^[)c jTarmcr's iHontl)li3 llisitov. 



135 



makes the wetter feed stay longer in iIjo ani- 

 mal's stomafli, and thereby !;ivcs ii fjreater 

 ntnount of iionrislniient. The licsl fixid that 

 can l)i; «iven to pi^s is a mixture of Ijaili-v mral, 

 |)eas and potatoes, lint as we do init raise, liailey 

 meal, peas and potatoes stilficiently for tliis pin'- 

 pose, eorn meal is as good. II tlie|ii^'S lie fed 

 on potatoes too exelilsively, llio liil liasH tallowy 

 appc^aranee, and llie meat shrinks il|> v>iieli 

 lioilinjr, for uant of tirinness. 



;{il. 'The food, its (pialities, &c. 



We must not jnd;je of the valne of food liy 

 its hulk. Green top ttniiips and heets, contain 

 Si) parts in 100 of i\aier. Russia liniiips, ti."i 

 parts ; potatoes 7^ pans, oats and wheat straw 

 ]8 parts. Now, the following,' rules, if attended 

 to, will lie tiinnil ol' iininiMise valne. 



Isl. The jinpiinilicin of food. — This should he 

 BO prepared that its nutritive properties may hi' 

 made availalile to the use of the aniiual ; ami 

 Hot only so, hut appropriated with the h'ast pos- 

 eihle expenditure of lunscular exertion or en- 

 ergy. The ox that is oliliged to wander over 

 an acre to get the food he should lind on two 

 or three rods sipiare ; the horse that is two or 

 three hours eatiii!!; the coarse food he would 

 swallow in 1,5 minutes if the grain was ground 

 or the liay cut, as it should he ; the sheep that 

 gpemls hours making its way into aturnip, when, 

 if it were slieed, it could he eaten in as many 

 miuuK.'S ; the pig that eats raw potatoes or 

 whole corn, when either cooUi'd could be eaten 

 in one fomth of the time — may indeed fatten, 

 hut much less rapidly than if the liiod was given 

 them in a proper manner. All food should he 

 given to a fattening animal in sin'li a state that 

 as little time and labor as possible on the part 

 of the auiinal shall be reipiired in eating. 



2d. 7Vte food should he in ahiindancc.^l-'vom 

 the time the llitteiiing process conmiences until 

 the auiiiial is slaughtered, he should never he 

 without food. lliNillb and appetite are be-t pio- 

 moled by change of food rather than by limiting 

 the (ptantily. The animal that is sluHVd ami 

 starved aheruately may liave streaked meat, but 

 it will be made loo slowly for the prolit of tlie 

 owner. 



3d. The food should be f^iven regiilarhi. — This 

 is one of the most essential points in feeding 

 animals. If given irregularly, the animal indeed 

 consumes his food;, hut he soon acquires a rest- 

 less disposition, is rlistnrhed at every ap|iearauce 

 of his feeder, and is never in that qidet state so 

 iiecessiu-y lo ilie taking on of fat. Jt is surpris- 

 ing how readily animals acquire habits of regu- 

 larity in feeding, and how soon the iidluence of 

 this is fi.-lt in the improvement of his constitu- 

 tion. When at the regular hour the pig has had 

 his pudding, or the sheep its turnips, they com- 

 pose tlnnnselves to rest with the consciousness 

 that their digestion is not to be unseasonably 

 disturbed, or their cpiiet broken by unwonted in- 

 vitalioiis to eat. All creatures fatten much faster 

 ill the dark than the light, a tiict to he accounted 

 for by their greater quiet. Some of those crea- 

 tures that are the most irritable and impatient of 

 restraint «liile li'eding, such as turkeys and 

 geese, are found to take on fat rapidly when 

 coiifmed in dark rooms and li-d at stated lionrs 

 by band. There is no surer proof that a pig is 

 doin;; well than to see him eat liis me.il qniekly, 

 and iheii retire lo bis bed to sleep or cogitate 

 until the hour of feeding retmus. 



We will close this article with a remark re- 

 specting the drover's business. It should al- 

 ways be a standing rule with the farmer to have 

 his stock, when taken lo market, driven as lit'le 

 as jiossible. The loss of tJit snslaincd by ani- 

 mals too far driven, is very great. Some uentle- 



meu ill Great IJritain have tested this matter. 



Five sheep were sent from Wainfleet to London 

 to walk the whole distaiii-e, and five sheep were 

 kept at home. Each lot weighed the same ex- 

 actly, but when lioih lots were killed, it was 

 loiind tliat the lot driven on foot had lost GO lbs. 

 w bile there was a gain on the lot at home of 14i 

 lbs. So that the real loss was 74i lbs. on five 

 sheep. The plan should be to take them in con- 

 veyances whenever it is practicable. If a farmer 

 drives his fattened stock "i.'j miles or toot, when 

 he could have taken them by railroad or steam- 

 boat lie becomes a great loser. 



The "Great West."— No part of the world 

 presents such a tnagnificeiit spectacle of internal 



communication, by means of navigable rivers, 

 as the Western, or what one day will be the 

 cotlrnl portion of our Republic. 'I'he Mississip- 

 pi, the parent stream, is navigable for steamboats 

 three thousand miles; the jMi.-soiiri aliout the 

 same ilistaiiecMdiove its junction with tin; Missis- 

 sippi; the Ohio twenty-live bnndred; the Ten- 

 nessee fifteen hundred ; the Arkansas fifteen 

 hundred ; and the Red River one thousand. In 

 addition to these ure the Cumberland, the Wa- 

 bash", the Illinois, the IMiami, tin: Miiskiiigiim, 

 and others, which (low at last into the satne 

 mighty channel, and have an average navigation 

 for steamboats of at least five hnudred miles. — 

 Nolhwilhslaiidiiig the strife of eastin'ii cities for 

 the western trade. New Orleans must some day 

 become the grand commercial mart for the in- 

 numerable cities and villages which are almost 

 daily springing up on the banks of these miglity 

 streams. Railways and canals may partially 

 divert the tide of coiiiineree for a time, but they 

 cannot always turn it from its natural chaiiiiel. 

 So far as mortal eye can see, or human probabil- 

 ity teach. New Orleans must one day become 

 one of the largest cities in the worhl, and in her 

 lap be garnered up the wealth of the largest and 

 most productive "valley" of the universe. — 

 Miiit. 



Dkath not a Painful Process. — We think 

 that most persons have been led to regard dying as a 

 inofe painful change than it generally is, heceiuso they 

 ha\e luiind by what they have experienced in them- 

 selves and seen in others, that sentient beings often 

 struggle when in distress; hence striigghng is to tliem 

 a sign, an invariable sign of distress, liut we may 

 remark, tiiat struggles ale very far from being in- 

 variable signs of distress; muscular action ami conscious- 

 ness are two distinct things, often existing separately; 

 and we have abundant reason to believe, that in a great 

 proportion of cases, those struggles of^ a dying man 

 u hieh are so distressing lo behold, are as emirely 

 independent of consciousness, as the struggles of the 

 recently decapitated fowl. A second reason why most 

 persons are led to regard it as a painful change, is be- 

 cause they know men often endure great pain without 

 dying, and forgetting that like causes produce like ef- 

 fenls o«?i/ under similar circumstances, they infer that 

 life cannot he destroyed without still greater pain. — 

 Kill the pains of death are undoubtedly much less than 

 most persons have been led to believe, and we doubt 

 not that most persons who live to the age of puberty, 

 nudergo tenfold more misery than they would, did they 

 but entertain correct views concerning this change. 



In all cases of dying the individual suffers no pain 

 after the sensibility of the nervous system is often 

 destroyed vvitlioul mucii, and sometimes without anv, 

 previous pain. Those struck dead by a stroke of 

 lightning, those who are decapitated with one blow of 

 an axe, and those who are instantly destroyed by the 

 crush of the brain, experience no pain at ail, in pass- 

 ing from a state of life to a dead state. One moment's 

 expectation far exceeds in misery the pain during the 

 act. Those who faint away on having a little blood 

 taken from the arm, or on any other occasion, have 

 already endured all the misery they ever would in this 

 world, did they not again revive. Those who die of 

 fevers, and most otlier diseases, suffer their greatest 

 pain, generally, hours, or even days, before they expire. 

 M'he sensibility of their nervous system becomes grad- 

 ually diminished, tlieir pains become less acute under 

 the same existing cause; and nt the moment when 

 their friends think tliem in great distress, they are more 

 at ease than the} have been for davs inevious; their 

 disease as fir as it respects their feelings, begins to 

 act upon them like an opiate. Indeed many of them 

 are already dead as it respects themselves, when igno- 

 rant bystanders are much the most to be pitied not for 

 tlie loss of their friends, hut for their sympathizing 

 anguish. Those diseases which destroy life without 

 immediately ailectiui; the nervous system, give rise to 

 more pain than those that do aliect it, to impair its 

 sensibility. The most painful death w liich human be- 

 ings, can inflict en each other, are produced hy the 

 rack and faggot. The halter is not so cruel as either 

 of these, hut more savage than the axe. Horror and 

 pain considered, it seems to i.s that we should choose 

 a narcotic to either. — Chas. KnowUon, M. D. 



Philosophy of Slkkp. — When sleep is not very 

 profound, the senses in a certain degree, are excitable 

 and the conception of ideas by the iidnd does not en- 

 tirely cease, eonse<piently dreams occur. If a light is 

 suddenly brought into a room where a person is, in thia 

 kind of sleep, he will either dream of being under the 

 equator, or in a trtipicai landscape, or of wandering in 

 the fields in a clear summer's day, or of tire.. If a 

 door is slammed, hut not so loud as to awake the sleee- 

 er, he will dream of thunder; and if his palms be gen- 

 tly tickled, bis dreams will ba of acstatic pleasure. — 



If some particular idea con.pletely occupies the mind 

 during the waking state, it will recur in dreams during 

 slee|i; hence the minds of these unfortunate people 

 (witches) mciitioni'd in her text, being strongly im- 

 pressed with the iilea of being present at the i^ubbath, 

 the dreanis would apparently realize that event. If a 

 person folds his arms closely ever his breast, he is like- 

 ly to dream of being held down liy force, and the im- 

 ages of the persons employed in holding him dow n will 

 he also present to his mind. The predominant emo- 

 tions of the ndiid inUuence greatly the character of 

 dreams. — Uld paper. 



LABOitiNe TOO MucJi. — People do not have re- 

 laxation enough in New England. They too 

 generally have n care-worn expression, from in- 

 fancy to age ; and it cannot be denied, tlint anx- 

 iety is a wcarine.ss to the flesh. We are all util- 

 itarians in this country, especially in the north- 

 ern Slates, hardly affording ourselves opportuni- 

 ty l()r eating and sleeping in the manner which 

 natmc demands — for she can only conduct her 

 cliemi(!al o|ierationa properly, and re-adjust the 

 deranged vital machinery, while we are quietly 

 slnmbering. We recruit ourselves and grow 

 lilt during a refreshing luqi — but exhaust the sys- 

 tem, both physically tind mentally, iu pursu- 

 ing to excess the ordinary round of cvery-day 

 business. "All work and no play makes Jack a 

 dull lioy, " is n jiroverb based on a profound 

 knowledge of the laws of our being. 



Females, in New England are worse off than 

 the oilier sex in the deprivation of out door re- 

 laxalion, as custom lias made it vulgar to brcatbo 

 the pure fresh air of hi'aven, unless it is done in 

 a very lady-like manner. Hence they make fee- 

 ble mothers — look thin, sallow, lank, and die by 

 llioiisaiids prematurtdy, of diseases that never 

 would have been developed had tliere been less 

 eflucation of the mind, and more of the body in 

 girlhood. 



A sad mistake is produced by too implicit be- 

 lief in the adage that "time is money," since the 

 first object of pursuit is, in consequence made 

 to be the case. Those who attempt to rest 

 reasonably from tlieir labors, at proper periods, 

 are either afraid <d" not having enough, or are 

 reminded that idleness ends in want. So the 

 shiittle flies faster than it ought to go; the liir- 

 mer cheats liiinself out of all that is worth hav- 

 ing, health, by denying himself and his boys a 

 holiday, because time is money and example 

 everything; merclmnts iu cities toil for the im- 

 mediate benefit of thieves and paupers — paying 

 taxes iu proportion to their income — and leave 

 tlio world unsatisfied, having never found them- 

 selves ready to rest and take comfort. We work 

 too much and too loiig in New England. — Med- 

 ical Joiinial. 



For tile Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 The Potato Plague. 

 Much lias been said and written about this 

 strange malady, still the Farmer is in doubt and 

 darkness as to the cause and its cure or prevent- 

 ative, and the philanlbropist is filled with fear 

 and wonder for the result. One writer tells lis 

 that it is "a natural decay for which there is no 

 remedy;" Another attributes it to "old age" 

 and concludes that the potato "must die." A 

 third is satisfied " that this decay is occasioned 

 by an insect, which perforates the stalk and 

 leaves." With the last 1 agree, having paid par- 

 ticular attention to the cause, and eftect of the 

 disease, the past season. 1 have examined quite 

 a iimnber of fields in this and adjoining towns, 

 and find them afTected invariably the same: that 

 is, where I have found the stalk perforated, and 

 the worm within, by following that stalk down, 

 the potatoes attached were fimiid rotten or spot- 

 ted, whilst others in the .same hill were healthy, 

 thus proving conclusively to nie at least, that 

 n fly of some kind was the cause. After con- 

 siderable observnlioi), I discovered a fly of pe- 

 culiar consuuction, about one inch iu length, 

 busily engaged to appearance in implanting the 

 fatal egi:. The next day I visited another field 

 eight niiles distant, there also I found both the 

 fly nud the worm. In one field planted with 

 whites and blues mixed, the blues alone were 

 diseased, tlie whites remaining sound; this the 

 oldest of the potato kind, remains the most har- 

 dy, thus proving the incorrectness of the argn- 

 ment of old age. It has been reconiniended to 

 cut the vines as a cure. I think those who may 

 heed (his recoiuuieiKl^lton, would be likely to 



