THE FARMER AT HOME. 459 



time as a Sabbatical rest, it is of no small importance that this wise 

 and benevolent institution has mitigated the rigor and eased the burden 

 of slavery. The slaves of the ancient pagan nations, for instance, the 

 Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, had no sabbath, no seventh day of 

 rest. "The whole week, the whole year, was, in general, with but 

 few exceptions, one uninterrupted round of labor and oppression.'* 

 But, among the Israelites of old, and among Christian nations since, 

 the divine prohibition of labor on the sabbath, a prohibition that 

 mercifully names in particular the man servant, and the maid servant, 

 has brought no inconsiderable relief, even in a temporal point of view, 

 to this wretched class of people. The French government, in 1685, 

 enacted laws which obliged every planter in their West India islands, 

 to have his negroes properly instructed in the doctrines and duties of 

 Christianity ; and allowed the slaves for these purposes, and for days 

 of rest, not only every Sunday, but every festival usually observed by 

 the Romish Church. Arid it is said that a similar regulation was 

 made by the Spanish government, a long time ago ; and that obedi- 

 ence has been paid to it, particularly in the Havana. It had been 

 well if Protestant nations had always treated their slaves in a manner 

 correspondent with these examples. 



WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. The cattle which are natives, 

 or descendants of natives, of the western coast of Scotland, or the 

 islands adjacent thereto, are called West Highlanders. The particular 

 value of them consists in their being hardy, and easily fed ; in that 

 they will live, and sometimes thrive, on the coarsest pastures ; that 

 they will frequently gain from a fourth to a third of their original 

 weight in six months of good feeding ; that the proportion of offal is 

 not greater than in the most improved larger breeds ; that they will 

 lay on their flesh and fat equally on the best parts ; and that, when 

 fat, the beef is close arid fine in the grain, highly flavored, and so well 

 mixed or marbled, that it commands a superior price in every market. 

 Their common color is black, or pale red, the head small, the ears 

 thin, the muzzle fine, and rather turned up. 



Forty years ago. the treatment of cattle was, with very few 

 exceptions, absurd and ruinous, to a strange degree, through the 

 whole of the Hebrides. With the exception of the milch cows, but 

 not even of the calves, they were all wintered in the field ; and, if 

 they were sometimes scantily fed with hay, it was coarse, and 

 withered, and half r^ten ; or if they got a little straw, they were 

 thought to be well ta^en care of. The majority got little more than 

 sea-weed, heather, and rushes. One-fifth of the cattle, on an average, 

 used to perish every winter from starvation. When the cold had 

 been unusually severe, and the snow had lain long on the ground, one- 

 half of the stock has been lost, and the remainder have afterward been 

 thinned by the diseases which poverty had engendered. It proved 

 the excellency of the breed, that, in the course of two or three months, 



