VOL. XI. NO. 53. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



413 



SMALiIi FARMS MOST BENEFICIAL. 



Those who have strictly investigated the sub- 

 ject, consider large farms comparatively loss pro- 

 ductive than small ones ; while they at the same 

 time hnpose upon their owners a degree of labor 

 much greater in proportion than would seem to be 

 required by the mere ditference of size. A farmer 

 in moderate circumstances, with fifty or sixty acres 

 of land, for instance, will bring every inch of it 

 into a high state of cultivation — the Jalipr em- 

 ployed in preparing his grounds will be more than 

 doubly compensated in his subsequent exemption 

 from toil ; while the owner of a wide spread ter- 

 ritory of three or four hundred acres, which he 

 has but sparingly supplied with nourishment, must 

 work more sedulously upon every acre durin» the 

 progress of vegetation ; and after all reap but a 

 meagre and inadequate harvest. As a single acre 

 of laud highly cultivated, can be niade to yijld a 

 crop equal to three or four scantily prepared, it 

 must be obvious, that the extra labor in drasing 

 the former, is abundantly more than saved li) the 

 diminished labor in attending it. A strilviuj ex- 

 emplification of this fact m;.y be viewed by aiy of 

 our farmers, who will take the trouble to visi. the 

 grounds attached to the House of Industry at South 

 Boston — there, they may have the theory and illus- 

 tration directly before their eyes. These grounds, 

 it is sr.id, have produced this season, from thne to 

 four tons per acre — which is two or three times 

 the quantity of ordinary crops. So exuberant was 

 the grass that there actually was not room, upon 

 the surface where it grew, sufficient for the pur- 

 pose of making the hay. And this was entu-ely 

 owing, as we are told, to the previous pains taken 

 to enrich the soil by plentiful additions of suitable 

 compost. 



Were the same policy pursued by the owners 

 of largo farms, there would be little need of emi 

 grating from the New England to tho Western 

 States ; for the very tracts, which now, under a 

 careless system of culture, barely afford sustenance 

 for a single family, might be made to support three 

 or four, and that too with much less toil and trou- 

 ble, in proportion to the quantity cultivated. Many 

 of our farmers grasp at the management of too 

 spacious a territory — the consequence is, they im- 

 pose upon themselves a state of slavery ; they ac- 

 cumulate nothing, except now and then an addi- 

 tional patch of land, which serves only to increase 

 their toil. Were they on the contrary to confine 

 their exertions to smaller spots, while their crops 

 could be rendered equally if not more abundant, 

 they would themselves enjoy life better — become 

 more independent, and, with bettor share of fru- 

 gality, more wealthy; they would acquire time to 

 institute experiments and to examine improve- 

 ments ; they would attain vvhat they scarcely now 

 ever |)0ssess — leisure — whereby we mean, not the 

 privilege of being lazy — but that sort of leisure 

 which poor Richard describes as a time for doing 

 something useful — time for study, for reflection, 

 for familiar converse, for looking after the educa- 

 tion of their young — in short, for realizing the 



blessings after which they are constantly toiling 



Hartford Press. 



INTEMPERANCE IN FRANCE. 



We are permitted to publish the following ex- 

 tract of a letter from J. Fenimore Coojier, Esq. to 

 a friend in this city, dated Paris, April 20th, 1833. 

 It affords eonchisive evidence, that the praise 

 which Las been bestowed upon the French people 



for superior temperance, is not merited ; and it 

 strikes a fatal blow at the argument in favor of 

 wine-drinking, derived from the supposed fact that 

 the people of wine countries, are more temperate 

 than others, in the use of ardent spirits. — JV. Y. 

 Observer. 



The police reports reveal the fact, that 2.5,702 

 drunkards were committed to prison in Paris, in the 

 course of the year. Heaven only knows how 

 many walk free. Of this number, 10,290 luere 

 women! now, all this has nothing to do with the 

 soldiers, or the invalids, who are under military 

 law. I have always told you there was less drun- 

 kenness in America, among our native population, 

 than in any other country, even before the exis- 

 tence of Temperance Societies; and that they who 

 maintained the contrary did not know how to take 

 the necessary circumstances into the account. It 

 is probable that 10,000 drunkards died here with 

 the cholera, last year. I rarely go into the street, 

 without seeing more or less drunkards, and I have 

 met them by hundreds in England, Holland, Ger- 

 many, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. This vice 

 prevails in the higher classes, too, in Europe, 

 more than is eommonly imagined. I have no 

 doubt there are quite as many genteel young men 

 addicted to it in Paris, as in New- York, though 

 they are less seen in public. Our climate, how- 

 ever, renders the eflects more pernicious in a mere- 

 ly physical point of view. The police here is far 

 from being rigid with drunkards, for I see them 

 staggering about the streets every day unmolested. 

 You may remember the manner I taught you to see 

 them, for most Americans are so much persuaded 

 that a Frenchman never gets drunk, (because the 

 books say so,) that they will not see them. Blany 

 of our people live here half their lives, and fancy 

 themselves among a nation of anchorites. They 

 find it so ' written down,' as Dogberry would say. 

 The drunkards committed at Paris, (for their 

 drunkenness,) are at the rate of seventy a day. To 

 equal this, there should be about twenty a day 

 committed at New- York. Add to the seventy, the 

 soldiers of the garrison, the invalids, &c. and you 

 will probably get double the number. 



The habit of undervaluing ourselves, by injuri- 

 ous comparisons with others, not only aflects the 

 rational character, but it materially impedes the 

 progress of liberal sentiments. — When the French 

 jovernment-party wished to check the progress of 

 liberal sentiments in France, it began to al)use us, 

 in every way it could, and it laid particular stress 

 oa this item of drunkenness. Nothing is more 

 pommon, than to hear that democracy and drunk- 

 nness go hand in hand ; the latter as a necessary 

 bonsequence of the other. That some of our peo- 

 )!e desire to bring popular governments into dis- 

 epute, at home, as well as abroad, I take to be 

 tertain, and some too, that fill office, and pretend 

 to represent the nation abroad ; but as a great ma- 

 j])rity wish difierently, is it not time to weigh the 

 itieaning of our words, and to ascertain something 

 of both sides of the question, before we pretend to 

 compare ? As for any man's writing, or talking 

 rationally about the comparative habits and merits 

 of Europe and America, without personal observa- 

 tion, I hold it to be totally out of the question. 

 I do not know a book on tho subject that is enti- 

 tlen to any great attention. Roth parties write on 

 preconceived opinion, and half the tijnc, on opin- 

 ions that are nest to worthless. That abuses exist 

 with us, is beyond dispute, for the contrary doc- 

 trine would infer the perfection of men ; and there 



is little doubt, that, with the exception of those 

 faults which are inherent in our nature, these 

 abuses come from democracy. We can have no 

 other, for no other power exists in the country. 

 Now, it is great weakness to cry out against demo- 

 cratic failings in the abstract, since tho wise man 

 will choose rather to compare the abuses that are 

 incidental to our particular form of government 

 with those which arc incidental to aristocracy and 

 monarchy. Bly life on it, that the balance will be 

 found enormously in our favor. As a proof of 

 this, every nation in Christendom is struggling to 

 imitate us ; and it is on account of this political 

 gravitation that we are abused. 



THE MAD BULL. 



I WAS once, says Sir Walter Scott, proceeding 

 from the old to the new town of Ediuburg by the 

 earthen mound, at the head of which I was led for 

 a few minutes, to look at a bull that had got into an 

 enclosure there, after the unmerciful butcher-lads 

 had driven it fairly mad. Tiie crowd that gather- 

 ed on the outside of the fence, increased the brute's 

 fierceness. At last they began to cast ropes over 

 its horns and around jts neck, thereby to pull it to 

 a strong hold, that -it might be slain in the place 

 where it was, whicli drove it to its most desperate 

 fury. Its eyes now glared madness, there were 

 haudfuls of foam flying from its mouth, with its 

 fore feet it pawed the ground, throwing lumps of 

 earth as high as the adjoining houses, and it bel- 

 lowed so as to make one quake. It was anything 

 but an agreeable sight, so I moved away home- 

 wards. But before I got to the foot of the mound, 

 an alarming shout caused me to look back, when I 

 perceived the aniiwal at no great distance, behind 

 me, coming on with all its rage. I liad just time 

 to spring to the top of the wall that lined the foot- 

 path, and to behold its further progress. 



I shudder to this hour, when I think of what 

 immediately I saw. Among the people that were 

 near me, and in jeopardy, was a young lady, and 

 as you have said, she wore a red mantle, which is 

 a very offensive color to many of the brute crea- 

 tion. As I did, sho also made for the wall, but 

 had neither time nor strength to gain its top, ere 

 the infuriated animal drove towards her. She turn- 

 ed her back however to the inaccessible eminence, 

 as if to see the full extent of her fate, and then 

 stood as nailed to it, save only her arms, which she 

 throw aloft in her despair, which would indeed 

 have been as fragile in her defence as a rotten reed. 

 Her tender body would have been nothing, against 

 a force that could have broken bars of brass, and 

 horns that might have transfixed an animal of its 

 own size. As I have said, directly towards the un- 

 protected young lady the bull drove forward ; with 

 steadfast eye he came on, he mistook his mark not 

 an inch ; for, as the multitude behind him yelled 

 their horror, lie dashed with prodigious strength 

 and madness against her. 



Was it not a miracle, that the dear young- wo- 

 man escaped unhurt and untouched .' Yes it is 

 true : for the terrific animal struck at her so accu- 

 rately, that a horn smote tlic dead wall on either 

 hand, thus embracing, but from their great length, 

 shielding her person from even the slightest dam- 

 age. But the staunch wall stood tho tremendous 

 thrust, and sent back with rebounding force, to a 

 great distance, the huge and horrible brute, throw- 

 ing him prostrate, never to rise again : for number- 

 less destructive weapons were plunged into him, be- 

 fore he had time to recover from his recoil. 



