No. 7. 



Plaster of Paris. 



217 



better barns were built, prodigious corn cribs 

 were erected, such as were never known be- 

 fore those days ; good and substantial houses, 

 replete with every comfort, were seen to 

 grow up all over the country, surrounded 

 with every convenience that the most fastidi- 

 ous could desire. 



But of prosperity was born extravagance ; 

 gigs, buggies and carriages were substituted 

 for riding on horseback, or for going on 

 shank's mare, which was the mode of loco- 

 motion in common use in tlie days of our 

 great grandfathers, as tradition tells us. In- 

 stead of bread and milk, mush and milk, pie 

 and milk, farmers' rice, boiled milk, &c. &c., 

 with which we were daily treated, even in 

 my day, came the everlasting slops, tea and 

 coffee, and sugar, and chocolate, with their 

 long train of nervous diseases, such as were 

 never heard of in the days of my boyhood, 

 and the e.xistence of many of which may be 

 very well questioned even now, otherwise j 

 than in the imagination. 



The use of such an immense mass of for- j 

 eign products all over our country, indepen-! 

 dent of the effect of many of them on our | 

 health and happiness, has brought poor old j 

 Uncle Sam and his tenantry into a pretty fix, j 

 which we had better all join together and 

 relieve ourselves from as soon as possible ; I 

 and the way to do it is just as plain as the i 

 way to market — buy less and sell more. I 



Only think of it now for a moment: Dur-j 

 ing the year ending the 30th of September, I 

 1839, there was imported into the United j 

 States from foreign countries, merchandise, 

 (and a goodly quantity of it was tea, coffee! 

 and sugar) amounting to the enormous sum J 



of .$157,609,500, 



Exported to other countries j 



from this, during the same I 



time, - - - - 118,359,004! 



Leaving a balance against us ! 



in one year of - - 39,250,556 



Of the articles exported $109,921,094 were , 

 domestic productions, and $17,408,000 were ' 

 foreign articles. } 



Now don't you call this bad farming; but 

 a thing once done can't be recalled, and it is| 

 not worth crying over spilt milk ; but let us ■ 

 try not to spill it next time. 



But how are we to pay this balance, which 

 amounts to about two dollars and fifty cents 

 for each man, woman and child, black and I 

 white, in the Union. The answer is, buy 

 less and sell more, and the balance will soon 

 be transferred to the other side of the ledger, j 

 The business of a whole nation works pre-' 

 cisely on the same principle as the concerns! 

 of an individual do. He who spends morej 

 than he earns will soon be out at tlie little , 

 end of the horn. j 



But I must not forget that I began to write, ' 



not to tell you and your readers about politi- 

 cal economy, but to impress farmers with the 

 importance of procuring plenlij of good, clean 

 grass seed during the winter, bo as to be 

 ready at tlie earliest suitable period in the 

 spring to sow it on their grain fields, and be 

 sure and sow it bountifully, and of several 

 kinds, so that there may be a full crop of it, 

 for it has been truly said, that as we sow so 

 shall we reap, and it is equally true of grass 

 as of grain crops. 



Amos. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Plaster of Pai'is< 



There have been many notions and opin- 

 ions put forth at various times in regard to 

 the mode of action of this article m promoting 

 vegetation; some have supposed that it acted 

 only as a stimulant, and others that it pro- 

 moted the growth of plants exclusively by its 

 attraction for moisture : But the better opin- 

 ion seems now to prevail with the more in- 

 telligent observers of nature's operations, that 

 it is a positive food for many descriptions of 

 plants, particularly clover, and enters into 

 their composition and structure. Tliis has 

 been ascertained beyond all doubt by chemical 

 analysis. Sir H. Davy obtained from a quan- 

 tity of clover a proportion of gypsum equal 

 to about a bushel to the acre. This must 

 have been taken up from the earth by the 

 clover as a part of its food, and had it not 

 existed in the earth from which the clover 

 obtained its nutriment it would not have been 

 in its composition. 



Where it has been frequently sown it 

 ceases to produce the same comparative ef- 

 fect, for there remains a portion of it in the 

 soil, and the manure made on a farm where 

 it has been freely applied always contains a 

 considerable quantity of it, which is annually 

 returned to the fields, where it renews its 

 beneficial agency. This should not deter far- 

 mers from making their usual annual applica- 

 tions of this very useful and important food 

 for plants, tor doubtless a considerable quan- 

 tity of it is dissolved and washed to a depth 

 in the soil that the fibres of the roots are un- 

 able to take it up, therefore continue to apply 

 plaster to your grass lands, for to it agricul- 

 ture is perhaps more indebted for its improve- 

 ments than to any other single cause. 



No one can change his mind to the injury 

 of another. 



Thou shalt govern many, if reason govern 

 thee. 



A poor freedom is better than a rich sla- 

 very. 



Reward no man's opinion of what he does 

 not understand. 



