THE PARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



69 



crow tliat had been domesticated and brought up I in length, averaging nearly nine incheB each, and 



about some family, and afterwards returned to the 

 forest : while lie seems not to fear the face of man 

 when not near enoug'-. to be dangerous, he taUes 

 especial good care to keep in the position where he 

 can cover a safe retreat if necessary. The one 

 corn field near the frog pond is, we believe, the on- 

 ly corn field th.at has been much troubled with 

 these three crows. They cou-.e straight over corn 

 fields on tlie other side of the river early in the 

 mornincT: they touch not there, but alight first on 

 the field beside the pond. Our corn a: the time of 

 vrriting tliis article had not come up ; but the three 

 identical crowS have made their appearance. 



We have had much vexation in regard to the 

 crows pulling corn ; but as a matter simply of loss 

 and gain we are inclined to think tliat the law of 

 the State oftering a bounty for the heads of crows 

 was not a wise law. There are but a few days of tlie 

 year in wliicli these birds of ill omen can do dam- 

 age to the corn ; and for the good they do during 

 the remainder of the year, it might be worth while 

 to set the boys to watch the fields where other 

 scare-crows shall be ineffectual. There is not a 

 doubt but one of these birds in the course of the 

 year destroys many thousands of the worms, bugs 

 and insects which greatly injure fields of corn 

 and otlier useful vegetation. It is the belief of 

 some tliat the crow takes away and consumes mass- 

 es of materials which create noxious effluvia and 

 Bometimes generate disease and death. 



We come to the conclusion,tliat it is sinful wan- 

 tonly to take the lives of any of the hundred kinds 

 of innocent birds which do no injury, but destroy 

 myriads of insects that infest the air ; that we may 

 well spare the lives of others which, although fit to 

 eat, will not pay for the powder and shot ; and that 

 some of those which are considered t»o mischiev- 

 ous to live are on the whole a greater benefit than 

 injury. 



The following Inies were suggested by reading 

 the biographical sketch of the late Gen. Pierce 

 in the last number of the Visitor. 



For the Farmer's Montlilj' Visitnr. 

 The Heroes of the Revolution. 



A noble race they were — the tried, 



And true, of ancient time; 

 Our glorious Sires, who bled and dy'd 



For this, our own free clime : — 

 Oh ! hallowed be each sacred name 

 That ti'arless to the conflict came ; 

 And freely, on the battle plain, 

 Pour'd out their blood, like drops of rain. 



Few are the sculptured gifts of art, 



A nation's love to tell ; 

 And many a brave and gallant heart, 



Hath moulder'd where it fell ; — 

 The spiry maize, luzuriant, waves 

 Its long "green leaves, o'er Heroes' graves ; 

 And thoughtless swains the harvest reap. 

 Where our stern Fathers' ashes sleep. 



But after years the tale shall tell. 



In words of light reve.al'd ; 

 Who bravely fouglit, — who nobly fell, 



And many a well earn'd field, 

 Outspread beneath the western sun. 

 Shall live with ancient Marathon ; 

 And Trenton's fight, and Princeton's name. 

 Be liiik'd with old Platea's fame. 



But the surviving few ! who stand, 



A remnant weak and old ; — 

 Sole rclicks of tliat glorious band. 



Whose hearts were hearts of gold : — 

 Oh I honoured be each silvery hair .' 

 Each furrow, trench'd by toil and care : — ■ 

 And sacred each old bending form. 

 That brav'd oppression's battle-storm. 

 Plainfield, 3d May. E. D. 



ontaininrr./i/'''<'" hundred and ciirldy-four kernels 

 The reason' that the ears are of different complex- 

 ions is that two kinds of corn of different^coinplex- 

 ions were planted on the same piece : of course a 

 mixture was expected. 



Respectfully, thv friend, 



SAMUEL NOWELL. 

 Wolfborough, ."J mo., 4, 1839. 

 All the other States of New England and even 

 the fertile regions of the South must yield the palm 

 to the "cold and sterile State of New Hampshire" 

 in the production of Indian corn ; and probably 

 each county of the State must acknowledge that 

 Old Strafford exceeds them all. One hunrlrtd and 

 leven bushels, one HrsDREn and timrtv-six bush- 

 els, ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN 

 BUSHELS of shelled corn to the acre, as has been 

 proved to the satisfaction of awarding committees 

 of the Strafford Agricultural Society '. When our 

 friend Brown stated the manner in which he pre- 

 pared his land for the monstrous crop of corn, w 

 could be no longer surprised. There is something 

 in the soil of the Winnipiseogee islands and lands 

 in the vicinity that imparts to it even a higher vir- 

 tue than the common soil made rieli by liigh ma- 

 nuring — it is a quality modifying that rankness of 

 growth that blasts or renders many kinds of veg- 

 etation barren, which fills the giant stock with 

 a giant growth of ears, carrying the whole through 

 the season from the beginning to the end. Mark 

 the preparation f.ir these crops of corn ! It is first 

 broken up from the sward, manured with fifteen 

 ox loads of manure to the acre,ploughed under and 

 planted the first year with potatoes. As soon as 

 the crop is off in the fall, twenty loads more of ma- 

 nure are spread and ploughed under deep. The next 

 spring, as much more manure is again spread on, 

 and tliis again is ploughed under. By this time 

 all that manure can do for the land has been done ; 

 and the repeated ploughing both deep and nearer 

 to the surface mixes tlie manure and soil, and makes 

 the whole field like a garden bed. Land thus pre- 

 pared must yield at least three-fold the usual crop. 

 And yet, counting the cost in manure and labor, 

 we are not sure that the farmer who has thus pre- 

 pared his land be not decidedly the gainer. A suc- 

 cessful first crop will more than repay him ; and the 

 several succeeding crops on many kinds of land 

 will continue in equal proportion for at least five 

 years afterwards. Ten acres kept under cultiva- 

 tion in this way will be of more value than thirty 

 acres cultivated in the usual manner: it will pro- 

 duce more in quantity at a less expense of labor, 

 if not of manure. 



But our object was to thank friend Nowell for 

 his unparalleled quantity of corn from a single 

 kernel— fifteen hundred and eighty-four for 

 one — at the rate of nearly sixteen hundred bushels 

 from one bushel of seed. We shall plant this pro- 

 duce of one kernel by itself, with no expectation 

 that on ground well prepared our crop will be one 

 half his jiroduct. If it should come up to one third, 

 it will yield at the rate of more than a hundred 

 bushels to the acre. 



dj'Wo regret that the beautiful " Song of the 

 Husbandman" in the last number, which has at 

 the instant been copied into other journals, should 

 have been marred by the compositor substitutingjn 

 the 8lli line of the 5th stanza the word country for 

 couits, which happened more to injure the measure 

 than the sense. 



Friend Hii-l, — Observing in the Exeter News 

 Letter of last week an account of the product of a 

 single kernel of corn raised in Stratham the last 

 season, amounting to fourteen hundred kernels, I 

 was induced to take the liberty to send thee for thy 

 inspection, four ears of corn that I raised the last 

 season from a single kernel. The ears thou mayest 

 find by measurement are about thirty-four inches 



Insanity. 



Having seen a notice of the singular confession 

 and death of Mr Samiel Drown in several pa- 

 pers, and being convinced from the face of the 

 statement that it was insanity and not crime that 

 produced the confession, we are happy to find the 

 accompanying commentary from the Vermont Pat- 

 riot suggesting the same ideas that had passed in 

 our own mind. Whoever has acquainted himself 

 with repeated cases of derangement, and reflected 

 at all on the subject, cannot fail to be struck with 

 the similarity «fthe case under consideration which 

 has undoubtebly amazed and terrified thousands of 

 readers, with common cases of monomania. This 

 disorder is as yet but little understood even by those 

 who have taken the most pains to* inform them- 

 selves — it consists in the simple, single step of con- 

 verting imagination into reality. It as naturally 

 follows some minds of a peculiar cast as any disease 

 t'oUows its exciting caase — as fever follows severe 

 cold, or colic the obstruction ofthe stomach and in- 

 testines. Insanity is just as likely to charge itself 

 as to charge others with imaginary crimes : it niakes 

 itself Deity, and why should it notconstitute itself 

 a Demon ? A great mistake, in our apprehension, 

 is made frequently even by those who best under- 

 stand insanity— it is, that the effect of it is set down 

 as the cause. How frequently do we hear it said 

 of whole families predisposed to insanity that 

 drunkenness sometimes, and at other times a bad 

 disposition, has made them miserable ; when the 

 disorder running in the blood, according to the cir- 

 cumstances in which each is placed, makes one an 

 ungovernable maniac, another crazy at all times 



when he comes in the way of liquor, a third with a 

 jiropensity to quarrel, and a fourth perhaps with an 

 ungovernable predispositimi to pilfer.' Each and 

 all of these various propensities, by the philosophic 

 mind, may be traced back to that ancestral blood 

 which niakes of some families maniacs, as it af- 

 flicts others with rheumatism, oi gout, or palsy, and 

 carries off others with consumption when tlieyj_ar- 

 rive at a certain age. 



No man in this country probably practlijally so well 

 understands Insanity and its remedies as that ex- 

 cellent ]iliilanthropist, Doct. Samuel B. 'Wood- 

 ward, principal ofthe Insane Hospital at Worces- 

 ter, Massacliusetts. And we had been led to the 

 remark relative to the change of effect forthe cause 

 from seeing in the annual reports of the Worcester 

 Hospital ^Ontrmperanee," Disappaint7nent,'' &.C.&C. 

 set down against each name as the primary reason 

 of derangement. Now we have no doubt that ex- 

 ternal causes in almost every case contribute to the 

 developement ofthe disorder: a hurt on the head, 

 irregular habits of life, want of success in business, 

 disaiqiointinent in anticipated or wished for connex- 

 ions, too great a burden of care — one or more of 

 these, may develope the propensity by open de- 

 rangement ; nor do we doubt that the subject him- 

 self, acquainted vi'ith the propensity, may set up a 

 guard and watch against the effects of one or all the 

 exciting causes. There are some cases that may 

 not be developed till late in life : if the individual 

 had died at sixty years of age, he never would have 

 been deranged — living temperate all his days till 

 eighty, the last ten years of his life were a scene 

 of alternate depression and excitement, at one time 

 conversing incoherently and incessantly, at another 

 omitting to speak at all for a week or month ; and 

 having the strongest impressions that the merest 

 illusions are substantial realities. 



If we do not mistake, the Drown family in New 

 Hamp.'ihire is one in which there has been now and 

 then an individual case in successive generations 

 of heredit.ary insanity. If Samuel Drown be of 

 the same family, and if his confession be the con- 

 sequence of an illusion that had long dwelt on a 

 diseased inind — what injustice is done to his mem- 

 ory, from the imputation which he has seemed to 

 cast upon himself.' We would go far and labor 

 long to reicue the name of a meritorious and prob- 

 ably ft religions man from the infamy which such a 

 story, if credited, will cast upon him. Ed. Visitor. 

 [Ftnni tlio Vennniil Patriot. 

 Confession of Horrid Crime. — A communi- 

 cation under the above caption, and over the signa- 

 ture of Elder Zebina Young, "a respectable and es- 

 teemed minister ofthe Free Will Baptist connex- 

 ion," (s.-tys the JS'urtk Star,) appeared in the St. 

 Johasbury Caledonian two weeks since, and has al- 

 ready been extensively copied. The character of 

 the facts stated fully justifies the application ofthe 

 title prefixed to the article. They are briefly tliese: 

 Mr. Samuel Druicn died in Wheelock, in this 

 Slate, on the 21 st of March, aged 71. He was born 

 in Rochester, N. H., and made a profession of reli- 

 gion at about 30 years of age— about 30 years ago 

 removed to Vt., where he has resided till his death, 

 with the exception of occasional absences for a few 

 months — always appeared much engaged in reli- 

 gion till within throe or four weeks of his death. 

 We quote from the article in question : — 



"About the last of February he began to inquire 

 of different individuals " if tJieij had heard any bad 

 reports about htm: it seems that his sin began to find 

 him out, and he thought it must be, that the peopU 

 had made the same discovery. 



It was not long before his anxiety was increased 

 to the most dreadful mental distress, and frequent- 

 ly he said, he "must confess," but appeared unwil- 

 linir to do so. After continuing a while in this sit- 

 uation he exclaimed "I must confess ! ' and began 

 to say he had been "deceiving the people more 

 than twenty years," he had made great pretensions 

 to religion and all the while lived in the practice of 

 gross "sin I He confessed that he had practised 

 theft to some extent and named different articles 

 which he had stolen at different times, and also that 

 he h,\d ! ! but no, for the sake 



ofthe living I leave it blank, — let oblivion draw 

 her dark veil over this part of his confession. 



But yet he could not die, nor could he rest; ho 

 stole away from the family where he lived, (his 

 irrand-son's) with a butcher knife attempted to cut 

 his throat, but while his left hand was employed in 

 making his throat bare for the knife, one of his fin- 

 gers was so situated that it received almost the 

 whole force that he applied to the knife, and his 

 throat was cut but little, but his finger was cut 

 nearly half oft'. 



He continued in great mental distress and said 

 that there was another act of his life which he 

 should have to confess, which was trorse than all 



