THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



Id 



or wind, thr pleasant well finished room we occupy 

 could liave born marred and lives endangered, we 

 should have been slow to give them credit. We 

 left the house about eight in the morning; a young 

 lady sat near where we now sit at her needle ; 

 nnd our youngest boy of eleven years was reading 

 before the fire. We had been absent scarcely half 

 an hour before a messenger arrived at the printing 

 office saying the young woman had been seriously 

 injured by the falling of the plastering directly up- 

 on her head. Returning and seeing the amount 

 and weight of this plastering, which was a treble 

 coat of nearly one inch in thickness, we were 

 amazed that she was not killed — the plastering fell 

 with such weight that it struck a hole directly 

 through the bottom of a flagged chair. Looking 

 over head wc see at once the difficulty which the 

 experienced masons who laid on the plastering 

 ought to have seen and remedied at the time ; and 

 that was, the spaces between the laths were too 

 narrow to permit ihi" mortar to cling behind them, 

 and in this particular room perhaps the sand mixed 

 in the plastering was too fine to give tlie proper te- 

 nacity. If tlie work had not been so abundantly 

 done — if instead of three coats of an inch in thick- 

 ness there had been only one coat of one half inch 

 — in all likelihofjd the plastering would not have 

 fallen. This tlie mechanics who did the work 

 sho^ild have been taught and known before they 

 undertook it. They ought not, as masters of their 

 trade, to have left a finished room in such a condi- 

 tion that lives should be in danger from their fallmg 

 work . 



We introduce this matter here as a subject prop- 

 er for this journal. Our object would be to induce 

 master farmers and mechanics to more thorough 

 instruction. When the right way to do any thing 

 is ascertained, it is quite as easy, and a thousand 

 times more pleasing, to do riglit than to do wrong. 

 We are confident tiiat most men have it in their 

 power to mend on this subject. In the matter of 

 constructing buildings in this country, there is 

 great imperfection. We have been induced to be- 

 lieve that generally the buildings of farmers in the 

 country at a mucli smaller expense are more tho- 

 roughly constructed and better adapted to the com- 

 fort of their occ\ipants, than tlie expensive struc- 

 tures of the cities. The cipitol at Washington has 

 been erected at the expense of millions to the na- 

 tion, and ought to be incombustible : yet only three 

 winters ago, in a very cold day when more than 

 usual fire was required, it was found that wood in 

 immediate contact with the flue of one of the chim- 

 nies, which ought never to have been there, had 

 taken fire. If this had caught at night instead of 

 the dav time, the conflagration would have spread 

 to the ruin of the building. 



tween the North and the South : it is carried to | years than he would have been had he given bio 

 Mobile, to New Orleans and to many of the West master his whole time. Tradesmen's apprentices 



India islands from the ponds and rivers near the 

 sea coast. Fresh pond, in Cambridge, near Bos- 

 ton, has several buildings on its shores constructed 

 like a merchant's store house, for the taking in and 

 forwarding ice in the winter. The shipping of ice 

 into latitudes where no ice is formed is a business 

 of profit to the merchant. Wc believe ice has been 

 shipped as an article of commerce from the United 

 States around the Cape of Good Hope to the East 

 Indies. I'laccd in a position not to be affected by 

 iieat — packed around with any non-conductor of 

 the air, ice will retain its solidity in any climate. 



Ice houses, again. 



Few of us are too old to learn, and many of us 

 ouglit to profit by the knowledge gained every day. 

 We said something about ice houses and the pres- 

 ervation of ice ill the last number. Since that wc 

 have put up a few ox loads of the most beautiful 

 chrystalized ice of Merrimack river, being the sec- 

 ond crop taken from the same spot that ice h;idbeen 

 before taken this winter, and of course much clear- 

 er than that which grew from disturbed water, and 

 when the ground was open so as to admit the blown 

 sand upon the surface of the river. The ice was pack- 

 ed in solid blocks, the interstices being filled with 

 smaller pieces of ice so as to leave little room for 

 the air : rye straw was laid upon the bottom, which 

 is a plank floor a few inches above the ground, and 

 the same article crowded in at the ends and the 

 sides of the cellar between the brick wall and the 

 ice. In this manner wo liope the ice will be pre- 

 served through the hot season of June and July. 



But we have found that an ice house may be 

 much better constructed either upon a side hill or 

 entirely above ground, tlian by digging into the 

 earth. If the ground is naturally wet, or water in- 

 troduces itself into tlio cellar, the ice will not last 

 as long below as above ground. On inquiry of our 

 friend Gass how he constructed his ice house, he 

 informed us that he hud built it in the wannest 

 place on his whole premises — above ground, at the 

 southwest corner of the stable attached to his tav- 

 ern. Under cover of a shed, the house is construct- 

 ed with a close plank bottom laid down in tan — the 

 sides are made wilh boards or plank filled in with 

 tan three or four inches tliick, and the top overlaid 

 with a floor, in which is a trap door for the entrance, 

 shutting out the air. Beneath and around the ice 

 rye straw is pressed in. The tan beneath the floor 

 and around the sides of this ice house being a non- 

 conductor of heat, and of moisture, renders the 

 house above ground a much' better preserver of the 

 ice thin a house under ground. 



In.' '\as become quite an article of commerce be- 



Education. 



The common idea of education is the knowledge 

 obtained from instruction and study in schools and 

 academies — in learning to spell, to read, to ascer- 

 tain the meaning of words, to write, to cypher, and 

 to obtain generally a knowledge of languages. 

 This kind of knowledge is highly beneficial, be- 

 cause without it we should be deprived of the best 

 facilities for usefulness and business. 



But there are other qualifications of great use to 

 every individual in society, whether he or she be 

 rich or poor, in high life or low life, which are no 

 less indispensable than the learning ofth? schools ; 

 and these are the faculty to knoio am! to do whatev- 

 er pertains to the eommon business of life. Without 

 this knowledge both man and woman may be set 

 down as among the poorest and most pitiable of 

 dependent creatures. Neither wealth nor distinc- 

 tion can compensate for the want of this everyday 

 knowledge. 



Suppose a young lady with an immense fortune 

 educated in all the blandishments of tile fashiona- 

 ble world — to receive company, to dress, to attend 

 the parties and levees of the great — to dance and 

 play upon the harp and piano. Without the knowl- 

 edge of every day business, what could be her en- 

 joyment at the head of a family with offspring a- 

 bout her who must be taught to protect themselves 

 while abroad and to take their parts on the theatre 

 of life .' A woman utterly destitute of the capacity 

 to tell how the common business of her family 

 ought to be performed with a great estate, is of far 

 less value to herself and her friends, than the wo- 

 man who has no other fortune than her hands, with 

 a capacity to direct in the management of her 

 whole family affairs. 



If the rich female destitute of the usual qual- 

 ifications be so poor an instrument of life, how 

 much more miserable and contemptible is the rich 

 man's son whose education in the common alTairs 

 of life has been utterly neglected — who has never 

 been taught to manage for himself in the ordinary 

 transactions of the world ? Such a young man may 

 inherit a million ; the chance is, if he shall live to 

 be fifty years old, that he will become, before 

 he gains that age, that being most of all to be piti- 

 ed, the "poor gentleman ;" that is, one who, while 

 wasting a great estate, has not learned to live on 

 the means which will be .lulficient to support the 

 poor man. 



It is a fact fully demonstrated by looking round 

 on the generation which has grown up within the 

 last thirty years, that the children of those men 

 who are called independent in point of property are 

 not as likely to succeed well in after life as the 

 children of men who are more indigent. 'Fhere is 

 certainly more danger of failure to be apprehend- 

 ed from' the youth who depends on others, who re- 

 lies on the help of wealthy parents, than on the 

 youth who almost exclusively relies on his own ex- 

 ertions. How often do we find the poor man who 

 has struggled hard to feed and clothe a numerous 

 family of sons and daughters meeting in his latter 

 days his best days of enjoyment from seeing those 

 "dear delights, " now grown to men and women, 

 able not only to live themselves, but to furnish 

 for their needy parents all comfortable sustenance .' 

 We wander in some degree from the topic on 

 which wc started ; and that was the education in 

 the common arts and trades of life as distinguished 

 from the common education of the schools. 



it should be the object of every individual to be 

 not behind the best in his trade or calling. In the 

 mechanic arts, in the common trades, there is a 

 o-reat deficiency at the present day. This deficien- 

 cy results from several causes, on two of which at 

 this time we will make it a point to ds'ell. 



First. The growing habit, in those who Jindertahe 

 to learn trades, of r/uitting their masters bifure they 

 are of aire, to undertake as journeymen or masters 

 thrmsetres. We have rarely ever known an instance 

 where an apprentice who either has taken or pur- 

 chased his time of a good master who, besides fail- 

 ing to perfect himself in his trade, has not been 

 lioorer when he arrived at the age of twenty-one 



arc indulged far beyond what they were twenty 

 and thirty years ago ; yet it is believed that where 

 there was then one there are now at least five who 

 leave their masters' service before their time is ex- 

 pired. Many of the young men leave their trade 

 for what they consider more genteel employments; 

 others leave because thpy believe thai a service of 

 one or two years has made them perfect in learning 

 a trade which requires a practice of from five to 

 seven years. Humble as is the occupation of a 

 barber, the man who is perfect in all the branches 

 of that trade ought to be considered moro respect- 

 able and more useful than the physician or the 

 lawyer wiio is a bungler at his profession. Of the 

 useful trades in a community of farmers, how great 

 is the advantage of every man who fully under- 

 stands his business — the blacksmith, the shoemak- 

 er, the tailor, the wheelright, the saddle and har- 

 ness maker, the carpenter, the mason, the brick 

 maker, the miller, tlie baker, the chair maker, the 

 cabinet maker, the painter .' A man who well un- 

 derstands and applies himself constantly to busi- 

 ness in any of these trades seldom fails to succeed; 

 but tliere are hundreds who have been too indo- 

 lent to learn their trade, or who leave their mas- 

 ters before they had completed it, that never can 

 and never will succeed in business. 



Second. Another ground of tiio deficiency of 

 the tradesmen of the present day is tlie fault of 

 their masters in failing to render the requisite in- 

 struction. The obligation of master and apprentice 

 is mutual : it is the duty of the one faithfully and 

 thoroughly to instruct, as it is of the other with fi- 

 delity to serve. Those masters who h.ave not a 

 knowledge how to instruct never ought to under- 

 take it. In many instances it will not be expect- 

 ed, as the master only half learned his trade, that 

 he will be able to give his apprentice the requisite 

 knowledge. 



The tax on the whole community from sacrifices 

 made in the use of imperfect articles is much great- 

 er than we are apt to imagine. The suffering of em- 

 ployers of mechanics who only half do what they 

 undertake has become so frequent, that complaint 

 has very little weight. It has indeed become com- 

 mon for some who know how to do well, to slight 

 their work for the sake of making their articles 

 cheap. Thoy gloss over that work so it presents a 

 fair outside ; but it proves to be of little value. 

 We have abundance of cheap furniture, cheap 

 boots and shoes, and cheap clothing, which like Pe- 

 ter Pindar's razors were only made to sell — they 

 are a sad cheat. And when every tradesman shall 

 be bro\ight to realize that worthless articles must 

 sooner or later run down the manufacturer and 

 maker, then will he become duly impressed with 

 the necessity of turning back to the old practice of 

 apprentices serving out their time with their mas- 

 ters, and masters faithfully instructing apprenti- 

 ces, and both manufacturing in the best manner 

 the articles of their trade and calling. 



We have been furnished with two numbers of 

 the Common School Journal, published at Boston 

 by Marsh, Capen & Lyon, and also at their store 

 in this town. The design is the improvement and 

 elevation of the character of our public schools. 

 It is conducted by Horace Mann, Esq. of Massa- 

 chusetts, an experienced and beautiful writer. It 

 is published in an octavo of sixteen pages once a 

 fortnight. In the second number the editor thus 

 humorously describes the condition of not a few 

 of our country school houses : 



" About a dozen years ago it was our fortune to 

 travel upon the principal thoroughfares, over al- 

 most all parts of the State. Lately we have had 

 occasion to repass substantially over the same 

 routes. The churches have changed : the school 

 houses remain. Th pareii''.3 have taken care of 

 themselves ; few have been fouiv ' to take care of 

 their children. It is now a rare event, to see a for- 

 lorn, dilapidated, weather-beaten church. They 

 seem new, commodious, attractive. They have 

 belfries and bells ; all are painted outside, and ma- 

 ny arc cushioned and carpeted within. The minis- 

 ter speaks from a mahogany desk : he reposes his 

 hands upon its covering of scarlet velvet, his fin- 

 gers play with the silken tassels ; if need be, he 

 reads by astrals, from his gilt hymn book. But 

 tlie school houses : — alas ! the wrath of the elements 

 has been poured out upon these without stint or 

 measure. The wood-colored clapboards dangle by 

 a nail ; the moss covered shingles flutter in the 

 wind ; the chimney bends with the infirmities of 

 age ; a rail, borrowed from a neighboring fence, 

 props a hingeless window-blind against — we know 

 not what. We forbear ; it is vsoiOiy of Ossiau and 

 there needs ng ghost to do 111" fchiieking." 



