®l)c laxmtx's iiloittl)!^ faisitor. 



37 



see this iDUck Imsiiiess treated on hy some of 

 your able com;spoiKlei)ts. 



V. M. TOWNSEND. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The Preiniiim I'itcher. 



Ill .-i roiiiirr iiiiiulicr of the Visitor some writer 

 riitiier aptly reinurUs that "all who make an ef- 

 fort for prerninins siiceecil : is it Imtter ? " hy, 

 that which approarhes the Itetit, is left t ■> rowaril 

 till- atteijipl, the maker's name is mentioned aii<l 

 the eow is ever after Wdrth more to the proprie- 

 tor." So of the next hest crop of corn, wheat or 

 other ;.'rain, the products fjreatly reward the en- 

 deavor; tli(^ land is worth more for years after in 

 other cro|)s from liavin;^ lieen so well prepareil, 

 and a man's whole farm, and liis repute as a 

 pood liu mer, come ill willi additional value and 

 rate. 



The season is now at hand for the pnttins in 

 of the seed, iSic., for the premium crops next (all, 

 and we invite elfort, and an account after, to make 

 the pa^'es of the Visitor instructive and interest- 

 in";. We have, however, to deal with a dilferent 

 alliiir, and we trust that the case stands alone, 

 and will slaiirl alone in the hest of premiums. It 

 is a ease of repudiation, not where a premium 

 was given, lint where it was olfered : the promise 

 was for a time "kept to the ear, and Uroken to 

 the hope.'' Let us come to it, tlien : the case is 

 one that ditl not happen here in New Eni^land, 

 where we ki^ep all our promises, as young men 

 and old ones —as striplings when the " hlood 

 fridics in the veins of youth : " and as middle 

 aged, and old men, and this integriiy I trust will 

 ever be ours, to steady and silstain us to the end. 



It is some twenty-five or thirty years since — 

 soon after the close of the last war with Great 

 Britain — that an agricidtural society was found 

 iiv existence in the District of Conhuhia, and 

 turning their attention to the various points of 

 improvement, thought of substituting oxen as 

 farm animals in the place of horses. 'I'heir ad 

 verlisement to obtain ligl 

 something as follows : — 



•• \ PREiMlUM PITCHER. 



At the November ineetintr of this society g silver pitch- 

 er, to hold one quart, will be awarded lor the best essay 

 upon working oxen, as compared with other antmaU upon 

 a tarin. 'I'he name of the writer in the act ol' hnidin^ a 

 plough, vviih a picture of a pair of oxen will be beautiful- 

 ly chased thereon, and will be executed as soon as the 

 award shall be made. 



IJy order of the Society, 



JAO, SMITH, Sec'y," 



This tliennovelty caused much attention at the 

 time; oxen were then scarcely used at all in the 

 South, and even to this day, they gain slowly up- 

 on the estimation of farmers in that quarter. 

 The negro is a hard master to all working ani- 

 mals, even to his own race, if he happens to lie 

 overseer, lie reasons with an ox as if the dumb 

 animal understood every word, and beats him if 

 he does not obey. Well then, much effort was 

 made fur thi.s silver pitcher. Books were opened 

 iipiiii the siihjecl ; individuals were tpiestioniid 

 and especially those who happened to have come 

 from liie North and East. Numeious were the 

 essays handed in. Among the numerous com- 

 petitors for the premium pilelier, was a young 

 man from the Stale of Maine — one who had seen 

 the line o.xen tliere, so docile and well traineil, 

 that they at times seem to sympathize with their 

 owners in uniting their efforts with his. This 

 competitor in the seiinel appeared to be as mod- 

 est as meritorious, .'lud svhen his produetion was 

 reail all the nieuihersof the ,society, as one man, 

 united tli:it he had won the pitcher. The repu- 

 tation of lliis pi'oiliiclion has endured from that 

 day to this: all the members of the society were 

 so impri'ssril willi the superiority of oxen upon 

 a farm, that b'I'orc; they sepjirateil, they appeared 

 grave and thoughtful, of where they should pro- 

 cure these valiiabh; animals. The writer had 

 touclieil Ihe several parts wilh such beauty and 

 smoothness that it was almost poetry. Cheaper 

 than horses, less cost in keepiiu.', not so li.ible to 

 disease, or accidents ; and when old, not a total 

 loss like the horse, but aetuaHy worth more as 

 beef than the first cost. The manner of work- 

 ing too, could only have lieen from the pen of a 

 man who had seen them stooping their necks to 

 the yoke, as tli"y forced llie plough along ; yon al- 

 most hear the stubborn sod, and roots cracking 

 and yielding, as w itii fixed eyes and straightened 

 muscles tlieywalked on with their work, and left 



the shining furrow behind them. We wish that 

 we now had the article for our pages. 



"A bird in the baud is worth two in the hush ;" 

 and so it turned out on this occasion. A num- 

 ber of the elder members of the society inquired 

 of the young author if he was married (which 

 happeneil to be the case) but not one word about 

 the pitcher. The society was found as soulless 

 as a corporation : what was everybody's busi- 

 ness was nobody's, and each was careful not to 

 make hiiiiself responsible to the silversmith by 

 an order liir the preinium. And so the m(u'itori- 

 ous anil successful writer never got his pitcher 

 to grace his chimney-piece, and rejoice the eyes 

 of his line wife, IJnl he got a lesson, and that 

 was to write no more for pitchers before the prize 

 had been nianufactered. G. 



Cooking Food for Swine. — In an article on 

 I'ork-niaking, in a late number of the N. K. 

 Farmer, Dr. Lee says: — From some experiments 

 of my own, and considerable reseerch into the 

 published results of the experience of others, I 

 am satisfied that ten bushels of lioiled potatoes, 

 thoroughly mixed with the pudding that can be 

 made from three bushels of corn or peas, will 

 make as much pork as twenty bushels of pota- 

 toes, and six bushels of corn or pea.s fed raw. It 

 is, indeed, gratifying to find that throughout the 

 entire length and breadth of our country, the ex- 

 pression of popular senlimeiit is annually be- 

 coming more and more decided as regards the 

 practice of econoinizing food by cooking. The 

 calculation m&de by Dr. Lee, though it will in all 

 probability be doubted by some, will yet aiipear 

 reasonable to every one who has any knowledge 

 of the practice to which it relers. Our own ex- 

 |ierience has long since convinced us that, to 

 feed uncooked food of any kind, to hogs or other 

 animals, while undergoing tlie 'fallening process," 

 is a sheer waste of at least one-fonrth the mate- 

 rials demanded. We hope our farmers in Maine 

 will examine this subject critically and act, here- 

 after, as their own reason, uuiniinenced by long 

 cherished prejudices, shall decide. 



The New British Tariff.^A partial modi- 

 fication of the old and highly oppressive tariff 

 laws of Great Britain has recently been effected 

 — a bill for the purpose having been introduced 

 into Parliament by Sir Robert Peel, the Premier. 

 The anti-corn law party, in England, do not con- 

 sider it as even an instalment of their just de- 

 mands — " not so much as half a loaf of Ihe bread 

 they want," says a contemporary. The " League" 

 newspaper of February 22, thus comments on 

 the bill:— 



" We have just received the list of the 430 

 articles on which the import duties ore to be 

 'totally and immediately' repealed. The catalogue 

 is more ealcidaled to excite surprise at the folly 

 which taxed these articles, than admiration of 

 the wisdom that discovered the expediency of 

 their removal from the tariff. Some of the items 

 suggest a few serious reflections not wholly de- 

 void of amusement. Thus, while our bread is 

 taxed, arsenic is admitted duty free; so that if 

 we cannot have food at the natural price, we 

 may have poison on moderate terms. Beef-wood 

 meets our eye in the catalogue, where we should 

 much rather see the beef without the wood. 

 Sing.infr birds are no longer entitled to protec- 

 tion, which must greatly annoy Lord Winchilsea 

 and the rest of the Finches. Bones of cnlUe are 

 liberated from duty, hut the flesh upon them re- 

 mains subject to the landlord's tax; foreign ani- 

 mals are allowed to furnish us with every thing 

 but meat; free admission is granted to tlieir 

 bones, their hides, their hair, their hoofs, their 

 horns, and their tails — to every thing but their 

 flesh, which is precisely the pait of which we 

 stand most in need. Brimstone, in rolls we may 

 have, if we please, but for bread in rolls we su|)- 

 plicaie ill vain: briinsloiie inflow we are to get 

 at will, but no other flour will be allowed by tlie 

 monopolists. We wish that we could reverse the 

 anangenient,and leave them the brimstone, while 

 the rolls and flour should goto the nation. Bris- 

 tles may come in, but not the pork they covered: 

 and should children cry for food, the State doctor 

 has provided the same remedy as ftloliere's mock 

 doc!or, in 'LeMedicin inalgre liii,' viz : 'a good 

 whipping,' by allowing the admission of canes 

 duty liee. Unmanufactitred chalk is liberated from 

 taxaiiou, hut in its manufactured condition, as 



milk, its exclusion is continued for the sake o 

 the agricultural interest. Coals may be carried 

 to Newcastle without let or hindrance; anil the 

 sarru! generosity is exhibited in the free admission 

 of cotton yarn to Manchester, Feathers, Jlocks, 

 and Jlower roots, for beds, have won the favor of 

 the premier; but flocks of sheep continue under 

 the appropriate protection of the Duke of Rich- 

 mond, All gums, except those in the head, are 

 honored with special recognition liy the minister; 

 instead of a supply for them, he offers us jewels, 

 duty free, which exemplifies 'asking for bread 

 and receiving a stone,' with a vengeance. As we 

 cannot obtain food to fatten ourselves or our cat- 

 tle, we are graciously permitted to \m\torl animal 

 oil ; and orange peel having disappeared since 

 18'2D, a fresh supply may be had from abroad, 

 with the addition of lemon peel, the acid being 

 derived from the the income tax. We find a long 

 catalogue of liberated .seeds; but lament that the 

 seeds of wheat, oats, and barley, are not among 

 the enfranchissd, though botanists might rank 

 them among the enumerated grasses. Thrownsilk 

 is the only article in which the principle of pro- 

 lion is directly abandoned, unless we include 

 teasles as part of agricultural produce. There is 

 much eiy hut very little tvool in the budget be- 

 yond eoltoii wool, which is really important; 

 there are, however, several long ^anix in addi- 

 tion to that spun by the premier in his opening 

 speech," 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, 

 Herds Grass. 



In the January number of the Visitor it is re- 

 commended to let this grass stand until ripe, to 

 prevent its running out soon. In conversing 

 some years since with a farmer of Maryland, I 

 was surprised to be informed that this kind of 

 hay, (which is there called timothy) is best for 

 horses, and will weigh more if suffered to stand 

 until the seed lia.s become ripe. Some of the 

 seed will be shattered out in the handling and 

 will thus save all the vacant spots. Certain it^ is 

 that where it is cut when in bloom, according to 

 our old custom here, it soon disappears from our 

 fields altogether. From what 1 have seen and 

 learned, 1 am inclined to give the ripening plan 

 a trial, as I have noticed among some hushes at 

 the edge of my field, which could not be mown, 

 the herds grass remains, 



Dttxbury, Mass. 



A Plan for taking the Yeas and Nays in De- 

 liberative Bodies. 



We mentioned a few days ago, that Dr, Dun- 

 can, in Congress, made a motion calling upon 

 Professor iMorse for information whether some 

 plan for .saving the time of the House consumed 

 ill calling the yeas and nays could not be invent- 

 ed. A gentleman of this city has furnished lis 

 with such a plan, which was conceived by him 

 last December, has since been perfected, and 

 which he has already taken the necessary steps 

 to have patented. 



This plan for takimi the yeas and nays, in all 

 deliberative bodies in ilie United States, for which 

 C, Glen Peebles has a patent, covers varied forms. 

 The |ilan he projioses to adopt at present is as 

 follows: — Two pulleys or keys are placed with- 

 in the desk of each member; a hoard or slab is 

 |ilaced on the clerk's desk, on which is printed 

 the name of each member of the house ; slips or 

 slides are placed in this slab, running parallel to 

 and to correspond with each name. Communi- 

 cation is by means of wire.s, or other material, 

 belween the keys in desks and slides in boards. 

 When a vote of " ayes" is called, the members 

 simultaneously touch their key marked "aye," 

 which throws the slide out on the board, so that 

 it projects beyond his name and the edge of the 

 board; and in like manner for the nays. By that 

 arrangement tlie clerk can count lite vote, an- 

 nounce the result, and place the aggregate vole 

 on the board, all within a space of a minute. 



A slip of papei'f containing the names of every 

 member, toconespond with the names and slides 

 on the board, is so adjusted, that when the slides 

 are thrown out, (which are so pointed as to re- 

 ceive ink,) an impression is made opposite to 

 each name ; and thus is the vote recorded for the 

 use of the clerk or printer. The slides are so ar- 

 ranged that they can then be returned, all at once, 

 to their places, by the clerk, pulling a wire or • 

 glide. 



