at
fair prices; the cotton, tobacco, and rice, included in which, may
be valued at 21,000,000--the balance is made up of bread stuffs and
meats, the product of the forest and of the sea, and 2,000,000 in
manufactures.
The chief things that we have for _export_ bear about the following
proportions to their respective quantities _consumed_ in the United
States--assuming 45 millions as the amount of value exported, and
taking our products at their average quantities.
_Val. or am't Val. or am't
exported. consumed_.
Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, D. 13,500,000 270,000,000
Provender for horses, &c. (say) 50,000 60,000,000
Manufactures, (in general) 2,000,000 220,000,000
Product of the fisheries 1,500,000 9,000,000
-------------- forest 6,000,000 60,000,000
Cotton, lbs. 85,000,000 40,000,000
Tobacco, hhds. 75,000 25,000
Rice, tierces 80,000 80,000
The value of the cotton, tobacco, and rice consumed in the United
States, being considered as included in the aggregate values of the
manufactures used, or other stuffs consumed, will give a value to
the consumption equal to 619, say 620 millions of dollars per annum;
and assuming our population at 9,500,000, the average for each
individual is 65 dollars a-year. This amount includes ALL sorts of
disbursements needful to the subsistence, convenience and comfort
of the people, except the product of the value of labour directly
applied to the _erection_ of buildings or other permanent works. The
amount, though it appears enormous, I am satisfied is less than the
actual value consumed. It brings out the general result, that our
exports stand to our consumption as 45 is to 620--or as _one_ is to
_fourteen_, at the present time. When the price of commodities was
higher, the rate was as _one_ to _seventeen_.
The ratio of each of the preceding items are about as follows:
_Exported. Consumed._
Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, as 1 is to 21
Provender, 1 -- 200
Manufactured articles, 1 -- 110
Product of the fisheries, 1 -- 6
---- forest, 1 -- 10
Cotton, 2 -- 1 (nearly.)
Tobacco, 3 -- 1
Rice, 1 -- 1
It would be excessively tedious to attempt to detail the multitude
of items that affect these general conclusions. Accuracy is not
pretended in either of them. Probabilities only are aimed at.
From these facts assumed as being pretty near the truth, we may
estimate the importance of the home trade, or internal commerce and
consumption of the people, and arrive at a multitude of highly
interesting considerations. Take the following for an example:
The sudden introduction of less than 500,000 persons, would leave us
no surplus of _present_ products of food for men. But it is a demand
for this surplus, no matter how created, that assesses the value of
the whole product. Such products, let the fact be recollected, were
at as high prices during the late war, when there was very little
export of them, as they are now, the difference in the value of
our circulating medium being also considered. This was caused by a
partial want of agricultural labourers; but more by the waste of
provisions that belong to a belligerent state.
Foreign commerce, nevertheless, has a powerful bearing on the
consideration of value in a state of peace, to the growers of grain,
meats, &c. The amount beyond their own _immediate_ consumption
and that of their families, may be about two fifths of the whole,
besides the foreign export, or nearly 110 millions,--the _price_
of which is fixed by the small amount of 13,500,000 dollars' worth
sent abroad! And, this little surplus remaining unconsumed, or
without being wasted, at home, would depreciate the general value
of the whole surplus at least 50 per cent. Hence, it would seem of
greater interest to the farmers even to _destroy_ a portion of their
products, than to cast them into a glutted market, according to the
principles acted upon by the Dutch in regard to spices. A policy not
to be recommended on the score of morality, but as according with
the spirit of trade. It cannot, therefore, be advantageous to the
agriculturist to depend upon a foreign market to assess the value of
his articles, for it is, and ever must be uncertain and unsteady. It
is his interest to have a market at home, for this may be depended
upon, and the product will be regulated by the demand, so as to
leave a fair profit.
A gentleman of observation, on a certain occasion, when I Was
speaking on this subject, related the following case in point.
At an interval of about 10 years, he had stopped for a short time
at a certain village in Connecticut--when first there, it contained
two first rate taverns, and one other respectable establishment of
the same kind. Two lines of stages made it their halting place every
night, and all seemed flourishing and lively. When there again, the
three taverns were shut up, or at least not occupied as such, and he
had to apply at a private house to be accommodated during his stay,
and every thing appeared dull and desolate. He asked the reason.--It
was the establishment of steam-boats which had destroyed the lines
of stages, and driven off the persons and horses that they had given
employment to, and of course the market they created, which hitherto
took off all the surplus products of the neighbourhood, had ceased
to be. A thousand instances of this sort might be noted to prove
that a _ready market_ is the prosperity of a neighbourhood, country,
state, or nation.
On the different items, especially those of _cotton_ and _sugar_,
as mentioned by the writer in the National Intelligencer, we intend
to speak particularly hereafter, in the essays we have promised to
write under the head of "Political Economics," the introduction to
which appeared in the Register of the 13th ult. page 162.
_Vine Dressing near Vevay._
VEVAY, (Indiana) Oct. 28.
The season for making wine is just over; and notwithstanding the
uncommon dry season, the vine dressers near Vevay have made four
thousand eight hundred and ninety-two gallons.
[We copy the following from Niles' Weekly Register, with an
intention, as his proposed essays appear, of giving them a place in
the _Rural Magazine_,--having no doubt, from our knowledge of the
editor, but they will be instructive as well as Interesting to our
readers.--_Ed._]
_Political Economics._
INTRODUCTORY.
Though so much has been said on political economy as applicable to
the national prosperity, by profits derived from national industry,
that we despair of offering any new thing on the subject, we have
so far yielded to the wishes of many friends as to resolve upon the
publication of a new series of essays, to elucidate some of the
facts that belong to this deeply interesting concern--a concern
that presses itself into every man's business, which invades our
fire-sides and accompanies us to our bed-chambers: yet, so beset
with it, and feeling it in all that we have to sell or want to buy,
and in whatsoever business we do that requires the aid of money or
use of credit--still we shrink from the trouble of ascertaining
its operation and extent. The mind, by repeated mortifications and
disappointments, loses its tone; and we seem rather disposed to
trust to the chapter of accidents for redress, than rouse ourselves
to an exertion to put an end to our wrongs, through the means
afforded; forgetting that effects flow from causes.
It has pleased Providence to bless us with a "goodly land," and we
are favoured with the best system of government ever devised--but
the seat of ancient Paradise is a howling waste, and Greece and Rome
are tenanted by slaves.
A nation's prosperity is the happiness of the individuals composing
it. The freeman cannot be a happy man unless private industry
secures private independence; and freedom itself must pass into
despotism. The power of a government rests in the moral and physical
force of the governed, and its wealth is constituted by personal
acquisitions of property. Governments were made for the good of
the people, not the people for governments; and their object fails
when private happiness ceases to be respected. Emancipation from
political tyranny, without the means of preserving personal liberty,
is a nullity. The gift of life without the means of living, is
destitute of value.
Production is the only source of national wealth that can be
depended upon. The home market, even to the most commercial nations,
is of many times the amount of the foreign one. The former is not
easily effected, except by a self-mistaken policy; but the latter
is as capricious as the winds, and beyond our control. Speculation
does not create value--the purchase and sale of a million's worth
of goods does not improve their quality or add to their quantity,
to the amount of a cent. A change of commodities between different
countries, may increase their value to the extent of the labour
expended in transporting them; and it is generally convenient,
if not advantageous, when exchanges are made on equal terms. But
poverty must be the lot of every society which barters the labour of
two or more of its members for that of one person in another society.
Employment is the best preservative of health and morals. Things
should be so that every person willing to labour for his living,
should find labour to do, and live plentifully. If it is otherwise,
an error has been committed that ought to be corrected immediately,
for it is pregnant with the greatest evils. It is the chief check
to population, and more powerful than the sword to destroy the
liberties of nations. Nations and individuals are spendthrifts of
the worst description when they purchase that which they can make
from the spare labour at home. Who will give away a hundred dollars
and their interest for ever, for the sake of receiving twenty
dollars of his own money as a premium? Yet thus a nation acts when,
for the sake of the duties on imports, it accepts of another nation
any commodity which it might supply itself with, without detriment
to its other branches of industry.
Agriculture is the noblest and best occupation of man; and in a
country like the United States, where land is plenty and labour
scarce, it will always be pushed to the extent which a profitable
market demands. Yet if none worked but those who laboured in the
field, society could not exist long. We should perish with cold and
hunger. It is by an association of the arts that we live--and our
comfort materially depends on their respective perfections. Only
about one fifth of a population are fitted for agricultural labours,
in general. The other four fifths, if idle would consume the whole
amount of value produced, and send the labourers supperless to bed.
It is the capacity of production in the most numerous body that must
be brought into action, if families and nations would prosper and
be happy. If they purchase any thing which their lost time might be
applied to the fabrication of--they might as well throw its cost
into the sea.
In the course of our essays, which we expect to commence in two
or three weeks, we shall endeavour to point out some of the chief
things that require the protection of government, just as those of
a well regulated family are managed; and shew that the well being
of a nation depends upon a fair exchange of labour for labour,
substantials for substantials, and even luxuries for luxuries. The
man who exchanges wheat for _ear-rings_, unless those rings are
manufactured in his country, wastes to the country the whole amount
of the _intrinsic_ value of the wheat over that of the _ear-rings_,
which latter is only that of the metal composing them. A nation
cannot be independent, if it looks to another for necessaries--it
cannot be rich, if it exchanges necessaries for luxuries. And
luxuries, especially, should not be received at all, unless things
of the same class are remitted in payment for them. The effect
of these on population and manners, will also be considered, and
illustrated by many statistical facts--as leisure is allowed to
arrange them.
FROM HUMBOLDT'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
_The Coffee Plant._
The coffee tree flowers only the second year, and the flowering
lasts only twenty-four hours. At this time the shrub has a charming
aspect; seen from afar, it seems covered with snow. The produce
of the third year becomes very abundant. In plantations well
weeded and watered, and recently cultivated, we find trees bearing
sixteen, eighteen, and even twenty pounds of coffee. In general,
however, a produce of more than a pound and a half or two pounds
cannot be expected from each plant; and even this is superior to
the mean produce of the West India Islands. Rains at the time of
the flowering, the want of water for artificial irrigations, and
a patastic plant, a new species of coranthus, which clings to the
branches, are extremely injurious to the coffee trees.
_Sugar Cane._
Three species of sugar cane can be distinguished even at a distance,
by the colour of their leaves; the ancient Creole sugar cane,
the Otaheite cane, and the Batavia cane. The first has a leaf
of a deeper green, the stem less thick, and the knots nearer
together.--This sugar cane was the first introduced from India into
Sicily, the Canary Islands and the West Indies. The second is of a
lighter green; and its stem is higher, thicker, and more succulent.
The whole plant displays a more luxuriant vegetation. We owe this
plant to the voyages of Bougainville, Cook, and Bligh. Bougainville
carried it to the Isle of France, whence it passed to Cayenne,
Martinique, and since 1792, to the rest of the West India Islands.
The sugar cane of Otaheite, the _To_ of those islanders, is one of
the most important acquisitions, for which colonial agriculture is
indebted to the travels of naturalists. It yields not only one third
more of juice than the Creolian cane on the same space of land; but
from the thickness of its stem, and the tenacity of its ligneous
fibres, it furnishes much more fuel. The last advantage is important
to the West Indies, where the destruction of the forests has for a
long time obliged the planters to use the canes deprived of their
juice, to keep up the fire under their boilers.
But from the knowledge of this new plant, the progress of
agriculture on the continent of Spanish America, and the
introduction of the East India and Java sugars, the revolutions of
St. Domingo, and the destruction of the great sugar plantations of
that island, would have had a more sensible effect on the prices
of colonial produce in Europe. The Otaheite sugar cane was carried
from the Isle of Trinidad to Caraccas. From Caraccas it passed
to Cicuta and San Gil in the kingdom of New Grenada. In our days
its cultivation during twenty-five years almost entirely removed
the apprehension, which was at first entirely entertained, that,
transplanted to America, the plant would by degrees degenerate,
and become as slender as the Creole cane. If it be a variety, it
is a very constant one. The third species, the violet sugar cane,
called _Cana de Batavia_, or _de Guinea_, is entirely indigenous
in the island of Java, where it is cultivated in preference in the
districts of Jupara and Pasuruan. Its foliage is purple, and very
broad; and it is preferred in the province of Caraccas for rum. The
_tablones_, or grounds planted with sugar canes, are divided by
hedges of a collossal gramen; the latta, or gynesium with distich
leaves.
_American Fig Tree_.
The trunks of these trees are covered with very odoriferous
plants of vanilla, which, in general, flower only in the month of
April.--We were here again struck with those ligneous excrescenses,
which in the form of ridges, or ribs, augment, in so extraordinary
a manner, and as far as twenty feet above the ground, the thickness
of the trunk of the fig trees of America. I found trees twenty-two
feet and a half in diameter near the roots.--These ligneous ridges
sometimes separate from the trunk at a height of eight feet, and are
transformed into cylindrical roots two feet thick. The tree looks
as if it were supported by buttresses. This scaffolding, however,
does not penetrate very deep into the earth. The lateral roots wind
at the surface of the ground, and when at twenty feet distance from
the trunk, they are cut with the hatchet, we see the milky juice of
the fig tree gush out, which, when deprived of the vital influence
of the organs of the tree, is altered and coagulates. What a
wonderful combination of cells and vessels exist in these vegetable
masses; in these gigantic trees of the torrid zone, which, without
interruption, perhaps during a thousand years, prepare nutritious
fluids, raise them to the height of 180 feet, convey them down again
to the ground, and conceal beneath a rough and hard bark, under the
inanimate layers of ligneous matter, all the movements of organic
life!
_The Cow Tree._
"Amid the great number of curious phenomena which have presented
themselves to me in the course of my travels, I confess there are
few that have so powerfully affected my imagination, as the aspect
of the cow tree.
"Whatever relates to milk, whatever regards corn, inspires an
interest, which is not merely that of the physical knowledge of
things, but is connected with another order of ideas and sentiments.
We can scarcely conceive how the human race could exist without
farinaceous substances, and without that nourishing juice which
the breast of the mother contains, and which is appropriated to
the long feebleness of the infant. The amylaceous matter of corn,
the object of religious veneration among so many nations, ancient
and modern, is diffused in the seeds and deposited in the roots
of vegetables; milk, which serves us as an aliment, appears to
us exclusively the produce of animal organization.--Such are the
impressions we have received in our earliest infancy; such is also
the source of that astonishment which seizes us at the aspect of the
tree just described. It has not here the solemn shades of forests,
the majestic course of rivers, the mountains wrapped in eternal
frosts, that excite our emotion.--A few drops of vegetable juice
recal to our minds all the powerfulness and fecundity of nature.
On the barren flank of rock grows a tree with coriaceous and dry
leaves. Its large woody roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone.
For several months of the year not a single shower moistens its
foliage. Its branches appear dead and dried; but when its trunk is
pierced, there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. It is at
the rising of the sun that this vegetable fountain is most abundant.
The blacks and natives are then seen hastening from all quarters,
furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow,
and thickens at its surface. Some employ their bowls under the tree
itself, others carry the juice home to their children. We seem to
see the family of a shepherd, who distributes the milk to his flock.
"I have described the sensation which the cow tree awakens in the
mind of the traveller, at the first view. In examining the physical
properties of animal and vegetable products, science displays
them as closely linked together; but it strips them of what is
marvellous, and perhaps also a part of their charms, of what
excited our astonishment.--Nothing appears insolated; the chemical
principles that were believed to be peculiar to animals are found in
plants; a common chain links together all organic nature."
_Singular effect of Peruvian Bark._
A French merchant, at Guayra, named Delpech, in 1806, had occasion
to receive several travellers, inhabitants of those countries. The
apartments destined for visitors being filled, and the number of his
guests increasing, he was under the necessity of putting several of
them in rooms occupied by _cinchona_. Each of them contained from
8 to 10 thousand pounds of that bark. One of his guests was ill of
a very malignant fever. After the first day he found himself much
better, though he had taken no medicine; but he was surrounded with
an atmosphere of cinchona which appeared very agreeable to him.
In a few days he felt himself quite recovered without any medical
treatment whatever. This unexpected success led M. Delpech to make
some other trials. Several persons, ill of fever, were placed
successively in his magazine of cinchona, and they were all speedily
cured, simply by the effluvia of the bark.
In the same place with the cinchona, he kept a bale of coffee, and
some bottles of common French brandy. In some time M. Delpech, when
visiting his magazine, observed one of the large bottles uncorked.
He suspected at first the fidelity of a servant, and determined to
examine the quality of the brandy. What was his astonishment to find
it infinitely superior to what it had been!--A slightly aromatic
taste added to its strength, and rendered it more tonic and more
agreeable. Curious to know if the coffee had likewise changed its
properties, he opened the bale, and roasted a portion of it. It was
more bitter and left in the mouth a taste similar to that of the
effluvia of bark.--The bark which produced these singular effects
was fresh. Would the cinchona of commerce have the same efficacy?
_Oil of Pumpkin Seed._
C. S. KAPINESQUE, Esq. to Doct. SAMUEL MITCHELL.
_New York, 20th Feb. 1819._
While I was at Harmony, on the banks of the Wabash, in the state of
Indiana, last summer, I was told by the industrious German Society
of the Harmonites, that instead of throwing away or giving to the
pigs the seeds of their pumpkins, as is usually done all over the
country, they collected them and made an oil from them which they
use for all the purposes of lamp oil and olive oil. It is well
known, that all the different species and varieties of pumpkins
(genus _cuburbita_ Linnæus) afford an oil which has valuable medical
properties, possessing in the highest degree the refrigerative
quality; but I had never heard before of its being made on a large
scale, and for economical uses.
It will be sufficient to mention this fact to some of our
enlightened farmers, to induce them to imitate the worthy
Harmonites, and I recommend highly the practice, as likely to become
eminently beneficial. The pumpkin seeds afford their oil with the
greatest facility and abundance. One gallon of seeds will give
about half a gallon of oil. They may be pressed like rape and flax
seed.--Their oil is clear, limpid pale, scentless, and when used for
salad instead of sweet oil, has merely a faint insipid taste; it
burns well, and without smoke. Those advantages entitle it to our
attention, as an indigenous production of first necessity. Pumpkins
grow all over the United States, from Maine to Louisiana, and with
such luxuriance, as to produce sometimes as much as 50,000_lbs._
weight of fruits, and about 2000 _lbs._ weight of seeds, in one acre
of Indian corn without injuring the crop of corn. Those 2000 _lbs._
of seeds might produce about 200 gallons of oil, worth about 200
dollars. I calculate that about two millions of gallons of such oil
could be made annually in the United States, from the seeds that are
wasted or given to cattle and pigs. This is worth saving--and in
addition to the bread, pies, soups, dishes, feed, &c. afforded by
pumpkins, we shall have a good and wholesome home-made vegetable oil
for lamps and food.
_Disease among Horses._
MIFFLINTOWN, (Penn.) Nov. 20.
A disease prevails among the horses in this part of the country, by
some called the Burnt Tongue. We understand that it originated in
the western section of this state, and has extended along this route
from Pittsburg to Philadelphia. It has in a few instances proved
fatal: but we understand that the stages west of the Alleghany have
been stopped, and numbers of wagonners are obliged to lie by in
consequence of it. It affects the tongue and prevents the creature
from eating, and is very catching, so much so, that it is said a
beast will take it in consequence of its having been _hitched_ at
the same place that the one has stood which was affected.
LANCASTER, (Penn.) Nov. 23.
The following method of practice and recipe for the care of the
prevailing disease among horses, called _sore mouth_, was obtained
from Mr. Tomlinson, (one of the proprietors of the Western Mail
Stages) on his return from visiting the sick horses in the line, and
I am authorized to say, will, if strictly attended to, succeed in
curing in 99 _cases in_ 100--by inserting it you will oblige MANY.
RECIPE.
On the commencement of the disease, bleed moderately. If the blood,
after cooling, appears to have much buff on it, repeat the bleeding;
give a pint of castor oil; if it does not operate in 16 hours, give
two thirds of a pint. Nitre may be given at the rate of 2 _oz_. a
day, or salts two or three times a week; 1/4 _lb._ at a time. These
may be given in a thin mash, or rather slop of bran, it being the
best food for the animal while diseased.
Take half a pint of honey, one table spoonful of borax, and one
quart of strong sage tea. Mix them well together; then take a stick
and tie a soft rag to the end of it, dip it in the mixture, and wash
the tongue, gums and mouth well; the more frequent the better, at
least every two hours. Sweet milk in the tea will do no harm, or
a little nitre may occasionally be put in it with good effect. Be
particular in keeping the mouth clean and nursing the horse with
care.
The pulse and appearance of the blood must govern as to the
necessity of bleeding more than once.
_The Arabian Horse_.
This noble animal, which lately arrived in the ship Horatio, has
been sold for _four thousand dollars_, to Messrs. Allison and Van
Ranst, and has been conveyed to Long Island.
_Wild Horse of the West._
The horse of the Columbia River will rank with the finest of his
species in the known world. His size is fifteen or sixteen hands,
even in a state of nature, unprovided with food or shelter by the
hands of man. His form exhibits much bone and muscle, but not
the mass of flesh which is found on the fat European horse.--His
limbs are clean and slender; the neck arched and rising; the hoofs
round and hard; and the nostrils wide and thin. He is equally
distinguished for speed and bottom. He runs rapidly, and for a
long time; rivalling, in this respect, all that we have heard of
the English hunting horses. In other respects--in the docility of
his nature, in his capacity to sustain hunger and hardship, in his
powers to provide food for himself and his master, he is wholly
unrivalled. He is readily trained to the business of his master's
life, that of hunting, and pursues the game with all the keenness of
the dog, and with equal sagacity and more success. He will run down
the deer in the _prairies_, with or without his master on his back,
and, when overtaken, will hold it with his teeth. When rode after
game he needs no guiding of the bridle to direct him. He will pursue
a drove of buffaloes, and, coming up with them, will stop one by
biting him with his teeth. The animal bitten, immediately wheels to
defend himself with his horns; the horse wheels at the same instant
to avoid it; and at this moment, when the side of the buffalo is
presented, the Indian lets fly an arrow, which often passes entirely
through his body. The wounded animal always turns out of the drove
to lay down and die. The horse and his rider pursue the gang to make
fresh slaughter. Another horse trained to a second part of the game,
with other Indians, take the trail of the wounded buffalo, which is
butchered and carried into camp. These things seem incredibel; but
we have them upon the authority of Lewis and Clarke, and a great
number of traders who have been upon the Columbia river since the
time of their discovery; some of whom are now in this town.
The capacity of this horse to sustain fatigue, and to provide
food for himself, is equally astonishing. He is galloped all day,
sometimes 80 or 90 miles in the space of 10 or 12 hours, and is then
left to shift for himself during the night. In the spring, summer
and autumn, he finds no difficulty; the short and sweet grass of
that country gives him an abundant and nutricious repast. In the
winter, and towards the mountains, where the snow is several feet
deep, his unerring instinct tells him where to search; he scrapes
away the snow with his hoof till he comes to the ground, and rooting
there with his nose, finds wherewith of moss and grass to sustain
his life. On the borders of creeks and rivers he feeds on the boughs
of willows, and other soft wood, which his master has sometimes the
kindness to fell for him with a hatchet.
This fine animal is found on the banks of the Columbia, in latitude
46, in the great plain which lies on the borders of this river,
between the upper and lower range of mountains. His origin is traced
to Mexico, thence to Spain, thence to the North of Africa, where the
Arabian barb is found in all the perfection of his species. His fine
form, his generous spirit, and his noble qualities, are preserved
upon the Columbia river; and certainly it is worthy the experiment
to endeavour to transplant him into other parts of the United
States. Many citizens have attempted to do so; but have always been
robbed by the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. Lewis and Clarke
procured 73, said by Gov. Clark to be the most beautiful collection
of horses that he has ever seen together before or since; but the
whole number was stolen from them by Indians, who followed their
trail, and never ceased their operations until they had carried off
the last.
[_St. Louis Inquirer._
JAMES WATT.
(Ascribed to an eminent writer.)
Death is still busy in our high places; and it is with great pain
that we find ourselves called upon, so soon after the loss of Mr.
Playfair, to record the decease of another of our illustrious
countrymen, and one to whom mankind has been still more largely
indebted. Mr. James Watt, the great improver of the steam-engine,
died on the 25th ult. at his seat of Heathfield, near Birmingham, in
the 84th year of his age.
This name, fortunately, needs no commemoration of ours; for he that
bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputable and unenvied
honours; and many generations will probably pass away before it
shall have "gathered all its fame." We have said that Mr. Watt was
the great _improver_ of the steam-engine; but, in truth, as to
all that is admirable in its structure, or vast in its utility,
he should rather be described as its _inventor_. It was by his
inventions that its action was so regulated as to make it capable of
being applied to the finest and most delicate manufactures, and its
power so increased as to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his
admirable contrivances, it has become a thing stupendous alike for
its force and its flexibility; for the prodigious power which it can
exert, and the ease and precision, and ductility, with which they
can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of an elephant
that can pick up a pin or rend an oak is nothing to it. It can
engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal like wax before
it, draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as a gossamer, and
lift up a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can embroider
muslin and forge anchors, cut steel into ribbands, and impel loaded
vessels against the fury of the winds and waves.
It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits which
these inventions have conferred upon the country. There is no
branch of industry that has not been indebted to them; and in all
the most material, they have not only widened most magnificently
the field of its exertions, but multiplied a thousand fold the
amount of its productions. It is our improved steam-engine which
now enables us to pay the interest of our debt, and to maintain
the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged, with the skill
and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation. But these
are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased
indefinitely the mass of human comforts and enjoyments, and rendered
cheap and accessible all over the world the materials of wealth and
prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a
power to which no limits can be assigned, completed the dominion of
mind over the most refractory qualities of matter, and laid a sure
foundation for all those future miracles of mechanic power, which
are to aid and reward the labours of after generations. It is to the
genius of one man too that all this is mainly owing; and certainly
no man ever before bestowed such a gift on his kind. The blessing
is not only universal, but unbounded; and the fabled inventors of
the plough and the loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude
of their rude contemporaries, conferred less important benefits on
mankind than the inventor of our present steam-engine.
This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is
sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed his
conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he will
be most frequently recalled--most deeply lamented--or even most
highly admired. Independently of his great attainments in mechanics,
Mr. Watt was an extraordinary, and in many respects, a wonderful
man. Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such
varied and exact information--had read so much, or remembered what
he had read so accurately and so well. He had infinite quickness
of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying
and methodising power of understanding, which extracted something
precious out of all that was presented to it. His stores of
miscellaneous knowledge were immense--and yet less astonishing than
the command he had at all times over them. It seemed as if every
subject that was casually started in conversation with him, had been
that which he had been last occupied in studying and exhausting;
such was the copiousness, the precision, and the admirable clearness
of the information which he poured out upon it without effort or
hesitation. Nor was this promptitude and compass of knowledge
confined in any degree to the studies connected with his ordinary
pursuits. That he should have been minutely and extensively skilled
in chemistry and the arts, and in most of the branches of physical
science, might perhaps have been conjectured; but it could not
have been inferred from his usual occupations, and probably is not
generally known, that he was curiously learned in many branches of
antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at
home in all the details of architecture, music, and law. He was well
acquainted too with most of the modern languages, and familiar with
their most recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary to
hear the great mechanician and engineer detailing and expounding,
for hours together, the metaphysical theories of the German
logicians, or criticising the measures or the matter of the German
poetry.
His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
by a still higher and rarer faculty--by his power of digesting and
arranging in its proper place all the information he received, and
of casting aside and rejecting, as it were instinctively, whatever
was worthless or immaterial. Every conception that was suggested to
his mind seemed instantly to take its place among its other rich
furniture, and to be condensed into the smallest and most convenient
form. He never appeared, therefore, to be at all incumbered or
perplexed with the verbiage of the dull books he perused, or the
idle talk to which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by
a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention,
and to have reduced it to his own use, to its true value and to its
simplest form. And thus it often happened, that a great deal more
was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the theories and
arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary student could ever
have derived from the most faithful study of the originals; and that
errors and absurdities became manifest from the mere clearness and
plainness of his statement of them, which might have deluded and
perplexed most of his hearers without that invaluable assistance.
It is needless to say, that with those vast resources, his
conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no ordinary
degree; but it was, if possible, still more pleasing than wise,
and had all the charms of familiarity, with all the substantial
treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social in his spirit,
less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and
indulgent towards all who approached him. He rather liked to talk,
at least in his latter years; but though he took a considerable
share of the conversation, he rarely suggested the topics on which
it was to turn, but readily and quickly took whatever was presented
by those around him, and astonished the idle and barren propounders
of an ordinary theme, by the treasures which he drew from the mine
which they had unconsciously opened. He generally seemed, indeed,
to have no choice or predilection for one subject of discourse
rather than another, but allowed his mind, like a great cyclopædia,
to be opened at any letter his associates might choose to turn
up, and only endeavoured to select from his inexhaustible stores
what might be best adapted to the taste of his present hearers.
As to their capacity, he gave himself no trouble; and, indeed,
such was his singular talent for making all things plain, clear,
and intelligible, that scarcely any one could be aware of such a
deficiency in his presence. His talk, too, though overflowing with
information, had no resemblance to lecturing or solemn discoursing,
but, on the contrary, was full of colloquial spirit and pleasure.
He had a certain quiet and grave humour, which ran through most
of his conversation, and a vein of temperate jocularity, which
gave infinite zest and effect to the condensed and inexhaustible
information which formed its main staple and characteristic. There
was a little air of affected testiness, and a tone of pretended
rebuke and contradiction, with which he used to address his younger
friends, that was always felt by them as an endearing mark of his
kindness and familiarity, and prized accordingly far beyond all the
solemn compliments that ever proceeded from the lips of authority.
His voice was deep and powerful, though he commonly spoke in a low
and somewhat monotonous tone, which harmonized admirably with the
weight and brevity of his observations, and set off to the greatest
advantage the pleasant anecdotes which he delivered with the same
grave brow and the same calm smile playing soberly on his lips.
There was nothing of effort indeed, or impatience, any more than of
pride or levity, in his demeanour; and there was a finer expression
of reposing strength, and mild self-possession in his manner, than
we ever recollect to have met with in any other person. He had in
his character the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness,
parade and pretensions; and, indeed, never failed to put all such
impostors out of countenance, by the manly plainness and honest
intrepidity of his language and deportment.
In his temper and dispositions he was not only kind and
affectionate, but generous and considerate of the feelings of all
around him, and gave the most liberal assistance and encouragement
to all young persons who showed any indications of talent, or
applied to him for patronage or advice. His health, which was
delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become firmer as he
advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to the last moment
of his existence, not only the full command of his extraordinary
intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit, and the social gaiety
which had illuminated his happiest days. His friends in this part
of the country never saw him more full of intellectual vigour and
colloquial animation, never more delightful or instructive, than in
his last visit to Scotland, in autumn, 1817. Indeed, it was after
that time that he applied himself, with all the ardour of early
life, to the invention of a machine for mechanically copying all
sorts of sculpture and statuary, and distributed among his friends
some of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
artist just entering on his 83d year.
This happy and useful life came at last to a gentle close. He
had suffered some inconveniences through the summer; but was not
seriously indisposed till within a few weeks from his death. He
then became perfectly aware of the event which was approaching; and
with his usual tranquillity and benevolence of nature, seemed only
anxious to point out to the friends around him the many sources of
consolation, which were afforded by the circumstances under which
it was about to take place. He expressed his sincere gratitude to
Providence for the length of days with which he had been blessed,
and his exemption from most of the infirmities of age, as well
as for the calm and cheerful evening of life that he had been
permitted to enjoy, after the honourable labours of the day had been
concluded. And thus, full of years and honours, in all calmness and
tranquillity he yielded up his soul, without pang or struggle, and
passed from the bosom of his family to that of his God!
He was twice married, but has left no issue but one son, long
associated with him in his business and studies, and two
grand-children by a daughter who predeceased him. He was a fellow
of the Royal Societies both of London and Edinburgh, and of the
few Englishmen who were elected members of the National Institute
of France. All men of learning and science were his cordial
friends; and such was the influence of his mild character and
perfect fairness and liberality, even upon the pretenders to these
accomplishments, that he lived to disarm even envy itself, and died,
we verily believe, without a single enemy. [_London Times_.
At the recent sale of the late Mr. B. Tompkins' prime Herefordshire
cattle, one cow and her calf (a two years old bull) sold for the
sum of nine hundred and fifty pounds: four bulls for one thousand
and seventy-one pounds; and two bull calves, for three hundred and
sixty-two pounds five shillings!
The king of England is now in the 60th year of his _reign_--a reign
longer in its duration, by nearly four years, than that of any
sovereign of England, that of Henry the 3d being only 56 years.
A Mr. Wright, of London, proposes, in an English paper, to institute
a cottage society, in shares of ten pounds sterling each, for
the purpose of procuring lands, either waste or by purchase, to
be divided into lots, from four to twelve acres each, whereon to
erect cottages, for the accommodation of the poor. Mr. Wright
considers the monopoly of small farms by the great landholders,
as the principal cause of the prevailing pauperism in England, by
having thrown too great a mass of the population into the towns.
He computes that, from the enclosure of commons and waste lands,
within the last fifty years, there have been 120,000 small farms
and cottages annihilated, which, at five souls each, gives 600,000
persons who have been driven from the pursuits of agriculture.
_Light without Heat or Combustion._
EXTRACT OF A LETTER.
"I have lately seen an account of a discovery of a singular and
highly important character, announced in the latter part of August,
at Paris, by a Professor _Meinike_, (a German probably) viz. an
artificial _gas_, confined in _glass_, assuming, by the electric
shock, a permanent, steady light, without _heat_ or _combustion_!
"Here is a grand desideratum, indeed--a candle which can be
thrust into _carded cotton_ innoxious, or into a cistern of water
unextinguished; which can be placed under one's pillow while we
sleep, and taken out at pleasure. Our houses may be built with it
in such a manner as to avoid the necessity of those cold holes of
winter--windows.
"The whale may keep his _blubber_, and the shark his _liver_;
the coasts of the ocean may be lined with those newly discovered
(_Pharoi_) light bearers; they may be sunk on reefs, and _shine_
up _information_ through the deep; and, by anchoring them in lines
through oceans, we may mark the _ship road_, and have _guide posts_
which tell the best path, for each month in the year, across the
parallels of this ball. Extravagant as this may seem, I assure
you that I have often entertained the idea that an insulated
mass of _electron_, (according to Augustus B. Woodward,) or some
_phosphorus_, might be produced in a permanently useful form. We now
_bottle_ up _lightning_--we _cork_ up the enemy of the _small pox_,
and let him out at pleasure; we see our way by peeping at the skies,
or into a box, (mariner's compass,) where we keep a little modicum
of _polar essence_, to steer by, &c. You recollect that, in 1799, a
hearty laugh was raised against the democrats, by comparing them to
the philosopher of Lugghagg, extracting _sunbeams from cucumbers_.
Dean Swift would have put into his philosophical _whim-whams_ the
bottling of lightning, together with the extracting of sun-beams
from cucumbers, had he thought of it, or known that it was ever
dreamed of. May Congress soon be supplied, every man of them, with a
_pocket light_ upon this new plan!"
The ingenious writer of this letter, adds the correspondent who
communicated it, might have added, that this invention will be of
excellent service to Captain Symmes and his fellow travellers, among
the _concentric spheres_ in the interior of our planet.
[_Nat. Int._
_Whale Fisheries._
Our whale fisheries are, perhaps, more flourishing now than at any
former period. I have formed an estimate of the probable amount thus
employed from Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and this port, which
would be at risk in case of a war with Spain, which may awaken the
attention of those whom it may concern. From New Bedford, there are
round Cape Horn or on their passage, 18 ships and 1 brig, whose
tonnage is 5347 tons; and they with their outfits cost
$565,000
Their return cargoes would
probably amount in value
to 800,000
From the Vineyard there are
two ships which cost 50,000
Their return cargoes would
probably amount to 93,000
From Nantucket fifty ships,
which probably cost 1,350,000
Their return cargoes would
probably amount to 2,342,000
From New Bedford, on this
side Cape Horn, there are
eleven ships and eight
brigs, which probably cost 277,000
Their return cargoes probably
will amount to 363,000
From Nantucket ten ships,
which probably cost 140,000
And their return cargoes
will probably amount to 227,000
----------
Amounting in all to $6,000,000
----------
_New Bedford Paper_.]
_Fire-Places_.
FROM THE DOWNINGSTON REPUBLICAN.
_Fire-places_, for warming rooms, have been for a long time in
use; and the best plan for constructing them continues to be an
interesting subject of investigation.
Whether or not fire-places and chimneys are of very ancient date,
and mentioned by Virgil Appian, and Aristophanes, or whether they
are of more modern invention, is not of much practical importance;
and may be left to philosophers to determine. But as the proper
construction of a chimney and fire-place is one of the greatest
comforts of domestic life, I cannot doubt but that government will
grant me a handsome premium for making public an unerring rule by
which they can be so built as never to fail of drawing well, without
emitting any smoke into the apartment. When the principle was first
discovered by me, I wondered how it could so happen, that we had
any defective chimnies amongst us; for I remembered to have heard
that Dr. Franklin and count Rumford had devoted much attention to
this subject, and must, of course, as I thought, have discovered
a principle so plain and self-evident; and consequently, every
mechanic must have learnt it, as not they only were interested in
it, but every one of the civilized world.--After thinking of it in
this way, I took an opportunity of inquiring into their opinions,
and I find that the principle was never new to either of them;
and as far as I know, I am the first and only discoverer of it.
The principle consists simply in making the size of the flue bear
a certain proportion to the size of the fire-place in front. To
ascertain what would be the smallest proportion which the flue would
bear to the front of the fire-place, would require some experiments.
But it is probable that a fire-place 2-1/2 feet square in front,
would draw well enough to carry up all the smoke, by a flue 12 by 14
inches, and probably by a one foot square: or even less may probably
do.
If one foot square, would carry all the smoke of such a fire-place,
the proportion would be 144 to 900, or a little more than 1/7, and
a little less than 1/6. But for greater certainty, we will say 1/5
is the proper proportion, and that a flue to a fire-place 2-1/2 feet
square, shall be 12 by 15 inches. If the front be twice that size,
(3 feet 6 and near a half square) then the flue or chimney must be
12 by 30 inches, or near 19 inches square. If it be three times
the first size, or near 4 feet 4 inches square, then the flue must
be 12 by 45--15 by 36, or nearly 23-1/4 inches square. Or if it be
four times the size of the first, or 5 feet square, the flue must
be equal to nearly 27 inches square, and so accordingly, whatever
may be the dimensions of the fire-place in front. I do not know
that a lesser proportion would not do: and whatever experience
may establish, as that best adapted to answer the end proposed,
it will not invalidate the principle laid down, but confirm it.
One thing, however, is true, that the smaller the fire-place is
in proportion to the flue, the harder it will draw, and by being
thus proportioned, it may have any degree of draught given to it at
pleasure, from that of an air furnace to that which will scarcely
draw up the smoke. Any one may convince himself of the truth of
this doctrine, by taking a board and closing up the fire-place,
downwards from the mantle, and in proportion as it diminishes by the
board moving downwards, the power of its draught will be increased.
Franklin was aware of this fact, but was ignorant of the principle
on which it depended, as he supposed the height of the chimney, and
not its dimensions governed the fact itself,--and hence mentions
that the higher the chimney, the larger the opening may be: and that
2-1/2 feet square may be risked on a lower floor and 1-1/2 on the
upper, &c. The common ten plate stove furnishes an example of the
truth of this principle: when the large fire door is open, the stove
will smoke, because the large door is an over proportion in size to
the size of the pipe--but shut the large door and leave the small
one open, the stove immediately draws like a furnace, because its
area is smaller than the area of a section of the pipe. If it were
true that 2-1/2 feet square was the largest size which could be made
to draw well, it would indeed be an unfortunate fact, as we could
never have a comfortable kitchen fire-place--but if the principle
here laid down be true, we can, with equal certainty, build a
fire-place ten feet wide and five high, or of greater dimensions if
we choose.
The height of the chimney I believe to be a matter of no importance
to the draught, and that a low one will draw as well as a high
one. The worst smoking chimney that I ever saw was about 47 feet
high, in my own house: it smoked because it was too small, and was
cured by adding to it the flue of a fire-place directly above it;
on account of which I had to lose a fire-place on the 2d floor. In
this case the size of both chimneys was barely sufficient to vent
the smoke of the lower one. The height is a subject which I have
not investigated, but it strikes me that a low chimney is most
favourable to drawing well: if any one want an explanation on it, I
will give it again; but it cannot be of much practical importance.
The fashion of a fire-place is of no importance to the draught: it
may be made to please the fancy of the builder. I, however, should
prefer one something near count Rumford's plan. The throat of the
chimney may be contracted or not at pleasure; but for beauty and
advantage of heat, I should prefer having the back drawn forward and
the throat narrowed, more especially in a low fire-place. There may
be local contingent circumstances connected with chimneys, which
cause them to smoke, and must have appropriate remedies: but such do
not effect the general principles here laid down.
Smoke, from fires, is naturally carried upward by the heated air,
which is specifically lighter than the surrounding atmosphere, and
consequently ascends, carrying the smoke with it, and if it meet
with no resistance, will pass up the chimney; but if that be too
small to vent it, it regurgitates, as it were, into the apartment;
which can only be remedied on the principle heretofore laid down.
It might be asked, why will not a small chimney vent all the smoke
of a small fire, in a large fire-place? Two reasons may be assigned:
First, the heat of such fire cannot produce a brisk enough current
of rarified air to carry the smoke, and that which is heated, not
having free vent, it whirls in eddies into the apartment. Secondly,
smoke, in itself, is specifically heavier than atmospheric air;
consisting of aqueous vapour, carbonic acid, and oxid of carbon,
and coming in contact with air not much heated, and parting with a
portion of its own heat, it has then no disposition, in itself, to
ascend. But this would lead to a discussion foreign to my present
subject.
Yours, &c. N.
* * * * *
Samuel Sprigg, Esq. has been elected by the legislature, governor of
Maryland; and Thomas Mane Randolph governor of Virginia, in the room
of Mr. Preston, whose constitutional term of office has expired.
_List of the Members_
OF THE
S I X T E E N T H C O N G R E S S.
SENATE.
_New Hampshire._
David L. Morrill, terms end in 1823
John F. Parrott,[14] 1825
_Massachusetts._
Prentiss Mellen, 1821
Harrison G. Otis, 1823
_Rhode Island._
William Hunter, 1821
James Burrill, Jr. 1823
_Connecticut._
Samuel W. Dana, 1821
James Lanman,[14] 1825
_Vermont._
Isaac Tichenor, 1821
William A. Palmer, 1825
_New York._
Nathan Sandford, 1821
---- ---- 1825
_New Jersey._
James J. Wilson, 1821
Mahlon Dickerson, 1823
_Pennsylvania._
Johnathan Roberts, 1821
Walter Lowrie,[14] 1825
_Delaware._
Outterbridge Horsey, 1821
Nicholas Vandyke, 1823
_Maryland._
William Pinkney,
Edward Lloyd,
_Virginia._
James Barbour, 1821
John W. Eppes, 1823
_North Carolina._
Montfort Stokes, 1823
Nathaniel Macon, 1825
_South Carolina._
William Smith, 1823
John Gaillard, 1825
_Georgia._
Freeman Walker,[14] 1823
John Elliot,[14] 1825
_Kentucky._
John J. Crittenden, 1823
William Logan,[14] 1825
_Tennessee._
John H. Eaton, 1821
John Williams, 1823
_Ohio._
Benjamin Ruggles, 1821
William A. Trimble,[14] 1825
_Louisiana._
Henry Johnson, 1823
James Brown,[14] 1825
_Indiana._
James Noble, 1821
Waller Taylor, 1825
_Mississippi._
Walter Leake, 1821
Thomas H. Williams, 1823
_Illinois._
Jesse B. Thomas, 1823
Ninian Edwards, 1825
_Alabama._
John W. Walker,[14]
William R. King.[14]
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
_New Hampshire_--6.
Joseph Buffum, Jr.[14]
Josiah Bartlett,
Clifton Clagget,
Arthur Livermore,
William Plumer, Jr.[14]
Nathianiel Upham.
_Massachusetts_--20.
Benjamin Adams
Samuel C. Allen
Joshua Cushman
Edward Dowse
Walter Folger Jr.
Timothy Fuller
John Holmes
Mark L. Hill[14]
Martin Kingsley[14]
Jonas Kendall[14]
Enoch Lincoln
Samuel Lathrop[14]
Jonathan Mason
Marcus Morton
Jeremiah Nelson
James Parker[14]
Henry Shaw
Zabdiel Sampson
Nathaniel Silsbee
Ezekiel Whitman.
_Vermont_--6.
Samuel C. Crafts,
Ezra Meech,[14]
Orsamus C. Merrill,
Charles Rich,
Mark Richards,
William Strong.[14]
_Rhode Island_--2.
Samuel Eddy,[14]
Nathaniel Hazard.[14]
_Connecticut_--7.
Henry W. Edwards,[14]
Samuel A. Foote,[14]
Jonathan O. Mosely,
Elisha Phelps,[14]
John Russ,[14]
James Stevens,[14]
Gideon Tomlinson.[14]
_New York_--27.
Nathaniel Allen,[14]
Caleb Baker,[14]
Walter Case,[14]
Robert Clark,
Jacob H. De Witt,[14]
John D. Dickenson,
John Fay,[14]
William D. Ford,[14]
Ezra C. Gross,[14]
Aaron Hackley, Jr.[14]
George Hall,[14]
Joseph S. Lyman,[14]
Henry Meigs,[14]
Robert Monell,[14]
Harmanus Peek,[14]
Nathaniel Pitcher,[14]
Jona Richmond.[14]
Ebenezer Sage,[14]
Henry R. Stoors,
Randall S. Street,[14]
James Strong,[14]
John W. Taylor,
Caleb Tompkins,
Albert H. Tracy,[14]
Sol. Van Renselaer,[14]
Peter H. Wendover,
Silas Wood.[14]
_New Jersey_--6.
Ephraim Bateman,
Joseph Bloomfield,
John Condit,[14]
John Linn,
Bernard Smith,[14]
Henry Southard.
_Pennsylvania_--23.
Henry Baldwin,
Andrew Boden,
Wm. Darlington,[14]
George Dennison,[14]
Samuel Edwards,[14]
Thomas Forest,[14]
David Fullerton,[14]
Samuel Gross,[14]
Joseph Heister,
Joseph Hemphill,[14]
Jacob Hibsliman,[14]
Jacob Hostetter,
Jacob Humphreys,[14]
Wm P. Maclay,
David Marchand,
Robert Moore,
Samuel Moore,
John Murray,
Thomas Patterson,
Robert Philson,[14]
Thomas J. Rogers,
John Seargeant,
James Wallace.
_Delaware_--2.
Willard Hall,
Louis Mc Lane.
_Maryland_--9.
Stephenson Archer,[14]
Thomas Bayly,
Thomas Culbreth,
Joseph Kent,[14]
Peter Little,
Ralph Neale,[14]
Samuel Ringgold,
Samuel Smith,
Henry R. Warfield.[14]
_Virginia_--23.
Mark Alexander,[14]
Wm. Lee Ball,
Philip P. Barbour,
Wm. A. Burwell,
John Floyd,
Robert S. Garnett,
James Johnson,
James Jones,[14]
William M'Coy,
Charles F. Mercer,
Hugh Nelson,
Thomas Newton,
Severn E. Parker,[14]
James Pindall,
James Pleasants,
John Randolph,[14]
Ballard Smith,
Alexander Smyth,
George F. Strother,
T. Van Swearengen,
George Tucker,[14]
John Tyler,
Jared Williams.[14]
_North Carolina_--13.
H. G. Burton,[14]
John Culpepper,[14]
William Davidson,
Welden N. Edwards,
Charles Fisher,
Thomas H. Hall,
Charles Hook,[14]
Lemuel Sawyer,
Thomas Settle,
Jesse Slocumb,
James S. Smith,
Felix Walker,
Lewis Williams.
_South Carolina_--9.
Joseph Brevard,[14]
Elias Earle,
James Ervin,
William Lowndes,
John M'Creary,
James Overstreet,[14]
Charles Pinckney,[14]
Eldred Simkins,
Sterling Tucker.
_Georgia_--6.
Joel Abbott,
Thomas W. Cobb,
Joel Crawford,
John A. Cuthbert,[14]
Robert R. Reid,
William Terrell.
_Kentucky_--10.
R. C. Anderson, Jr.
William Brown,
Henry Clay,
Benjamin Hardin,[14]
Alney M'Lean,[14]
Thomas Metcalfe,[14]
Tunstall Quarles,
George Robertson,
David Trimble,
David Walker.
_Tennessee_--6.
Robert Allen,[14]
Henry H. Bryan,[14]
Newton Cannon,[14]
John Cocke,[14]
Francis Jones,
John Rhea.
_Ohio_--6.
Philemon Beecher,
Henry Brush,[14]
John W. Campbell,
Samuel Herrick,
Thomas R. Ross,[14]
John Sloane.[14]
_Louisiana_--Thomas Butler.
_Indiana_--William Hendricks.
_Mississippi_--Christopher Rankin.[14]
_Illinois_--Daniel P. Cook.[14]
_Alabama_--John Crowell.
DELEGATES FROM TERRITORIES.
_Michigan_--William Woodbridge.
_Missouri_--John Scott.
[14] _Not Members of the last Congress._
STATE OF THE
THERMOMETER AT PHILADELPHIA,
_During the Year_ 1819.
(Communicated for the Rural Magazine.)
--------+------------------------------------------------------------
| AVERAGE. | Sun 3 Sun
Months. | Sun ris. | 3 o'clo. | Sun set. | ris. o'cl. s't.
--------+------------------------------------------------------------
_1st._ | 29.2 | 40. | 35.5 {[15] 15 25 22
| | | {[16] 40 53 50
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_2d._ | 30.5 | 41.6 | 38. {[15] 14 28 25
| | | {[16] 52 60 55
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_3d._ | 30.8 | 41.9 | 37.7 {[15] 16 28 26
| | | {[16] 55 67 63
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_4th._ | 43.6 | 59.2 | 53. {[15] 28 43 39
| | | {[16] 59 80 72
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_5th._ | 52.3 | 67.2 | 60.7 {[15] 40 51 46
| | | {[16] 63 82 73
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_6th._ | 65. | 80.6 | 73.6 {[15] 55 71 67
| | | {[16] 73 89 82
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_7th._ | 67.5 | 82.2 | 75.6 {[15] 60 76 67
| | | {[16] 74 90 85
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_8th._ | 67. | 82.4 | 75. {[15] 52 65 59
| | | {[16] 77 90 85
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_9th._ | 61. | 75.5 | 71. {[15] 48 57 55
| | | {[16] 75 90 80
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_10th._ | 46.8 | 60.7 | 53.6 {[15] 31 50 43
| | | {[16] 65 76 70
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_11th._ | 40.3 | 53.6 | 48.5 {[15] 23 38 35
| | | {[16] 57 68 60
---------------------------------------------------------------------
_12th._ | 28.7 | 39.6 | 26. {[15] 25 33 32
| | | {[16] 46 53 50
----------------------------------------------------------
[15] Coldest.
[16] Warmest.
* * * * *
PHILADELPHIA,
PUBLISHED BY
RICHARDS & CALEB JOHNSON,
_No. 31, Market Street_,
At $3.00 per annum.
* * * * *
GRIGGS & DICKINSON--_Printers, Whitehall._
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
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Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected
without noe. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed.
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transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rural Magazine, and Literary
Evening Fire-Side, by Various
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