■voi>. Xl.V. NO. s. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



m 



The physical education of female children is 

 happily beginning to attract notice ; and the most 

 fashionable mothers becotninij sensible of the great 

 importance of healtl], from the want of it, now al- 

 low their girls to take strong fxercise in the open 

 air. I heard from the lips of Dr. Kirklaml, (lie 

 late learned professor of TIarvard Univi.'rsity, that 

 if he had to choose between learning and health, 

 he would choose the latter. I may add, that when 

 the heart is right, the head is seldom wrong; and 

 the heart may be made right without nmch techni- 

 cal learning. 



After statmg what woman can do, when strengtli- 

 cned by the wisdom of society ami enlightened on 

 her own duties, powers and interest, I may glance 

 delicately at the evil she now does. Will she be- 

 lieve that she often conspires against her own hap- 

 piness ? Woman ought to be the first to stand up 

 fertile promotion of just and equal laws. The 

 smallest attention to her own degraded condition, a 

 few centuries agr, and her cquivocul condition now, 

 although greatly improved, will teach her why she, 

 in particular, should contend for general justice. — 

 She is a great admirer of splendid talents; so ar- 

 dent is she in this devotion, that she will, in their 

 favor overlook the grocest accompanying vices; 

 even those which tend to degrade her own sex. 

 Speak of a man of shining parts in her presence, 

 but without morals, and a sensible, modest man of 

 modest fame, and notice the relative estimation 

 she holds tliem in. Compare two decidedly vicious 

 characters, the one highly talented or fashionable, 

 and the other less so; and see how differently do 

 the same vices weigh in her mind. Both ought to 

 be excluded from her society; but for what? for 

 their vices. But is this the case ? The former, 

 whose immorality is ten times more dangerous, 

 through its fascinating accompanyments, is admit- 

 ted, and the latter, more harmless, is rejected. The 

 vice then is not that which she seems to abhor ; 

 but the absence of power to please. There is a 

 Persian adage which says, " If knowledge ivitltoiit 

 virtue were estimable, who could lie more estimable 

 than the dcri!" 



Woman worships the brave as well as the elo- 

 quent. So we all ought to love true couraiie, and 

 eloquent truth. But the eloquent tongue may flat- 

 ter, and the sharp sword may defo.iU her ; but the 

 former may also si.-duco or slander her, when prin- 

 ciple is not its companion; and the latter may lay 

 in the tlust the virtuous champion who stands up 

 in her defence when her virtue is assailed, by a 

 man of mere animal courage, but devoid of true 

 honor. Woman will be more just and judicious 

 in these respects, wlien she understands her inter- 

 est better. When she lias exercised all her power 

 over infant man, tlien shining parts in man will not 

 be used for sophistical deception in morals, politics, 

 or religion ; not even for female seduction ; for 

 man so educated will be more virtuous and woman 

 more enlightened. Then too will the champion's 

 sharp sword become loss wanted, not only in the 

 cause of woman, but on all accounts ; for even now 

 is duelling but a miserable supplement to imper- 

 fect laws ; which li-.ws will become more perfect, 

 and supercede the iiecessity of that practice, when 

 justice and a true sense of virtue sliall rise from 

 the true femeiiine source, to which I now point, un- 

 impaired by those sinister powers which have so 

 long warped its progress upwards. 



We want no better foundation for that education 

 which would lead to sound morals, good government. 



and pure religion, than interest — the interest well 

 understood of mim and especially of women. 



Social viitue, without a worldly motive, has been 

 too long the chimera of transcondentalists. I use 

 t'lis modern word, as sufficiently expressive of an 

 ancient vague notion of something not within the 

 reach of the senses, or of common sense. Let ns 

 be more humble, and come dov,'n to the use of the 

 powers given to us ; they will answer all our pur 

 poses, and we shall be tli'^ wiser as well as the bet- 

 ter for keeping nenrer to nature's limits. Let us 

 then take this well known wordly motive, m/t?'es/, 

 and not despise it, or try to make it despicable by 

 misapplying it. It is a very good motive. It is, 

 in a final analysis, the onl>/ motive of man. If you 

 must have inspiration, that is inspiration : God has 

 inspired it into the hearts of all his creatures. — 

 Seeking for something beyond and above inter- 

 ested motives, something undcfinable and unintel- 

 ligible, has caused us to overlook the true foun- 

 dation of social perfection. The inconceivable 

 distinction between spiritual and mundane truths ; 

 between virtue celestial and virtue terrestial, have 

 bewildered us, and given too much occasion for 

 moral quncks to build up their own supremacy on 

 our degradation. If we take as our infallible guide 

 that unerring monitor which accompanies all rea- 

 sonable men, moral as well as political quackery 

 will die for want of aliment ;and none but true teach- 

 ers will bo listened to; and it will not then be diffi- 

 cult to distinguish true from false teachers ; for 

 those onlv (ire true who can make themselves under- 

 stood. There is no mystery in morals or in honest 

 politics. 



I shall defer the technical part of my subject, 

 with your leave, .Mr Editor, so h^ng as materials 

 may fall under my hands wherewith to widen and 

 strongt.'ien the foundation of education. 



We are just beginning to learn the importance 

 of having competent teacliers ; and in imitation 

 of a French and Prussian practice, some forty 

 years old, are now instituting J^/orinal schools for 

 the teaching masters how to tearh. I ventured to 

 propose this system about 20 years ago in some of 

 our papers. Two of those papers insisted on chang- 

 ing the world JVormal into Moral, and so it was 

 repeated in others in my absence, and made non- 

 sense. 



If then the importance of preparing male teach- 

 ers for technical education be admitted, wlio will 

 say that it is of no importance to prepare, qualify, 

 and empower the female cultivators of the heart, 

 without which all the technical knowledge in the 

 world is worthlos^ ; nay worse tlian worthless — it 

 is a new power for mischief; as a knowing man 

 without principle is worse than an ignorant man 

 without vice. 



Would you place your child in the hands of a 

 slave to teach him the duties of a freeman ? would 

 you confide it to a reputed liar to make it a lover 

 of truth ? would yon, to inspire it with that lovely 

 candor and youthful frankness which we all ad- 

 mire, and which is the secret charm of youth, 

 choose for it a preceptor, at an age when example 

 is every thing, and precept nothing, whose very 

 condition in society, commands an habitual state of 

 dissimulation — one who was not permitted to speak 

 or act the truth ? John Randolph, with all his ec- 

 centricities, was a man of truth : and he says, "a 

 man may act a falsehood — he may be maliciously 

 false without opening his mouth." If then exam- 

 ple be teaching, and there be an age in which first 

 impressions are almost ineffacable, shall that im- 



portant period be unnecessarily exposed to evils 

 for which no aderpi.Ttn remedy has yet been found ? 

 Shall Normal schools be instituted for the improve- 

 ment of the head, and the improvement of the heart 

 be conlided to incompetent teachers; to mothers, 

 who are prohibited from a duty so interesting to 

 themselves, and so important to social progress? 



Lycurgus and his followers down to Owen, were 

 fully aware of the power of education by example. 

 Man's nature has been almost changed by it. Bet- 

 ter indeed would it be, as in Sparta, that the iron 

 despotism of rulers should deprive the mother of 

 every care of her child, than to leave her unprepar- 

 ed for this important duly. 



WM. FOSTER. 



TREATMENT OF WOODLAND. 



To the Editor of the New Eiiglaiul Farmer : 



In rejily to' the inquiry of your friend at Harvard, 

 in your paper of the 22nd inst., I would state, from 

 some experience and more observation, that when 

 woodland is cleared and it is designed to have wood 

 grow again, it by no means should be burnt or 

 ploughed; but secure it from cattle and let it re- 

 main nntouched, i^ much the better way ; there will 

 sooner be a new and thrifty growth. Besides ex- 

 perience and observation of the fact, it is rational 

 to suppose that it should be so — that is, to me it is 

 rational. Some have an idea that the next growth 

 after clearing, proceeds from the stumps by sprouts. 

 This is, in some measure the case, but not wholly 

 so: there is generally and perhaps always, seed in 

 the ground, sufficient to produce a crop of wood, 

 that are covered with leaves, but when exposed to 

 the sun, soon vegetate. Hence the reason that 

 when a wood lot is cut off, a growth of an entirely 

 diflferent kind of wood takes the piace of the for- 

 mer growth : for instance, it frequently happens 

 that where a growth of oak has been taken off, a 

 growth of pine comes next, and so vice versa. Many 

 men I know are not aware of this fact, but a fact it 

 is, which I have observed nearly my whole life, 

 which has been lengthened to more than three score 

 and ten year,-', ■ 



I could wi.t^ much more on this subject, but 

 not having had much education, which perhaps has 

 made me have a repugnance to writing, — besides, 

 there are so many men of education who write for 

 agricultural papers now-a-days, many of whose 

 productions have more imagination and theory than 

 sound practical knowledge of agriculture, as ap- 

 pears to me, I will forbear, lest I also should be 

 thought a theorist., A FARMER. 



Crops at the west, and particularly in Michigan, 

 have not come in so favorable as was at one time 

 anticipated. A letter from that State says — "If 

 two thirds of a middling crop of wheat is gathered, 

 I shall feel satisfied. The insect commonly called 

 the Hessian fly, has made great havoc in many 

 places. Latterly a new enemy has appeared, call- 

 ed the '-anchor worm." They were nearly as nu- 

 merous as the flies of Egypt. So annoying and 

 plenty have they been, that they would inundate 

 whole fields, and the farmers have in some instan- 

 ces made trenches around their fields and houses, 

 to save themselves. They move in a mass from 

 one field to another. After finishing a repast and 

 crossing a road, the earth is nearly obscured for 

 many rods." 



A good farmer is unceasing in his efforts to add 

 to his manure heaps. 



