384 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



gastric juice. In some cases, pieces of it adhere 

 to the coats of the stomach, the same as wet pa- 

 per clings to bodies, causing sickness and other 

 inconvenience. Dried rasins and currants are 

 particularly included in these remarks, shewing 

 the best reasons for placing the fruit upon the 

 chopping board with the suet in making a pudding 

 of them, for if a dried currant passes into the 

 stomach whole, it is never digested at all. When 

 horses eat oats or beans that have not been through 

 a crushing mill, much of this food is swallowed 

 whole, and in this state, being perfectly indigesti- 

 ble, the husk or pellicle resisting the solvents of 

 the stomach, there is so much lost to nutrition. 

 Birds, being destitute of teeth, are provided with 

 the apparatus for grinding their seed, namely, the 

 gizzard through which the seed passes, and is 

 crushed prior to digestion. The peels of apples 

 and pears should always be cast away. Oranges 

 we need not mention, as this is always done. 

 Orleans, greengages, damsons, and all plums, 

 should be carefully skinned, if eaten raw ; and if 

 put into tarts, they should be crushed before cook- 

 ing. Nuts are as indigestible as we could desire, 

 if the brown skin be not r-emoved or blanched, as 

 almonds are generally treated. — Ex. 



THE CAPITOL— WASHINGTON. 



Every good citizen, native or adopted, must feel 

 an interest in his country, whether it be in her fu- 

 ture glory and the perpetuity of her institutions, 

 or in the impression which she makes, and is to 

 make, on the mind of the foreigner who visits us, 

 or on the world, who only know us by representa- 

 tives from our shores, or by common report ; that 

 interest we feel, sensibly. That what our country 

 is to be, depends somewhat on us, as it does up- 

 on every good citizen. We feel that a portion of 

 the public domain is ours — paid for by the blood 

 of our ancestors and by the toil and sweat of our 

 own brow, and, like our fireside and the loved ones 

 around it, is as dear to us as the best blessing 

 which Heaven has vouchsafed to send. We boast 

 no peculiar patriotism — the feeling is as common 

 as the air we breathe ; it inspires millions of hearts 

 at this moment with the true principles of liberty, 

 and with as much heroic daring as was manifested 

 by the noble souls of the revolution. We believe 

 in a progress every way that will elevate the con- 

 dition of man ; in wisdom to keep himself out of 

 war, and in unflinching resolution to pursue it 

 when compelled to light for his freedom and all 

 that he holds dear. 



But we have wandered from the subject — it was 

 Uncle Sam's Farm that we meant to speak of, and 

 not his battle-fields. The latter will be defended 

 better, we fear, than the former will be cultivated 

 and improved. 



In a ten years' residence at the Capitol of the 

 Union we could not help gathering something of 

 the feeling of those who came there to represent 

 States, in relation to that portion of teritory set 

 apart as neutral ground for the transaction of the 

 business of the nation. With a jealous eye to the 



unbiassed action of the representative, the citizens 

 of that territory are disfranchised, having a vote 

 only in their municipal affairs. But with this re- 

 striction, there are those who think that money is 

 expended too lavishly at this central point, and 

 that its citizens reap too freely of the people's con- 

 tributions. 



The population in the city of Washington has 

 nearly or quite doubled in the last ten years. The 

 public buildings, projected at first on a scale of 

 cost and magnificence before unknown in this 

 country, have been continued with liberality, and 

 with a high sense of the dignity and importance 

 of the nation. Some of the buildings, are still in 

 an unfinished state, but as more room is needed by 

 the government, the original designs are carried 

 out. The Treasury building, with the longest 

 colonnade in the world, is still unfinished ; the 

 Patent Office, the centre of which is constructed 

 of sandstone, is now receiving an addition of two 

 wings of white marble, which, when completed, 

 will make a structure scarcely surpassed by any of 

 the buildings in the Old World. The General 

 Post Office is a large and beautiful edifice, con- 

 structed also of white marble. 



The capitol was commenced in 1793. Including 

 the circular terrace, it covers upwards of two acres 

 of ground, and has cost two millions of dollars. 

 The length of the front is three hundred and fifty- 

 two feet, depth of its Avings one hundred and twen- 

 ty-one feet, east projection and steps sixty -five feet, 

 and west projection and steps eighty- three feet. 

 The building is decorated in several parts by fine 

 statuary and paintings. On the west front is a 

 monument commemorative of the awful catastrophe 

 in the harbor of Tripoli in September, liS()4, when 

 the Ketch Intrepid was blown up with her officers 

 and crew of thirteen as gallant s^uls as ever trod 

 the deck of a ship. The column, ornamented 

 with the prows of Turkish vessels, rests on a base, 

 on one side of which is sculptured a view of Tripo- 

 li and its fortresses in the distance, the Mediterra- 

 nean and the American fleet in the f reground. 

 On each of the other sides of the base are inscrip- 

 tions, one containing the names of the officers who 

 so heroically sacrificed their lives on the occasion, 

 and the other the epitaph, &e. There are also, 

 other appropriate and spirited figures. On each 

 side of the east entrance there is a colossal figure 

 in marble representing War and Peace. The ro- 

 tunda occupies the centre of the Capitol. It is 

 ninety-six feet in diameter, and ninety-six feet 

 high to the ceiling of the dome. This is termin- 

 ated by a cupola and balustrade, accessible by 

 means of a staircase passing between the roof and 

 ceiling. From this elevation the prospect which 

 bursts upon the eye is most splendid. Three 

 cities are spread before you ; the Potomac on one 

 side and the Eastern Branch on the other, uniting 

 and rolling their waters to the ocean; a range of 



