180 



IS'EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



©rigtitcil CEontmttiitratfons. 



TO THii EDITOR OF THE 5KW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



LIME. 



Mr Fessenden, — I recollect in your Address a 

 few years since, before the Society of Middlesex 

 Husbandmen and Manufacturers* you said a con- 

 siderable upon the " dry subject of lime," which 

 however, you so moistened with your wit and 

 hutnour, as to render it interesting and useful. 

 Much has been written, and yet the siihjpct is 

 not exhausted. There are two points of view, 

 •in which time is a very important and valuable 

 article, to say nothing about it as a manure. — 

 First, as a medicine. Secondly, as a promoter 

 of health, by decomposing substances which 

 generate an unwholesome atmosphere, and ren- 

 dering the air in confined places, as cellars and 

 vaults, salubrious. 



As a medicine for diseases, to which the hu- 

 man race is subject, a description of its virtues 

 belongs to the faculty ; I shall only advert to its 

 efncRcy in a particular case, which may alTord 

 a useful IWnt for appl^'ing it in other cases. I 

 know not what has been written and published, 

 or whether anything, upon this subject ; but the 

 lamentable want of farriers in most country 

 towns, who have a competent knowledge of the 

 diseases of cattle, sheep, and horses, and skill to 

 apply proper remedies, makes it a duly of all to 

 communicate the knowledge and skill they may 

 have acquired by observation, reading, or ex- 

 perience. I shall relate a simple fact. 



My horse, which I highly value for his good 

 (jualities as a family and farrti horse, has boen 

 afflicted with a cough for three years, which for 

 the first and second years, troubled him only 

 while at hay. It went otf on turning him to pas- 

 lure in the Spring. But the last year it contin- 

 ued through the Summer, and increased to such 

 a degree, that I became apprehensive of fatal 

 consequances. 



Mentioning it In a neighbour, he informed me 

 that he had heard of lime-water 's being given, 

 ami with good affect. As this is so unsavoury a 

 beverage, that no animal will drink it, unless 

 compelled by extreme Ihirst, 1 adopted the fol- 

 lowing method. 1 put a tea-cup full of air-slack- 

 ed lime into half a pail of rye bran, wet it, and 

 stirred it up, and gave it to my hopse once each 

 day. In a week his cough abated, and in a fort- 

 night was entirely gone, and has never returned. 



The horse in his worst state seldom ccughed 

 on the road, and not often in the stable, except 

 in the morning, when he had severe turns of it. 

 His lungs appeared clogged and loaded, like an 

 a.ithmatic or consumptive person, when he first 

 wakes in the morning. I feel under great obli- 

 gations to my neighbour for his useful hint, and 

 communicate it for the benefit of others. 



The otlier use of lime, which 1 would recom- 

 mend as a means of clarifying the air in close 

 rooms, cellars, vaults, &.c. I conceive to bo ol 

 groat importance to health, cleanliness, and 

 comfort. CelUirs, where vegetables, cider, 

 pickles, soap, meal, and milk are kept, should 

 he often white-washed, — at least once a year. 

 In such cellars, deleteriou* gases are formed, 

 which communicate to the rooms a disagreeable 

 smell, and not unfrequently infection and disease 

 to the inhabitants of the house. Very little at- 

 tention has been paid to this subject. As to vaults 



and privies, a small quantity of quick-lime, say 

 a peck once a month, thrown into them, would 

 decompose the stercorarious matter, destroy 

 every otTensive smell, and render those places 

 of occasional resort, which are too often offensive 

 even to loathing, sweet as the parlor and health- 

 ful as the mall or rural walk. A hint, Mr Edi- 

 tor, from your pen to the Board of Health, 

 might be of essential use towards the health and 

 cleanliness of your great city. The subject may 

 not be unworthy the attention of your active 

 and eneraretic Mavor. A. 



Chelmsford, Dec. 29, 1824. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mr Fessbnden, — Your interesting paper is not 

 only a sruide to the successful cultivation of but 

 lands ; it is also a watchman over the moral in- 

 terests of the agriculturist. 



One very bad habit amoncj farmers begins to 

 call forth deserved reprobation. It begins to 

 descend the hill, and 1 cannot refuse to join my 

 neighbours in giving it a kick. 



I have \ou'r been distressed at the universal 

 habit of drinking rum. Often do we see it slyly 

 creeping upon the industrious and useful citizen, 

 until, at length, he is overcome by it ; and think- 

 ing to leave otT as he began, by degrees, he 

 lenafthens out a miserable existence. 



When all men tamper with this insidious but 

 certain enemy, none can tell whether his best 

 friends are safe. l^Ten, as amiable in their fami- 

 lies, lovely to their friends, estimable in society ; 

 men ;;? firm in their purposes, steady in their 

 habits, and as hostile to intemperance as our 

 best friends are, have, in one town and anotlier, 

 slowly sunk with sorrow and shame and under 

 the beastly habit of intoxication. Beastln ! No. 

 The temperate brute creation, if they could 

 speak, would quickly repel the implied charge, 

 r^^ever an animal, besides man, led the life, or 

 Jicd the death, of the unhappy sensualist. 



The Indians, once settling the terms of pence 

 with their too powerl'ul white neighbours, stip- 

 ulating for a certain quantity of rum, — called it 

 ".the milk of the Great Spirit;" and sought it 

 with corresponding earnestness. Are there not 

 some among us, who hold it in like estimation? 

 Some, who spcretly Entertain the Indians' idea, 

 who assemble often to drink, — but never to boze 

 down their souls and all that is within tliem, — be- 

 fore the Great Spirit of the Universe 1 Are 

 there not some who retire to drink in their clos- 

 et, but never to commune there with their 

 Maker ? 



Tfiis habif is common and most dangerous to 

 young men and youth. Speaking upon this sub- 

 ject not long since with one of my younger 

 neighbours, he said, " when a boy I first ran in 

 the field, and carried the men their toddj' ; they 

 loved to have me drink with them, hut I would 

 not. At length, 1 began to tarry with them at 

 a boy's task, and observed that their drink made 

 them very pleasant and uncereinonions ; it called 

 t'orth songs in its praise, and reiterated exjires- 

 sions of delight in its sensations. Coaxed by 

 some kind word, such as the boys have worked 

 well this forenoon; they ought to have a little 

 to<ldy, I tasted; and though I at first ])Ut the 

 mug to my lips with shame and embarrassment, 

 1 came, in time, to sympathize with my fellow- 

 labourers in their pleasantry and joy, and to 

 depend on a swallow, vvhenever they had a 

 drink." 



" Habit strengthens itself, Appetite does not 

 diminish with age, but increases ; and before 

 twelve years of age, some one said I was a young 

 7nan, for 1 could now drink toddy without bash- 

 fulness. Since the age of sixteen, I am not con- 

 scious of having been a drinker ; but many times 

 have felt within me a strong and fearful pro- 

 pensity. Other children in the same school with 

 me have turned out worse." 



Believing that many lads and yoqng men are 

 at tills day in similar schools, establishing a cruel, 

 tyrannical, and finally destructive habit, 1 am in- 

 duced, 'Mr Editor, to furnish you with this; ami 

 declare to you my own conviction, that the 

 habit of drinking ardent 6()irits ought to be ban- 

 islieil from a heilthy community, and most of all 

 from oat fiirms. Good Olc Ti.mes. 



GREAT IiMPROVEMEN'T IN S.AW-MILLS. 



Capt. VTilliam Kendall, jr. of VVatorville, Me. 

 has recently put into successful operation, an 

 improved Circular Saw, adapted to mill logs of 

 the largest size. This Saw is capable of making 

 boards at the ai'tonishing rate of from forty to 

 sixty superficial feet in a minute, planing them 

 at the same time. Those who have witnessed 

 the effecls, are t'ully apprized of its utility, in a 

 country abounding in pine timber, particularly 

 a? it is admirably adapted to tide-waters and 

 streams of Ibw heads, or may be conveniently 

 [>ropelled by steam; three-fourths, at least, ol' 

 the power required in (he usual way of sawing, 

 j is saved by Mr Kendall's machine, which at the 

 i same time makes much smoother and belter 

 I boards.' About 100,000 feet have already been 

 i niiide, thouKb Capt. Kendall is not [ircpared to 

 i make a business of sawing, till several impoitant 

 I appendages are annexed to the machine. Cir- 

 ' cular saws have long been in use, yet the pecu- 

 liar construction of this Saw and other parts of 

 the machine, and its application to heavy lim- 

 ber, are »vell worthy of a patent. The ardour 

 in which he engaged and the skill and ingenuity 

 with which he has persevered in this new and 

 useful invention, are woiihy of commendation, 

 and his ciimplete success will perpetuate his 

 fame and augment his usefulness. — Hall, paper. 



CHANGE OF AIR. 

 I r)r Darwin, one day at Nottingham, assem- 

 ' bled a large crowd round him, and standing on 

 [a tub, thus addressed them: — "Men of Notting- 

 ham, listen to me. Yon are ingenious and in- 

 Idustrious mechanics. By your industry, life's 

 I comforts are procured for yourselves and fami- 

 lies. If you lo^e your health, the power of being 

 industrious will forsake yon. That you know ; 

 but you do not know, that to breathe fresh and 

 changed air constantly is not less necessary to 

 [)reserve health, than sobriety itself Air be- 

 comes unwholesome in a few hours, if the wia- 

 'dowsare shut. Open those of your sleeping- 

 ! rooms whenever you quit them to go to your 

 warkshopp. Keep the windows of your work- 

 shops open, whenever the weather is not in- 

 supportably cold. 1 have no interest in giving 

 you this advice. Remember what 1, who am 

 your countryman, and a physician, tell you. If 

 ynu would not bring infection and disctisc iipoo 

 yourselves, and to your wives and little ones, 

 change the air you breathe,— change it many 

 times a day, by opening your windows." 



