364 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



June 5, 1829. 



\_E.vtracts from an ,'htdrcss delivered before the Berk- 

 shire Association for the Promotion of Agriculture 

 and .Manufactures, at Piltsfield, October 2, 182S. 

 By George N. Briggs, Esq., Vice President of 

 the Society.] 



(Concluded from page 356.) 

 Habits of industry, of frugality, of trniperanoc, 

 and economy, tend as efri'itiially to improve tlie 

 moral and intellectual condition of men, as tliey 

 do to improve the condition of their ftrms and in- 

 crease their wealth. Morality and idleness cun- 

 not dwell together ; industry and \ ice hold no 

 communion with each other. 



That branch of domestic industry which relates 

 to household manufactures, and which depends 

 upon the habits, education, and labor of females, 

 is not less imjmrtant to the general prosperity of 

 community, than the more masculine labors of the 

 agriculturist. The exhibitions at our Fairs for 

 many successive years, of articles of this descrip- 

 tion, have been highly complimentary to the in- 

 genuity and industry of the ladies of Berkshire. 



A perfect acquaintance with every part of do- 

 mestic or household economy, is not only compat- 

 ible with the most finished female education, and 

 the highest state of refinement of mind and of 

 manners, but is absolutely necessary to the prop- 

 er discharge of those duties in life to which the 

 sex is destined. The ap]iropriation of suitable 

 portions of time, during a course of education, to 

 industiy and useful labor, gives energy and vigor 

 to the mind, and stimulates to heallli anil sound- 

 nsss that delicate and flexible female constitution, 

 f which if wasted in idleness, the one would be en- 

 feebled and the other ruined. Genius and the 

 graces wither beneath the sickly influence of dis- 

 ease. But beauty mingles her riche.st tints, and 

 breathes her sweetest fragrance into the rose of 

 health. 



It should always be borne in mind by the 

 daughters of our country, and by those who are 

 charged with the responsibilities of their educa- 

 tion, that that female only has reached the great- 

 est excellence of character, who by the course of 

 early instruction, the formation of her mind, her 

 elegant accomplishments, and practical acquain- 

 tance with the household duties, is prepared to 

 meet the vicissitudes of ever-varying fortune : 

 who in the sunshine of her favor, would ornament 

 and adorn a palace ; or serenely bending beneath 

 her frowns, woulil make the lowly cottage a home 

 of contentment, and light up the smile of joy 

 amidst the ruin of worldly hopes. To such a 

 one, ajiproving iHsrfom says, " .Many daughters have 

 done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." 



Amidst the general prosperity which pervades 

 our country, there walks abroad an evil, distin- 

 guished by its ravages, and rendered conspicuous 

 by the misery and desolation which it sjjreads 

 throughout every portion of our population.^ The 

 demon of intemperance reigns over his besotted 

 subjects with a despotism as absolute, as cruel, 

 and as unrelenting, as tiiat which prevails over the 

 regions of Pandemonium. Tlie ensigns of his 

 power, and the trophies of his victories, over ])oor, 

 wretched, and degraded man, are waved in 

 gloomy triumph over every city, and town, and 

 village, and hahilet, in our widely extended conti- 

 nent. 



Though much has been done within the last 

 five years to check the evils of intempi runce, and 

 to repair its ravages, experience has shown that 

 no successful stand cm be taken against it, until 



the sober, moral, and reflecting jiart of connnunity 

 will take an individual and ]K'rsonal interest in the 

 subject, and by |)recept and example enforce the 

 necessity of an entire disuse of every kind of ar- 

 dent spirits. Let the farmer banish it from his 

 field, and the mechanic from his shop, and both re- 

 fuse to receive into their employ men who will not 

 labor witliout it. Let the merchant cease to be 

 the medium of circulating through the ccmnmnity 

 the instrument of so vast an ainoimt of crime and 

 of misery. Let the lawyer, the physician, and the 

 clergyman, drive it from their sideboards ; and let 

 no individual in society, on any occasion, from 

 motives of friendship or politeness, place before 

 his companion or his guest, the poi.sonous and ex- 

 hilarating draught. When these things shall be 

 done, its pestilential hand may be stayed. 



Who can cast his eyes around him and not be 

 appalled at the scenes which rise to bis view ? — 

 Imagination is too sluggish, and language too im- 

 potent, to draw the picture of moral waste, of 

 mental ruin, and of personal suftering, with which 

 this horrid demon has filled our native land. And 

 in withdrawing the mind from the contemplation 

 of the universal havoc, which like the Siroc blast 

 has spread over the moral aspect of the country, 

 it gains no relief by fixing itself upon the individ- 

 ual victims of its reckless influences. 



See the young and interesting object of parental 

 solicitude go forth into the world, possessed of all 

 the advantages which wealth, and genius, and 

 learning can bestow. His morals are unstained 

 by corrui)ting vice, and ho has a character as pure 

 and as lovely as virtue and innocence can form. — 

 Uniting his destiny with a soul of kindred charac- 

 ter, he takes his place in society. The hope of 

 his friends and the pronnse of his couiUry, he is 

 allied to the world by all the strong and endearing 

 ties of aftection, honor, and of social intercourse. 

 But when he has just conmicnced his career of 

 prosperity and of usefulness, the habit of intem- 

 perance insiduously ste.als upon him, until, sub- 

 jected to the spell of the accursed sorceress, he 

 surrenders all his moral, physical, and intellectual 

 powers to the insatiate control of a morbid appe- 

 tite. A sad reverse is now fixed upon all his pros- 

 pects. A strange and unaccountable change has 

 come over the whole man. That laudable ambi- 

 tion to rival the great and the good which once 

 glowed in his manly heart, is succecdoil by a per- 

 fect insensibility to all those motives which stinui- 

 late to noble action. The partner of his heart 

 droops and sinks beneath the unfeeling cruelties 

 of him who once would not have " let the winds 

 of heaven visit her face too roughly." The sacred 

 pledges of early and chastened love, who once 

 were the delight of his eyes and tho hopes of his 

 heart, arc now repulsed from him with cold indif 

 ((■rcncc, anil compelled to be the living witnesses 

 of a motlier's grief, and a father's shame. 



Reformation is now hopeless. That pride of 

 rharacler, which long maintained a colorable as- 

 cendency over his more public conduct, is at length 

 consutned by his burning appetite. The entreat- 

 ies and leinonstrunces of friends, the cries of chil- 

 lireii, and the silent agonies of his sorrow-stricken 

 uii'e, are lost and dissipated amidst the noise of 

 his Bicchanalian orgies. 



Conscience, after having n thousand times 

 .diakcn her terrific sceptre over his guilty head, 

 has uttered her List friendly ad.monitioii, and left 

 him to bis fate. !Ie persists in his course, in open 

 defiance of tho laws of man, and ui full view of 



the violated canons of the living God. Sunk from 

 the elevated station of a rational and intelligent 

 being, beneath the level of a brute, and driven from 

 the society of men, he is found a drunken animal, 

 reeling about the streets, pouring blasphemies from 

 his polluted lips, and contaminating the very at- 

 mosphere in which he moves. To render more 

 awful his catastrophe, from the scenes of his rcT- 

 elries, with horrid imprecations on hi« tongue, he 

 staggers into tiie innnediate presence of his 

 IMaker, and having passed that undefinable litie 

 which separates time from eternity, he stands be- 

 fore the judgment seat, 



" Even in tlie blossom of his sin, 



Uahouseird unanointed, uitanneal'd : 



No reck'ning; made, bul brouglu to his accouDt, 



Wilh alihis imperfeclions on his head." 

 This is the end of the drunkard. Who, in view 

 of this sad reality, dare fold his arms and say, I 

 atn safe, when he stands in the midst of the very 

 causes which produced the catastrophe ? Who 

 that bears the relation of father, of son, of brother, 

 of friend, or of citizen, does not feel himself im- 

 pelled by all tho sacred obligations of life, to sum- 

 mon all his powers and put forth all his efforts to 

 arrest and control a torrent which carries with it 

 such mighty ruin ? 



We are surrounded with midtitudes of our fel- 

 ow beings who are beyond the reach of human 

 exertion, and have already plunged into that fright- 

 fid stream, wisose turbid and resistles.^ current is 

 sweeping them down into that deep abyss, whose 

 yawning chasm receives the annual tribute of forty 

 thousand victims from the jjopulation of this en- 

 lightened country. But if old and inveterate hab- 

 its cannot be overcome ; if the victims of self-im- 

 molution refuse to be restored ; by a timely and 

 ll-iendly interference, the young and rising gen- 

 eration may be saved from the contagion of vicious 

 examples, and rescued from the vortex which has 

 swallowed up their fathers. 



Let us then individually and collectively resolve 

 to exert our influence and interpose' our example 

 10 produce a result, fraught with such moQientous 

 consequences to thous;mds of our species, so con- 

 ducive to human happiness, and so honorable to 

 our countrv. 



From Ihe N. H. Palriol. 



Mr Editor — The following communication, al- 

 though intended for the information of the plant- 

 ers of Hanfilton county, in the Slate of Ohio, may 

 not be uninteresting to many of your readers ; since 

 it has been found from actual experiments that the 

 white mulbtrry will flourish as well upon die hills 

 of New Hampshire, as in the rich and fertile val- 

 leys of the Miann. It is to be hoped that the 

 lime is not far distant v/hen this new source of do- 

 mestic industry will become an object of attention 

 and profit to our New Hampshire farmers. 

 Yours, &c., 



RUSTICUS. 



CULTURE OF SILK. 



The Committee appointed by the Ilamiltou 

 County Agricultural Society, at their quarterly 

 hieetiug in March, for the purpose of i)reparing 

 some instructions in regard to the rearing of the 

 white mulberry tree, and the silk worm, having 

 consulted the most approved works on the sub- 

 ject, that could be obtained in Cincinnati, respect- 

 fully submit the following brief Report, upon this 

 important dep.iitment of the American System: 



