216 



Nl W ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 18, 1832. 



]>IlSCEL,L,Ai\Y 



From tho Song3 of James Hogg. 



THE MOON WAS A-WANING. 



The moon was a-waning, 



The tempest was over; 

 Fair was the maiden. 



Ami fond was the lover ; 

 But the snow was so ileep, 



That his heart it grew weary. 

 And he sunk down to sleep 



On the moorland so dreary. 



Soft was the bed 



Sho had made for her lover; 

 White were the sheets. 



And embroider'd the cover; 

 But his sheets are more white, 



And his canopy grander, 

 And sounder he sleeps 



Where the hill foxes wander. 



Alas ! pretty maiden, 



What sorrows attend you! 

 I see you sit shivering, 



Wiih lights at your window ; 

 But long may you wait 



Ere your arms shall enclose him. 

 For still, still he lies, 



With a wreath on his bosom ! 



How painful the task 



The sad tidings to tell you ! 

 An orphan you were 



Ere this misery befell you — 

 And far in yon wild 



Where the dealh-tapers hover. 

 So cold, roUl, and wjn 



Lies tho corpse of your lover! 



I at a colisiilerahle distance, which iinfortiiiiately is <levotion in its infancy ; the virtue which, after 

 becoming too sure of victory, quitted tlieir military a time it produces, is virtue in its maturity ; the 

 array and disbanded themselves. By this incon- ] contemplation of Deity is devotion at rest ; the ex 

 siderate step they lost all that aggregate of force 



which made the bird fly off". Perceiving their 

 disorder, he immediately returned, and snapped as 

 many as he wanted, nay he had even the impu- 

 dence to alight on the very twig from which the 

 bees had driven him. I killed him, and inmiedi- 

 ately opened his craw, from which I took 171 

 bees. I laid them all on a blanket, in the sun, 

 and, to my great surprise, 54 returned to life, lick- 

 ed themselves clean, and joyfully went back to the 

 hive ; where they probably informed their com- 

 panions of such an adventure and escape, as I be- 

 lieve had never happened before to American beeb ! 



SAGACITY OF BEES. 



Anything relating to the natural history of Bees, 

 is particularly interesting at this period, when so 

 many of our intelligent countrymen are endeavor- 

 ing to introduce them among the farmers of New 

 England. 



The following anecdote is extracted from ' a 

 letter from J. Hector St John, a fiirmcr in Penn- 

 sylvania to a friend in England,' first published, 

 we believe, in 1784. 



The sagacity of these animals, whidi have long 

 been the tenants of my farm, astonishes me ; some 

 of them seem to surpass even men in memory and 

 sagacity. I could tell you singular Instances of 

 that kind. What then is this instinct which we 

 so debase, and of which we are taujht to enter- 

 tain so dimiuutive an idea ? My bees above any 

 other tenants of my farm, attract my atentioii and 

 respect. I am astonished to see that nothing i x- 

 ists but what has its enemy; one species pursues 

 and hves upon the other, Unforti nately > 

 king-birds are the destroyers of these industrious 

 insects: but, on the other hand, thesi birds ])re- 

 serve our fields from the depredatioi of crows, 

 rrljich they pursue on the wing with great vigi- 

 lance and astonishing dexterity. Thus divided by 

 two interested motives, I have long resisted the 

 desire I had to kill them, until last ypar, when I 

 thought they increased too much, and my in<lul- 

 gence had been carried too far. It waa at the time 

 of swarming, when they all came and fixed them- 

 selves on the neighboring trees, whence they 

 caught those bees that returned from the field. — 

 This made me resolve to kill as many as I could, — 

 and I was just ready to fire, when a bunch of 

 bees, as big as my fist, issued from one of the 

 hives, rushed on one of these birds, and probably 

 stung him, for he instantly screamed, and flew, not 

 as before in an irregular maimer, but in a direct 

 liae. He was followed by the same bold phalanx, 



EDITORIAL DIFFICULTIES. 



Next to poverty, delinquent subscribers aid 

 duns, to which most editors are subject, the 

 greatest difficulty is to please the public. For bo 

 great is the variety of public taste and feeling, that 

 had the conductor of a periodical paper as many 

 hciuls and as many pens as his paper has readers, 

 he could never hope to please all ; for they cannot 

 please themselves. Does he speak out in language 

 plain and simple ? it is mere common place ; the 

 taste of the learned is not gratified ; it is fit only 

 for the vulgar. Does he aspire to elegance? tlie 

 imlearned caiuiot understand, and tlie learned re- 

 gard him as a pedantic fellow, dabbhng in what he 

 has no real pretensions to. Does he show his 

 colors, and boldly contend for his ground ? he is 

 too severe. Does he hide him.self behind a mass 

 of equivocal matter ? he Ls a temporizing hypo- 

 crite. If he publishes extracts that are better than 

 he can write, he has no talents of his own to dis- 

 play ; and if he fills his paper with original mat- 

 ter, he might have given something better from 

 the works of others. If he attempts to philoso- 

 phize, it is dull mid uninteresting; and if he write 

 on i)lain and familiar subjects, everybody knew 

 them before. Does he attempt to instruct ? he 

 needs to be instructed. Does he use his endeavors 

 to amuse ? it is light and trifUng. People gener- 

 ally are fond of being praised, and one would sup- 

 pose this might satisfy them. But let an editor 

 try the expedient, and he will soon find out his 

 mistake. For such is the power of envy that no 

 one will thank him for praising /iim,and every one 

 will hate him for praising others. Most peo|)Ie 

 are fond of hearing their neighbors slandered ; but 

 if you attempt to point out either the vices or fol- 

 lies of mankind, every one will find something iiy- 

 plicable to himself; and here again you encoun- 

 ter the hatred of the whole muss. Every person 

 •an tell you how to conduct a paper to please 

 limself, and of course to offend every one else. — 

 These being stubborn facts, there is no alternative 

 but for an editor to please himself if he can, and 

 hazard the consequences. If he does this he will 

 be certain of satisfying one, which is more than he 

 can say if he tries to please ajl. — Upland Union. 



' Let this idea dwell in our minds, that our 

 duties to God and our duties to men, are not dis- 

 tinct and independent duties, but are involved in 

 each other ; that devotion and virtue are not dif- 

 ferent things, but the same thing ; either in dif- 

 ferent stages or in different stations, in different 

 points of progi^ess, or circumstances, or sittiations. 

 What we call devotion for the sake of distinction, 

 during its initiatory and instrumental exercises, 



edition of his commands is devotion in action. — 

 Praise is religion in the temple, or in the closet ; 

 inthistry, from a sense of duty, is religion in the 

 shoj) or field ; commercial integrity is religion in 

 the mart ; the conunuuication of consolation is re- 

 lii;iiin in the chamber of sickness; paternal in- 

 struction is religion at the hearth ; justice is re- 

 ligion on the bench ; patriotism is religion in the 

 public councils.' 



Silk a Protection against Infection. — A silk cover- 

 ing of the texture of a common hanilkercliief is said 

 to possess the peculiar property of resisting the 

 noxious influence, and of neutralising the effects of 

 malaria. If, as is supposed, the poisonous matter 

 is received into the system through the lungs, it 

 may not be difficult to account for the action of this 

 very simple preventative ; it is well known that such 

 is the nature of malaria poison, that it is easily de- 

 composed by even feeble chemical agents. Now it 

 is probable that the heated air proceeding from the 

 lunrrs may form an atmosphere within the veil of silk 

 of power sufficient to decompose the miasma in its 

 passage to the mouth, although it may be equally 

 true that the texture of the silk covering may act 

 mechanically as a nonconductor, and prove an im- 

 pediment to the transmission ^)f the deleterious sub- 

 stance. 



.SVrn-f. — Sir John Sinclair, author of the Code of 

 Health, strongly recommends the use of sage tea, 

 made liom common garden sage, as a remedy for 

 disorders of the throat which arise from a bad 

 state of the stomach. He tried the experiment on 

 himself, using a bath of vinegar and water for his 

 throat when sore from a cold — and the sage with 

 great success, when the other remedy failed. He 

 drank a pint of the tea in a day, in doses of a 

 wine-glass full at a time. 



A young lady, who had been severely interro- 

 gated by an ill natured counsel, observed, on leav- 

 ing the witness box, that she never before fully 

 understood what was meant bv cross examination. 



A printer, whose talents were hut indifferent, 

 turn«:(l physician. He was asked the reason of it. 

 'In printing,' answered he, 'all the faults are ex- 

 posed to the eye ; but in physic they are buried with 

 the patient, and one gets more easily off.' 



Published every Wednesday Evening, at 53 per annum, 

 |ia\ablc at the end of the \ear — but those who pay within 

 >iit)da)8 Irom the time of subscribing, are entitled to a 

 deduction ol fifty cents. 



ItJ" No paptr will be sent to a distance without payment 

 being made in advance. 



Printed for J. B. RcssF.i.L, by I. R. Botts — by whom 

 .ill descriptions of Printing c.nn be executed to meet the 

 wishes ofcustomers. Orders for Printing received by J. B. 

 KuBSKLi., at the Agricultural Warehouse, JNo. 62, North 

 Market Street. 



AGENTS. 

 Xew York — G. Thorbukn A: S.iNS, 67 Liberly.Btreet. 

 Albany — W a. Thorbuk.v, 3'1-7 Market street. 

 ndmleljihia — D. & C. Lanmkkth, 86 Chestnut-street. 

 Baltimore —G. B. Smith, Editor of the American Farmer. 

 ( itKiunali—S. C. Parkhurst, 23 Lower Market-street. 

 F/ushiiig.N. V. \Vm. Prince &, Sons, Prop.Lin.Bot.GardeB 

 .Middleburij, Vt. — Wight Chapman. 

 Ilarlford — Goodwin & Co. Booksellers. 

 Spritiglield. Ms. — E.Edwards. 

 Netrhu'ryport. — Erenezf.r Stedman, Bookseller. 

 Portsmouth. N. H. — i. W. Foster. Bookseller. 

 Portland, jUe. — Samcel Colman, Bookseller. 

 A-gusta. Me. — Wm. Mann. 



Halifax. N. S. — P. J. Holland, Esq. Recorder Offi«e. 

 MoiUrtal, L. C. — HcNRi UiLLOCE. 



