Vol. X.— No. 30. 



AND nollTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



231 



human liappiiiess. Poetry and music are means 

 to that end. We condemn them not, as we shall 

 hereafter show, but the use of them, as induce- 

 ments to intemperate drinking. 



If one could get the ear of such a misguided 

 youth, he would not do much by reasoning with 

 him. He might do something by getting him to 

 reason for himself. It would be necessary to 

 bring to his view some facts from which he could 

 reason. He nmst be made to know what a won- 

 derful contrivance the disgestive power is, and liy 

 tehom it was contrived. That its purpose is to 

 take the inanimate substances, which natiu-e 

 provides for it, and convert them into living, 

 sensitive beings, and possibly into thinking power, 

 and immortal spirit. He must be reminded how 

 easily every human contrivance may be deranged, 

 and the more so, and irreparably, in proportion to 

 the minuteness and delicacy of construction. But 

 as one might fail to make a thoughtless boy com- 

 prehend the nature of the principle of life which 

 resides in his own bosom, because he cannot see 

 it, some illustration must be made. Unhappily 

 there is none which can be effective to this end. 

 The nearest that occurs, is this. Let us suppose, 

 then, one knows the use and the value of the 

 human eye in its physical, intellectual and moral 

 relations ; that he knows he must take care of it, 

 and frequently bathe it in cold water, as well to 

 cleanse it, as to refresh and brace it, so that it may 

 still be an eye to him when decline and old age 

 shall come. Let us further suppose that instead of 

 so using and so preserving this delicate organ he 

 should, when he first rises in the morning, let fall 

 into it a drop of burning spirit ; and at eleven 

 o'clock another, and so on, at the proper hours, 

 until he sleeps again : How long would the 

 power of vision remain to him, and how soon 

 will this organ of delight become a source of 

 insufterable pain? ft must be much the same 

 with the digestive organs as to the abuse of them. 

 If one could, in some such way, bring home to 

 the perception of an erring youth, the griev- 

 ous wrong wliich he is inflicting on himself, he 

 might be prepared to reason on his own case, and 

 might be asked some such questions as these : Is 

 it of any consequence to you to be free from 

 suffering and sorrow. As you must inevitably 

 keep company with yourself as long as you live, 

 is it of consequence to you to make of yourself, 

 a pleasant and agreeable companion, and not one 

 who will be continually complaining, and upbraid- 

 ing? Is health of any value to you? can you use 

 your limbs, and the faculties of your mind, as you 

 would like to do, without it ? Can you have 

 health, if your habit is to throw into that delicate 

 part of your system, whereon the action of life 

 depends, substances, which excite it to an unnat- 

 ural exertion, or deprive it of all power of exertion ? 

 Does not every part of your system sympathize 

 with the injustice which you do to your digestive 

 organs ? Will not your brain, and consequently 

 your mind, sufl'er by this violence ? Do you 

 expect to attain middle age, and old age ? Will 

 not the seeds you are now sowing come up, in 

 that space of time ? Will they come up in the 

 form of enfeebled muscles ; chronic aches, self- 

 reproaching thoughts ; the loss of the capacity to 

 enjoy the bounties and beauties of creation ? Will 

 they grow up to overshadow your moral sense, 

 and shut out the delights of intellectual power ? 

 Was life given to you for the few years in which 

 you can sing, drink, and ' enjoy yourself,' or, that 



you may enjoy life in every stage of it, as a ration- 

 al being, and by rendering your homage to nature 

 in obeying her laws, and your gratitude to Him, 

 who ordained these laws, for your happiness ? 

 Do you not look forward yourself, to be at some 

 time a parent ? Have your own parents ever so 

 conducted themselves towards you, that you have 

 a right to punish and afHict them? Are you wil- 

 ling that your parents should see you, and know 

 you, as you know yourself? If you should be a 

 parent, are you willing that your children shoidd 

 be told witli whom, and in what manner, you, 

 ' enjoy yourself?' Would you tell them how you 

 spent your youthful days and nights, and recom- 

 mend to them to take yourself as an example? 



SNAKE FIGHT. 



The late Major T. of the army, a gallant officer, 

 who was severely wounded, at the sortie of Fort 

 Erie, and died afterwards from the effect of his 

 woimd, while a representative from his native state 

 in Congress, used to relate the following account 

 of a battle which he once witnessed between a 

 black and a rattle snake. 



He was riding on horseback, when he observed 

 two snakes in the road, a short distance ahead 6f 

 him. They were moving round in a circle, and 

 apparently following each other. A gentleman 

 who was with the Major, who had witnessed a 

 similar scene before, remarked that it was a pre- 

 lude to a fight, and worthy the loss of a little time 

 to witness. They accordingly stopped tlieir horses 

 and watched the snakes. The cautious mauceuvre 

 of following each other, in a kind of circle, was 

 pursued for some time, closing at each round, 

 laitil, when \vithin a few feet, the black snake 

 was observed to stop, coil, and place himself in 

 an attitude to strike. The rattle snake now passed 

 round his antagonist two or three times, lessening 

 the distance at each I'ouud when he also stopped 

 and began to coil. But before he was ready to 

 strike, the black snake darted upon him. His 

 evolutions were too rapid to be detected and when 

 he was again distinctly observed, both snakes 

 were stretched out at full length, the rattle snake 

 enveloped in the folds of the black, which had 

 also seized the rattle snake at the back of the 

 head and held him there. Afler a short interval 

 the black snake gradually unfolded himself, loos- 

 ened the grip with his mouth from the rattle 

 snake's head, and moved away. 



On examination, the rattle snake was found to 

 be dead, and apparently every bone in his body 

 was crushed. The black snake is a constrictor, 

 and usually destroys its prey by enfolding and 

 crushing it. — Sporting Magazine. 



intercourse with other nations. This, therefore, 

 is the great art, which every government ought to 

 protect, every proprietor of lands to practise, and 

 every inquirer into nature to improve.' — Dr John- 

 son. 



Agriculture. — 'The labor of the farmer gives 

 employment to the manufacturer, and yields a 

 support for the other parts of the coinmimity : it 

 is the spring which sets the whole grand machine 

 of commerce in motion ; and the sail could not be 

 spread without the assistance of the plough. Of 

 nations, as of individuals, the first blessing is 

 independence. Neither the man nor the people 

 can be happy, to whom any human power can 

 deny the necessaries or conveniences of life. 

 There is no way of living without the need of 

 foreign assistance, but by the product of our own 

 land, improved by our own labor. Every other 

 source of plenty is perishable or casual. By agri- 

 culture only can commerce be perpetuated; and 

 by agriculture alone can we live in plenty without 



From the New york Farmer. 



ON THE RIGHT TIME TO CUT WOOD 

 FOR TIMBER. 



Mr Fleet. — The right time, whenknowii, may, 

 in most cases, as well be attended to, as the mrong 

 time, or ' any time' — the latter often being equiva- 

 lent to no time : — but the main thing, is, to ascer- 

 tain it. — In cutting timber for fence posts, and 

 rails, and stakes, all Farmers agree that there is 

 quite a wide distinction in time and season of the 

 year, — and yet we are by no means well agreed, 

 among ourselves, as to the proper time. One rea- 

 son of this, may be, that the right time, for one kind 

 of wood, may not be the right time for another kind ; 

 or, possibly, for the same kind, but growing in dif- 

 ferent soils, countries, climates, and situations, 

 widely diverse. The trees of the mountain and 

 the valley, of the dry land and the wet, the cold 

 and the warm, the rich and the poor soil, though 

 of the satne name, are yet not exactly alike, in all 

 their constiutent parts and qualities, any more than 

 men are all alike, or the mere animals. Of the 

 extent of this broad diversity, few men are aware, 

 and yet we all know something about it. 



Not only are Farmers, deeply interested in 

 knowing the right time to cut wood for timber, but 

 mechanics, artizans, builders, artchitects of all 

 classes, and governments, and hence much has 

 been written on the subject. I am not prepared to 

 discuss this matter, in relation to all sorts of uses 

 of timber ; such as in land and naval architecture ; 

 in fences, houses, and in dry and wet situations 

 and structures, in shi])ping, because of having 

 had no experience in the latter case, and but very 

 little opportunity for observation. I know, how- 

 ever, and so do all observing men, that the 

 durability of all kinds of timber, as well as its 

 strength, depend much upon their preserving, in 

 their dry state, or in that of their use when 

 wrought, whether wet or dry, a hind of life, adapted 

 to such a state. All men, of nice observation 

 have noticed, that the wood of one tree, as soon as 

 well seasoned, is dead, as to uses for timber ; while 

 that of another tree, perhaps of the same kind, 

 is not so dead, but retains in its texture a kind of life 

 still in preservation, firm, fibrous elastic and ponder, 

 ous. Much of this, I think, depends on cutting 

 at the right, or wrong time, and much, probably, 

 on the local situations in which each was produced. 

 There is hardly a greater difference, in the wood 

 of trees of different kinds, as to toughness and 

 brittleness, weight, elasticity, stifRiess, firmness, 

 strength, and durability, or in their value for 

 timber, than in trees of the same kinds, growing 

 on different soils, even in the same region, possibly 

 on the same farm. These are important facts, 

 though not new, certainly not among practical 

 men, and yet few have given to them due consid- 

 eration, and least of all, the writers on the subject, 

 national instructers, those who mark out places for 

 governments. 



The great difficulty of adapting general princi- 

 ples or rules, to all the diversities of particular 

 cases, is known to all men of sense, experience, 

 and wisdom. As a general principle, applicable 

 to the case under consideration, wood for timber, 

 should probably be cut at such time, as will leave 



