THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



63 



times the height of the towers of Notre Dame. The 

 quarries witliin the Department of the Seine are 

 032 in nuiahrr, producing annually materials worth 

 9,843,G(iO fr. and employing 4,015 workmen. These 

 results may be thus divided ; 



Niliiilier <tf 0.ii;Arries. AnnnnI prodiire. No. of men. 

 Chalk, .'5 17,400 fr. aO 



Clny, 55 180,(500 00* 



Buildin.v stone, 710 3,000,100 2,075 



Limestone, 17 241,500 50 



Pl.Tster of Paris, IGl G,Otil,UOO 1,015 



Sand, 4S 163,200 ^25 



Millstone, 36 150,200 30 



Total, 932 9,843,660 4,015 



The value of the produce of these qe.arries must 

 have been much more considerable in 1S24 and 

 1,S25, when innumerable buildings were erecting 

 in Paris and the Baulieue. The numbers of per- 

 missions for opening new quarries for those two 

 years were 104 and 184 ; while those annulled were 

 50 and 75. Of the 1093 workmen annually em- 

 ployed on the left hank of the Seine, there have 

 been 50 killed within the last 12 years, being in the 

 proportion of 1 in 426 per annum. Tn the quarries 

 on the right bank of the Seine which employ 2,820 

 workmen, there have been 3S killed in 9 years, be- 

 ing in the proportion of 1 in 520 per annum. The 

 average of men annually killed of the while num- 

 ber employed in the department is 1 in 474. 



*Tr!i8 niimliHr is compri.'^ed in Ihe 2-35 workni.-n in the 

 8;ilid quarries. 



have been caused by explosions and other dis.asters 

 to steamboats. About 1,300 steamboats have been 

 built in the United States— 200 of which h.avc been 

 lost by various accidents. The whole number now 

 employed is about 800. In England the whole 

 number is GOO. Tlie first steamboat used for prac- 

 tical purposes in any part of the world, was t!ie 

 North river, built by Fulton; this wa.i in 1807, on 

 the Hudson river. Of the 800 steamboats in the 

 United States, the greatest number in any one State, 

 is 140 in the State of New York. The government 

 of the United States never owned but two steam 

 vessels of war; both called the Fulton. One was 

 lost by accident in 1829— the other was built in 

 1833. The tonnage of all the steamboats in this 

 country is supposed to e-xeeed 1.55,473. In Eng- 

 land, the tonnage was about 68,000 tons in 1836. 

 The largest boat in this country is tlie Natchez, of 

 800 tons and 300 horse power, designed to run be- 

 tween New York and the Mississpp.i The great- 

 est loss of life on any occasion in a steamboat, was 

 by collision, in the case of the Monmoutli, in 1837, 

 on the Mississippi, when 300 lives were lost. The 

 greatest loss by e.vplosion, was in the case of the 

 Oroonoko, in 1838, on the Mississippi, when up- 

 wards of 130 lives were lost. The greatest loss by 

 fire was in tlie case of the Ben Sherrod, in 1837, 

 on the Mississippi, when 130 lives were lost. The 

 greatest loss of life by shipwreck, v.-.as in the case 

 of the Home, in 1337, on the coast of North Caro- 

 lina, when 100 lives were lost. 



Oats. — The oat is a favorite grain in almost all 

 countries, being hardy, very productive, easily cul- 

 tivated, siiftering less loss from exposure when ri- 

 pened than anv other grain; and as food for the 

 horse, to which it is generally devoted, unrivalled. 

 Oats are cultivated on all kinds of soil; and I no- 

 ticed that most fuimers left that grain for the last 

 to be sown, put it in in a most slovenly manner, 

 and considered land on which nothing else would 

 grow good enough for the oat. Such forming must 

 be bad policy in the end ; poor crops, and mined 

 farms are the inevitable results of such ;i system. 

 There are I'liw farms in wiiich the soil by proper 

 management cannot be made capable of [irodueing 

 all the grains or grasses required m a skillful rota- 

 tion, and instead of the e-^hansting process of con- 

 tinual cropping on one jiart of a farm, all parts 

 should in turn be made to yield their proportion of 

 sustenance and profit. No grain better repays good 

 cultivation and treatment llian the oat, and it should 

 not be subjected to tile unfarmerlike usage it re- 

 ceives. 



ButKwiiK.iT. — Within a few years, and in a de- 

 gree, owing to the same causes that have promot- 

 ed the extension of the barley culture' — the neces- 

 sity of providing some substitute for corn — the cul- 

 ture of buckwheat has become common, and as 

 food for man ranks next to wheat and corn. The 

 cakes made from buckwheat flour, when the grain 

 is jiroperly prepared jn'evious to grinding, may be 

 considered both healthful and palatable; and by 

 most are thought far superior to those made of bar- 

 ley or oat meal. Buckwheat is a plant of rapid and 

 certain gro\vth, and the greatest danger to be ap- 

 prehended in its cultivation, i.s an early frost, which 

 from the nature of the plant is sure to destroy it. 

 A severe drouglit at the season of flov.'cring is al.so 

 productive of injur}^ but it more frequently sutlers 

 from cold tli.nn from heat. Buckwheat is valuable 

 for making pork, to which use it is generally put ; 

 other animals not appearing to le as fond of it as of 

 other grain. I oliservi'd in some places that the 

 *indian wheat,' as it was called, a new^ siJCcies of 

 buckv.'heat, has been introduced, but from the 

 growth of the plant, or the appearance of the kern- 

 el, I should doubt its claims to a precedence over 

 tlie old kind ; still in a more favorable season it 

 mi^ht vindicate its title to general favor, and its 

 right to the commendations so liberally li'stowed 

 upon it in ihe eastern States. As a green crop for 

 enriching the soil by ploughing under, the rapid 

 growth of buckwheat and its succulent stems, ea- 

 sily decomposed, renders it unrivalled by any plant 

 yet introduced for this purpose. Where it ripens, 

 however, on a soil, the seed is apt to remain on the 

 soil, rendering it unfit for grain crops, in which the 

 presence of buckwheat would be an injury, and 

 care in this respect should alwa^'s be taken when 

 fields are selected fer this grain. — Gen. Fanner. 



in the shops, varies so much in strength, that a pa- 

 tient, letting a new supply from his own druggist, 

 may be instantly killed by a drjse eT]UivalMit in 

 quantity to that which he has been taking daily for 

 some time. It ought also to be generally known 

 th.at there are no diseases, capable of being allevi- 

 ated by prussic acid, which may n^it be, with equal 

 certainty, relieved by other and safer means. The 

 patient, therefore, who uses it at his own risk, runs 

 the most imminent hazard of his life, and the 

 physician who prescribes it without the most comuit 

 necessity does little less than sport with the life of 

 his patient. The writer of these remarks has been 

 twenty-two years in practice, during which period 

 he has seen many thousand cases of all descrip- 

 tions, and in all clas.ses of society, and yet he has 

 never once had occasion to prescribe prussic aciil, 

 havintr always accomplished the end which he had 

 in view by other means. He knows other practi- 

 tioners, of still longer standing, wlio can make a 

 similar statement ; but he is sorry to add, that he 

 knows much younger men who employ it often, 

 and with much too little caution. 



, Edinburgh Couriint. 



Steamboats. — From a document recenllj' trans- 

 mitted by the Secretary of the Tre.nsury to the 

 House of Representatives, it appears that the num- 

 ber of accidents occasioning loss of life or property, 

 which have occurred in the use of steam engines 

 in the United States, is about 260- of which, 230 



Desest of C-M.iFOKitiA. — This immense plain, 

 the existence of which was until very recently un- 

 known, is situated in the central part of Upper or 

 New California, in Mexico. It is limited on the 

 north by a mass of rsckn, which separate it from 

 the head waters of the Lewis river, on the west by 

 an irregular chain of mountains extending in par- 

 allel ridges along the shores of the Pacific Ocean ; 

 on the east by the western branches of the Colora- 

 do, and on the south by the valley of the Colorado. 

 Its area is equal to that of Virginia, and consists of 

 an elevated plateau or table land, flanked on all 

 sides by descents more or less inclined, according 

 to their geological structure. In all itsess-ntial fea- 

 tures, this remarkable waste resembles the Great 

 Sahara of Africa. It presents little else than an arid 

 surface, broken at intervals by a few detached 

 mountains of limited extent; but rising in some 

 instances above the region of jierpetual snow. 

 From these mountains small streams flow during 

 the rainy season. 



On reaching tiie plains these torrents disappear 

 in the sand, leaving no other trace of their exis- 

 tence than the fragments of rocks and other depris, 

 which are borne ilown by the current and deposit- 

 ed at tlie basis of the hills. No region can present 

 a more dreary and desolate appearance, A solitary 

 antelope or black tailed deer, wild in the extreme, 

 and a few straggling Indians among the most 

 wretched objects in creation, may sometimes be 

 seen traversing the plains. The countr3' beyond 

 the mountains which bound the desert on the west 

 is inhabited by numerous tribes of the short haired 

 Indians. They occupy the vallies of the Bucna- 

 venture, and hunt the elk, antelope, black tailed 

 deer, grisly bear, &e. Immediately adjoining the 

 desert on "the northeast is situnt<>d one of the most 

 extensive lakes in this part of the continent. In 

 common with all other isolated lakes of great ex- 

 tent, its waters are strongly impregnated with rock 

 salt, which abounds in the mountains on the east. 

 Tanner's Geographical J^'otes. 



A Bf.autiful Sr.N'TniF.s-T. — The late eminent 

 .ludge, Sir Allen Park, once said at a public meet- 

 ing in London — "We live in the midst of blessings, 

 till we are utterly insensible of their greatness, and 

 of the sources frmn whence they flow. We speak 

 of our civilization, our arts, our freedom, our laws, 

 and forget entirely liov,- large a share of all is due 

 to Christianity. Blot Chr'.stinnity out of t!ie page 

 of man's history, and what would his laws have 

 been — what his' civilization .^ Christianity is mix- 

 ed up with our very being and our daily life ; there 

 is not a familiar object round us which does not 

 wear a mark — not a being or a thing which does 

 not wear a dilferent aspect, because the light of 

 Christian hope is on it; — not a law which does not 

 owe its truth and gentleness to Christianity — not a 

 custom which cannot be traced in all its holy and 

 healthful parts to the Gospel.'' 



filatemcnt of the cast in the acf/uisilion and manage- 

 ment of the public lands, and of the receipts aris- 

 ing from the sale thereof, to the 'Mlh Seplcnther, 

 18'W. 



The whole expenditure under the head of Indian 

 department, from the coinmeucement of the Gov- 

 ernment to the 30tli of September, 183-^, as far 

 as can be acertained from the records of this of- 

 fice, amounts to $32,047,598 50 



By the convention of Franco of the 

 3d April, 1803, the United States 

 paid for Louisiana, in stock and 

 money .f 15,fl00,000 00 



Interest on the stock, 

 up to the time it 

 became redeemable 8,1520,353 43 



23,529,353 43 



By the treaty with Spain of the 22d 

 February, 1819, there was paid 

 for the Floridas, the sum of 



$5,000,000 00 



Interest on the stock 

 constituted per act 

 of the 24 th M.iy, 

 1824, to provide 

 for the awards of 

 the commissioners 

 under the said trea- 

 ty, up to the time 

 it was paid off 1,489,768 (>6 



6,439,768 66 



Fvussic Acid as a Mediclue. 



It ought to be generally known that prussic aeid 

 or hydrocyanic acid, as it is also called, is a most 

 deadly poison, proving instantly fatal in a very 

 small dose, and that the diluted acid, which is sold 



The paymeiits to the State of Geor- 

 gia on account of lands relinquish- 

 ed to the United States, including 

 the value of arms furnished that 

 State, amounted to 1,2.50,000 00 



Amount of Mississippi stock issued 

 under the act of the 3d March, 

 1815, and redeemed at the Treas- 

 ury, exclusive of the amount re- 

 ceived in payment for lands 1,832,375 70 



There has been paid for salaries and 

 contingent expenses of the Gener- 

 al Land Ofilce 1 , 126,609 S3 



For salaries and incidental expenses 

 of the several land oOices, out of 

 the proceeds of sales, while in the 

 hands of receivers $3,227,939 13 



For the salaries of reg- 

 isters and receivers, 

 by warrants on the 

 Treasurer of the U- 

 nited States 92,903 39 



■ 3,320,842 52 



For the salaries of surveyors general 

 and their clerks, and of the com- 

 missioners for settling land claims, 

 &c. ],0o2,6(;6 80 



And for survey of public lands 3,10G,8;iI 94 



Cost, including foreign cessions and 

 expense ot Indians 73,736,047 38 



The cost in the acquisition and man- 

 agement of the public lands, ex- 

 clusive of the sums paid for ces- 

 sions from foreign Governments, 

 and expenses of Indian w.irs for 

 which specific appropriations were 

 made, amounts to $y8,4.S4 ,0.56 65 



Receipts into the Treasury from the 

 sales of the public lands fo 31st 

 September, 1.S38 .$97,900,000 00 



