386 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



the presence of man was deplorable. •' God made 

 the country and man made the town,' is the poet's 

 manner of accoiintinsT for narrow streets, but the 

 general order of French towns do not come with- 

 in the catalogue of human buildings — nothing on 

 earih comes nearer to the troglodyte style. Nine- 

 tenths of them seem to have been the simple 

 work of nature ; piles of mire, shaped into 

 habitations by the hand ol' time and tempest, and 

 as guiltless of glass windows, whitewash, and 

 comfort of any conceivable kind, as a cavern in 

 the back of an American wilderness! But the 

 Frenchman is a genuine ' Gallio' in private life, 

 and careih for none of these ihings ; yet he is 

 within 50 miles of a people whose study is every 

 thing of domestic convenience. To what can the 

 extraordinary difference be attributed, which 

 makes the man of England and the man of 

 France as essentially antipodean as if the diameter 

 of the earth divided them 1 It cannot be climate, 

 for in three-fourths of France they have shower 

 for shower with England ; or if there be a dis- 

 tinction, the winter is keener and the summer 

 more torrid, thus both requiring more diligence in 

 rep.elling the effects of season. It cannot be 

 poverty, for the French peasant has generally 

 become a proprietor: it cannot be government, 

 for if governments act at all in the matter, it is to 

 set the example of building : yet the French 

 peasant coes on from year to year and from age 

 to age, sitting in acottaseas naked of comfort as 

 if he sat on a hill in Siberia, and a Tartar hut 

 would be well equipped to»the best of these 

 hovels: they have not even the merit of beins 

 whitewashed sepulchres, for* a brush has never 

 touched them since the moment they arose from 

 their original mire ; — the truth is, that " home," 

 as it has been a thousand times observed, is not 

 French; there is but little gathering around the 

 family hearth, and the cottage is not the place oC 

 their mirth ; they return to it to sleep, and go to it 

 as men to the churchyard, because they cannot 

 help it. Their ftistivities are for the guingette, 

 their superfluous coin is expended on the cilded 

 head-gear of the rustic belles, or the flame- 

 colored waistcoats and flowered stockings of the 

 rustic beaux; while the summer lasts they live in 

 the open air, working, dancing, eating, and 

 flirting through the day; and when the winter 

 comes, they cluster together in their huts like bees, 

 with no more concern for their lurnishiiiir than a 

 generation of rabbits in their warren ; there they 

 hibernate, dismal, dark, and frozen, until the Oist 

 gleam of sunshine rouses them, and lets the whole 

 tribe loose like the swallows — and then all is flunei- 

 ing, frisking and hunting flies — or matters full as 

 light as flies — again." X C. 



EXTIRPATION OF SASSAFRAS SPROUTS. 



From tlie Keutucliy Farmer. 



Pleasant Run, Logan Co., May 22, 1841. 

 You ask, in the 29th number ol the present 

 volume, (or the practice of some one in subduing 

 sassafras sprouts ; 1 have thoiJ2hl proper to give 

 you and your correspondent, Mr. Champion, of 

 Caldwell, my observations and practice. When 

 I commenced farming in this county I was aimoy- 

 ed with the sassafras, and remarked to a neighbor 



of mine that the sassafras sprout was a very 

 great objection to the Green River country. I 

 saw fields thickly set with it and the fences com,- 

 pletely staked and ridered with them growing, 

 and knevv not how to get rid of this evil ; to cut 

 one down, was to insure twenty more. He in- 

 formed me that a lew years previous he would 

 have given one hundred dollars to have them 

 cleared fiom one field, but had succeeded entirely 

 in freeing them from his liirni. His practice 

 had been to sow his fields in clover, and ^pasture 

 his sheep on them, commencing early in Mav. 

 This stock will keep the leaves well trimmed off", 

 which will cause them to die, root and branch. 

 1 had a field at that time better set than most of 

 the wheat this spring. It was set in clover; I put 

 all my stock on it, and still lacked some, and bor- 

 rowed from my neighbors, which entirely subdued 

 it. I advise all of my brother farmers whose 

 fields are infested with this iixDublesome shiub to 

 sow them in clover, and instead of having their 

 stock running in the wood, until July and August, 

 with their winter coats on, to put them on the clo- 

 ver in JMay ; and if they have not a suflicient 

 number themselves to keep the sprouts trimmed, 

 to borrow of their neighbors, and not think of a 

 charge for pasturage, lor the laborer, is worthy 

 of his hire, if you think the above or part of it 

 worthy the consideration of your correspondent, 

 you are at liberty to give it him in any form j'ou 

 please. Wikn Gunn. 



STATE AID TO AGRICULTURE IN NEW-YORK. 



From tlie Cultivator. 



We are gratified to annou.nce that the bill intro- 

 duced lor the aid and improvement of agriculture, 

 into the legislature of this state, has become a 

 law, and that, if not all that some of our agricul- 

 tural li-iends expected, still its influence ntust be 

 powerlul lor good. It appropriates eight thousand 

 dollars annually, of which ^700 goes to the N. Y. 

 State Ag. Society, and the remainder is divided 

 among the several counties in proportion to their 

 population, on conditions and restrictions which 

 must ensure its liiiihful application to the use 

 intended by the state when granting the aid. It 

 will be seen that no county can receive its share of 

 the money unless a count}^ society is organized, 

 and a sum equal to that a[)propriated is raised by 

 the association to be added to and expended willi 

 that for premiums. Tliis is a very important 

 provision ; and one on which we think the great 

 efficiency and utility of the aid aflbrded will de- 

 pend. Every county in the stale, therefore, which 

 has not already an efficient society organized, 

 should make no delay in effecting this object. 

 Men of spirit, talent, enterprise, thorough farm- 

 ers, or who Itiel a deep interest in the advance- 

 ment of agriculture, must take the lead in fhis 

 business, and the many will soon be interested in 

 the result, and cheerfully follow the movement 

 that we think will eventuate in so much good. 

 Let every thing like sectional or political fijeling be 

 religiously eschewed in the management of these 

 societies. They are intended for the people, to 

 benefit the many, and so the funds appropriated 

 must be sacredly regarded. 



We think it may reasonaiJiy be anticipated that 



