VOL.. XII. NO. 37. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



213 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 AGRICULTURAL, SOCIETIES AND PREMIUMS. 



The utility of agricultural associations is yet 

 doubted I>y many ; as is also the policy of awarding 

 premiums for excellence in agricultural products. 

 It is said that labor and skill in agricultural as in 

 ether employments bring with them a sufficient re- 

 ward. This may he true, as regards the individu- 

 als who exercise them : but it is the benefit of their 

 example ami the ad vantage of their skill upon others 

 that particularly commends these measures. A 

 profitable experiment in husbandry if known, will 

 not long remain without imitators. These associ- 

 ations ami premiums tend to bring into public view 

 these profitable experiments, and to diffuse their 

 benefits. Every man's skill and labor is emphati- 

 cally a part of the common stock ; and the more 

 these are called into action, whether from a spirit 

 of emulation, or the hope of pecuniary reward, the 

 greater will be the accession to {be public wealth 

 and the .public happiness; not that happiness and 

 wealth are always synonymous, but that they are 

 both particularly promoted by industry. Individ- 

 ual interests are essentially identified with the pros- 

 perity of the whole ; and he who circumscribes his 

 wishes to self, mistakes his interest as well as*his 

 duty to society. It is better to prevent want than 

 to relieve it, — better to bring up a son to earn a 

 fortune by industry, than to permit him to waste 

 one in indolence. The object of these associations 

 and of these premiums, is to call forth the latent 

 powers of society, to stimulate the mind and the 

 body to useful exertion, and to render them subser- 

 vient to the general good. And this has been their 

 happy influence wherever the experiment has been 

 fairly made. 



We have had occasion heretofore to illustrate 

 T 1 1 i >. truth by reference to the County of Jefferson ; 

 and we appeal to the many of our readers who are 

 as familiar with the concerns of that county as our- 

 selves, whether they have not been a means of fa- 

 cilitating improvement in every branch of her hus- 

 bandry, of increasing the profits of her labor, and 

 of elevating the character of her population. 



We recently spoke of the salutary influence pro- 

 duced byjier Agricultural Society, upon the soil, 

 the domestic animals, and the Me.n, of Berkshire. 

 That Society has existed twenty-two years ; and it 

 has gained in usefulness and in the affections of 

 the inhabitants, as it has gained in years. 



We have now another illustration to offer of the 

 great public utility of these associations and rewards 

 in the example of Scotland. Her Agricultural Socie- 

 ty celebrated its half century anniversary last Jan- 

 uary. During the 50 years of its continuance, the 

 agricultural products of Scotland have increased 

 tenfold, in consequence of the improved system 

 of her husbandry. Fifty years ago Scottish hus- 

 bandry was in a miserably low condition ; now it 

 is surpassed in economical management and scien- 

 tific accuracy, by no country probably in the world. 

 What evidence, it may be asked, have we to offer 

 that the Agricultural Societyhas been particular- 

 ly instrumental in effecting this great improvement? 

 We will content ourselves with stating somethings 

 that it has done, and leave the reader to judge 

 bow far they have conduced to so important a 

 change. 



The Highland Agricultural Society contains 

 about 2000 members who pay annually £1 3s 6d 

 (about $5) or 12 guineas for life; and it embraces 

 men of all professions, so intimately do all classes 



there consider the interest of agriculture identified 

 with their own. 



This society expends about 2000 guineas (or 

 more than 8000 dollars) annually in premiums: 

 about one half of this is awarded upon live stock, 

 the residue upon various objects, as for essays, 

 plansand reports, — experiments and improvements, 

 on crops and culture, — the laying down and mana- 

 ging pastures, — products of live stock, — on mana- 

 ging woods and plantations, — on implements of 

 husbandry and useful machines, &c. &c. 



It has also established a Veterinary School under 

 a competent professor (Dick) which has 50 pupils 

 acquiring a knowledge of the anatomy of cattle and 

 the diseases to which they are incident, and the 

 methods of cure. A museum of anatomical prep- 

 arations, and a hospital for animals under treatment 

 is attached to the school. 



It has published several volumes of papers, com- 

 prising satisfactory information on subjects connec- 

 ted with every department of rural and domestic 

 economy- 

 It has by its rewards, called into exercise the 

 mechanic skill of the country ; and brought into 

 use many of the most perfect machines and imple- 

 ments of husbandry now in use. 



It has formed a museum of models of agricultu- 

 ral implements, made to a uniform scale, " the 

 most complete collection of the kind any where to 

 be met with." And 



It has contributed much to the construction of 

 roads, bridges, and canals. B. 



CARE OP FARMING TOOLS. 



A topic not yet sufficiently enforced on the at- 

 tention of farmers, is the wasteful negligence evin- 

 ced in the exposure ofagricultual implements to the 

 injuries of the seasons. The sled curling and 

 cracking by the side of the wall in summer, and the 

 cart half buried in snow and seasoning in the win- 

 ter storms, are symptoms of waste and extrava- 

 gance, which ripen into a consumption, to be has- 

 tened to premature termination by the visits of the 

 sheriffs. The whole secret of wealth consists in 

 economy, and the prudent care of those small rills 

 which without great vigilance, are slipping through 

 the chinks of the best woven purse ; and it may be 

 considered quite as safe to predict that none of 

 these slovenly gentlemen will be prosperous, as to 

 write in the style of the calendar soothsayers, 

 through the printed pages of the month of January, 

 " expect snow about these days." The price of 

 the time lost when it is most valuable, in putting 

 the exposed articles in proper repair, not speaking 

 ofthocost of the materials and the interruption 

 of business, would defray the expense of erecting 

 ten such cheap sheds as would cover them from the 

 storms, protect them from decay, and keep them 

 ready for immediate use. — National JEgis. 



CURE FOR GANGRENE. 



In an account of a fight between a party of 

 Waccos and Tawackanies, Indians, and a small 

 party of Americans, in Texas, in November, 1S31, 

 recently published in the Philadelphia Post, we 

 find the following singular method of curing the 

 leg of one of the party, which was shattered dur- 

 ing the action by a musket ball. It was lucky for 

 David Buchanan that no surgeon attended the 

 party, or he would have been ' a peg shorter' all 

 his days: 



"David Buchanan's wounded leg here mortified, 

 and having no surgical instruments, or medicine of 

 any kind, not even a dose of salts, we boiled some 

 live oak bark very strong, and thickened it with 

 pounded charcoal and Indian meal, made a poul- 

 tice of it, and tied it round his leg, over which we 

 sewed a buffalo skin, and travelled along five days 

 without looking at it; when it was opened the 

 mortified parts had all dropped off, and it was in 

 a fair way for healing, which it finally did, and 

 his leg is as well now as ever it was." 



HIGHLY IMPORTANT. 



Dr. Bcisson is said to have discovered an in- 

 fallible remedy for hydrophobia, which he has 

 communicated to the Academie des Sciences, in 

 Paris. He had no expectation of recovery, and 

 went into a vapor hath heated to 42 degrees Reau- 

 mur (126 Fahrenheit), as the easiest mode of suf- 

 focation. To his astonishment, the whole symp- 

 toms vanished at once, and he has never since had 

 the slightest recurrence of this dreadful disease. By 

 the same means he has cured upwards of eighty 

 patients, and he intends to try its efficacy in cases 

 of cholera, plague, yellow fever and gout. 



CHOLERA. 



The disease called spasmodic Cholera appears 

 to have been unknown previous to 1817, when it 

 appeared in India. Since that time till near the 

 end of 1832, a period of about fifteen years, there 

 has been throughout the world, as nearly as can 

 be estimated, one hundred million cases. Of these 

 fully one-half at least, must have died — which 

 gives a mortality from this single disease, of 50,- 

 000,000 in die above period, or upwards of 3,- 

 333,000 annually. In India alone, the mortality 

 has exceeded 18,000,000. These calculations 

 have been made by Jonnes, the celebrated French 

 physician, and it is estimated they are rated under 

 rather than above the truth. 



SKATE RUNNERS. 



At Drontheim, in Norway, they have a regi- 

 ment of soldiers, called Skate-runners. They 

 wear long gaiters, for travelling in deep snow, 

 and a green uniform. They carry a short sword, 

 a rifle fastened by a broad strap passing over the 

 shoulder, and a climbing-staff seven feet long, with 

 an iron spike at the end. They move so fast in 

 the snow, that no cavalry or infantry can overtake 

 them ; and it does little good to fire cannon balls 

 at them, as they go two or three hundred paces 

 apart. They are very useful soldiers in following 

 an enemy on a inarch. They go over mountains 

 and marshes, rivers and lakes, at a great rate. 



When King Charles XII. was shot at Freder- 

 ickshall, a Skate-runner carried the news four 

 hundred miles, twelve hours sooner than a mail 

 messenger, who went at the same time. There 

 were then seven thousand Swedes laying siege to 

 Drontheim. Wheu the news came, they broke up 

 their quarters, and retreated us fast as possible. 

 They were obliged to go over the mountains, and 

 the snow was deep, and the weather exceedingly 

 cold. Two hundred Skate-runners followed hard 

 after them, and came up with them one very cold 

 morning. But all the troops were dead, having 

 been frozen in their tents, among the mountain 

 snow drifts. They had burnt every morsel of 

 wood, even the stocks of their muskets, to warm 

 themselves. 



