No. 8. 



Extract from the Oration of Bishop Doatic. 



230 



I have, however, numerous sorts of seed- 

 lings produced from the apples of my very 

 fine crop of 184'2. I shall take occasion to 

 present you with a few to send to some of 

 your friends abroad. 



By this you will see that I con offer no 

 remedy or preventive for the rot. He that 

 tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, can 

 only control it. Should it again visit us, 

 we can only exercise our best judgment by 

 taking out the potatoes early — as soon as 

 they exhibit signs of decay — laying them in 

 thin layers in dry, cool situations, or other- 

 wise, as circumstances may justify. Let the 

 farmers go on and plant in confidence, as 

 their best experience may teach, trusting 

 for an abundant yield to that Providence 

 who sendeth the early and the latter rain. 

 Very respectfully, 



Your friend and ob't servant, 



James Gowen. 



William Peter, Esq., 



Her Britannic Majesty's Consul, Philadelpliia. 



Nbav Jersey. 



Extract from the Oration of Bishop Doane, 

 before the Historical Society of New Jer- 

 sey, at Trenton, Jaimary IQth, 1846. 



Unfold with me the map of the United 

 States. Direct your eye along the sloping 

 line of the Atlantic coast, until it reaches 

 well nigh the centre. Select what seems 

 the snuggest, sunniest nook, in all that 

 graceful sweep. Rest where a noble river 

 makes almost an island with the ocean ; 

 washing its utmost length, and giving, to 

 every pine that crowns the summit of its 

 farthest mountain, a passage to the sea. It 

 is the lot of our inheritance. Examine it 

 more closely. See how the mountains rivet 

 it upon the mainland, at the north. See how 

 their tall and rugged peaks sink down and 

 soften, in the gentle swells and genial val- 

 lies of the middle counties. See what a 

 stretch of coast, until the vast alluvial van- 

 ishes away into the broad Atlantic. Is 

 there a question about climate? I am satis- 

 fied that if the arc of highest points, for 

 health, and comfort, and enjoyment, on the 

 map of North America, could be described, 

 it would sweep through New Jersey. There 

 is no better test of tiiis than in the abun- 

 dance, and variety, and perfection, of its 

 fruits. This was the theme of admiration 

 with the earliest settlers of the country, and 

 deserves to be so still. " I have seen or- 

 chards," one writes home, in 1680, " laden 

 with fruit to admiration: their very limbs 

 torn to pieces with the weight, and most de- 

 licious to the taste, and lovely to behold. I 



have seen an apple tree, from a pippin ker- 

 nel, yield a barrel of curious cider; and 

 peaches in sucii plenty that some people 

 took their carts a peacii-gathering; I could 

 not but smile at the conceit of it. They are 

 a very delicate fruit, and hang almost like 

 our onions that are tied on ropes." ♦' My 

 brother Robert had as many cherries this 

 year as would have loaded several carts. 

 It is my judgment by what I have observed, 

 that fruit trees in this coimtry destroy them- 

 selves by the weight of the fruit." This is 

 a picture from the life, as ail who hear me 

 know. Is the inquiry about agricultural 

 productions ! What can be named, of food, 

 tor man or beast, in which New Jersey is 

 deficient ■? Nay, and she never can be, if 

 her farmers mind their business. Limestone 

 and marl divide the land between them. 

 The very rocks are made to fertilize the 

 soil which lies upon them; or the moulder- 

 ing shell-fish of the world before the flood, 

 convert the worthless sand-waste into fields 

 of smiling corn. Facilities of transporta- 

 tion, constantly increasing, rapidly equalize 

 the land; and soon will bring it all into suc- 

 cessful cultivation, while the river or the 

 creek, the rail-road or canal, that spreads 

 the lime or marl upon the fields, takes down 

 the corn or wheat, the butter or the pork, to 

 the insatiable market of the cities and the 

 ports of foreign export. Such are the agri- 

 cultural advantages of New Jersey, that the 

 Massachusetts State Commissioner, now tra- 

 velling in foreign countries, on inquiries in 

 the line of his department, has habitually 

 advised young men from the New England 

 States to come and settle here; the climate 

 and the soil yielding to equal labour a larger 

 return of profit and of comfort, than in any 

 other State in our whole Union. Nay, and 

 old Ocean smiles, and yields his treasures 

 for our culture. "The oysters" that one 

 wrote, from Perth Amboy, in 1684, " would 

 serve all England," are still there; and in 

 plantations to supply the world. Is the in- 

 quiry of our mineral resources 1 They are 

 innumerable and inexhaustible. Marble, of 

 every kind and every quality. Slate, in 

 abundance. Varieties of clay, for every 

 use, up to the finest porcelain. A free-stone 

 from New Jersey, rears at the head of the 

 great mart of commerce in our Western 

 world, a Christian church, of noblest, most 

 impressive architecture; which, if it could, 

 would lift the hearts of men up with their 

 eyes to heaven. The richest ores of iron; 

 copper in singular purity; rare stores of 

 zinc. In very deed, " a land whose stones 

 are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest 

 dig brass." Are the results of useful arts 

 the subject of investigation ! With such 



