458 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



evil by invariably keeping the windows closed by 

 blinds inside or out, but who rarely have the good 

 sense to resist the temptatation to make their 

 house, when building, a perfect glass-case. In the 

 plan under discussion, the whole effect would be 

 destroyed by pairs of windows in each room, and 

 it is strange how constantly, in house after house, 

 the blunder is repeated. 



HEALTH FOE CHILDREN. 



There are as many children die in cities as in the 

 country, and half the children born do not reach 

 ten years. Such a result could never have been 

 intended I)y the wise and kind Maker of us all. A 

 different result must be brought about, by the ex- 

 ercise of the reason which is implanted in all pa- 

 rents, and which, if properly cultivated and practised 

 in the lights of our time, would soon work a wonder- 

 ful change in infantile mortality. 



1. Children should sleep in separate beds, on 

 mattresses of straw or shucks of corn. 



2. Require them to go to bed at a regidar early 

 hour, and let them have the fullest amount of sleep 

 they can take, allowing them in no case to be waked 

 up. 



3. Except a rug beside the bed, there should be 

 no carpet on the floor of their chamber, no bed or 

 window curtains, no clothing of any description 

 hanging about, no furniture beyond a dressing-ta- 

 ble and a few chairs, no standing fluids, except a 

 glass of water, and nothing at all in the way of 

 food, or plants, or flowers. In short, a chamber 

 should be the cleanest, driest, coolest, lightest and 

 most barren room in the house, in order to secure 

 the utmost purity of air possible. 



4. Make it your study to keep your children out 

 of doors every hour possible, from breakfast until 

 sundown, for every five minutes so spent in joyous 

 play increases the probabilities of a healthful old 

 age. 



5. Let them eat at regular hours, and nothing 

 between meals ; eating thus, never stint them ; let 

 them partake of plain substantial food, until fully 

 satisfied. Multitudes of children are starved into 

 dyspepsia. The last meal of the day should be at 

 least two hours before retiring. 



6. Dress children warmly, woollen flannel next 

 their persons during the whole year. By every 

 consideration, proteiit the extremities well. It is 

 an ignorant barbarism which allows a child to have 

 bare arms, and legs and feet, even in summer. The 

 circulation should be invited to the extremities; 

 warmth does that ; cold repels it. It is at the hands 

 and feet we begin to die. Those who have cold 

 hands and feet are never well. Plenty of ivarmlh, 

 plenty of substantial food and ripe fruits, plenty of 

 sleep, andplenty of joyous out-door exercise, would 

 save millions of children annually. — Hall's A*. Y. 

 Journal of Health, 



Sea Waves and Sea Sickness. — The old vague 

 account of waves being "mountains high" was well 

 known to be an exaggeration ; but we do not think 

 even philosophers were prepared for the statement 

 made at a meeting some years since of the British 

 Scientific Association by Dr. Scoresby, that they 

 averaged no more than 20 feet in altitude, and rarely 

 exceeded 28 feet. The popular impression, princi- 

 pally produced by marine i^ainters, that waves 



formed valleys thousands of yards across, down the 

 sides of which ships slid as though they were about 

 to be engulfed, seems to have been equally errone- 

 ous, as the maximum length of ocean waves, accor- 

 ding to the same authority, is 600 feet, whilst in a 

 moderate gale they are only 300, and, in a fresh sea, 

 about 120 feet in length. A moment's considera- 

 tion of these facts leads to the conclusion that long 

 ships must have a great advantage over short ones 

 with respect to the rapidity with which thev make 

 their journey, as it is quite evident that whilst the 

 latter have to perform their voyages by making a 

 series of short curves — much to the impediment of 

 their progress, and to the discomfort of their in- 

 mates — the former, by ruling the waves with their 

 commanding proportions, make shorter and smooth- 

 er passages. As steamers grow larger and larger, 

 sea-sickness must therefore gradually diminish. — 

 Scientifc American. 



For the Hew England Farmer. 



EURAL ECONOMY OF THE BRITISH 

 ISLES-No. 18. 



N E W ENGL A N D. 



Greater ignorance and greater neglect of agricul- 

 ture has been witnessed, nowhere, than in the United 

 States. This is perhaps strongly stated, but is near 

 the truth. In the South and West, the proprietors 

 held land enough to persist in bad management, for 

 two or three generations ; an exuberant soil pro- 

 duced abundant crops, without artificial enrichment, 

 or very heavy labor ; when one field was exhausted 

 another was cleared and tilled to poverty in its 

 turn. This kind of farming so impoverished the 

 country in some of the older districts, that the in- 

 habitants were, at length compelled to emigrate to 

 a new region ; the employment of more skill and 

 capital on the old farms being out of the question. 



In New England, a less fertile soil always de- 

 manded more labor ; yet few attempts were, for Or 

 long time, made and now they are not too frequent, 

 to go out of the common routine of a very restric- 

 ted cultivation. The inclination among the rural 

 population of New England has been almost uni- 

 versal, to devote all their skill and capital to some 

 branch of trade or manufactures, or to navigation. 

 Those who have been disposed to continue agricul- 

 turists, have found it easier and more congenial 

 to their restless and enterprising natures, to sell 

 out, collect then- effects, and remove a thousand 

 miles, to a richer region, than to think of improv- 

 ing the old homestead. Change of location or 

 cliange of pursuit, rather than the employment of 

 more skill and more capital, have, thus far, been 

 ihe means of bettering theii- condition, among New 

 England farmers. Hence our rural population has 

 been kept scattered and thin, over the face of the 

 country. 



The routine of cultivation has, in general, been 

 this — a field of Indian corn, with a border of pota- 

 toes — a few fields of small grains — an old pasture 

 and old meadow of natural grass, and with a stock 

 of cattle to suit. The only part of the farm, well 

 cultivated, was the field of Indian corn, which re- 

 ceived, commonly, two or three plowings and hoe- 

 ings — the plant beautiful, in all stages of its growth. 

 No root crops were ever thought of for animals — 

 no manure provided for the farm, except what was 

 thrown from the barn windows, during the winter 



