52 



Blischt in Pear Trees. 



Vol. II. 



the country is found flooded with individual 

 printed bills for the purpose of change in the 

 ordinary transactions of life ; which now 

 constitutes the reward of the laborer, at a 

 depreciated value compared with current 

 money. Commerce is paralyzed ; manufac- 

 turers are suspending their operations and 

 discharging their workmen. The mechanic 

 is necessarily curtailed in his business, and 

 many thousands who depend upon their la- 

 bor for bread, are thrown out of employment, 

 while property of all kinds has depreciated 

 below its minimum value. 



To prescribe the means of restoring the 

 community to prosperous circumstances, 

 would be a task beyond the capacity of an 

 humble pen ; but some of the most import- 

 ant in my estimation, I will take the liberty 

 to suggest. 



We must wed the hands to labor — the 

 head to knowledge. Those who have for- 

 saken rural labors and been disappointed in 

 their Utopian dreams of riches and happiness, 

 should return with the humility of the pro- 

 digal son to a forgiving parent. They will 

 be kindly received, and amply remunerated 

 for their labor, especially among agricul- 

 turists, whose fields are offering the same 

 facilities of nature to the fostering hand of 

 industry. Thus we may save millions to 

 the country, which, last year, were sent 

 abroad ; or for which, in bread stuffs, &c., 

 we are still in debt. We must live more 

 within our means and become examples of 

 prudence to our less opulent neighbors. In 

 those who (so contrary to the principles and 

 policy of a republican government,) hold 

 themselves to be of a higher order than the 

 honest and respectable in more humble cir- 

 cumstances, example is contagious, be it 

 good or evil, and they who squander away 

 with princely extravagance the substance of 

 this life, inflict the direst evils upon com- 

 munity, and mistake alike their own true 

 dignity and happiness ; the true spirit of our 

 institutions and the best interests of our 

 country. Our expenses of living have, upon 

 an average during the last thirty years, been 

 quadrupled, and whence the necessity 1 

 None existed. Were they increased for 

 necessaries and comforts'? They were not, 

 but for the baneful luxuries and superfluities 

 of life. We live too high. We dress too fine. 

 We are now (in the midst of calamity,) the 

 finest dressers and the highest livers in the 

 universal world, and though we plainly see 

 to what a state of things we have arrived 

 therefrom, few are willing to practice a com- 

 mendatory degree of self-denial. Have we 

 not had the fashions of cooking, eating and 

 dressing from at least four European nations 

 to follow? And have we not kept pace 

 with all of them combined, especially in our 



cities and towns 1 That we have consumed 

 more time in show and luxury, to say noth- 

 ing of needless corrupting amusements, there 

 cannot be a possible doubt, and how pain- 

 ful the reflection, when it is considered that 

 time is money 1 — more valuable, more pre- 

 cious. The last dollar lyiay be restored, 

 whilst that moment which is lost is gone, 

 gone forever ! ! 



Our nation is as one family. Whatever 

 benefits one class or one district, indirectly 

 benefits the whole ; so whatever distresses 

 one class of people or one region of coui;try, 

 indirectly inflicts injury upon all. Let the 

 people of America, therefore, look to a refor- 

 mation of their habits, to a system of indus- 

 try and frugality ; economising in those ex- 

 penditures both of time and money, keeping 

 constantly in mind, that by the will of 

 Divine Providence, ours is the most favored 

 nation of people on earth, who should unite 

 together in sustaining a form of government 

 bequeathed by the blood of our fathers. 

 And let our great men in council forego all 

 personal animosity, and as far as possible, 

 discard local jealousies and political intole- 

 rance ; avoiding reproachful language, and 

 like a band of brothers, legislate for the good 

 of the whole family, with good intent and be- 

 comingrespect; and may we not expect that 

 the God of the universe will smile upon our 

 land, and the population thereof again be- 

 come a contented and happy people 1 That 

 such may be the case, is the sincere wish of 

 A Plain Citizen. 



Communicated for the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 From the Papers of the Penna. IJortijultiiial Society. 



Bliglit ill Pear Trees. 



If the blight in Pennsylvania is the same 

 as that which prevailed in Connecticut, be- 

 tween the years 1808 and 1823, (where I 

 then resided as an agriculturist,) or the same 

 as that which has appeared in this section of 

 country since 1830, the cause of the disease 

 is a small, slimy, disgusting moth, or worm, 

 which will be found enveloped in a closely 

 woven web, underneath a leaf, usually on the 

 topmost branch of the tree. Pluck off the 

 leaf and destroy the moth, and the tree is pre- 

 served ; or if more than one of the leaves are 

 turned brown, (the first indication of the pre- 

 sence of the moth and its deleterious effect?,) 

 you may be sure that the branch is tainted, 

 and must, therefore, to eradicate the taint or 

 poison, cut off the branch until the pure white 

 of the wood, and the clear green of the inner 

 coating of the bark appear. The moth does 

 not, apparently, feed on the leaf, for at no 

 season of the year, is it perforated ; but its 

 effects appear to be of a deadly poisonous 



