Vol. 6 



GENESEE FARMER. 



173 



[The fuUowing communication is from the pen of 

 Eliiiu Borritt, the Learnel Blacksmith, of Mass- 

 achusetts. His •'[acts" are important, and presen- 

 ted in a striking light.] 



FACTS FOR FORTY MILLIONS. 

 jMr. Editor — Can you make room in Bome corner 

 of your paper, for a lew facts which I have collected 

 with some labor, and which, 1 think, seriously con- 

 cern the working people of the Anglo-Saxon race? 

 The national debts of sixteen of the European Gov- 

 ernment?, at the closes-t estimate that can he made, 

 amount to $10,305,000,000 our currency; all incurred 

 for the expenses of war. This sum embraces merely 

 the arrtarage, not what has hecr\ paid, for carrying 

 on war. The average of this amount is ^63,:25 a 

 head to the whole population of those IG nations. 

 The interest of this vast sum nearly equals a tax of 

 One Dollar on every inhabitant of the globe. 



Since tlie Reformation (I!) Great Britain has been 

 engaged 65 years, in the prosecution of seven wars; 

 for which she expended, in our currency, $8,982,- 

 120,000. It has been estimated by our Missionaries 

 that a school of 50 heathen children, on the continent 

 of India, would only cost $150 per annum. Then this 

 sum expended by a Christian nation in 6.5 years in 

 carrying on war with other Christian nations^, if ap- 

 plied to the education of the heathen, would have 

 schooled 46,062,154 children per annum for 65 years! 

 Allowing 5 years to each scholar, then 598,808,000 

 children might have been educated for the money 

 that Great Britain drained from the sources and chan- 

 nels of her wealth and industry, to waste in wars, 

 every one of which degraded her people in every qual- 

 ity of their condition. 



Froin 1793 to 181 5, — a period of 22 years — Great 

 Britain, France and Austria expended $7,330,000- 

 COO in war. The interest of this sum, at 6 per cent., 

 would have supported 30,000 missionaries among the 

 heathen during the whole period of 22 years, in which 

 these christian nations were engaged in doing the 

 devil's work on each other. The aggregate amount 

 would have given 5 years schooling to 488,666,666 

 pagan children on the Lancastcrian plan. — The inter- 

 est for one month, at the above rate, would build 14'G6 

 miles of railioad at $25,000 per mile. 



Consult ng the best authoiities I can cornmand, I 

 find that the aggregate amount of the expenditures 

 of our own Government, froral|j789 to March 4, 1843, 

 is $1,111,375,734. 



Now — patriotic Anier'cans ! will you not read this 

 retlcctingly ? — of this vast sum there have been ex- 

 pended only $148,620,055 for civil purposes, embra 

 cirg the Civil List, Foreign Intercourse, and the mis- 

 cellaneous expenses. Then it follows that $952,- 

 755,680 have been lavished upon preparations for 

 war in time of peace, within a little more than half a 

 century, by this model Republic! ! ! Another fact: 

 From Jan.' 1. 1836, to March 3, ] 843, the war expen- 

 ses of th sGovernment were $153,951,881 !! Jive mill- 

 ions more than all the civil erf eases of the Government 

 from 1789, to 1843!! Another fact: From 1316 to 

 1834, eighteen years, onr national expenses amount- 

 ed to $463,915,756: and of this sum,nearly$40U,..0;\- 

 000, w.?nt in one way and another for war, and only 

 $'54,000,000 for all other objects ! being $22,000,000 

 a year for war, and about three millions and a half — 

 less than one-sixth of the whole—for the peaceful 

 operations of a government that plumes itself on its 

 pacific policy I If we take into account all the ex- 

 penses and all the losses of war to this country, it 



some ttco or three thousand millions of dollars! I 

 Wcrcester, Aug. 9, 1845. E. B. 



Saving Sked. — It has often occurred to nie that 

 sufficient care has not been exercised in saving s-ced 

 of vegetables from the finest part of the ciop. If 

 we breed live stock, of whatever kind, we invariably 

 select the parents from the best of our flock or stud. 

 So with regard to flowers — no one would sovr seed 

 from inferior Howers, but would select from the best 

 specimens; and it is by folic wing up this system, 

 (even without more crossing than is performed by 

 nature, and the bees,) that gieat improvements have 

 been made. Thinking the same effects would accrue 

 fn m a more careful selection of culinary feeds, and 

 tliPi a much greater degree of productiveness might 

 he attained, about three years ago I began an exper- 

 iment with long-pod beans; I carefully s'^.ected the 

 finest and fullest pods lor seed, taking none with few- 

 er than five beans in each. Next year I had a good 

 ;:prinkling of pods with fix in each: these were saved 

 lor seed. The following year theie were many six- 

 seeded pods and some with seven. Following up 

 the same plan, I find this season many more six and 

 seven-seed pods, than of a less number, and some with 

 eight! There are still a few plants which produce 

 five-seeded pods, and it is worthy of remark, that the 

 five-seeded pods have seldom a six-seeded pod upon 

 them, but all fives: on the contrary, a six-seed plant 

 generally has all the pods bearing six beans or more. 

 As the seed-saving season is now coming on, perhaps 

 these hints may induce others to adopt the plan. If 

 the same thing were adopted with our corn-crops, by 

 sel-^cting a few of the largest and best filled ears, to 

 save as seed, I have little doubt, mere productive va- 

 rieties might be procured. In my younger days, 1 

 once gathered an ear of barley which had twenty-two 

 grains on each side: surely the produce from seed of 

 this description would yield a far better crop than 

 such as is frequently sown. — Selected. 



Scraps of Ci'rious Lnformation. — It is an East- 

 ern tradition that the Prophet Mahomet, having one 

 day washed his garment, threw it upon a plant of the 

 mallow to dry ; and when the garment was taken 

 away, the mallow was found to have been transform- 

 ed, by contact with so sacred an object, into a mag- 

 nificent geranium, a plant which had never before 

 existed. Several varieties of the geranium were in- 

 troduced into England in 1534. 



The expression profane literature owes its origin 

 to Pope Gregory 1st, who ordered that the libsary 

 of the Palatine Apollo should be committed to tho 

 flames, under the notion of confining the attention 

 of the clergy to the Scriptures. From (hat time all 

 ancient learning which was not sanctioned l<y the 

 authority of the church, has been emphatically dis- 

 tinguished as profane, in opposition to sacred. 



Mail coaches were first set up at Bristol in Eng- 

 land in 1785, at the end of which year they became 

 o-en ral in the kingdom. The mails had previously 

 been conveyed by carts with a single horse, or by 

 hovs on horseback. The revenue from the Post Of- 

 fice in 1783 was- only £146,000. From thnt time it 

 increased rapidly, and at the time of the adoption of 

 the penny system it was £2,400,000. 



The first private library in England is said to have 

 been formed about 1341 by Richard de Bury, Chan- 

 ""ellor and llijih Treasurer, He purchased thirty or 



forty volumes of the Abbot of St. Albans for fifty 

 will be found to have wasted for us in sixty years ' lbs. weight in silver. — Worcester .^gis 



