J826.J 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



205 



(Ir-parled comf'iris ; a slnntiing monument of 

 inndcrn (le£;enpr;iry, am), like every olher inon- 

 iiment, ihe re[>re'*pnlalivo of somotliing' lioltPr 

 tlian itself. Formerly, thev ?:hv liousps built for 

 onr long ninters, for convfiiionce and comfort. 

 Avilh Ihe ivaljs low, with lirir.k antl clay lining 

 their .'iiies, a large beam riiiini!i<j through ll/i 

 centre of each room ; on uliich they conUI hang 

 a hat, nhiii, and a variety of other ii«efnl things. 

 I5t)l now, it i>i Ihonght heller hy these nise in- 

 novators, lo hnild houses for our four month* of 

 warm weather; high in the walls, and inronve- 

 riienl; in uhicli they look in vain for their old 

 substantial friend, the beam ; (which if it found 

 a (dace in the slender fiatiie of modern archi- 

 leclnre, would be quite beyond their reach,) al 

 though, they were never commanded, even as 

 ii> po&rites, to cast il out of their houses Time 

 was, when they could sleep in the warm and 

 comfortable room, where tliey lived, and see 

 the social fire shining upon Ihe wall, as they 

 wore composing themselves to rest ; antl al 



'he Iirilish Parliament spoke of the inland of 

 \'ir;>inia, in North America. 



\\ hat would the supersli'.inus Dutchmen on the 

 Banks ol' the North Uiver, in tlial :if;e, when a 

 voxaiTfi I'roni New-York to their L'llMiia Thule, 

 .\lbany, was regarded as almost an India voyage, 

 have ihrughl, if it had been told ihein, that 

 at no ver\ distant period, liiis voyage would be 

 (>errormed in less than a Summer's day? And' 

 bad they actually seen the apparently self-mov-| 

 ed vessels of steam, of the present day, flying i 

 thiouijh the waters of this river against wind, 

 and current, greater smokers, if possilile, than 

 ihemselves, Ihey would have fled from them in 1 

 dismay, as from the ghosts of their fathers. — 

 What would Ihe inhabitants of New-York have | 

 thought, before their immortal Clinton lived, 

 of uniting the waters of Eric and llie Hudson ? 

 Or the peo[)le of England, a few years since, of 

 seeing steam carriages travelling with the j 

 strength of a giant along their rail roads; or of; 

 crossing Ihe Thames on terra fii ma, at a oreat 



limes, loo, sending up a friendly light upon theldeplli below Ihe bottom of the channel? What! 

 darkness of midniijhl, and disclosing over theii- ' would our ancient neighbors of Essex have 



heads the shadowy forms of many a familiar ob- 

 ject. But now, for Ihe benelil of Insurance Com- 

 panies, the standard of sleep is elevated. Il is 

 quite out of fashion, lo lodge below, and guard 

 the fjre. So Ihey must, '• with painful steps and 

 slow,'- repair lo a cold, dark chamber ; and. 

 with sliivering limbs and heavy liearls, lay them- 

 selves down on a high modern bed. 



thought of our tar-famed countryman, Mr Per- i 

 kins, had Ihey seen his truly wonderful ma-i 

 chines ? And how would ihey have treated him, ' 

 unless restrained by fear, if lie had ventured to j 

 discharge before them his Steam Gun, " at the 

 rale of 240 ounce balls per minute from a mus-l 

 ket barrel, with a force equal lo that of gun | 

 powder?"' Put al the present day, (and jicr 



These are lint a small part of their privations ; haps the remark is applicable, too, to ancient 



and trials. If they look out upon their farms, or 

 upon socJetv, every thing is strangely allered ; 

 nothing appears as it once did ; and the proverb, 

 that " every ^feneration groii-'s wiser and tiu'scr" 

 seems lo them sadly reversed. 



Kut, it is not to be wondered at, that many 

 among Ihe afjed should be attached lo ancien! 

 customs, and averse to changes and innovations. 

 And it is principally am'ms; them, that recent 

 improvements (ind a slow rece(ilion. The pres- 

 ent fxcneraiion are persuaded, that there is a 

 shorter, and, in many respects, a belter v.ay, 

 than " the good old way ;" and the heavy stone, 

 with \vliich his father and grandfather balanced 

 Ihe grain across the horse, the son, findinii but 

 a dead weight,dismisses at once from ihe mouth 

 of the bag; and thus cariies double the quanti- 

 ty lo mill. 



Many things are now known hy every child 

 lo be true, which, formerly, would have ap 

 j>eared to the wise as utterly incredible. 



One of the most learned of ihe colony at Ply- 

 mouth, in 1C21, wrote to his friends in England, 

 that Ihey had called this country New-England, 

 from its resemblance, in many respects, to the 

 country they had left behind them; but princi- 

 iialiy, because, " as far as Ihey could yet find, it 

 was an island and near about Ihe quantity of Eng- 

 land; being cut out from Ihe main land of Amer- 

 ica, as England is from the main of Europe, by 

 a great arm of the sea, which entereth in 40 

 degrees, and runneth u]) North West and by 

 West, and goelh out, either into Ihe South Sea. 

 or else into the Bay of Canada." This is no 

 reflection upon the wisdom and intellig-ence of 

 our pious and worthy ancestors ; because this 

 country was then but a wilderness of savages, 

 and almost unknown to the civilized world. It 

 was al a much later period, when our country 

 had acquired a name, and had been described in 

 many a geography, that a learned getitleman in 



lays) he wouKI he quite as safe among his most 

 superslilous countr\ men, as he now is in Lon- { 

 (Inn. For it must be remembered, that al a 

 place, not very distant from one of Ihe princi- ' 

 pal English Universities, is annually delivereil 

 iiy Ihe Prol'essor of Theology in that University, 

 and is |o be continued to the end of time, a dis-, 

 course against wilchcrafl : the confiscated cs- ' 

 talcs of those unhap|>y beings, who were once; 

 found guilty of Ihis mortal sin, beiiiff appropri-i 

 ated to the siip|)orl of that highly important' 

 Lectureship. | 



(To be concluded next tredi.) 



From Ihe London Magazine. 



NEGLECT OF ADVANTAGES. 



We do not make all the use we might, either 

 of our materials or of our knowledge. 



Thus the /oi'i(r/i«m tree, which Ihe French 

 sometimes call the green ebony of (lie Alps, is one 

 of the most beautiful of woods for furniture, yet 

 il is seldom or ever used for that purpose. j 



It has been proved, in many parls of France,) 

 that the xvcdnut-trcc, if grafted, \iTn(]uces tenfold;! 

 yel, I believe, that >valnut is seldom or ever 

 submitted to that ()rocess, at least in this country. 



Mr. Dawes, of Slough, discovered that Ihej 

 covering of a wall with black paint would fa- 

 cilitate the ripening of wall-fruit, and yet not 

 one wall in twenty thousand is so painted. 



The knowledge that charcocd is Ihe best in 

 gredient in the foundation of buildings erected 

 in moist places, is as old as Theodorus, who ac- 

 cording to Diogenes Laertius, proposed Ihe form- 

 ing the foundation of the Temple of Ephesus 

 with thai material, because it would become so 

 solid that no water could penetrate it. This, 1 

 say, has been known more than two thousand 

 five hundred years, and yet 1 am not aware that 



charcoal has ever been rscd, in this counlr}', 

 for the [lurpose above referred lo. 



From the. Fredericksburg Herald. 



Mr. EnnOR. Being desirous of promoting the 

 interest of agriculture, we, the undersigned, 

 having recently assembled on the farm of Mr. 

 George Filzburg, iviih an intention ot viewing 

 the operation of various Ploughs, and of ascer- 

 laining by actual experiment, Ihe power of pro- 

 pelling these ploughs, have llioughl proper lo 

 send you thiii cnmmunicalinn. 



We have (f.orrectly ascertained tlio ]iowp.r of 

 inopelling idonghs, by a new invention of Mr. 

 Stephen M'Corniick, called the Angular Balance, 

 the construction of which is very simple, and 

 the power of propelling ploughs, may be ascer- 

 tained with minute accuracy. 



The exjieriments were made ivith ploughs, 

 in various soils, and completely to our satisfac- 

 tion, and we are decidedly of opininn tl-.at the 

 nenly invented [latent plough, m de I'y Mr Sle- 

 phen M"Corniick, surjiasses any im|)lement of 

 that kind that has ever come under our obser- 

 vation. As to Ihe sim|dicity of its construction, 

 the liicility with which it may be worked ; and 

 as to its durability, we think we should be jus- 

 liljcd in declaring, liial it is inferior to no plough 

 that wc have c\ er seen in that respect. 

 ,TNO. G KIRBY, 

 SAM'L. CATLUTT, 

 HENRY FITZHUGH. 



The following is Air. .M'Cormick's description of 

 his Plough. 

 lis excellence consists more jiarlicularly in Ihe 

 simplicity of its construction, and from the ex- 

 peiinienls made by those gentlemen, (and mani- 

 festly to. their satislaction,) it can be drawn with 

 much less-lalior (o Ihe liorse, which is an im- 

 portant consideration with farmers. This plough 

 is liot subject lo be clogged with the soil or any 

 vegetable matter, and can be changed without 

 any inconvenience or delay of lime, to suit dif- 

 ferent soils, or the strength of the teams. The 

 mould board contracts or expands by turning the 

 cross-piece near Ihe heel of Ihe |)lough, which 

 is made of iron, having a screw al each end on 

 the principle of the screw auger. 



The share is welded to Ihe bar, and is con- 

 fined at the bottom of Ihe mould-board near the 

 point by a catch, which passes through the 

 share and jjermanenlly confines it. This plough 

 lequires only one brace, which acts in the most 

 (lowerful manner, and is under Ihe control of 

 only one screw. The bar is protected by a 

 piece ofcast-iron with two edges, and is riveted 

 or screwed to the same. When one edge is 

 worn out, turn the olher over, and it furnishes 

 a new one ; and when that edge becomes use- 

 less, a new piece can be obtained for twenty-five 

 cents. Tiie plough may be worked without a 

 coulter, to suit the fancy of the purchasers. But 

 Ihe mould-board is so constructed as generally 

 to do away the necessity of a coulter. 



A Mechanic's Institute has been formed in 

 Bristol ; Ihe first lecture was delivered, before 

 about two hundred Mechanics. It is mentioned 

 that 400 mechanics have subscribed to it, paying 

 23. Cd. per quarter. — London paper. 



