Vol. X.— No. 23. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



181 



nuisances ; yet such is tlic ailmii-.iblo pnlisli of 

 their i-onting and hinhs, iliat we very seldom fiml 

 uny soil adhering to tliem. Tlie nidoe, and some 

 <if the scaiaha?!, upon first emerging from their 

 winter's retreat are eonnnordy found witli llie carili 

 (dinging to tlieni ; Imt the removal of this is one 

 of the first operations of the crcatm-e ; and all the 

 beetle race, tlie chi(f occupation of which is crawl- 

 ing ahont the snil, and such dirty employs, an- 

 notwill.slanQing reuiarkalile for the glossiness of 

 their covering, and freedom from defih-nieiits of 

 any kin. I. Bntiniiily of vesture seems to he a 

 principal precept of nature, and ohservahle 

 throughout creation. — Fishes, from the nature of 

 the eleu:eue in which they reside, can contract hut 

 little impurity. Birds are unceasingly attentive to 

 neatness and lustration of their plumage. All the 

 slug rare, though covered with slimy matter, cal- 

 culated to collect extraneous things, and reptile:, 

 ere perfectly free from soil. The fur and hair of 

 heasts in a state of liherty and health is never filthy, 

 or sidlied with dirt. Some hirds roll themselves 

 in dust, and occasionally, particularly beasts, cover 

 themselves with mire ; hut this is not from any 

 liking or inclination for such things, but to free 

 themselves from annoyances, or to prevent the bites 

 of insects. Whether birds in preening, and beasts 

 in dressing thetnselves, be directed by any instinc- 

 tive faculty, we know not, but they evidently derive 

 pleasure from the operation, and thus this feeling 

 of enjoyment, even if the sole motive, becomes 

 to them an essential source of comfort and of 

 health. 



Fto 



111! 



of Ueilth. 



CROWDED ROOMS. 



In an English work, entitled the Philosophy ol 

 Mediciiic, containing numerous extracts on the na- 

 ture nUieallh niij ilisease,wt: find the following strik- 

 ing, but as we have, every reason to believe, au- 

 thentic anecdote. 



'A lively yiuing lady, who came to Btith, to put 

 herself un<ler the care of Dr M. Adair, gave a roul 

 and insisted tliat the doctor should he of the parly. 

 The room was siuaU, ami the company very nu- 

 merous. He had not lieen long seated to the card- 

 table, hf-fore a young gentleman, his parlner, fell 

 into a swoon. The doors were immediately thrown 

 open to atl'ord hiiu fresh air, and tlie sash lifted up 

 and both the genllcmau who swooned^ and the 

 young lady, Dr Adair's patient, who were invalids 

 were much injured by the stnlderi exposure to a 

 current of cold air. How the rest of the compa 

 ny were afl'ac-tcd, says Dr Adair, I had no opporin 

 nity of knowing ; but my own feelings and sutrer- 

 iugs, for many hours after I retired from this oven 

 .convinced me of the dnngerous consequences oi' such' 

 meelins:s. On iledaring, a few days after, to one 

 of my brethren, a man id'hutrmr, my resolution of 

 writing a hitter philippic! against routs, he archly 

 reidied ; " Li.'t ilieui alone, doctor ; how could 

 this place oiherwiso supiiort Iwenlysix physi- 

 cians !" ' 



This fact, says our correspondent, to whom 

 we are indebted for this article, serves to show. 



often do we find hundreds, and thousand 

 dividuals occupying a room with closed do 

 windows, for an hour or two together! Much of 

 the yawning, and dulness, and iiiatleution of reli- 



ous assemblies, is o/?e!i produced by sinular cau- 



s, thongli usually ascribed to a different orii:in. 

 Crowded assemblies woidd do well to recollect 

 that they are rendering the atmosphere ?hsohitely 

 poisonous, at the rate of at least a gallon a luinii e 

 or a hogshead an hour to an individual ; and they 

 are making it, more or less impure and unwhole- 



me with every breath. This happens loo when 

 the atmosphere is the most pure aiul dense. lu 

 hot weather, as the air is highly rarified, ami other 

 causes of impurity exist in greater abundance, it is 

 poisoned at a much more rapiil rate than in other 

 circumstances ; and this should remind us of the 

 necessity of a stricter attention to ventilation. 



Our unenlijrhlened readers, may be edified by 

 the following — 



RECIPE FOR A ROCT : 



Take all the ladies and gentlemen you can 

 coIlect,and put them into a room, with a slosv fire. 

 Stew them well. Have ready twelve packs of 

 cards, a piano-forte, a handful of prints or draw- 

 ings, and |)ut them in from time to time. As the 

 mixture thickens, sweeten it with iioliiesse, and 

 season with wit, if yon have any ; if not, flattery 

 wdl do, and is very cheap. When all have stew- 

 ed well an hour, add some ices, jellies, cakes, lem- 

 onade, and wines; the more of these ingredients 

 you put in, the more substantial will your rout he. 

 Fill your room ([uite fidl, and let the scum rim 



off!' 



FAT CATTLE. 

 It is impossible to ascertain at what tiirie the 

 people on Connecticut river be>;au to fatten oxen 

 in the stall for the Boston market. The first no- 

 tice on record, that we have observed, is a vote of 

 the town of Hatfield in August, 1703. Iii taking 

 the list in the spring preceding, fat cattle were in- 

 cluded ; this, it seems, was a subject of complaint, 

 because the cattle were driven to market soon after 

 the list was taken ; the town therefore voted not to 

 include them. It is evident from this vote that a 

 considerable number of oxen were stall-fed in 

 Hatfield at that time. — The business must have 

 been commenced in that and other towns some 

 vears before — probably as early as 1690, or 140 

 vears ago. The first notice in Northampton is in 

 the inveiitorv of the estate of Nathaniel Dwiirht, 

 March, 1712 ; it includes four fat oxen, besides 

 several yokes of working cattle. After this, fat 

 oxen in the spring are noticed in Hadley, Deer- 

 field, Westfield, &c. In 1724, three fat oxen he- 

 lonsincr to the estate of Benjamin Lyman, North- 

 ampton, were appraised at 12 pounds each. In 

 February, 1729, Samuel Clark, (fiither of the late 

 Benjamin Clark) sold six fat oxen for 20 pounds 

 each ; and in Mandi, 1730, bis neighbor John Ba- 

 ker, sold six oxen at the same price. In March, 

 1732, Jonathan Strong, John Miller and Joseph 

 Hawley, (father of M.aj. llawley) sent each a yoke 

 of cattle to Boston. Mr Ha" ley's oxen brought 

 45 pounds, and the others a less price. In March 



fin- thus pirticuhir, in order to show th.'it Stall-feeding 

 anil cattle was a business of some importance in the 

 towns on Connecticut river inore tbaii 100 yeara 

 ago. It has been ranch extended since, and it is 

 b( lieveil that the farmers of Hatfield now stall-feed 

 three limes as many oxen as were fattened in all 

 the towns in Old Hampshire 100 years since. 



in 1731 there were only eleven towns in the 

 county of Hampshire, viz. Springfield, Norlhatnp- 

 ton, liiullcy, ilatfielil,Sundcrlauil, We.sifield, Deer. 

 lii-ld, Northfield, Biiiufield, Siiffiuld and Kufield ; 

 the two latter are now in Conneclicnt. There 

 were sc'ltlemcnls at Cold Spring (Bclcliertown) the 

 ICIbows (Palmer) and some oiher places. — Hump. 

 Gazelle. 



Canker in Fruit Trees. — A paper on this sub- 

 ject has been read before the Caledonian Horti- 

 cultural Society, by Mr Peter Campbell, gardener 

 at Coalston, in which this experienced gardener 

 gives it as his opinion that the cause of canker 

 in fruit trees is a stintednoss of growth that 

 takes place from a bad subsoil, and the ground 

 not being properly prepared before the fruit trees 

 are planted. An experiment he has tried proves 

 he says, to be an effectual cure for that disease, 

 so far as he has hitherto experienced. There were 

 upwards of seventy espalier fruit trees taken 

 with canker, that had entirely given up bearing ; 

 twelve of them had only been about twelve years 

 planted. The soil these trees grew in was of a 

 sandy nature, and was formerly a bog full of 

 springs, with veins of black sand about eighteen 

 inches below the surface. By examining the 

 roots that went down into these veins of black 

 sand, they were foinid to difier from the other 

 roots, ami some parts were quite swelled and over- 

 grown, compared with otlier pans of the same 

 root, so that it bad more the apiiearance of a 

 tuberous than a fibrous root, ami the wood itself 

 was very seriously injured in the interior. Ho 

 instantly proceeded to clear away the soil from the 

 roots, with care so as not to injure lliem, first to 

 the distance of three feet from the trunk of the 

 trees all round, and afterwards as much under 

 the trunk as could be got out ; he cut off the tap 

 roots that went right down, and also ail the roots 

 that were diseased, and proceeded to clear away 

 the soil another foot round the tree ;a layer of bricks 

 &c, being laid on the bottom, he then filled up 

 the hole with good mould mixed with rotten cow 

 dung, beating in every course below the trunk of 

 the tree with a beater made for that purpose. He 

 than proceeded to prune off the tops of the trees, 

 not leaving a branch nor bit of wood that had 

 canker in h on any of the trees. By this treat- 

 ment, he says, the trees are become quite healthy, 

 and free from any moss or lichen, and witliout the 

 least appearau -e of canker. 



1729, Doct. Thomas Wdls of Deerfield went with 

 better than a thousand arguments- without it, the ^ ^ ,,^Q^,g „f f.,t f,^^„ f,.„,„ Deerfield to Boston; be 

 danger of injury from confined air in close apart- ^_,j, g„,,g jo ^^y^^ charced 41. 15s. for his expenses 

 ments. Hence we see that when we invite <>ur^n,| services. The money in circulation at that 

 friends to enjoy with us the pleasures of the social pp^iod was a depreciated paper currency, called 

 circle, we may incautiously be the means of ren- ,^j|,^ „f ^jp,||t T|,g 4.5 p„„,„ls for which Mr 

 dering both them and ourselves miserable, by the Hawley's cattle were sold was not probaldv worth 

 poison of a corrupted attnosphere. Besides, how ,„ore than 45 or 50 dollars in silver. We are ' ^^^'J' 



To destroy thislles, fern and coUsfnot.—Uav. 

 ing mice a pasture field, says a correspondent in 

 the English Country Times, that seemed one 

 entire bed of common thistles, and having occa- 

 sion to carrv manure across it to another field, I 

 observed all the thistles completely killed wherever 

 llie cans went ; I therefore set to and rolled the 

 whole field with a cast iron roller, once in the 

 latter end of May ; and twice in the beginning of 

 June The field has been free from thi.-lles ever 

 since. The expense was only 35i per acre. Fern 

 ami coltsfoot I have exterminated in the same 



