48 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



the disposition of "farmers' daughters," to learn "piano- 

 thumping," and little else, there never was one drop of 

 gall. The truth is, I am notoriously good-natured; and I 

 would not hold the anonymous and "thankless office of a 

 critic," only in the hopes of being able thus to do more 

 good than I could, unmasked. And my motto is "peace 

 and good will," and though I intend to write with a free 

 pen, I hope I never shall make a criticism in such a spirit 

 as will drive one correspondent, particularly a female, 

 from this paper. You will observe that I never criticise 

 style — my own is too loose and negligent for that. I hope 

 that every female correspondent will lay aside all fear of 

 "Mr. Reviewer" (he won't bite nor scratch), and though 

 I must continue to wear the "iron mask," take my word 

 for it, that I have no iron features in my face to frighten 

 them, and beg them to continue to let me see their beau- 

 ties through the productions of their pens. 



Influence of the Moon on Vegetation in Columbia. — 

 Now I can get a thousand men to certify that the moon 

 has an equal influence on vegetation in the United States, 

 that this article asserts it does in that part of South 

 America; but you would not believe it; neither do I be- 

 lieve that. Neither do I believe that salt will cure or pre- 

 vent the potatoe disease. 



Gun-Cotton.— If "villanous saltpetre" is to be dis- 

 pensed with for this new combustible, how our Southern 

 friends will be blowed up. And probably at some future 

 time after the burning of one-half of New York city, it 

 will not be necessary to inquire whether "saltpetre will 

 explode," since we know that cotton will. I hope the 

 whole of this new discovery will not all "blow out." 



Agricidtural Statistics of New York. — I want some- 

 body that loves figures and has the leisure, to construct 

 you a table to publish, showing the number of bushels per 

 acre of each kind of grain, and the number of bushels of 

 each kind 'per caput if it could be divided equally among 

 all the souls in New York State. [We will endeavor to do 

 this some leisure day.] Reviewer. 



