Vol. X.— No. 11. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



85 



SWAMP MUD. 



Were fanners to pay more atteiuioii to draining 

 llieir low lands, they would find it much to ilit;,!r 

 interest. Separate from the advantage of rendc.- 

 ing their low lands dry and productive, much ma- 

 nure of the first quality might be taken from the 

 ditches, and when spread upon fallows and other 

 uplatids under tillage, would well repay all the 

 expense of ditching. Many seem to entertain the 

 idea, that nothing is worth carting or speading us 

 manure, unless it has been collected in the barn- 

 yard, or is the excrement of animals. 



All vegetable matter undergoing decomposition 

 furnishes food for growing plaMts,and may be appli- 

 ed as manures. In sljort, anything, wlicllier vegeta- 

 ble or animal substance, which on being mixed 

 with a soil under cultivation, ami which increases 

 the growth of plants cultivated in such soil, js 

 termed manure. Different soils require different 

 substances to be applied, in order to facilitate the 

 growth of plants ; thus light sandy soils which are 

 too loose t* retain moistme are greatly benefited 

 by the application of clay ; and such earths as are 

 comparatively too retentive of moisture, are greatly 

 altered for the better, by mixing with them a por- 

 tion of sand, so that wliatever be the soil which 

 requires ditching, the earth removed may be carted 

 to a different soil, and be applied as a manure. 

 There is on some farms small swamps or depress- 

 ions, in which vegetable matter collects, and which 

 cannot without considerable expense be drained; 

 tlieee frequently become dry during summer, when 

 larire quantities of manure might be taken out of 

 them. Good farmers will look carefully to those 

 things, but some that are new in the profession, 

 may not be aware of Ihe importance of such depos- 

 its and a hint from us may not be considered amiss. 

 — Genesee Fanner. 



TESTIMONIES IN FAVOR OF WATER, 



AS A D>IVERSA1. BEVERAGE. 



Cheyne, a distinguished physician, who wrote 

 more than a century ago, and whp had himself 

 experienced incalculable benefits from the use of 

 water, describes its value with great enthusiasm. 

 ' The benefits,' says he ' a jierson who desires noth- 

 ing but a clear head, and strong intellectual facid- 

 ties, would reap by drinking nothing but water 

 (tepid or cold as the season is,) while he is yet 

 young and tolerably healthy, well educated and of 

 a sober honest disposition, are innumerable : As 

 first, that he would live probably till towards an 

 hundred years of age, &,c. Secondly, that he 

 would constantly enjoy a clear head, calm, at least 

 governable passions ; a facility in intellectual apjili- 

 cations, and the acquisition of virtue, &c. Thirdly 

 he would thereby be secured against all the great, 

 atrocious, and frightful di.stempers ; as melancholy, 

 lowuess of spirits, wrong-headedness, madness, 

 apoplexies, suffocations, fevers of all kinds, pesti- 

 lences, pleurisies, &c.' 



' If there is in nature a remedy, which deserves 

 the name of universal,' says Hoffman, a celebrated 

 German physician, who lived nearly two centuries 

 ago, 'it is, in my opinion, pure water.' 



' Water,' says the Edinburgh Encyclopedia,' is 

 the natural drink of man, and indeed, of all animals. 

 It is not only the safest and best drink, but howev- 

 er it may be disguised, water is perhaps the oidy 

 fluid which can answer all the purposes for which 

 drink is required.' 



' There can be no question,' says Dr James 

 JohnaoQ of London, ' that water is the best and the 



only drink which nature has designed for man: 

 ' ami there is as little doubt but that every person 

 I might gradually, or even pretty quickly, accustom 

 himself to this aqueous beverage.' — 'The water 

 drinker glides tranquilly through life, without much 

 exhilaration ordepression, and escapes many diseas- 

 es to which he would otherwise be subject. The 

 1 wine drinker experiences short, but vivid ])eriods 

 of rapture, and long intervals of gloom ; he is al-so 

 more subject to disease. The balance of enjoyment 

 then turns decidedly in favor of tlie water drink- 

 er, leaving out his temporal prosperity and future 

 anticipations ; and the nearer we keep to his regi- 

 men, the happier we shall be.' 



' I have known,' says Dr Rush, ' many instan- 

 ces of persons who have followed the most labori- 

 ous employment for many years in the open air, 

 and in wartn and cold weather, who never drank 

 anything but water, and enjoyed uninterrupted 

 good health.' 



Tliose sudden deaths, which are not unfrequent 

 from drinking cold water, in very hot weather, rare- 

 ly if ever lake place, except in persons of intcmi)er- 

 ate habits. 



'In physical strength,' says the Journal of Health, 

 'in the capability of enduring labor aiul fatigue, in 

 ,the vigor and clearness of the intellectual powers, 

 'he individuals whose drink is confined entirely to 

 vator, far exceed those who substitute for the pure, 

 element, ilistilled or fermented liquors.' 

 I ' Would the strong man preserve his strength, 

 I and the fair woman her beauty, water will be their 

 beverage, their cordial, their restorative. Is the 

 , cmstitution broken down in drunken bouts, and 

 g iittonous feasting, to be renovated ; water — water 

 a one, unmixed, unspoiled, must be the grand auli- 

 I d/speplic draught. If cramps and pain torment, or 

 1 wakefulness cheat the wearied spirit of its repose, 

 not all the essences of peppermint or mustard for 

 the former, or all the sedatives of laudanum, or 

 black drops, or hops for the latter, will be so com- 

 posing for the time, and unattended by after suffer- 

 ing, as a tumbler full or two of hot water. The 

 nervous lady who refuses to take adequate exercise 

 during the day, and drinks her strong green tea in 

 the evening, may consult her physician, if she be 

 partial to having a listener to her tale of wo ; but if 

 she desire to rest well and keep out of the hands of 

 quacks, and spare the nerves ofhcr regular medical 

 adviser, who really wishes her well, she must di- 

 lute her tea, take longer walks, aiul in place of re- 

 course to the laudanum vial, try a tumbler full of 

 hot water at bed time. The poor hypochondriac 

 must not hope for easier digestion and a greater flow 

 of spirits by a little wine or other bitters before din- 

 ner, and a little wine or brandy and water at, 

 and after this meal. He may as well hope to breathe 

 freer by having his throat a little compressed by a 

 tight band just before he takes a walk, and again a 

 little squeezed nnmediately after his return. His 

 draughts from the foimtaiu of Hygeia must be in the 

 shape of pure water from the nearest spring or cis- 

 tern. 



Curious Document. — Ministers have at this mo- 

 ment in their possession a list of 1,500 individu- 

 als, in or near Loudon, whose private fortunes 

 would pay off the national debt. Of course the 

 list is only interesting, or of value, as indicating 

 the mass of wealth in the country, as one could not 

 have imagined, at first sight, that the private for- I 

 tunes of ajiy l,-500 individuals in the empire could 

 be to sucli an extent, — English Paper. \ 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVBNINO, SEPT. 28, 1631. 



HORTICULTURAL FESTIVAL. 



The Anniversary of the Massacliusetts Horticulturil 

 Society was celebrated on the Slst in>t. In the forepoon a 

 well written, learned anil elaborate address was delivered 

 to the nieinbers of the society and a collection of ladies 

 andgcntlemen,asseiriblcd atlhe Athenaeum Lecture Koorn 

 by Dr M. A. Ward of Salem. This address was replete 

 with useful and amusing informalion. ]tp;ave historical 

 sketches of the sciences of Botany and Nalural History 

 from the earliest age to the present time, interspersed with 

 interesting anecdotes relative to distinguished men who 

 have successfully cultivated those branches of erudition. 

 It exhibited proofs of the advantages which had hceii de- 

 rived from the labors of Horticultural Societies both in 

 Europe and the United States, and adverted to the bejicHts 

 which the public had received, and vvliicb might be ex- 

 pected to accrue from the exertions of those and sijiiilar 

 institutions ; commended the efforts of the Massachusclls 

 Horticultural Society, and specified some of the favoralile 

 results of their labors. This Address we hope will soon 

 be published by the Society, 



Among the donations of fruits and flowers, which were 

 presented for the Festival were the following, viz : 



Dr Webster; Sweet-water ami Isabella Grapes, 

 peaches. Mr H. A. Breed, ofLynii; W:iler-i]ioloiis. 

 Mr Abel Houghton, of Lynn; CilnUi Mn-i.-i,,, Iwn. ;uid 

 Isabella Grapes. Mr Siiniuel I'cuul. ( '.mJii id^i poi t ; 

 Sweet-vvaler, red Chasselas and l>abi,ll.i L>i..pL,-. Ui U. 

 Fi*ke, Worcester ; a large basket ol I'ears, called Cbam- 

 berl.iin, resembling the St Michael. Mr Joseph Joy, 

 Boston ; brown Beui'ie Pears. Mr E. Vose, Dorchester; 

 black Hamburg, while Chasselas, and Gros Maioc 

 Grapes, Capiaumont Pears, and Morrii^ white Peaches. 

 Dr S A. Shuitleff, Bost)n; white Cbasselas Grapes, St 

 Micliacl, Seclile, and Ulrica's Bergamot Peais, ; iid 

 'ShurtleflV seedling Grapes. Mr" D. Ha-m.iji„ii, 

 Charleslown; black irambui-g- and Sweet-water Ur.iiics. 

 Mrs K. Mackey, Wcsloii i mij^iI. i licisislone Peaches. 

 Mr C. Cowen, Uoxbury; < ^i' lirii-^. Gorbam P.U'- 

 soiis, Esq. Brighton ; Hiil.liii I- v i^ h ii, Poirune nclge 

 fameuse.and Washin»,tou IV.u u.aiu Aiiplcs: Broca's Ber- 

 gamot, and Sylvanche veile d'l.ivei Pears. Mr S. C. 

 i>yford, Meieditli, N. H. ; St Michael Pears. Mr K. F. 

 Pbipps, Charleslown ; Andrews Pears. 



Dr Z. B. Adams, Boston ; St Mieliael Pears and a 

 fine specimen of Hibiscus Maiiibot. Madam Parkman, 

 Broca's Bergamot Pears. Mr Samuel Downer, Doicbcs- 

 ter, ; Black Hamburg, Red Cbasselas, Isabella, Schuyl- 

 kill, Troy, Nazro and Gale Grapes; Capiaumont, Beurre, 

 Knox and Seckle Pears. Mr Enoch Bartlett, RoxLury ; 

 Barllelt and Capiaumont Peais. Ribslone Pippins, and 

 Spitzenberg Apples, Isabella Grapes and Watermelons. 

 Mr Wm. Kenrick, Newton ; Isabella Grapes. Mr J. 

 Wilson, Boston, Peaches. Mi Daniel Chandler, Lexing- 

 ton ; Fruit of Passiflnra edulis. Mr R. Toobey, Wa'l- 

 tbam ; Heatbcott and Seckle Pears. Messrs Winsliip 

 of Biigblon; black Hamburg, black Cape, black Mus- 

 cadine, black Cluster, Royal Muscadine, white Cbasselas, 

 white. Sweet-water, Saragossa, Wyatt, Isabella and 

 Schuylkill Grapes. Madam Dix, Boston ; Dix Pears, a 

 fine specimen. Mr Charles Senior, Roxbury ; one large 

 Lemon tree, one large and two small Orange trees ia 

 fruit. 



Mr David Fosdick, Charleslown ; While Muscadine 

 and Isabella Grapes, Apples, Pears and Peaches. Mr J. 

 Bnmstead, Boston; a basket of small Blue Ischa Fi;;g, 

 Gen. Dearborn, Roxbury ; Heath Peaches, Marie Louise, 

 Beurre d'Anglcteire, English Bergamot, and a beaulilul 

 cluster containing 36 Seckle pears. John Prince, Esq. 

 Jamaica Plain ; Beurre du Roi, Fiillon, Dr Hunt's Con- 

 necticut and Capiaumont Pears ; Hubbardston Nonsuch 

 Apples. — Mr Eben. Breed, Charleslown ; Black Ham.- 

 buror Grapes. Mr Charles Lawrence, Salem ; Black 

 Hamburg Grapes, 4 clusters weighing 24 — 18 — 18— IT 

 ounces : White Muscat Rpisling or Clairette de Liinoux, 

 Petit Rauschling and Gray Burgundy Grapes ; St Mi- 

 chael Pears, and Kennedy's Carolina Clingstone Peaches, 

 Zebedee Cook, Jr. Esq. Dorchester ; Black Hamburg, 

 White Muscat, Barcelona, Conslanlia, Catawba and Isa. 

 bella Grapes, Seckle Pears, Waleriiielons, one weigh- 

 ing 38 lbs. and four varieties of nuisk-melons. Mr 

 Thomas Whitraaish, Brookline ; large Carolina Water- 

 melons. 



S.G. Perkms, Esq. Brookline ; white Muscat, Muscat of 

 Alexandria, and black Cape Grapes; Belle de Vitry 



