24 



NEW EIVGLAND FARMER. 



August I, 1833. 



iscellany, 



THE LAND OF OUR BIRTH. 



There is not a spot in the wide peopleil caith 

 So dear lo the heait as the land of our birlh ; 

 Tis the home o four childhood! the l>eautirul spot 

 Which .•ncin'ry retains when all else is forpot. 



Mny llie ble-sings of God 



Ever hallow the sod. 

 And its valleys and hills by our child.-en be trod. 



Can the lan^uascc ol strangeis in accents unknown, 

 Send a thiill to our bosom like that of our own .' 

 The face may be fair, and the sjnile may be bland. 

 But it breathes not the tones of our dear native laud. 



There 's no spot on earth 



Like the land of our birlh. 

 Where heroes keep guard o'er the altar and hearth ! 



How sweet is the language which taught us lo blend 

 The dear name of parents, of husbands and friends; 

 Which taught us to lisp on our mother's soft breast, 

 The ballads she sung as she rocki'd us to rest. 



May the blessin~s of God 



Ever hallow the sod. 

 And its valleys and hills by our children be trod ! 



CURIOUS TREES. 



The uses and virtues of the Bread-fruit tree are 

 known to be exceedingly important, and yet it 

 grows in Ceylon, and is little respected. Jn Guam, 

 it grows larger than our apple trees; when ripe, 

 it is soft and yellow, and its taste is sweet. When 

 full grown, the Giiaaians hnke it, it having neither 

 geed nor stone, hut is a pure sulistance, like bread, 

 smd lasts in season eight niontlis of the )ear. 



In some parts of Norway, where vegetation is 

 confined priui-ipally to moss atid lichens, it has 

 been discovered that even those vegetables may, 

 with little trouble, be converted into bread, more 

 palatable and nourishing than the bread of bark, 

 to which the Norwegians have so long been ac- 

 customed. 



But the greatest of all vegetable plienomena, 

 though not so useful to mankind as the bread- 

 fruit appears to be the Palo de J'aca. Thi.s plant 

 produces a glutinous liquid, like an animal. It 

 frequently grows U[)on the sides of a rock, and 

 has dry euriaceons leaves. For several luonths 

 of the year, its foliage is not moistened by a single 

 shower of rain, and its branches appear entirely 

 dried up ; but upon piercing the trunk, particu- 

 larly at the rising of the sun, there flows a sweet 

 and nourishing yellow juice, having a balsamic 

 perfiune, with many of the qualities of milk. In 

 the morning, the natives of the couiury, in which 

 this vegetable fountain grows, visit it with bowls, 

 in which they carry home its milk for their chil- 

 dren. So that this tree, says Baron Humboldt, 

 Beetns to |)resent the picture of a shepherd, distri- 

 buting the milk of his flock. The Araguans call it 

 the cow ; the Caucaguans the milk-tree. It grows 

 too in the country from Barbuta to the Lake Mar- 

 acaibo. 



In the interior of Africa is a tree (Shea,) which 

 furnishes excellent butter. It resembles an Amer- 

 ican oak, and its fruit is not unlike the Spanish 

 olive. It grows abundantly in Ashantee, and in 

 the woods near Kabba. The vegetable butler, 

 which its kernel affords, is white, more firm, and 

 in Park's opinion, far better than that produced 

 from cows. It has also the advaiUage of keeping 

 all the year without salt, even in that intensely hot 



country. The cream-fruit of Sierra Leone affords 

 a similar saccharine fluid. Its flower resembles 

 that of the vabca; its fruit that of the voacanga, 

 of which the Madagascarenes make birdlime ; and 

 that of urceacla, which produces the caoutchon of 

 Sumatra. These trees lessen the consequence of 

 the cow very materially in these longitudes; but 

 in some coiiiuries far more civilized, the natives 

 seem to disdain to avail themselves even of that 

 animal itself. 



In some regions of America, Africa, and Asia, 

 a liquid is exuded from the palm, which, by an 

 easy process, is converted into wine. This spe- 

 cies of palm is regularly tap|)ed. In Congo, it 

 yields plentifully at night, but not much in the 

 day. 



Between Table Bay and Bay False, near the 

 Cape of Good Hope, there grows also, amid 

 white sand, a shrub, the berries of which make 

 excellent candles. This plant is well known in 

 the Azores and America, where it is calleil the 

 Candleberry-rnyrile. Vegetable tallow grows also 

 at Siac and Sumatra; while the bark of tbeqiiillai 

 tree of China has many of the i)roperties of soap. 



In Chili there is a shrub called Tluu-ania, which 

 aflbrds incense equal to that of Arabia. It ex- 

 udes in the form of globides of tears, through 

 pores of the bark. These globules are white and 

 transparent, having a bitter taste, but an aromatic 

 perfimie. In that fine country, too, grows a spe- 

 cies of wild basil, sixty miles from the sea, which, 

 in a soil having no appearance of salt, is covered 

 in the morning, from spring to winter, with saline 

 globes, which the Chilians use as salt. In Mexico, 

 there is a tree, the flower of w hich, before it has 

 expanded, resembles the closed hand of a mon- 

 key ; when unfolded the open hand. From this 

 circumstance is derived the name of Chiranihodea- 

 dron. Not long since there existed oidy one s[)e- 

 cimen of this tree in the known world. It grows 

 ami has flourished for many ages in Toluea, a city 

 of Mexico, where it is esteemed sacred, and whither 

 persons travel from great distances in order to 

 procure its flowers. This was the only tree of 

 its geim.s, previous to the year 1787, that was 

 known lo bo in existence. But some botanists 

 having visited Toluea in that year, they took slips, 

 and iihuitod them in the royal gardens in Mexico, 

 where (Uie of them took root, and had growji, in 

 1804, to the height of fortyfive feet. The Tali- 

 pot of Ceylon grows to the height of one hundred 

 feet, and its leaf is so large that it will cover from 

 sixteen to twenty men like an umbrella. But the 

 largest leaved plant in the world is the Troolie of 

 Siuinam. It extends on the ground, and has fre- 

 quently been known to attain a width of three 

 feet, and a length of thirty. The natives cover 

 their houses with it, and it is very durable. 



Ives says, in his Voyage to India, that he saw a 

 Banyan, near Trevan de Parum, able to shelter 

 ten thousand men ; and Dr Fryer alludes to some 

 so large as to shade thirty thou.sand horse and men 

 singly. On an island in the Nerbndda, a few miles 

 from Baroach, grows one more remarkable than 

 any other in India. Travellers call it the " Won- 

 der of the vegetable world," being two thousand 

 feet in circumference. Armies may encamp un- 

 der its branches. The Hindoos esteem it the sym- 

 bol of a prolific deity; and British officers fre- 

 (piently, in their excursions, live many weeks to- 

 gether under Its canopy. The Capot is the only 

 tree that can be compared to the Banyan; and 

 Bosnian relates, that he saw one on the Gold 



Coast of Guinea which was so large that it would 

 shade twenty thousand men at least. 



We may here say a few words relative to the 

 ages of trees. Franklin mentions two Cy[uesse« 

 which the Persians believed to be six hundred 

 years old. Chardin mentions a Plane tree of a 

 thousand years. Forbes says, that lie smoked his 

 hooklia under the very banyan beneath which 

 part of Alexaiuler's cavalry took shelter: and the 

 age of the oaks of Lebanon is sairl to be at hast 

 two thousand }ears. — Bucke on the Bcmdks, Har- 

 monics, and Sublimities of JVature. 



Directions for using the Chloride of Lime. — Put 

 a quarter of a pound of chloride of lime into a 

 quart bottle, and fill it with water aiul cork ths 

 bottle, after shaking it repeatedly it is ready for 

 use — when required pour off a portion of it, eay 

 a gill, and add half as uuich vinegar; this may bs 

 sprinkled about the apartment, or [)laced in a shal- 

 low vessel as near the ceiling as possible. When 

 it is to he used for disinfecting a drain or vault, 

 the whole contents of the bottle may be put into 

 a pail full of water, to which a i)int of vinegar 

 may be added — sprinkle and throw it into the 

 place to be purified. 



The following prescription for the Cholera is 

 given by a medical practitioner at Quebec, who 

 stales that out of five hundred cases in which it 

 \\;'s used, not one proved fiital. 



Plunge the feet in hot water if any cramp, tak- 

 ing 15 grains of cayenne pepper in a glass of hot 

 brandy, every hour or half hour, until warmth is 

 secured, and constantly rub the body, arms and 

 lees. 



Thales, the Milesian, and one of the seven wis« 

 tnen of Greece, observed, that of all things, the 

 finest was the world, the strongest was necessity, 

 the greatest was space, the wisest was time, the 

 quickest was thought, and the most common wan 

 hope. 



Lead Pipe and Sheet Lead. 



LE.\n PU'E and iSbect Lead of all sizes and dimeu- 

 sioas, conslaiiily for sale at No. 110 Stale street, by 



ALBERT FEARING & CO. 



Cradles. 



FOR sale at tbo Agricultural Warehouse, No. 50^ 



North Market Street, a lew very excellent Grain Cradlg.; 



July 11. J. K. NEWELL. " 



Published every Wednesday Evi-ning, at 53 per annum, 

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Printed for J. B. Russell, by T. R. Butts — by whom 

 all descriptions nf Printing can be executed to meet the 

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 KijssELL, at the Agricultural Warehouse, No. 62. North 

 iikrket Street. 



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