THE FARMER AT HOME. 319 



mon plough with a very flat share, which may he used when the 

 surface is very level, without being encumbered with stones or large 

 roots, as in low moist meadows, or in most other cases, a paring iron, 

 used by hand, the cross bars of which are held by both hands ; and 

 the upper parts of the thighs, being protected by two small slips of 

 board, push the instrument into the ground, so as to cut a slice of the 

 required thickness, which is then turned over by moving the cross 

 handle. The labor is severe, and a good workman can scarcely pare 

 more than one-sixth of an acre in a day. This mode of paring and 

 burning is but barely known in our own country. 



PARROT. Of all foreign birds, the parrot is best known to us ; 

 it is at once beautiful and docile, and with very little difficulty is 

 taught to speak. A grave writer assures us, that one of these birds, 

 at command, would repeat a whole sonnet from Petrarch ; and a dis- 

 tiller, who had been greatly injured by the malevolence of an inform- 

 er that lived opposite to him, taught his parrot the ninth command- 

 ment, which the bird was continually repeating, to the entertainment 

 of those neighbors who were acquainted with the ungenerous part the 

 despicable man had played. Willoughby tells us that a parrot, be- 

 longing to King Henry VII., who then resided at Westminster, in 

 his palace by the Thames, had learned many words from the passen- 

 gers who took water at that place. One day, sporting on his perch, 

 the poor bird fell into the stream, at the same time calling as loud as 

 he could, "A boat ! twenty pounds for a boat!" A waterman, hear- 

 ing the cry, made to the place where the parrot was floating, and 

 taking him up, restored him to the king. As it was known the bird 

 was a favorite, the man insisted that he ought to have a reward 

 rather equal to his services than his trouble ; and as the parrot had 

 cried twenty pounds, he said the king was in honor bound to grant 

 it. The king agreed to leave it to the parrot's determination ; which 

 the bird hearing, instantly cried out, " Gwe the knave a groat.'* 



PASTRY. Pastry, or dough mixed with butter, is used in a great 

 variety of forms, and is grateful to the taste, but injurious to the 

 health. It is a fertile source of all the varieties of stomach complaints, 

 and is apt to occasion plethora and the apoplectic tendency, as well 

 as many skin diseases. At dinner, in the shape of tarts and confec- 

 tionary, pastry is thrown into the already loaded stomach, and its 

 overtaxed powers are unable to digest what is difficult to manage at 

 its most vigorous times. To children, pastry is peculiarly unsuitable. 

 Its taste is pleasant, and injudicious fondness is apt to indulge them 

 with it ; but those children who use it much, are subject to runnings 

 from the ears, disorders of the bowels, eruptions on the skin, and in- 

 flammatory complaints of various kinds. Pastry should be almost 

 totally excluded from the nursery-table. 



PASTURES. The land usually appropriated to permanent pas- 

 turage, is that which is mountainous or hilly, or encumbered with 



