40 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ausast 15, 1832. 



Miscellany 



EARLY RFXOLLECTIONS. 



By tlie author of " Moral Pieces in I'rose and Verse." 

 Pleasure and we.\Uh loour lot may be granted, 



Love may a lar-distant mansion endear,— 

 Yet who can forget the soft soil where were planted 

 Those first germs of bliss never wet with a tear? 

 Rude frowning rocks, Nature's loveliness spurning. 



May rise to disfigure the spot of our birth. 

 But with rapture's warm thrill the glad wanJereri 

 returning 

 Will press their fond lips to their dear native eartli. 



Green-house exotics may glow in our tresses. 



The pride of the florist expire on ourbrea,st. 

 But sweeter are these than the wild-flower that dresses 



The vale, by the sports of our infancy blest .' 

 Music with pomp and expression may greet us, — 



Still Meniory will cherish, melodious and free, 

 The song of tho birds that would warble to meet us. 



In childhood's gay season, from thicket and t'ee. 

 The clouds may be rich, where the sun Is reposing,— 



But soon must they shroud him in darkness forlorn, 

 And the day of our life, though it brighten at closing, 



Can never restore the enchantments of morn. 



From the London Magazine of Februaiy, 1758. 



PROl'ERTIES OF THE GARDENER. 



question by a lady. Why is a gardener the most 

 extraoriliiiary man iii tlie world ? 



Jlnsv'er. Because no man has more busim-ss 

 upon Earth, and always chooses good Grounds for 

 what lie does. He coiniiiaiids his Thyme. He is 

 master of liis Mint, and fingers Pe7iny Royul. He 

 raiseth his Salary every year, and it is a bad year, 

 indeed, that does not produce a Plum. He meets 

 with more Bouglis than a minister of .state. He 

 makes more Beds than the French king, and has 

 in them more painted Ladies, and more genuine 

 Roses and Lilies tlian are to be found at a eoun 

 try wake. He makes Raking his business more 

 than his diversion, as many other gentlemen do. 

 His wife, notwithstanding, lias enough of Lad's 

 Love and Heart's Ease, and never wishes for 

 Weeds. Distempers, fatal to otliers, never hurt 

 him: he walks the better for the Gravel, and 

 thrives most in a Consumption. He can boast of 

 more Bleeding Heartx than your ladyship, and 

 more Laurels (if possible) than his majesty of 

 Prussia : but liis greatest pride and the world's en- 

 vy, is, tliat he can liave Yeiv wlienever he pleases. 



Of all the enemies of idleness, want is the most 

 formidable. Fame is soon found to be a sound, 

 and love a dream — avarice and ambition may be 

 justly suspected of being privy confederates with 

 idleness ; for when they have for a while protect- 

 ed their votaries, they often deliver them up, to 

 end their lives under her dominion. Want al- 

 ways struggles against idleness ; but want herself 

 is often overcome ; and every hour shows the care- 

 ful observer those who liad rather live in ease than 

 in plenty. — Johnson. 



Vegetable Instknct. — Instinct is a particular 

 disposition or leudency in a living being to embrace, 

 without deliberation or reflection, the means ofself- 

 preservation, and to perform, on particular occa- 

 sions, such other actions as are required by its 

 economy, without having any perception of what 

 end or purposes it acts, or any idea of the utility 

 and advantage of its own operations. Climbing 

 plants afford a curious instance of this instinctive 

 economy. Some of these having very slender 

 stems, cannot, like most other plants, grow of 

 themselves in a perpendicular direction ; but in 

 order to compensate for this incapacity, nature has 

 given them the power of moving or twining their 

 branches and tendrils diflferent ways, until they 

 generally meet with a tree or some other body 

 on which to climb, or attach themselves; and 

 when a tendril has laid hold of a support, it coils 

 up and draws the stem after it. 



Trees and other vegetables have likewise the 

 power of directing their roots for procuring nour- 

 ishment ; — fof instance, a tree l. owing near a 

 ditch, will be found to direct its roots straight 

 downwards, on the side next tlie ditch, until they 

 reach the ground below it, when they will throw 

 off fibres underneath, and ramify like the root on 

 the other side of the tree. Some curious examples 

 of this kind of instinct are related by Lord Kaimes, 

 among wliicli is the foUowing. " A tpiantity of 

 fine compost for flowers happened to be laid at the 

 foot of a fidl grown elm, where it lay neglected 

 three or four years; when moved, in order to be car- 

 ried off, a net work of elm fibres spread through 

 the w hole heap ; and no fibres had before appeared 

 at the surface of the ground." 



Many flowers also fold up their leaves on the 

 approach of rain, or in cold cloudy weather, and 

 unfold tliem again when cheered dy the reaniinat-v 

 ing influence of the sun. This is remarkably cx- 

 plified in the convolvulus arvensis, anagallis ar- 

 vensis, and many others, but more particularly 

 in the last, whence it has been called the poor 

 man's weather-glass. 



In Watson's Chemical Essays also, it is staled 

 that trefoil, wood-sorrel, mountain ebony, the Af- 

 rican marigold, and many others, are so regular in 

 folding up their leaves before rainy weather, that 

 these motions have been consiilered as a kind of in- 



one of its walls, a plane-tree upwards of twenty 

 feet in height. Thus situated, it became straitened 

 for food and moisture, and therefore gradually di- 

 rected its roots down the side of the wall, till they 

 reached the ground at the distance of ten feet. 

 When they had succeeded in this attempt, the up- 

 per roots no longer shot out fibres, but united in 

 one ; and shoots vigorously sprung up from the 

 root which had succeeded in reaching the earth. 



The Island of St Lucia presents a still more 

 curious phenomenon in the animal flower. This 

 organization lives in a large bason, the water of 

 which is brackish. It is more brilliant than the 

 marigold, which it resembles. But when the hand 

 is extended towards it, it recoils, and retires like 

 a snail in the water. It is supposed to live on the 

 spawn of fish. 



In Java grows a plant, the JVepenthes distilla- 

 toria, remarkable for having a small vegetable bag 

 attached to the base of its leaves. This bag is 

 covered with a lid which moves on a strong fibre, 

 answering the purpose of a hinge. When dews 

 rise, or rains descend, this lid opens ; when the 

 bag is saturated, the lid falls and closes so tight- 

 ly, that no evaporation can take place. The 

 moisture thus imbibed cherishes the seed, and iB 

 gradually absorbed into the body of the plant. — 

 Bucke's Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of 

 .Yature. 



Mr R. Risley, North Third street, Philadelphia, 

 has patented a machine to dispense with manual 

 labor in pre|inring marble slabs or stone for 

 building. A steam power equal to five horses, is 

 said to execute as much work as 1000 men in the 

 same time. 



Mrs Parmeutier, 



AT the Horticultural Botanic (jarden, Brooklyn, two 

 jiiiles from the city of New York, offers for sale on mod- 

 erate terms, a fine collection of Apple, Pear, Cherry, 

 ,Pluin, Peach, Quince Trees, &c, Grape Vines, Orna- 

 mental Trees and Shrubs. Also, Green-house and Her- 

 baceous Plants, which will be ■ clivered at Boston with- 

 out expense of exportation. Catalogues forwarded gratis. 

 3t J. B. KUSSELL, Agent, 



Jifly IS. No. 50i North Market St. Boston 



Cloth Strainers. 



FOR sale at the Agricultural Warehouse, Nos. 51 and 

 52 North Market Street, Milk and Cheese Strainers ; — 

 . ., } c m . n , likewise, Gault's patent Churn, the most approved churn 



stinct similar to that oUms.— Tapper on the Prob- , j^ ,„g . Leaviil's improved Cheese Press; Curd Mills for 

 ability of Sensation in Pegetahles. preparing curd, a very usefid liule impletnent forthe pur- 



Some plants open their petals to receive rain.' P°°° "^'''"''^''' 9k 



oihcrs avoid it ; some contract at the approach of a Published everv Wednesday Eveniiur, atPpsrann^, 

 storm, others on the approach of night ; while payable at the end of the \ ear— but those who pay within 

 some expand and blossom only to the evening air. ^",'>' ''^'-' '''''""'« '■"!« "'' subscribing, are entitled to a 

 .. , ^ ■ a ^ • ^1 deduction ol lilty cents. 



rvear the Cape, certain flowers form a species ofj (p^ No paper will be sent to a distance without payment 

 chronometer. The morea tmg'ujfw/a/n and u/irfi/-, being made in advance. 



lata open at nine in the mornin-, and close at four ; < Jal^'r^JZ^' ^r i^^l'.^'"'- ''^'- ^- ^''7^,:^^ "'\r 

 .'. . ^ ■ I all oescriptions ui Printing can be executed to meet the 



the ina cvinamonea opens at the time the other wishrs ofcustomers. (Jrders foi Printing received by J. B. 



Wo. 52. IMorth 



Mr Richard Hatter, a passenger in the brig Ed 

 mond Castle, arrived here yesterday from Lon- 

 don, has brought over with him' two cows and a 

 calf of the true Durham breed, also twelve sheep 

 of the true English breed. — .V. 1'. Enquirer. 



closes, and sheds a delicious perfume throughout 

 the night. 



The stamina of the flowers of sorrel thorn are 

 so peculiarly irritable, that when touched, they 



PassELL, at the Agricultural Warehous 

 Market Street. 



AGENTS. 



JVfW York — G. Thokburn & Sons, G7 Liberty-street. 



■ i, . ,■ i„ . . • 1 1.1 I .i</6(i'iv — Wr.i. Thoreuk.v, 347 Market-street. 



will incline almost two inches : and the upper joint phvaJelphia-H. & C. LANnRiTH, S5 Chestnutstreet, 

 of the leaf of the dionaa is formed like a machiiir Baltimore — O. B. Smith, Editor of the American Farmer. 



to catch food. When an insect therefore seules S"'!«'"''-f/ fv^'^o ''""''"7 'c^^ ''"^" 't'"'';?'"''^'''^' 



, , , , , . , ' Fte/iins-.iV. 1 . WM. Pkikce &SoKs, Prop.Lin.Bot.Garden 



on Its glands, the tender parts become irritated, i j|fid(i/f/;„r!,, 17. — Wight Cha 



and the two lobes rise up, grasp the insect, and 

 crush it to death. The plane-tree exhibits the pow- 

 er of exercising a .sagacity for securing food not 

 unworthy of an animal. Lord Kaimes relates, 

 that among the ruins of New Abbey, in the county 

 1 of Galloway there grew in his time, on the top 01 



Hartford — Goodwin & Co. Booksellers. 

 Spring-field, Ms. — E. EuwAKDs. 

 ^en-hiirifport. — Er'ENEZKR Stedman, Bookseller 

 Portsmouth. N. H. — J. W. Fostku. Bookseller. 

 Porthiud.Afe. — ^.Samcel Colman, Bookseller. 

 A"^usta. A/e — Wm. Ma5N. 

 Halifax, N S — P. J Holland, Esq, 

 Montreal, L. C. — Henry Hillock. 



