THE FARMER'S MONTHLV VISITOR. 



ill 



Thread. — On a late visit to Pawtucket, we cal- 1 topped by a mass of jet black smoke ; a little to the 

 led at the Tlircad Manufacturing cetabljslimcnt of let't the lull moon, with such a gentle, soft light. 

 Capl. N. B. G. Dexter & Son, and were astonish- To our rigiit, the enormous iK^avmij sea of lavii, al- 



cd to sec to what perfection the manufacture of 

 thread had arrived in this country. The whole of 

 this extensive eoucern is under the control of Cnpt. 

 Dexter, who, by his perseverance, untiring indus- 

 try and cnterprize, bus brought tins branch of Amer- 

 ican industry so near to perfection. They employ 

 five cotton mills in the manufacture of thread, 

 which gives emp'oyment to *2U0 hands, exclusive 

 of those under their immediate control. They man- 

 ufacture $130,000 worth of thread per annum, of 

 the finest and most beautiful texture, equal in eve- 

 ry respect to any made in this country. The man- 

 ufacture of thread in Pawtucket, of which there 

 are several excellent establishments, has almost 

 entirely taken the place of threads formerly im- 

 ported from England. — Providence Jour nai. 



A Si:aso>' i.N Latland. — The quickness of veg- 

 etation in hot and cold climates is so astonishing as 

 tti be perfectly uuacountablc, were we not able to 

 refer it to a most exalted wisdom. The following 

 is a calender of a, ^jerian or Lapland year : — June 

 23, snow melts — July 1, snow gone — i), fields quite 

 green — 17, plants at full growth — 2.5, plants in flow- 

 er — August 2, fruit ripe — 10, plants shed their seed 

 — 18, enow — from August l.^ to June 23, snow and 

 ice. Thus it appears that from their first emerg- 

 ing from the ground to the ripening of their seeds, 

 the plants take but a month ; and spring, summer, 

 and autumn are crowded into the short space of fif- 

 ty-six days. — Studies of Judurc. 



A Buried City. — The captain of an American 

 vessel, named Ray, has lately discovered on the 

 coast of Peru, in the environs of Tuscillo, an an- 

 cient buried city of considerable extent. Following 

 the course of some excavations he had made, he 

 found the walla of the edifice still standing and 

 many of them in a complete state of preservation. 

 He inferred from tlie number and extent of them, 

 that the population of the city could not have been 

 less than three thousand souls. Great numbers of 

 skeletons and mummies, in a perfect state of pres- 

 ervation, were found among the private and sacred 

 edifices, and a great number of domestic utensils, 

 articles of furniture, coins and curious antiquities. 



The earthquake by which it was engulfed ap- 

 pears to have surprised the inhabitants like those ol 

 Pompeii in the midst of their daily avocations, and 

 many of them were found by Captain Kay, singu- 

 larly preserved !)y the exclu.sion of atmosplicric air, 

 in the precise situation of the moment when over- 

 whelmed. One man standing up as if in the act of 

 escaping, was dressed in a light robe, in the folds 

 of which coins were found, which have been sent 

 to the Ecientifi'i institutions at Lima for investiga- 

 tion. A female was also found sitting in a chair 

 before a loom, which contained a piece of cotton 

 stuff, which she was in the act of weaving. The 

 cotton stufls [w-hich is of a gaudy i)attern,but very 

 neatly fabricated] is about eighteen inches in diam- 

 eter, and appears to have been only half completed. 

 A great number of antiquities and curiosities iound 

 in this American tjerculancum grave has but'n sent 

 to the museum at Lima. 



most a blood-red heat, not so intensely white as 

 that hurled from the crater." 



Whkat and Corn Ci'I.tuue in Maink and 

 Massachusktts. — In Maine, the aggregate is as 

 follows :— Wheat, 1,107,848 bushels— Bounty on 

 Wheat, $87,352 30— Corn, 1 ,G30,;in(i bushels in the 

 ear — Bounty on Corn, $6(5, ()28 8(1 — Whole Bounty 

 on Wheat and Corn $]o3,!)81 76. In Massachu- 

 setts raised last year ti7,UI.5 bushels of Wheat — 

 Maine 1,010 6-1 bushels more than that State. The 

 little county of Kennebec — little in point of terri- 

 tory — produced 12.5,933 bushels, being2;i,738 bush- 

 els more than the whole State of Massachusetts. ' 



The Maine Farmer adds to the above estimates 

 the following : 



''The gross amount of wheat and corn would not 

 be less than 2,000,000 bushels, which with 500,000 

 bushels of rye, buckwheat, barley, Ac. afford four 

 hushcls of bread sUifl's, to every inhabitant of the 

 Slate. If to all this we add the potatoes, ruta baga 

 and other roots that enter into the food of man, who 

 will say that Maine cannot raise her own bread ? 

 Take now into the account, the lumber, fish, lime, 

 granite, hay, oats, beef, pork, horses, wool, mutton, 

 cider, apples, &c. &c., v.'hich we produce and ex- 

 port in great (|uaiititics ; and, saying nothing of 

 the business and wealth produced by manntactures 

 and commerce, is there any reason in the world 

 why Maine should not soon be the most populous 

 and richest State in New England .' She is coming 

 to this condition most rapidly." 



Beautiful Coincidence. — During the morning ser- 

 vice, yesterday, at Christ's Church, Salem street, 

 an incident occurred which v.tiuld have been inter- 

 preted by the ancients as a signal of Divine ajqjro- 

 bation. The Rev. Mr. Marcus, of Nantucket, the 

 officiating minister, gave out to be sung, the 64th 

 Psalm, .in wliick is the following stanza ; — 

 The birds, more happy far than I, 



Around thy temple throng ; 

 Securely there they build, and there 



Securely hatch their young. 

 Whilst he was reading this Psalm, a dove flew 

 in atone of the windows, and aligdited on the cap- 

 ital of one of the pilasters, near the altar, and near- 

 ly over the head of the reader. A note of the 

 Psalm and Hymn to be sung had been previously 

 given, as is customary, to the choir ; otherwise, it 

 might have been suppesed that there was design 

 in the selection, for the minister announced, for the 

 second singing, the 75th Hymn commencing. 

 Come holy spirit, heavenly dove. 



With all thy quick'ning powers; 

 Kindle a flame of sacred love. 

 In these cold hearts of ours. 

 The preacher was unconscious of the presence 

 of the bird, until the close of the services; and 

 then the innocent visitor was suffered to "depart 

 in peace." — Boston Trims. 



The latest EKirTioN or Molnt Vescvil'S. — 

 The following extract of a letter dated Naples, Jan- 

 uary 3d, 183'J, gives an interesting description of 

 the last eruption of this- celebrated volcano : — 



"On the night of the 31st of December, the Nea- 

 politans were welconiing the new year with fire 

 works, squibs, and crackers ot every description, 

 when suddenly about ten o'clock, Vesuvius burst 

 forth with a cloud cf black smoke and fire ; aJidin 

 indignation, I suppose, of such paltry waste of 

 ii-unpowder, was detcrniiued to show them what 

 fire works ought to Ic. The next morning the 

 black smoke was grand-beyond conception. A» we 

 stood in the balcony trying to sketch it, our paper 

 was covered \>ith dust a'ld small ashes, although 

 at a distance of at least I'i miles from tlie crater. 



On Tuesday it continued to increase in violence, 

 and on Wednesday we set off upon our terrific ex- 

 pedition up the mountain. We staid until night 

 at the Hermitage, and w.ilked along a ridge, where 

 we were safe, towards the cone. It was dark, and 

 the roar of the mountain was more awful than 

 I can make you understand. It was the first 

 ni^ht the mountain had relieved itself by the lava 

 pouring its torrents over tiic side of th« crater. Down 

 below us there ->vas a lake of lava at a white heat, 

 about half a mile wide, flowing towards Resina. 

 There has not been such an eruption for many years. 

 We saw two cottages swallowed up, and vineyards 

 destroyed. Before us, a fountain of fire from the 

 crater, going siraight^ up, and also on every side 



munity. The increase in the nominal value of re- 

 al estate is of no advantage to tile community, un- 

 less it is based upon some positive improvement, 

 or increased productiveness of the soil. If a piece 

 of land is sold to-day at five dollars an acre, and 

 next week it is valued at ten dollars an acre, w ith- 

 out any change whatever in its condition, how is 

 the community in any respect benefitted, or its 

 wealth increased ? But on the other hand, the ob- 

 taining of land for agriculluriil purposes, for pro- 

 duction, and the actual creation of wealth, is by 

 this enhanced price rendered the more difficult to 

 the man whose labor is his only capital — the man 

 of all others in the community the most to be en- 

 couraged. 



Then again, the abundance of money itself less- 

 ens its value, and operates to raise the scale of pri- 

 ces. The facilities of procuring credit and money 

 induce recklessness ; lead to all kinds of specula- 

 tion; create a distaste for labor; encourage- the 

 most luxurious expenditures; relax the bonds of 

 moral principle ; and convert the community into 

 a population of gamblers. It is the true secret of 

 the enormous frauds with which our community 

 has been convulsed within the last two years, and 

 of the prevalence of the gross and immoral prin- 

 ciple that a neglect to pay one's debts to a corpo- 

 ration, or a fraud upon a corporation, is a differ- 

 ent matter from one committed upon an individu- 

 al. 



In fine, it is the moving Cause and prolific source 

 of speculation — speculation, a matter pregnant with 

 evils, and from which no more good has accrued, 

 or can ever accrue, to the community^, than from 

 any other form of lottery gambling. These are, to 

 a certain and considerable extent, the causes of the 

 high prices of living ; and under this system they 

 must continue until we have another periodical ex- 

 plosion. There is no cure or preventive. There 

 is not moral soundness enough in the community 

 to aftbrd any hope of amendment or of change, 

 until another fit of delirium tremens brings us up, 

 as the sailors say, " all standing;" rubs out old 

 scores, and then leaves us to start again in a new 

 course of unbridled profligacy, vulgarly called 

 prosperity. 



We call particular attention to the following ar- 

 ticle fiom the New England Farmer. It is fraught 

 with truth. • 



Cavje or HioH Prices —But one great and 

 prolific source, as we honestly, believe, ol'high pri- 

 ces, deficient labor, the luxury, waste, and servili. 

 ty which prevail among us, is m the multiplication 

 ot" banks beyond the business wants of the commu- 

 nity, the exiensiou of piiper money, and the abuse 

 of the credit system. Our honest conviction is, 

 that the enormous increase of bank capital beyond 

 all re.TSf^-naLde limits, is destined to prove to the 

 country in its various influences a source of im- 

 mense evil. The tv.lamities from which we have 

 just escaped are to be directly traced to this as their 

 great origin ; and, as matters are now going on, we 

 have only to look forward to another explosion, as 

 disastrous as that from which we have so recently 

 recovorcd — for come it must. Its arrival in the na- 

 tural course of things is as certain as the descent 

 of water upon an inclined plane, or the passing of the 

 sun over the meridian. The creation cf immense 

 amounts of purely artificial and fictitious capital, 

 produces a dangerous delusion with individuals and 

 on the public mind. If its effect were merely to 

 inciease the facilities and stimulate the powers of 

 production, it would so far be well ; but lliis it does 

 not do excepting in a very partial degree, and in an 

 indirect form. This money is loaned to what are 

 called men of business — a class of men, who as far 

 as they are money brokers, are the mere exchan- 

 gers of commercial products without any increase 

 of their value, or speculators in stocks and lands, 

 who add little or nothing to the wealth of thecom- 



lutercstiiig Facts. 



The first decked vessel ever built within the lim- 

 its of the old United States, was constructed on 

 the banks of the Hudson, by Adrian Block, in the 

 summer of 1614. She was called a yacht, and her 

 first voyage was made through Hell Gate, into the 

 Sound, and as far east as Cape Cod, by the Vine- 

 yard passage. It was in this voyage that Block 

 Island was discovered. Within the first 46 years 

 after the settlement of Massachusetts, there were 

 built in Boston and its vicinity, 730 vessels, vary- 

 ing from 6 to 250 tons in burthen. One of these, 

 the Blessing of the Bay, a bark of fifty tons, was 

 built in 1631. The celebrated English patriot and 

 divine, Hugh Peters, caused a vessel of 3o0 tons to 

 be constructed at Salem, in 1641. The first schoo- 

 ner ever launched is said to have been built at Cape 

 Ann in 1714. In 1713, Connecticut had but 2 

 brigs, 20 .iloops, and a few smaller craft, employing 

 but 120 seamen ; while Massachusetts, about the 

 same lime had 462 vessels, the tonnage of which 

 was 25,406, and employed 3,41*3 seamen. 



The first ensign ever shown by a regular Amer- 

 ican man-of-war, was hoisted on board the frigate 

 Alfred, in the Delaware, by the hands of Paul 

 Jones, in the latter part of December, 1775. What 

 this ensign was, is not precisely known, as the 

 ]>resent national colors were not formally adopted 

 until 1777. The first regular American cruiser 

 that went to sea, was the Lexington, alitlle brig of 

 14 guns, commanded by Captain John fBarry, of 

 Philadelphia. She sailed some time in the winter 

 of 1775. The first American man-of-war that got 

 to sea after the adoption of our present form of 

 government, was the Ganges. — She was originally 

 an ludiaman, but was i)ulchased by the Govern- 

 ment and converted into a cruiser, having an arma- 

 ment of 24 guns. She sailed in May, 1778, under 

 the command of Captain Richard Dale, who was 

 first Lieutenant of the Bon Homme Richard, when 

 that ship captured the Serapis. The Constellation 

 was the first of the new built vessels that went to 

 sea, under Captain Truxton. She sailed in June, 

 1703, and was followed by the United States, and 

 a little later, by the Constitution, both these latter 

 sailing in July the same year. The first prize un- 

 der our jirescnt naval organization, was the French 

 Privateer La Croyuble. She w'as a schooner of 14 

 guns, and was captured by the sloop of war Dela- 

 ware, Captain Decatur. The above historical fiicts 

 wo have gleaned from Mr. Cooper's excellent Na- 

 val History of the United Stales. — Eccning I'ost. 



