24 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



mzscBx.x.AxnEs. 



[August 12,- 



ARTICLES ABRIDGED FROM THE LONDON LITERARY 

 GAZETTE. 



^gypt- — The yiceroy of Egypt meets with 

 many obstacles in his attempts to introduce the 

 cotton manufacture; inconsequence of the heat, 

 the thread breaks, the wood of (he machinery 

 splits, and the dust impedes the wheels. His 

 salt-petre manufactory yields annually 150 tons 

 of nitre; the evaporation is performed in the 

 9un in basins. A colony of Syrians settled at 

 Zahazilc, have planted a million of mulberry 

 trees, to cultivate silk, but not much silk, has 

 yet been produced. 



Literary curinsity.— The king of Oude, in In- 

 dia, has himself composed a splendid work, in 7 

 volumes, the title of which in English is— 7V(c 

 Seven Seas; a Dictionary and (Jrammar uf the 

 Persian Language. By the fCin^ of Oude, fath- 

 er of the victorious, the adorer of the faith, the 

 schach of the age, the conqueror of the failh. 

 the hon, the Padi^chah.— The king has given 

 several copies to the East India Company to be 

 distributed in Enrope. The work was printed 

 at Lucknow. The volumes are 15 inches Ion?, 

 and 11 broad. On every page are the kind's 

 arms— two lions, iwo Hsh, a throne and crow-n, 

 a star, and waves of the sea. 



Invention.— A patent has been orranted to Mr 

 James Cook, of r.irminorham, for improvements 

 in making locks for guns, pisiols, &c. Instead 

 ot the usual mainspring, the hammer is project- 

 ed forward in a light line by means of a worm 

 spring, and all the operative parts of Hie lock arf 

 contained within the diameter of the barrel 

 Ihe appearance of the gun is siniplv that of an 

 ordinary cane with a buck-hoin head, and a plu<^ 

 ferrule in the bottom or muzzle. " 



The Bujatn in France. —Thf^ French are en- 

 deavoring to naturalize the American bison or 

 Juflalo, and intend to employ it i„ agricultural 

 labor. They have at Paris a male a'^nd female 

 from North America, and a calf a few weeks old. 



Rewards and Medah. — On the 30lh of Mav, 

 the honors and rewards adjudged hy the Socieiv 

 of Arts (vere dislribulod at Ihe king's theatre 

 London. A medal and fifty guineas were award- 

 ed to Mr J. Roberts lor his apparatus to enalde 

 persons to breathe in air loaded with smoke — 

 Ihe apparatus consists of a head-coverino- 

 whence dp-<cends a tube, like an elephant's Iruirk 

 towards the ground ; the person thus accoulr-d 

 breathes the air from the lower Mraia, which is 

 not healed or laden with noxious vapors like 

 the upper strata, and can in couseuuence art 

 where he could not otherwise live.— A gold 

 medal was awarded for a portalde rope brid-c • 

 a medal and live guineas for doll, made o( New 

 /Zealand (lax; (ouileon premiunjs amounlii.o- to 

 57 guineas for the makin- of Imnnets of Dri"li^h 

 malenals, in imitalion of leghorn ; l]flv guineas 

 lo a Trinidad planter for h.s planlatioti of clove 

 trees ; twenty gui.-.eas for raisin- seed from ih.- 

 American grass u-e.i in making (i.,p [,|„(. js\un 

 other rewards were given in\^«T,.;«Uuie, Me- 

 chanics. Manufactures, Polite Aris, &c. 



Aeroiile.—M. Humboldt lately presented to the 

 Academy of Sciences in Par,: a fragment of a 

 mass o( meteoric iron, which Ml iVom the air, 

 near B.goia in Colombia. The entire mass 

 wei-fhcJ .J.Wtf pounds.— //wflj^. aoielie. 



Hours of Meals. — The modern hours of eating 

 have reached nn excess that is perfectly ridicu. 

 lous. In winter the fashionable world have two 

 or more hours of candle light befcre dinner, and 

 in summer lliey are all at Table during the pleas- 

 ant part of the day ; and all this to get a long 

 morning; lor idle people, to whom one would 

 suppose the shortest morning would be too long. 

 All exercises and amusements were formeily in 

 daylight; light being intended for aclion, and 

 darkness (or rest. This principle was once al- 

 most universally adhered to, though the mod- 

 erns have now got into a contiary practice. The 

 proverb says 



" He that would thrive, 

 Must rise by five. ; 

 He lliat has thriven 

 Jl.-ty lie till seven." 



In the fourteenth century, the shops in Paris 

 were opened at four in the morning ; at present 

 a shop keeper i? scarcely awake at seven. The '' 

 King of France used then lo dine at eight in the 

 morninar. and retire to the bed chamber ateio-htl 

 in the evening; an hour at which most of our 

 public aniusemenls are but just oes'un. The 

 Spaniards still adhere lo their ancient customs ; 

 their kings, to this ilav, dine precisely at noon 

 and sup no less precisely at nino in the evening. 

 During the reign of Henry VIII. fashionabFe 

 peopl" in England breakfasted at seven in Ihe 

 morning, and dined at ten in the forenoon. In 

 Elizabeth's time the nobility, gentry, and stu- 

 dents, dined at eleven in the forenoon, and sup- 

 ped between live and six in Ihe afkrnnon. In 

 the reign of Charles II. four in Ihe afternoon 

 was the appointed hour for acting plays. At 

 present even dinner is three or fou^r hours later. 

 In a tavern bill from a landlord in " the city of 

 Chester," copied fmm an old work on Ihe Man- 

 ners and Customs of Ihe fifteenth rentnrv, bv 

 Edward Muller. is Ihe following- meal for break- 

 fast at six o'clock in Ihe mornin? :— " Rreakfist 

 [.rovisions for Sir Godfrey Walton, the Good La- 

 die Wallon, and their fair dau^hler Gabriel- 3 

 pounds of saved Salmon ; 2 pounds of boiled mut- 

 ton and onions; 3 slices of pork ;6 red herring; 

 6 pounds of levened bread; 1 choppin of mead '• 

 5 cbo|ipiiis of stronsf be r," ' 



The kinar of Yeamau, the srreatest prince ofi 

 Arabia IVIix, dines at nine in the morning, sups 

 at five in (be afternoon, and goes to rest at 

 eleven. The Asiatic Turks dine earlv. -renc-v- 

 ally at eleven in the summer, and in the winter 

 even sooner. Their sunpers are taken ahoul 

 SIX in Ihe summer, and five in ihe winter, which 

 consists of neaily the same dishes as Ihe dinner ' 

 1 ne Tunisians are very early risers, their roll- 1 

 ,g.on obliging them to attend public devotion by I 

 i day-break; after which Ihev follow lheirres-1 

 [pective employmenis till tbe'afiemoon prayers 

 -when business cea«es; and the shops are shut up' 

 jThe natives of Hiudo,tan have onlv Iwo prin^ 

 <:ipal meals; one lu the morning before the snn 

 shines will, meridian fervoui^, iho other in Ihe 

 evening when its immediate influence is gone ■ 

 Ihe inteimediate one between tlie meals, arieast 

 the middle part of the day, is .r.-nerally «j,P„t in 

 -leep the intense heal rendering those hours 

 wholly unlit lor motion. 



The old Romans, wo fin 1, in the early and 

 virtuous ages of the commonweallb, made'their 

 chiol meal alter night. Tha Fiench, fevcent 

 ibose that copy after Ihe English n.anneis) ami 

 (lie italiana always make supper their principal 



meal. The Indians (who perhaps, live the 

 most agreeably to nature of any people in the 

 world) eat flesh bnt once in four and twenty 

 hours, and that is in the evening, after the fa- 

 tiffue of fishing, hunting, or marching are over. 

 The Spaniards, who have not yet adopted Ihe 

 French and Italian custom of making their chief 

 meal at night, are nevertheless unanimous in Ihe 

 practice of sleeping an hour or two every dav 

 after dinner. This last practice seems to be o'f 

 great antiquity, for we read that many ancient 

 nations used to recline upon beds or cushions 

 and to lean upon each other at their entertain- 

 ments. This posture in eating was practised hy 

 the Greeks, Romans, and Persians, nor was it 

 uncommon among Ihe Jews. 



Ilencc it is. many writers have contended that 

 " sleep is always natural afier eating," anri 

 quote as common to all the brute animals we are 

 acquainted with, but what seems lo prove above 

 all things, that rest and slee() are necessary af- 

 ter eating, is that digestion has been proved to 

 be carried on chiefly by fermentation, to which 

 rest, every body knows, is so essentially neces- 

 sary, that it cannot take place without it. Nev- 

 ertheless, such as m ike supper Iheir principal 

 meal, should recollect the old adage, 



After dinner sit awhile ; 



After supper walk a mile. 

 Which from its antiquity, as well as from ils be- 

 ing delivered in rhyme, comes armed with the 

 strength of Samson ; but if we appeal once more 

 to the brute animals, they will still furnish us 

 with aigumenis in favour of lh;s pr.iclice, and 

 every analogy borrowed from Iheni deserves lo 

 be nllended to, as lliey have never yet subjected 

 Iheir instincts to Ihe tyranny of fashion. 



The following hilherlo unpublished anecdote 

 maybe relied on as authentic : — .\ gentleman 

 residing in one of the province" of Fmnce, was 

 under the necessity of hastily quitting his pa- 

 ternal estate during the Revoliition. Just |)rior 

 to leaving it however, he prudently dicealed 

 his money and other valuables lo a very consid- 

 erable amount, in a place known only to himself. 

 He then lelt Ihe counlrv,' and res.ijed in En"-- 

 land for many > ears, duri.-g which he was much 

 strailncd in his cirr um.lancos. On the fall of 

 Bonaparte in 1815, he le.i rned to France, and, 

 by dint of entreaties and solicil.ition among his 

 few remaining friends in that country, he suc- 

 ceeded in raisiiio- ii sum of money snihcieni to 

 purchase his former estate, (which had been 

 confiscated) on the promise of returning it with- 

 in a given period. .As soon as Ihe purchase was 

 I complete, he got a carpenter and invited his 

 frienils lo accompany him lo the house the peri- 

 |od ofrepa\m(-ni having expired. When they 

 got lo a orlaiii room he ordered the man lo re- 

 move some plank from the floor wh.ch he point- 

 led out, which, bei'ig dot e, Ihe treasure he had 

 secreted many years before was found undistur- 

 bed, fnun which he instantly repaid his friends, 

 equ.illy to their astonishment and satisfactioa. 



An Irishmin and a Yankee met at a tavera 

 and there was but one bed for them. On retir- 

 ing, the y mkee said he did not care which side j 

 of Ihe bed he look,— -''rhen," said I'al, "yoa i 

 may take th" under side.'''' ! 



111. i .\{{ '.Ki. is pulilish. o» VI rv tiid.iy, lif JoHH B. 

 Kvs^Kbi^ »l ji2.50 jpec auuuiB, iu sidvaace- 



