34 



^\)t Saxnut's M\o\\\\}\]) btfittor. 



newly purchased farm, much of which had grown 

 over to briars and busiies. With \\\s own hands 

 he cleared many an acre, and hiid uji several 

 hundred rods of stone wall : as the eldest of the 

 children, day after day, and many a day, did the 

 editor labor with hinil enconraged that the work 

 of improvement was the means of bringing 

 comfort to a family which without effort must be 

 destitute. Here it was wheu a mere youth that 

 those anxielies were formed and those responsi- 

 bilities incurred which have enabled us in after 

 life to encounter the "cares and woes" to which 

 all mortals are liable, but which some are doomed 

 to encounter with greater anguish, if not in a 

 greater degree than others. VVith an excellent 

 constitution enabling him to encounter great fa- 

 tigue — with an intelligence and judgment inferi- 

 or to few men of his age and ex|)erience — with 

 a heart to despise every mean or dishonorable 

 act — with a soul generous and benevolent above 

 most men of his means and calling in life — be- 

 loved most by those who have encountered the 

 ills of life with the greater poignancy from being 

 most sensitive to those aberrations ot mind which 

 Providence in its wisdom sometimes sees fit to 

 produce — without an enemy on earth, and look- 

 ing to that best Friend in Heaven with an assm-- 

 ance of mercy — the earthly sufferer departed this 

 life on the 22d day of December last: the morti- 

 fication of his extremities, commencing in one 

 foot, about six weeks previous, extended over the 

 whole system, leaving the patient to die in his 

 last words calling upon the name of that Saviour 

 whose life and whose sufferings had long been 

 the subject of his reading and meditation. 



How soon was the family so long exempted 

 from the presence of the grim messenger — the 

 family of nine, with the eldest fifty-five and the 

 youngest thirty-three years of age — brought to 

 feel a doomed second blow in the death of the 

 youngest and fairest and loveliest of the flock ! 

 Reeecca Rdssell Reding, the wife of the Hon. 

 John R. Reding, and youngest daughter of the 

 late Isaac Hill, died at Washington City, January 

 28, 1644, aged 33 years. "Death loves a shining 

 mark ;" and rarely does it bapjien that the death 

 of one so young and so unpretending should pro- 

 duce so extensive and so general regret beyond 

 the confines of her own family. To the educa- 

 tion of a mother teaching the child of her old 

 age in every good word and work, did she owe 

 her better qualities ; but to the andfition of that 

 mother to provide and prepare for every wordly 

 exigency — to that ambition which sometimes car- 

 ries enterprise beyond Its stretigth may it also he 

 due as one of the means of snatching her pre- 

 maturely from friends on earth. She had been 

 married to Rlr. Reding about ten years. Pros- 

 perity had attended him; and it was her ambi- 

 tion to do hei' part. She had spent one winter 

 with him at Washington. It acci<lentally came 

 to the knowledge of the writer, that previous to 

 leaving home iu November, with her own hands, 

 assisted by only a si;igle individual, every room 

 and window and nook of the huge house where 

 she resided was cleansed, tlie furnitm-e of the 

 several rooms put in places of security with eve- 

 ry scrap of clothing and other materials — the 

 main part of the man.sion fastened up not to be 

 opened until her return, and the kitchen part to 

 be occupied by a tenant who was to look after 

 its preservation. A l«w days before her death, 

 althougli not deserted by her usual vivacity, she 

 complained tliat she had never felt as well as she 

 used to feel since she left home, and that she 

 wished to return. She came along, not knowing 

 of the illness of her father, in too great haste to 

 make her usual visit to her aged parents who 

 lived some hundred and fifty miles distant; and 

 for several days, tears lell in all the intensity of 

 grief that she had not again seen him living. 

 With her own hands, after her arrival at Wash- 

 ington, between the 1st and the 24th of January, 

 she made for herself two mourning dresses, 

 which she predicted she should not live to ex- 

 change for others. These dresses, cut out and 

 made up by one who had never learned the trade 

 only as iiractised in her own family, presented a 

 beautiful sample of the handy-work of fingers 

 which knew not how to be idle. With a calico 

 mourning dress U[ion her, which was purchased 

 in tlin cloth less tiian a week previous, she went 

 out on WcdiiesJay and called upon several 

 friends. This last made dress was the last she 

 li»i»g ever put on. She had for some days com- 



plained of an aching ear, but treated it as too 

 small a matter to call a physician. Returning 

 from her walk, the ear-ache incieased on Wednes- 

 day night and Thursday : her last night of con- 

 sciousness was a night of great restlessness. An 

 elder sister residing in Washington was sent-for 

 at early dawn on Friday. A physician soon 

 came ; but disease had already done its work. 

 The brain had been invaded through the mem- 

 branes connected with the ear— from that period 

 the blood rushed to the head as to the most dis- 

 eased part, and no [iroce.ss of human skill could 

 avert the great result. It is the O|)inion of the 

 writer that the foundation of the disorder was 

 laid in the great personal effort before leaving 

 home, and that the disease had been in j.rogress 

 from that time. She lived to breathe, it is be- 

 lieved in a state of imconscionsness, from Friday 

 morning until the follovving Sunday at siuidown, 

 when the last flickering of life disapjieared. 



lii the midst of tlie severest weather of the 

 past winter, after funeral services had been at- 

 tended at Washington, honored by the presence 

 of Miost of the Senators and Representatives in 

 Congress, her body was taken all the way by land 

 to Haverhill, the residence of her husband. The 

 mails having been ice-bound, no intelligence of 

 her sickness or death was received by her family 

 in New England until a few hours previous to 

 the arrival of her remains. The friend who 

 went from Washington with those remains went 

 to her place of residence, and there saw as the 

 work of her own hands the rooms and furniture 

 as she had left it: of the articles left were two 

 large rolls of beautiful woollen flannel, a large 

 portion of which was spun by her own hands. 

 Although the life of this youngest sister of the 

 family of nine, of which the writer is the eldest, 

 is the first to be cut off by death — so soon fol- 

 lowing the aged f ilher — yet hers, a life of con- 

 stant activity as it has been of innocence anil 

 usefulness, has been longer for good than soiue 

 who have attained to the age of I'ourscore years. 

 The worn leaves of a neat pocket-bible within 

 her room which were turned over by the writer 

 during the last eight hours of her life, witnessed 

 her secret piety and devotion: the lady wher« 

 she boarded observed it was common to open 

 suddenly and find her plying the needle wliile 

 the bible lay open before her; so much had she 

 accustomed herself to industrious labor, that she 

 could not even pretermit it where there seemeil 

 to be no necessity for it, as she never had a child 

 of her own to require her efforts. The Rev. Mr. 

 TusTON, chaplain of the United States Senate, 

 who had been ac(juainted with Rfrs. Reding for 

 the last three years, at the time of her death of- 

 fered in the Washington newspapers the follow- 

 ing voluntary notice to her memory: — 



"Seldom has the grave seemed a lovelier tro- 

 phy. She lived in the affections of all who knew 

 her. Her sweetness of disposition made her a 

 welcome guest wherever she went. She was 

 eminently characterized by that gentleness of 

 spirit whirl) constitutes the abiding charm of her 

 sex. Cherishing feelings of unmiugle<l kindness 

 for every member of the human funily, it is be- 

 lieved she has not left a single enemy to cast a 

 thorn upon her grave. She waslheobject of tm- 

 mingleil admiration by a large circle of relatives 

 and friend.*. A few days ago it seemed as if earth 

 contained upon its hroa<l bosom no King crea- 

 ture more joyous and happy. But yesterday, 

 she sparkled among us iu all the charms of her 

 nnconscious loveliness. Her gracefid form is 

 vividly before us, as when inspired with life and 

 animation. Her modest bearing yet liiigersnpon 

 our admiring recollection. Her gentle spirit still 

 breathes its tones of wonted kindness, while it 

 recedes and mingles with other and distant 

 scenes. Her precious remains repose Iu the em- 

 brace of death, but her noble sp.irit, we doubt 

 not, is shining with mild and steady lustre, in the 

 diadem of the Redeemer. Heaven has severed 

 this lovely vine from the pillar to which it has 

 clung with instinctive fondness, and it now lies 

 withering in the dust; but the recollection of its 

 charms will be fondly cherished when the nmn- 

 rnnlh itself shall fade and iinther. The hand of 

 friendship hangs this chaplet upon her urn. 



" S. T." 



IwrHovEMEyT OF THE Pi.ouGH. — Mcs'Uf. Edi- 

 tors — As yon judiciously assign a column or two 

 of your ueefid paper to agricultural topics, allow 



me to occupy n part of that space this week. 



A wiiter on the Plough, in a recent rujmber of 

 the Boston Cultivator, seems to understand so 

 well his subject, that we have thought it would 

 be doing a good service to your agricultural 

 readers to give an abstract of his remarks. — 

 This we propo.se to do in his own words and 

 our own, as inay be most convenient for brev- 

 ity- 



We are begining to see the truth of the re- 

 inark made by one who imderstood well the 

 subject he was discussing, that " land improp- 

 erly turned in the spring, is out of our power 

 for the whole year" — and that if grass seeds are 

 sown at the time, fo- <u'o years, at least, during 

 which the cattle crop as well as the grain crop 

 suffers, thus making an incalculable loss by 

 reducing the quantity and quality of the man- 

 ure for succeeding years. A vast deal of this 

 kind of mischief is made by what is called "flat 

 furrowing, with pidverizing.'' Nothing is more 

 opposed to reason and common sense than this 

 niode of ploughing. For v/here is the utility of 

 pulvei'ising our lajid liy fallowing, dragging, 

 harrowing, rolling, and cross-ploughing, if, for 

 immediate seeding, it is suflicient to throw it 

 over in large flat masses, so compact as to lie 

 dead on the subsoil, and draw from thence the 

 cold and acid moisture, and hold it like a sponge 

 all winter long, chilling the crop and engender- 

 ing all manner of diseases? But there are 

 ploughs so admirably adapted for turning, break- 

 ing and pulverizing the soil, that they would 

 almost seem to do away the necessity for more 

 than half the after cii!tui-e of rolling, harrowing, 

 dragging and cross-ploughing, were we but care- 

 ful to tm-n the land by a deep, narrow fiu'row, 

 throwing it over so as to lie light and pervious 

 to the atmosphere — by which means a super- 

 abundance of rain might pass off by the sub- 

 soil, wljich it would then easily reach iu its pas- 

 sage downwards. A thoroughly pulverized seed- 

 bed fur the crop is ma<ie by once digging with 

 a spade, with no question as to the all-sufficien- 

 cy of the operation ; and there is no doubt hut 

 a plough can be found to perform the same la- 

 bor, when we get rid of the "flat furrow" delu- 

 sion. 



From the days of my boyhood to matdre age, 

 I have been so addicted to following the plough, 

 that I seem to have known all that have been 

 invented, both in Europe and this country. The 

 English, the Scotch, the Irish, the Welch, the 

 French, the Dutch, and the American, I have 

 been familiar with — those constructed of iron, 

 of wood, or a mixtme of both ; concave, convex, 

 and cycloidal ; cast iron, cast steel, and wrought » 

 steel ; self-sharpening, and no-sharpening; with 

 three wheels, two vvheels, and single wheels; 

 with a foot, and no foot ; swingand gibbit; with 

 beams made of a small tree, round, and nearly 

 in its natural state, or finished with the neatness 

 of a uiuliogany hand-rail ; with two handles, and 

 with one handle, straight, crooked, and curved.' 

 It has been my lot, too, to see teams lor drawing 

 them ipiite as various. 1 have seen a team con- 

 sisting of a bull, tui ox, two cows, and a horse; 

 eight oxou in pairs; six horses in pairs ; five 

 horses at length ; four horses in pairs; three hors- 

 es abreast ; a pair of oxen and horses ; and a single *' 

 horse; six mules in pairs, with three meu — and 

 three nudes abreast with one man, performing v 

 more laboi'and better work. The strangest team 

 I ever saw was that of a miserly brute in the*^ 

 shape of a man, who lived in the Isle of VV'iglit, 

 Eng., consisting of his oivu daughter, a fine girl 

 of 18. and an ass! It would be exceedingly 

 amusing to describe the operations of many of , 

 these ploughs and teams, if it could he done 

 vvtihin the limits of this article, which is not 

 possible. The Ignorance of the flu-mers, too, 

 in supposing their work was well done when it 

 was not, is surprising. The honest but singularly 

 awkward plough, to which I had the honor of 

 being head driver wlien a hoy, would turn over 

 considerably less than an acre a day, and it w;is 

 said to ilo good work — for the furrow would 

 rather turn over than fidl back: but as for bury- 

 ing the weeds, or covering a heavy crop of clo- 

 ver — oh, that was never ex[iected of her! This 

 is (ijily a solitary specituen of the blundering of 

 those firincrs who consider it s.-iriilege not to do 

 exactly as their linhers always did before them. 



I consider some of the ploughs in this coun- 

 try superior to those of any other. It is a great 



