VOL. XI. NO. 36. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



285 



that we may go there, when we please, without 

 molestation, — on certain conditions, however, 

 which, as some think, give her the best end of the 

 bargain. 



But I have dwelt longer, than I purposed, on 

 the Colonial policy of England. I intended only 

 to have made a passing remark — that the policy, 

 she adopted in relation to these Colonies, with the 

 expectation of making them more dependent <i])on 

 her, and of binding them more closely to her, was, 

 probably, the best, which could have been devis- 

 ed, to prepare them, in due time, to assert and 

 achieve their independence. Had they been left 

 free to push their fortunes in any channel, into 

 which inclination might have led them, it is a fair 

 presumption, that they might have remained, to 

 this hour, an appendage of the British Empire. 

 The Fathers of New England came to these 

 shores, deeply imbued with the love of liberty, — 

 " not like other men, whom small things could 

 discourage or small discontents cause to wish 

 themselves at home again," and the employments, 

 in which they here engaged, were well calculated 

 to fix and perpetuate thi^ sentiment in their hearts 

 and in the hearts of their children, while at the 

 same time, they gave them the nerve and the mus- 

 cle, which were necessary to brace them for the 

 contest. 



When our independence was established and 

 the country had, in some measure, recovered from 

 the effect of her seven years' struggle to secure it, 

 a thousand new channels were opened to the en- 

 terprise of our citizens. Large foi-tunes were, oc- 

 casionally, accumulated in the course of a few 

 years, and the young and active and enterprising 

 were tempted by the prospect of wealth, quickly, 

 and as they supposed easily, acquired, to engage 

 in foreign commerce or domestic trade rather than 

 to secure a competency by agricultural pursuits, 

 in which their gains, though more certain, would 

 be less rapid. 



An old English writer defines English gentle- 

 men thus — " As for gentlemen, they be made 

 good cheap in this kingdom ; for whosoever studi- 

 eth the laws of the realm, who studieth in the 

 universities, who professeth the liberal sciences, 

 and to be short, who can live idly and without 

 manual labor, he shall he called master, and shall 

 be taken for a gentleman." In this country, for a 

 while sidisequent to the time of which I have spo- 

 ken, the feeling, I suspect, was common with too 

 many, that it was more respectable to live by one's 

 wits, than by manual labor; as if honest industry 

 could ever fail to secure esteem and command re 

 spect ! The young men were too easily persuad- 

 ed, by the prospect of light labor and great gains, 

 to desert the country for the city, where, if they 

 were fortunate enough to preserve their moral pu- 

 rity in the midst of temptations, the chances were 

 greatly against their attaining the object of their 

 desires. It may be safely asserted, that the in- 

 dustrious and economical farmer or mechanic is 

 sure of a competency, in this country, while in the 

 possession of health. But let a man walk through 

 the business streets of one of our commercial cities, 

 and after the hii)se of ten or even five years, let 

 him return an<l take his walk again through the 

 same streets, and inquire what proportion of the 

 former occuiiants are still there, prospering in 

 business, and he will, probably, be surprised to 

 learn, that tljere are so great uncertainties in trade. 

 I have heard it estimated by persons of observation 

 and competent to form a correct cjiiuion on the 



subject, — that, of the young gentlemen who com- 

 mence business in the metropolis of our own 

 State, not one in five meets with so much success 

 as to induce him to continue his business. The 

 career of many early terminates in bankruptcy, and 

 of these, notwithstanding the well know liberality 

 of the merchants of that city in discharging from 

 further liability those who honestly surrender their 

 property for distribution among their creditors, 

 not a few continue, for the remainder of their 

 lives, in a state of pecuniary embarrassment, which 

 necessarily precludes them from obtaining any 

 thing more than a bare subsistence. The same 

 kind, though not the same degree, of uncertainty 

 attends the business of merchandizing in the coun- 

 try. The reason is obvious; the merchant or 

 trader necessarily deals much on credit, and if his 

 business is large, his credits must be i)roportiona- 

 b'ly extensive; so that he stands res])onsible not 

 oidy for his own honesty and good management, 

 but for the skill and integrity of his customers. 

 It is not thus with the fanner. His debtors may, 

 uideed, refuse or be unable to pay, but his lands 

 cannot take wings and fly away. They at least 

 will stand fast ; and he has the sure word of Prov- 

 idence, that seed time and harvest shall never fail. 

 He deals with fewer individuals than the merchant 

 or mechanic, and can, more easily than they, se- 

 lect his own customers. The productions of a 

 farm, too, are always saleable at fair market pri- 

 ces ; for man must eat, though he will not work, 

 and can no more 



— " cloy the hungry edge of appetite," 

 " By bare imag-ination of a feast," 

 Than " ho can hold a fire in his hand," 

 "By thinking on the frosty Caucasus." 



Besides, there is seldom any necessity, that the 

 farmer in New England, should sell on credit, un- 

 less he choose to run the risk of loss for the sake 

 of getting something above the market price for 

 his commodities. Neither can he be subjected to 

 much expense or loss of time in sending his pro- 

 duce to market; for the busy manufacturing vil- 

 lages, which are springing up on every hand 

 around us, as it were, by enchantment, will always 

 furnish h'\m, if they are suffered to continue and 

 prosper, with cash-customers for all his surplus 

 productions. 



If money, then, be not the supreme good ; if 

 health and a competency are to be preferred to 

 greater wealth, earned as it often must be, by 

 anxious days and sleepless nights, let not the farm- 

 er repine at his lot. He may work harder than 

 some who are engaged in other pursuits; but his 

 sleep will be more sound and refreshing. He 

 may not be able, after a life of industry, to point 

 to heaps of hoarded gold, as the fruit of his labors ; 

 but, if true to himself and duty, he will leave a 

 better legacy to his children. They will have been 

 trained up to habits of industry, temperance, sobrie- 

 ty, virtue, and he will himself be "gathered to 

 his fathers a shock of corn fully ripe." 

 [To be continued.] 



HATCHING CHICKENS IN THE BARK-BED OP 

 A HOT-HOUSE. 



A FRIEND of mine was very successtui last year 

 in hatching chickens in the tan-pit of a hot-house. 

 His method waste place a half hogshead barrel in 

 the tan, which was brought up all around it nearly 

 to the toj) of the cask, and was merely covered with 

 a flat board. The eggs were placed in a basket at 

 the bottom, and covered with a piece of flannel. 

 The heat required is 104 degrees Fahrenheit; a 

 degree or two above or below that point will not 



destroy the eggs, but the nearer it is kept to that 

 heat the better. It may be supposed that it will 

 require a great deal of trouble to keep it up to this 

 nicety, but it is not so troublesome as may at first 

 sight be imagined. It may also be asked, what 

 advantage is to be derived from this process, when 

 plenty of setting hens can be procured? I answer, 

 that the chickens may be hatched much earlier 

 than hens will want to set ; in fact, the hatching 

 may be commenced as soon as eggs can be jjro- 

 cured ; and, of course, the poultry to be obtained 

 will fetch a much greater price from their early 

 production. They may be easily reared by being 

 kept in the house when they are hatched, until 

 they are big enough to be put out of doors, which 

 will be in about a fortnight or three weeks. When 

 the cask is once at the proper heat, it may be kept 

 up to the desired point without much trouble, for 

 several months; and the average numberof chickens 

 will exceed what is obtained from hens. I have 

 read a French work by Dc Reaumur, giving a very 

 circumstantial and interesting account of hatching 

 chickens, by heat produced by horse dung, and I 

 have produced chickens by that means myself; 

 but the heat requires to be very often renewed by 

 fresh dung, and the place must be particularly fa- 

 vorable to the undertaking. There is also great 

 risk of the germ in the eggs being destroyed by 

 the damp efiluvia arising from the dung, which 

 catises the success to be very uncertaui. Besides, 

 every gentleman's gardener has a tan-bed at his 

 command. I am also of opinion that many of 

 your correspondents might connect a hot-closet 

 with the stove used for heating their houses, or 

 might allow the pipes for circulating hot water, 

 where that system is adopted, to pass through it, 

 by which means it might be kept up to the required 

 heat with very little trouble. With respect to the 

 tan-bed, it is reduced to a certainty by the experi- 

 ence of my friend. He has hatched several broods 

 this spring, and I can assure you that the chickens 

 brought up in this way have thrived and increased 

 in size much more than those hatched and brought 

 tip by a hen ; and that this has been proved sever- 

 al times, by a comparison between chickens 

 hatched in the different modes in the same day. — 

 London Gardener's Magazine. 



IMPORTANT DECISION. 



We remark the following decision of Judge Mar- 

 tin, of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, relative to 

 the duty of surveyors of highways, and the liabil- 

 ity of towns, when roads are encundiered with 

 snow, in one of the late journals. His opinion 

 was that surveyors are obliged by law to render 

 roads passable, when, they are blocked up with 

 snow, as much as they are obliged to repair roads 

 that are out of order iiom any other cause — that 

 towns are liable for damages caused to travellers by 

 obstructiousmade by snow, as well as for damages 

 occasioned by any other defect in a road, and that 

 there is no difference between cases of roads defec- 

 tive from any other cause. The surveyors of ways 

 are bound to keep roads in good repair at all times. 

 Farmer's and Manufacturer's Journal. 



Drapery should never form part of the furniture 

 of a room intended for music. It destroys rever- 

 beration, by absorbing the sound. A ^vriter in 

 the Loudoii Quarterly Review affirms that he sen- 

 sibly felt a damp cast upon the voice of a singer in 

 a small room, upon the entrance of a tall lady, 

 habited in a long woollen cloak. 



