VOb. XVI. NO. 1. 



AND GARDE NEB'S JOURNAL. 



Si'Ecui.ATior; and Production. — The last tlirco 

 ycHra liavo henn cvi'iitftil perifxls in the history of 

 civil and political economy ; and it would bo well 

 for every one to review the occurrences which 

 have taken place, candidly and carefully, and 

 mark well the resiilt.s. The present pressure of 

 the times, are well calculated to make even the 

 thoughtless pause and enquire into some of the 

 causes which have produced them. In doing this, 

 it will not he necessary to go into the arena of 

 politics, or scold at this or that party, as being the 

 remote or proximate causes of the trouble. i his 

 we leave for tliose who delight in such warfare. 

 But we may nevertliel'^ss turn the attention of onr 

 readers to one very important cause of much of 

 the present difficulties. It is the increase of s/icc- 

 ulalurs and decrease nC producers. When in 1835, 

 so many splendid fortunes were flouting about ; 

 dazzling the beholders, anil apparently beckoning 

 every one to stretch out the liand and take them, 

 hundreds and hundreds left the farm and work- 

 shop — and launched into the abyss of specnkuion 

 — it might have been foretold, and was foretold, 

 that although a few might better their condition, 

 the public at large, would reap the liitter fruits 

 which must inevitably result from a diminution 

 of production. Incidental causes may have con- 

 curred to hasten this result, but it would never- 

 theless have come. It must be laid down as a 

 truth, as firm and as durable as Nature herself, 

 that "all the means of human enjoyment and all 

 the accumulation of wealth, are the pro<lucts of 

 Iniuian labor." If then, you diminish luiman la- 

 bor, yo{i directly iliuiinish the comforts of life — 

 the enjoyments of life, and the accumulation of 

 wealth, and the more you diminish, the more se- 

 vere must be the remedy. The only way left for 

 us now, is to wheel about. Conform to the times. 

 Kick pride and extravagance out of doors — of}" 

 coat and go to work. Do something. Produce 

 something. Be patient — long suffering — cheer- 

 ful and good natured. It is true, provisions are 

 scarce and money scarcer, and no doubt there are 

 scoundrels enoHgh in every neighborhood to take 

 the advantage and harass his brother mortal. But 

 " don't give up the ship." Learn prudence from 

 the pressure of thetimes. Remember the lessons 

 of the past, and our word for it, by so doing you 

 will die a wiser, if not a richer man, than you 

 otherwise would. — Me. Far. 



TuRDip Hdsbanury in England. — A corres- 

 pondent of the Boston Courier, speaking of the 

 introduction of the sugar beet into this country, 

 makes some forcible remarks on the prodigious 

 impulse which the prosj)erity of a nation may 

 receive by the introductiim of a single new plant, 

 which he illustrates by the following historical 

 fact: 



In an early part of the reign of George the 1st, 

 the culture of the turnip was limited in England, 

 to a few gardens, as that of the beet now is with 

 us, and used most exclusively for culinary pur- 

 poses. That monarch, in one of his visits to his 

 electorate of Hanover, was attended by his secre- 

 tary of state. Lord Townsend ; whilst residing 

 there, this nobleman was struck by the appearance 

 of extensive fields devoted to the culture of the 

 turnip, as food for cattle and sheep ; impressed 

 with the belief that this method might be intio- 

 duced with advantage into his own country, he, 

 before leaving Germany, took care to provide him- 

 self with seed, and, on his return, earnestly rec- 



onHnended to bis tenants a practice, which,' in 

 Hanover, had been found to produce the most fa- 

 vorable results. His wishes were attended to, and 

 the experiment surpassed in success, his most san- 

 guine expectations. The field culture of the tur- 

 nip spread rapidly through the county of Norfolk, 

 which, from that epoch, dates its high reputation 

 as an agricultural district. Lands, which rented 

 for one or two shillings an acre, soon brought fif- 

 teen or twenty, and steril warrens, on which 

 were to be seen only a few half-starved rabbits, 

 were reclaimed, and are now covered with rich 

 harvests of grain. Co!()iioliOun, in his statistical 

 researches, computes that the annual value of a 

 crop of turnips in Norfolk alone, amounts to no less 

 than fifteen millions .sterling. When it is consid- 

 ered that this root has been the mean& of bring- 

 ing under culture, lamls, which, without it, must 

 have remained valueless; that it leaves the soil in 

 a condition to ensure a good crop of grain or grass, 

 and that the latter is a good preparation for wheat, 

 we may safely consider the benefits resulting to 

 England from the turnip culture, as incalculable. 

 If it was now asked, says Colquohoun, who was 

 the man in modern times, who had rendered Eng- 

 land the most signal service, no one should liesi- 

 tate to say, that it was the nobleman, whom shal- 

 low courtiers nicknamed in derision " Turnip 

 Townsend." In half a century the turnips spread 

 over the three kingdoms, and their yearly value, 

 at this day, says the same author, is not inferior in 

 amount, to the interest of the national debt ! ! 



Pkrkin's Steam Gun. — A correspondent of the 

 United Slates Gazette, gives the f(dlowing des- 

 cri]ition of Perkins' Steam Gun, which has been 

 daily in use for several years at the Adelaide gal- 

 lery, in London, and never out of order, exce[)t- 

 ing a few hours suspension for repairs, made nec- 

 essary by the constant action of fire on the steam 

 generators. It discharges seventy balls against an 

 iron target at the end of the hall, in four seconds, 

 and can be re-charged in as many ; propelling the 

 balls either singly or in volleys; so that 420 may 

 be discharged in a minute, 25,000 or more, in an 

 fiour ! The barrel at present is fixed for security ; 

 but the plan is, to move it on a joint, so as to aim 

 any way, like the jet of a water engine. The 

 principle is extremely simple ; merely that of 

 blowing a pea through a quill. The balls, let in- 

 to the upright tube of the gun, fall one by one 

 into the barrel, and are propelled through that by 

 a jet of steam from the generators ; the tube hav- 

 ing beon stopped l)y a cock at the top, to prevent 

 the balls going off in that direction. 



Wetting Bricks. — Few people, except build- 

 ers, are aware of tlie advantage of welting bricks 

 before laying them. A wall 12 inches thick, built 

 up of good mortar, with bricks well soaked, is 

 stronger in every respect, than one 16 inches thick 

 built up dry. The reason of this is, that if the 

 bricks are saturated with water, they will not ab- 

 stract fronilhe mortar, flie moisture which is nec- 

 essary to its cryslalizalion, and on the contrary, 

 they will unite chemically with the mortar, and 

 become almost as solid as a rock. On th& other 

 hand, if the bricks are put up dry, they immedi- 

 ately take all the moisture from the mortar, and 

 leave it too dry to harden, and the consequence is, 

 that when a building of this description is taken 

 down, or tumbles down of its own accord, the mor- 

 tar fulls from it like so much sand. — .V. Y. Sun, 



We extract the following ]-aragraph from the 

 Springfield Rep.: 



"Under the Resolve of last session, appro[)ria- 

 ting f 2500 for a further ' geological, mineralngi- 

 cal, zoological and botanical survey of the State,' 

 the Governor and Council have appointed Profes- 

 sor Hitchcock to attend to the two f rst subjects, 

 which have in view the further discovery of coal, 

 marl aiul ores, for the two latter sidijecls, having 

 in view information relative- to the animals, birds 

 and plants of this Coinmonweallh, their connec- 

 tion with and their intbience u|)on agriculture, an 

 able committee of seven di^lluguisbcd scientific 

 gentlemen are appointed. 'J he result of this in- 

 vestigation, we think, will be a very valuable and 

 interesting report to the next legislature." 



We nnilerstand that the gentlemen appointed 

 to report on the botany and zoology of the Corn- 

 monvvealtb, are Messrs G. B. Emer.son ot Boston, 

 (President of the Society of Natural History,) 

 Chester Dewey of PittsfichI, Rev. W. R. O. Pea- 

 body of Spriiigfie'd, Ebcnezer Emmons of Wil- 

 liams' College, T. W, Harris of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, and Drs. D. Humphreys Storer and .Aug. A. 

 Gould of Boston. Each of these gentlemen is 

 distinguished for his attainments in one or more 

 branches of natural history. The vsi-y limited 

 extent of the entire appropriation^ of which a part 

 only can be applicable to tht' subjects of botany 

 and zoology, v/iil of coiU'Se prevent those resear- 

 ches, which require extensive journeying. But 

 from the known taUntand ardor iii the pursuit of 

 science which will be brought to the work by the 

 gentleiTHin named, we are disposed fully to accord 

 with tli-' lOditor of the Springfield Reiiublican, in 

 in the opinion, that they will present a very val- 

 uable repo.'-t to the Legislature. — Boston D, M- 

 verliser. 



Woo'L. — This is the month in which it i& usual 

 for the farmers to bring their woo! to market, or 

 rather in which the inaniifacturers and dealers 

 have been accustomed to scour the country, post 

 haste, grasping every thing u])on which they can 

 lay their bands. The sheep have probably yieUW 

 ed their fleeces as usual, but as to buying there is 

 a dead and universal silence. No one goes to the 

 wool, and the wool which is brought to market, 

 finds no buyers. Some barter trades might be 

 made for goods at the i)rices of last year, on botU 

 sides, but fur cash, we should think 20 to 37 cts. 

 would cover the whole range of prices for native, 

 wool, and even at such prices, or at any prices m 

 all, we hear of no buyers. Wool however, will 

 he again wanted, and at no distant day. In the 

 mean time, there are no men so well able to hold 

 it as our fanners, and especially the wool grow- 

 ers, than whom a more independent class of merx 

 do not walk the earth. — Jour of Com. 



White Corn. — We were not till recently, a- 

 ware that there was a sort of white corn in use iu 

 this State, as early as the Canada corn and yield- 

 iiig far belter. It has been cultivated many years 

 in Fairfield, and may be had there now. — Kenne- 

 bec Jour. 



We would advise people not to plant exotic 

 trees of the following, nniong other varieties, viz : 

 aiianthus, or tree of heaven : the weeping wil- 

 low : the catalpa: the osage orange. We have 

 tried them, but without success — the winter kills 

 them. — lb. 



