168 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DECEMBER 5, 183a. 



MISCELLANY. 



THAKKSGIVIIVG. 



We are indebted to a friend for tlie loan of a manu- 

 script sermon, which was preaclied in Newbury, in 1826, 

 on Thanksgiving Day. The text selected was Psalm 

 cxvi. verses 12, 13, 14. 



" What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits 

 towards me. 



'• I will take tlie cup of salvation and call upon the 

 name of the Lord. 



'• I will pav niv vows unto the Lord now in the pres- 

 ence of this people." 



Our readers may derive instruction as well amusement, 

 from the following extracts from this sermon, wherein 

 the writer depicts in homely but forcible language, the 

 impropriety of pursuing the rites and diversions, on that 

 day, which is customary in New England. — Exeter 

 jVcws-Lettcr. 



" We are solenmly assured from tlie 



pulpit and from tlie press, that there never were 

 such times as our own. Our fathers crept along 

 by star light. But we walk in sunshine. Such 

 amazing iniprovenients have been iutroduced into 

 churcli and state, that it is difficult to say wiiat we 

 shall be at last. 



" The text savors very much of ancient times. 

 It pictures to us a kind of musty, formal, obsolete 

 religion. In those days it was the fashion for men 

 to be grateful. They traced all their mercies up 

 to God. Whatever fiivors they received, they con- 

 sidered them as poured out from the cup of God's 

 salvation. They did not hasten to forget the hour 

 of calamity, as soon as it was passed, nor did they 

 lose sight of their ovm dependence. If in the 

 day of sickness and sorrow they made vows aiul 

 promises, no sooner did health return, and prosper- 

 ity smile on them, than tliey hastened to pay them. 

 Then gratitude had a place in the human heart, 

 repentance working reformation, and faith made 

 manifest in the life. They kept ThaiikSgiving-day 

 with minds overflowing with a sense, of divine 

 goodness. Whether gratitude and rdigion are 

 tlie same things now as they were tUeu, I shall 

 not on the present occasion undertake to say — but 

 certainly we manifest our religion in.awry differ- 

 ent way. The fashion has almost entifelj changed. 

 Now, in order to show our gratitude rt God for 

 his mercies, it is the practice to get a nrge bird, 

 place him on a barrel, tie his lefrs tvith swings, as- 

 se7Me a large company, and fire at hirti in turn, 

 until ike poor animal dies in lingering tormres. In 

 the mean tune, if noise and hubbub mar be con 

 sidered as a thauksgi\'ing hymn, the par* are the 

 most grateful creatures under the sky — ^tney talk 

 they dispute, they laugh, they drink, — they shout 

 until they become such excellent niarks-nBn, that 

 the turkey may be considered after all in tne safest 

 place. Where they go when the sun sets,|or how 

 they spend the evening, it is impossible fo^ me to 

 say. Perhaps they retu-e to their several f^nilics, 

 road their Bibleg, sing some pious hymn, ahd talk 

 over the mercies which they and their friends have 

 received from the hands of God. Perhaps there 

 may be some strange connexion between shooting 

 turkies and growing in grace. It is not my pres- 

 ent concern to argue against the decoriuu or the 

 humanity of the custom. I shall not even say 

 that it is not a very proper way of manifesting our 

 sense of the divine goodness : all I contend for is, 

 that it is not the old way. They had \\;ry diflerent 

 customs when the Bible was written. Our modern 

 refinements were then unkno^vn. I cannot find 

 that eitlier Moses, the meekest man of all the earth, 

 or Job, renowned for his patience, or the pious 



Psahnist, or the holy Apostles, were ever at o 

 shooting match. Most certainly they did not keep 

 their Tlianksgiving-days in this way. If there is 

 any goodness or wisdom in the practice, it must be 

 wholly owmg to our new inventions, which without 

 the sanction of one inspired example, are to be 

 traced whoUy to the amazing progress of this en- 

 lightened age in piety and truth." 



Copy of a Letter from Lord Ponsonby to the Bishop 

 of Derry. 



The cholera, is I perceive, making way in 

 Ireland, and may visit Derry ; I therefore send 

 you a prescription which, if taken in time, is a 

 certain cure for the disorder, and has been proved 

 to be both in Paris and Germany, to my own 

 knowledge. Its simplicity and the extremely 

 minute quantity of the doses, will probably induce 

 you to doubt of its efficacy ; but trust to me that 

 I will not deceive, and trust to this fact, that you 

 will have had experience of its power and virtue 

 before it will be in your power to obtain medical 

 advice, which is to say, in a quarter of an hour 

 or twenty-five minutes. I have, however, one re- 

 mark to make, viz. that if you take anything of 

 any sort or kind, excepting cold or iccil water, its 

 whole effect will be destroyed. 



All you have to do is, to place the patient in bed, 

 and not to overload him with clothes, nor plague 

 him with any e.xtemal application, or baths or 

 steamings, but leave him to the medicine, which 

 you do well to see made up with your own eyes, 

 that the apotliecary may not deceive you or him- 

 self, under an idea that he knows best how the 

 thing ought to be done. 



This medicine is one-sixth part of camphor, dis- 

 solved in six parts of spirits of wine. 



Of this, immediately on being attacked, the 

 patient is to take two drops on a little pounded 

 sugar in a tea-spoonful of cold or iced \vater ; in 

 five minutes after he is to take a second dose of 

 two drops more in the same way, and in five 

 minutes more he is to repeat the same thing : he 

 is then to wait ten or fifteen mhiutes to see whether 

 or not there is a sense of returning warmth, with 

 a disposition towards perspiration, and a iriaiiifest 

 degree of sickness, cramps, &c. Then, if neces- 

 sary, he will take two more drops as before, and 

 repeat the doses at five minutes' intervals, to the 

 number of twelve or fourteen drops, as directed. 

 This will never fail if done at once, and will always 

 do good at any period of the disease ; but the least 

 foreign mcdicme neutralizes the effect of the 

 camphor. Yours, ever, PONSONBY. 



Hints on Diet. The moans of preserving healtli 

 are more plain and simple than those of re.itoring it. 



Quacks and self-doctorers oflen " pour drugs " 

 of which they know little, into bodies of which 

 they know less. 



Great eaters never live long. A voracious ap- 

 petite is a sign of disease, or of a strong tendency 

 to disease, and not of healdi as is generally sup- 

 posed. — Hitchcock, 



A large number, perhaps a majority, of the 

 standard works of English literature, were com- 

 posed by men whose circumstances compelled 

 them to adopt a very spare diet, and probably this 

 is one cause of their superiority. — lb. 



There is nothing more ridiculous, than to see 

 tender, hysterical, and vaporish people, complain- 



ing, and yet perjietually cramming, crying out 

 they are ready to sink into tlie ground, and faint 

 away, and yet gobbling down "the richest and 

 strongest food, and highest cordials, to oppress^ 

 and overlay them quite. — Dr. Cheyne. 



More nourishment and strength are imparted by 

 six omices of well digested food, than by sixteen 

 inijierfectly concocted. — Southern Revieiv. 



The interior of Africa bids fair to become, 

 at no distant day, the scene of great coimnercial 

 enterprize. It is stated that the Niger is navigable 

 500 miles, and in the whole of this course " rolls 

 through a fruitful, cultivated, and thickly populated 

 country, studded with towns and villages, hitherto 

 unvished by Europeans ; and having no other 

 trade with civilized nations than such imperfect 

 barter as could be carried on across burning 

 deserts, by tlie agency of slave dealers, and period- 

 ical caravans." 



Lapsus Typre. Amongst the advertisement in 

 a London ])aper, we read that " two sisters ivant 

 washing I" and that "A female particularly foud 

 of children, wishes for two or tliree, having none 

 of her own, nor any other employment." 



BLACK SEA WHEAT. 



JUST received a few bushels of llic celebrated Black Sea 

 Wiieai, describeci by Mr. Marvin in this week's New Eng- 

 land Farmer, and raised by him near Lake Eric ; price ^3 per 

 bushel. It tbouglil this will prove a valuable acquisition to 

 New England J the seed is ot remarkably tine appearance, 

 wholly free from small gri.'ins on mi.\ture with other seeds, ana 

 we think cannot fail to give satisfaction. Farmers are request- 

 ed to call and examine it. Nov. 21 



CATAWBA GRAi"*E CUTTINGS. 



SINCLAlli & MOORE, Nurs."-;rimen, Ballimore, will 

 Cfocute orders lor Cuttings of the Catawba Grape to any 

 anoimt, at g'iO per ItXX). — Ten yeals' experience has con- 

 vinced us that tins is one of the most desirable grapes culti- 

 vated, on account of its great productiveness, and excellent 

 quality, for either the table or for wine. It is a very popular 

 market grape, $400 wortli having been sold by one man in our 

 market this season. — Orders leil witli Mr. Barrett, publisher 

 of the New-England Farmer, will receive prompt attention 

 from us. 



Baltimore, Nov. 21. 



THE P1.ANTER'S GUIDE. 



JUST published, and for sale by Geo. C. Barrett, at the 

 New England Farmer Office, — die Plautec's Guide ; or, a I'rac- 

 tical Essay on the best method of Giving Immediate E6cct to 

 \Vood,byihc removal ofLarge Trees and Underwood ; being 

 an attempt to place the Art, and that of General Arboriculture 

 oil lixed and Phytolo^ical^principles ; interspersed with obser- 

 vations on General Planting, and the improvement of real land- ,| 

 scape. Originally intended for the climate of Scotland. By H| 

 Sir Henry Steuart, Bart. LL. D. P. R. S. E. etc. Price g3. 



THE NEW ENGI.AND PjURMER 



Is published every Wednesday Evening, at ,^3 per aimum, 

 payable at the end of the year — but those who pay within 

 sixty days from the time oi subscribing, are entided to a deduc- 

 tion of fifty cents. 



Q;J' No paper will be sent to a distance without pa^Tneut 

 being made in advance. 



AGENTS. 

 New York — G. Thorburh &. Sons, 67 Liberty-street. 

 Aliany — Wm. Thorburn, 347 Market-street. 

 Philadelphia— O. «fc C. Landreth, 85 Chesnut-street. 

 Ballimore — 1. 1. Hitchcock, Publisher of American Fanner. 

 Cijicinnati — S. C. Parkuukst, 23 Lower Market-street. 

 FlusMng, N. Y. — Wm. Prince & Sons, Prop. Lin. Bot. Gar. 

 Middlemnj, Vt. — Wioht Chapman, Merchant. 

 Hartford — Goodwin & Co. Booksellers. 

 fiWing^cU. Ms.^E. Edwards, Merchant. 

 Netcburyport — Ebenezer Stedman, Bookseller. 

 Portsmouth, N. H. — J. W. Foster, Bookseller. 

 Portland, Mf.— Colman, Holden &. Co. Booksellers. 

 Avgnstit, Me. — Wm. Mann, Druggist. 

 Hdifax, N. S.—P. 3. Holland, Esq. Editor of Recorder. 



Printed for Geo. C. Barrett by John Ford, who 

 executes every description of Book and Fancy Printing 

 in good style, and with promptness. Orders for printing 

 may be left with Geo. C. Barrett, at the Agricultural 

 Warehouse, No. 52, North Market Street. 



