THE 'ARMER AT HOME. 13 j 



)r ninety degrees to bring thorn to a high state of excellence, can 

 .lever thrive in these cold situations, where they find neither the 

 warmth nor the food suited to their habits. It is as unreasonable to 

 expect it as it is to expect the farmer's wife can bake bread in a cold 

 oven. But drain these soils, and they become light and porous ; per- 

 vious to solar and atmospheric influence, the process of vegetable 

 decomposition is accelerated, and a high state of fertility is developed. 



The acknowledged utility of irrigation, or of spreading, occasion- 

 ally, the water from streams, or the highways over lands, has led to 

 a misapprehension with many of the principles of draining. Irriga- 

 tion is employed to furnish water to soils, generally slopes, where it is 

 deficient, and from whence it speedily passes off, or to cover grounds 

 in winter to exclude severe frosts. The water thus employed is nearly 

 of the warmth of the atmosphere, and is generally charged with fer- 

 tilizing properties. Draining is *. ^ployed on flat surfaces, or upon 

 slopes abounding in springs, w r here there is an excess of water, and of 

 a temperature which materially chills and deadens the soil. Irriga- 

 tion supplies water where there is a deficiency draining carries it off 

 where there is an excess. Both are intended, by opposite modes, to 

 produce the same result a suitable degree of moisture for the \vants 

 of the crop. 



DRESSING OF MEAT. By means of culinary fire, is intended 

 to loosen, the compages or texture of the flesh, and dispose it for disso- 

 lution and digestion in the stomach. The usual operations are roast- 

 ing, boiling, and stewing. In roasting, it is observed, meat will bear 

 a much greater and longer heat than either in boiling or stewing ; 

 and in boiling, greater and longer than in stewing. Roasting being 

 performed in the open air, as the parts begin externally to warm, 

 they extend and dilute, and so gradually let out part of the rarefied 

 included air, by which means the internal succussions, on which the 

 dissolution depends, are much weakened and abated. Boiling being 

 performed in water, the pressure is greater, and consequently the suc- 

 cussions to lift up the weight are proportionably strong, by which 

 means the coction is hastened ; and even in this way there are great 

 differences ; for the greater the weight of water the sooner is the 

 business done. 



In stewing, though the heat be much less than what is employed 

 in the other methods, the operation is much more quick, because per- 

 formed in a close vessel, and full ; by which means the succussions 

 are oftener repeated, and more strongly reverberated. Boiling, Dr. 

 Cheyne observes, draws more of the rank, strong juices from the 

 meat, and leaves it less nutritive, but lighter, and easier of digestion ; 

 roasting, on the other hand, leaves it fuller of the strong, nutritive 

 juices, but harder to digest, and needing more dilution. Dr. Brown 

 insists, tha; roasted meat is more easily digested, and every way more 



