No. 9. 



Farm Improvements. 



291 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 



" Well," say many that I meet, " I sup- 

 pose we are going to learn all that is import- 

 ant and necessary, to our happiness and 

 worldly prosperity, by perusing the Farmers' 

 Cabinet." There wo are informed, all that 

 is requisite is just to improve your farms, by 

 sowing clover, and ploughing it down — by 

 enlarging your pig-pens — improving your 

 stables and hen-roosts — your horses and cat- 

 tle. Again, some maintain that we have 

 been expending double the amount of lime 

 and labour necessary, and therefore there 

 will shortly be nothing in the way of every 

 one having a farm, and living just as he 

 pleases. 



Well, I hope this may all prove true, but I 

 tell you I yet have my doubts. Again, we 

 hear on all hands the loud complaints about 

 bank suspensions and bank resumptions, bank 

 rags and bank vaults, bank frauds and bank 

 fears; and also the hubbub about sub-trea- 

 suries and annulled charters, state debts and 

 state insolvency, hard times, scarcity of mo- 

 ney, high taxes and low price of wheat and 

 corn, and the burden of heavy oat crops and 

 nobody to take it as a gift, scarcity of hands 

 and high wages, high price of poor stock, 

 while the well-fed and fat is a drug, low 

 prices of bacon, eggs, butter, and potatoes, 

 &-C. All of which seem to alarm and dis- 

 courage the farmer, as though there was no 

 hope for him ; and unless he can enrich his 

 land at less cost, under such a mountain 

 " pressure," he must sink. 



Now, have not all these theorists failed to 

 arrive at the main causes of at least, much of 

 the "derangement" prevalent in the com- 

 munity, and failed to discover the cause of 

 unhappiness and lack of prosperity, much 

 more important to every class than " bank 

 suspensions :" — I mean " suspensions" of that 

 devoted regard, attachment and confidence 

 which should ever be manifested in the do- 

 mestic circle — the fire-sides of the married, 

 where mutual rights, interests, and hopes 

 give birth to reciprocal efforts, for the attain- 

 ment of happiness and prosperity. 

 fc Not being engaged in the moneyed transac- 

 tions of the country, for the very best of rea- 

 sons (possessing no money to trouble me,) I 

 have therefore looked upon bank suspensions 

 with a degree of indifference ; but I confess, 

 as a bachelor, and a middtinq old one too, 

 that I have long observed with a kind of des- 

 pondency, this latter sort of " suspensions." 

 I confess they give me much the most trou- 

 ble, and could I suppose that "resumption" 

 was impossible, I would go against union, or 

 else for the national administration doctrine 

 of " divorce." Look at the consequence of 

 such suspensions. No concert of action 



reigning in the household, but on tlie con- 

 trary, "all parties" weighed down by the 

 " pressure'' of hard thoughts and feelings, un- 

 kind looks and words, the manager 'of the 

 household has no stimulus to rentier every 

 thing in and about her house plea.«!ant and 

 agreeable to the husband or their friends; 

 and likewise he, on his part, has no motive 

 to effort in furnishing and preparing conve- 

 niences for his tiimily, or in fitting up his 

 tlirm, barn, out-houses and every thing about 

 him in that comfortable style which ever 

 marks the man of energy, that also enjoys a 

 "par circulation" of the affections, for lie is 

 then always blessed with a " sound currency." 

 Where there is not a " healthy state of this 

 currency," " suspension" is the inevitable re- 

 sult, and the consequence a " deranged state" 

 of the Jiousehold community which is ever 

 fidlowed by a "a pressure" of the feelings 

 the most to be lamented and dreaded. Such 

 " pressures" and such " suspensions" may be 

 truly regarded as "public calamities," and 

 none can prosper under their influence. I 

 go then for " resumption" at all hazards, like 

 a real " loco foco," as the only method 

 of "relieving the pressure" which has al- 

 ready rendered " bankrupt" the happiness of 

 many. With a " permanent currency in free 

 circulation" of this character, it would be 

 found eminently "suited to the wants of the 

 people," and so far superior to a "metallic or 

 paper circulation," that we should witness 

 peace, plenty, and universal prosperity, not- 

 withstanding banks should entirely " suspend 

 operations,'' and the government also. I do 

 hope that this subject may receive a large 

 share of attention in your valuable paper, as 

 one of the most important requisites, even to 

 the improvement of your farms, for without 

 the prevalence of such a currency, your lim- 

 ing will prove of no avail to your pro.-;perity 

 — nor will improved stables, hog-pens, stock, 

 modes of farming, high prices of stock, grain, 

 bacon, eggs, butter, reduced taxes and la- 

 bourer's wages, — promote j'our happiness, 

 unless you are blessed with a large share of 

 that which is certainly the " basis" of all 

 successful enterprise. 



Let us then begin our system of improve- 

 ment by rendering every one happy about us, 

 and that will give the most effective motive 

 for successful exertion in their allotted field 

 of labour; and this in turn will re-act upon 

 ourselves, and propel us forward to renewed 

 and redoubled efforts in our sphere of opera- 

 tions, and then may you improve your fields 

 to advantage, for then their increase will not 

 be mismanaged or wasted by a heart-broken, 

 carelessly indifferent or estranged wife — nor 

 will that increase be misapplied or squandered 

 by a censurable, but discouraged husband in 

 the rounds of petty and contemptible pas- 



