THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



183 



Weeds cannot grow near our common cultivated 

 plants without materially injuring them. This is 

 doubtless in part owing to their consuming the nu- 

 tritive matter contained by the soil, and in part, al- 

 so, to tlieir overshadowing the cultivated plant, and 

 thus deprivino; it of the direct action of the sun ; 

 but it is also in part owing to the nature of the mat- 

 ter which they deposite in the soil. The common 

 opinion that weeds poison the plants near which 

 they grow, is not mere imagination — it is founded 

 on fact. — Farmer's Cabinet. 



A high compliment. 



There are no people whose judgment'in matters 

 of taste, morals or utility is better than that of the 

 Shakers. This wonderful people are generally the 

 first in all improvements of domestic economy, the 

 least doubting and doubtful in any new experiment, 

 and the most certain to carry through every thing 

 they undertake. Who ever suffered any pecuniary 

 loss by a business transaction with the Shakers.'' 

 Who ever purchased of them an article in which 

 there was any manner of deception ? Who ever 

 found them guilty of tergiversation and falsehood .-' 

 Who ever saw them backward in contributing to 

 the poor, the destitute and tlie unfortunate ^ This 

 people, from their severe rules of life, debar them- 

 selves from the near association of the sexes ; and 

 how astonishing is it that this rule in the long course 

 of time is so seldom transgressed .•" They take 

 children at an age when they are unable to support 

 themselves from families tliat are helpless ; and let 

 it not be snid that these children, male and female, 

 are not brought up as they should be. The instruc- 

 tion they receive is of more practical value than 

 the best and most expensive education among the 

 world's people — they are taught to labor and how 

 to d.^ every thing well. Repeatedly, as we have 

 stopped with our Knfield friends, have we seen the 

 little band of boys of ag'es from six to twelve years, 

 in dresses uniform and similar to the men, go to the 

 field with their schoolmaster, when tiicre was work 

 such as they could do, furnished with implements 

 adapted to their strength and age: tlieir work of 

 hoeing and raking in the field was carried on with 

 a steadiness and regularity that would be creditable 

 to grown men. In this work they at once are 

 taught to feel an interest i the profits and avails of 

 it are hereafter to be their own. Children of both 

 sexes are taught the rudiments ofeducation in their 

 schools. Under the instruction of a well educated 

 female, by irivitation, we entered the school-house 

 where the children of her sex were taught at mid- 

 summer. The boys at the same time were with 

 their tutor in a hay-field of great extent, contribu- 

 ting their share of the work in gathering and sha- 

 ping the numerous cocks of ha}'. The girls were 

 reading and repeating their lessons in the school. 

 It was delightful to witness some of them just at 

 the age of lisping infancy rehearse their lessons 

 containing some valuable moral or religious senti- 

 ment. These children were taught in most of the 

 branches usually taught in schools ; the system of 

 instruction was that of the late Joseph Lancas- 

 ter, in which the \/hole class read and repeated 

 aloud. We had heard these people accused of 

 bringing up the children in ignorance. No such 

 thing! The children were taught and recited de- 

 scriptions of their own country and the world, which 

 led them to a full knowledge of the manners and 

 customs of its inhabitants, with the evident inten- 

 tion, when tills knowledge was gained, to use no 

 other force than moial suasion to induce them to 

 continue in their connexion in after life. For many 

 years we have known that the Shakers selected the 

 very best botjks for the instruction of their children 

 -—they were even in advance of the improvements 

 introduced in the common schools about them. 



We could not but be gratified a few days ao-o to 

 be called on by one of the intelligent Friends' from 

 Canterbury to furnish for reading in their schorl at 

 that place two nLy-lV'Ur sets of the Fa user's Mont ri- 

 LT Visitor, comprising all the back numbers pub- 

 lished the present year. Obliged to reprint the two 

 first numbers to furnish the unexpected accession 

 of subscribers, we caused an extra number of all 

 to be printed; and if our printer has been faithful, 

 we have on hand more than two thousand sets with 

 which we can furnish our friends who may hereafter 

 become subscribers. As a paper adapted to the tastes 

 of all, we think we have well succeeded thus far; 

 never have we had a complaint of our course froi.n 

 any sect or party in religion or policies. Our paper 

 Has been highly commended in nlaces where we 

 had least reason to expect it. Our selections are 

 all made after careful reading; and we have inten- 

 ded tUat not a sentence should be printed to cause 

 a blush upon the cheek of modesty — never have 

 we penned an article that we supposed would dis- 

 gust the most sensitive. Our aim has been to en- 

 lighten and instruct in the true system of domestic 



economy. We think the sets of the Visitor which 

 we have on hand to be of more value than " old 

 newspapers" — hardly less valuable than future 

 numbers which we intend to print for new subscri- 

 bers. Our friends the Shakers have set an exam- 

 ple in furnishing the Visitor for schools, which we 

 have the vanity to believe may be followed for the 

 advantage of the sons and daughters of farmers in 

 most of the schools throughout New England. 



The Season of 1839. 



The year which is about closing is the second in 

 a series of changes favoring the opinion, that as for 

 the last ten or more years the progress had been 

 from warm to cold, so now when the pendulum had 

 swung to OHO extreme the force of reaction would 

 return it to the other. There certainly had been 

 a sensible change of climate : it seemed as if we of 

 the north were removed several degrees farther 

 north. The trees natural to our climate were kil- 

 led by the frosts of winter ; chestnuts and walnuts 

 were destroyed by early frosts before they were 

 ripe. Indian corn became more and more uncer- 

 tain, till its cultivation was abandoned in places 

 where it had been most sure and most profitable. — 

 It has been said by some acute agricultural writer 

 tliat a single daj-'s sun at the season of harvest ri- 

 pening was worth to the people of the U. States, a 

 million of dollars. We liave so highly estimated 

 the value of his face, that we have watched day 

 after day the course of the clouds rising in the 

 mountains at the north-w&stand Covering the face of 

 nature with a chilling aspect. Spring after spring 

 have days and weeks elapsed with a chilled atmos- 

 pher-e preventing the progress of vegetation. These 

 cold seasons, if tliey are not wet, are commonly n^t 

 unfavorable to crops of the small grains, as wheat, 

 rye, barley and oats — they are not injurious to 

 hay ; but the Indian corn, which has been consid- 

 ered the stafi^ of life to the New-England farmer, 

 yellow, sickly and feeble, has lingered late before 

 it gained head. The year lri3S presented a deci- 

 ded change in the corn crop : rarely has this crop 

 had better opportunity to grow and come to maturi- 

 ty than in that year. The spring and summer of 

 183i), with a colder May than April, and a back- 

 ward June and July, were well adapted to the 

 small grains: wheat and rye were scarcely ever 

 better. Early sown oats were remarkably fine 

 in some instances. Deac. James Willey, a neigh- 

 bor of ours, took from two acres one hundred 

 and fifty bushels of oats, for which he received 

 from the taverncr near his own door seventy-five 

 dollars in cash in a few days after they were taken 

 ■from the field. What was remarkable, after the 

 earlier grains had been taken off the ground, the 

 season was finely adapted to the growth and ripen 

 ing of corn. Good crops of corn were obtained 

 in fields where t]ie extreme wetness of June and 

 July seemed to forbid any crop. Many potatoe 

 fields were ruined by the continued rains ; and in 

 drier ground where they had gained the UiUal 

 growth, a single day of humidity and heat blasted 

 hundreds of fields, so that in many pans of the 

 country llie're w^as not lialf a crop. We planted 

 over three acres on land well prepared, and had 

 less than four hundred bushels. 



On a review of the whole season and of all crops, 

 we seldom find a more propitious and a more pro- 

 lific year than that now about to close. Let it be 

 closed in gratitude to the Almighty, who has prom- 

 ised us that seed time and harvest shall not fail, 

 and who has crowned this year with His mercy an(l 

 loving kindness. 



The meliorating sun of the two last seasons en- 

 courages us to hope the return of another season 

 of equal promise and performance. Prices have 

 been much reduced: young cattle well kept are 

 worth little more in money than they were a year 

 ago. Pork, which then sold for ten cents the pound, 

 n:3y now be bought for five and six cente ; and 

 yf'L-re pigs, whicli sold at ten cents, are now bought 

 for three cents the pound ; turkeys and chickens 

 have been reduced in price one half. This reduc- 

 tion seems not to be from a greater plenteousness 

 of the farmer'.^ productions, but because a change 

 has gone over the circulating medium. The banks 

 have overstepped the bounds of a safe credit — the 

 banks have contracted, and every thing but the 

 demand for money contracts with them. 'J'he good 

 farmer raises almost every thing necessary fur the 

 Support of his family ; and if his good things will 

 not sell in the market for their value, no man bet^.'i 

 than he can afford to feast upon the best that the 

 earth yields. '*His fat beevCo and good beer, and 

 his merry good cheer" he can well enjoy, because 

 in most cases he owes nothing for what his farm 

 produces that he caruiot pay at the moment, and 

 there is no necessity he should sacrifice any thing. 

 Even his gifts to the poor and necessitous will re- 

 turn him four fold after many days. 



Society of Women. 



No society is more profitable, because none morp 

 refining and provocative of virtue than that of 

 refined and sensible women. God enshrined pe- 

 culiar goodness in the form of woman, that her 

 beauty might win, her gentle voice invite, and the 

 desire of her favor persuade men's sterner souls to 

 leave the paths of sinful strife for the ways of 

 pleasantness and peace. But when woman falls 

 from her blest eminence, and sinks the guardian 

 and the cherisher of pure and rational enjoyments 

 into the vain coquette, and flattered idolator of idle 

 fashion, she is unworthy of an honorable man's 

 love, or a sensible man's admiration. Beauty is 

 then but at best 



"A pretty play-thing, 



Dear deceit." 

 We honor the chivalrous deference which is paid 

 in our land to women. It proveo that our men 

 know how to respect virtue and pure affeclion,and 

 that our women are worthy of such respect. Yet 

 women should be something more than mere wo- 

 man to win us to their society. To be our compan- 

 ions, they should be fitted to be our friends ; to rule 

 our hearts, they should be deserving the approba- 

 tion of our minds. There are many such, and that 

 there are not more, is rather the fault of our sex 

 then their own ; and despite all the unmanly scan- 

 dals that have been thrown upon them in prose or 

 verse, they would rather share in the rational con- 

 versation of men of sense, than listen to the si)ly 

 compliments of fools; and a man dishonors them as 

 well as disgraces himself, when he seeks their 

 circle for idle pastime, and not for the improvement 

 of his mind and the elevation of his heart. 



Merch. Mag. 



European Wheat. 



The quantity of Flour which has been shipped 

 from this country to Europe the present season, 

 renders interesting the inquiry, what price will the 

 English and French people be able to pay for Amer- 

 ican Flour.' In order to form an estimate on this 

 matter, it is necessary to ascertain the average 

 price of wheat in the grain depot of Europe. — 

 There are but few countries in Europe which ex- 

 port wheat because the price is kept so low that 

 there is but little inducement to increase the culti- 

 vation. Whenever the price rises for two or three 

 years in succession, more land is placed under cul- 

 tivation, until it again falls to a price which checks 

 the increasing growth. 



Ilaly raises no more then is necessary for her own 

 consumption, although some of the best quality is 

 exported to England, and its place supplied by in- 

 ferior grain imported from the Black Sea. 



In France the average price for wheat for sever- 

 al years past has becB $ 1,33 per bushel, and the 

 cost of its importation into England is about 30 

 cent.>!, making its cost there $1,63. 



At Odessa, the average price is 75c. per bushel 

 but the wheat is of an inferior quality, estimated 

 at 40 per cent. less tlien American, which in reality 

 increases the price to .Ij; 1,06 per bushel. The cost 

 of importing wheat from Odessa to England is sta- 

 ted by the English journals at .52 cents per bushel, 

 increasing the price, as compared with American 

 wheat, to $ 1,57 per bushel. 



At the ports in the Baltic, the average price ii 63 

 cents per bushel, but it is a small grain, coarse and 

 brown, and full 33 per cent, inferior to American, 

 increasing the price in reality to $1,^4 — the cost 

 of importing it in England adds about 20 cents 

 inorc, making .$ 1,44. 



In the United States, the price at the place of 

 export averages § 1,20 per bushel, and the expense 

 of transportation adds about 30 cents, making $1,50 

 in England. 



The Egyptian wheat is of so inferior a quality 

 that it will not sell in England. 



Trieste has within a few j'eors become an exten- 

 sive grain depot, for the Kingdom of Hungary, 

 which is one of the finest grain countries in the 

 world, and will, according to present appearances, 

 prove the most formidable rival to the wheat grow- 

 ers, as the supply from that source is increasino-. — . 

 This wheat which is equal to the best Genesee wTiite 

 wheat, is now imported into England at a cost of 

 $ 1,.5'2 per bushel. The people of Hungary arc 

 entirely an agricultural people, without a sin- 

 gle manufacture, arid England is doing all she 

 can to encourage the trade with them. 



At Hamburg, the price averages only 79 1-1 cents 

 per bushel, and the cost of importing it to England', 

 adds only I'd cents, making I'S 1-2 cents. Tiie 

 quality of the wheat, however, renders this appa- 

 rent cheapness in reality no cheapness at all, it 

 being entirely in consequence of the great inferiori- 

 ty of Holstein and Hanoverian wheat. Th^ Enc- 

 lish merchants have been known to prc!"er Danlzic 



