No. 16. 



Rats — What shall we drink ? 



301 



appointment. A farm, three miles from the 

 city, containing about one hundred and fifty 

 acres, was purchased at a low price, it was 

 however, in a state of dilapidation and ex- 

 haustion. Committees from the Board visited 

 it semi-weekly, in addition to the personal 

 and regular direction of a competent special 

 agent. A good farmer was obtained to occu- 

 py the house and work the land ; six hundred 

 pannels of new strong fence put up around it; 

 cross lines offences placed where necessary ; 

 and the plough put to work to prepare ground 

 for the first planting of trees. This was 

 done, and ten thousand plants set out, which 

 grew well, and will affbrd food for from sixty 

 thousand to one hundred thousand worms this 

 season. The farm house has been repaired 

 and made comfortable ; a new roof and wing 

 walls added to the barn, and other desirable 

 alterations and improvements made within it. 

 Thirteen hundred bushels of lime have been 

 put on the ground, three hundred more con- 

 tracted for, and a sufficient quantity of land 

 ploughed and prepared to receive sixty-thou- 

 sand plants the present season. 



One thousand Morus Multicaulus, or Chi- 

 nese mulberry trees, and twenty thousand 

 cuttings, of two buds each, have been pur- 

 chased, and are now at the farm ready to 

 commit to the earth in the proper season, a 

 few weeks hence. Besides the posts and 

 rails for fencing, all of which were supplied 

 from our own woods, the Board have had 

 eight thousand posts and rails cut and rived 

 out for sale, and about one hundred cords of 

 wood cut and sold. 



The Board hopes it will be apparent to its 

 fellow stockholders, from the above briei 

 statement of its operations, that it has not been 

 unmindful of their interests. It trusts that 

 another year will develope clearly, that its 

 constituents may reasonably expect, not only 

 a fair, but a large return for the funds they 

 have placed in this concern. And while it 

 regrets that so few have been found willing 

 to subscribe for the promotion of this highly 

 interesting branch of industry, it expresses its 

 honest belief, that those who have adven- 

 tured in it will be liberally compensated. 



Signed by order of the Board, 



Merrit Canby, Pres't 



Samuel Wollaston, Sec. 



Wilmington, 4tli Mo. 7th, 1833. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Rats. 



Please inform your subscriber who is trou- 

 bled with rats, to put some tar in and around 

 the hole or entrance to his residence, so that 

 he can't get in or out, without soiling his best 

 coat; and my word for it, he will soon seek 

 better quarters, for nothing is more dreaded 

 by a rat, or any other rogue than a coat of 

 tar. B. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet, 

 Wliat shall we driuk tliis harvest T 



As the season of crops is approaching it is 

 probable the question at the head of this arti- 

 cle will be in the mouths of not a few of our 

 farmers — and I trust there are a large pro- 

 portion of them who will be prepared to re- 

 spond to it, " we will not have any intoxica- 

 ting liquor in our harvest fields nor on our 

 farms." « 



Since the attention of intelligent and re- 

 spectable persons has been generally awaken- 

 ed to the subject, and their observation turned 

 to the consequences arising from the use of 

 such liquors, a change no less wonderful, than 

 happy in its results, has been wrought in ma- 

 ny neighborhoods. In places where it was 

 thought a few years ago, that the harvest 

 could not be gathered, nor indeed the ordina- 

 ry labors of the farm performed, without the 

 aid of ardent spirits, and where, as was to be 

 expected from such a course, most of the pro- 

 mising young men fell victims to the bottle, 

 experience has now convinced the farmers 

 that so far from being an auxiliary to labor, it 

 is a direct obstacle, and that aside entirely 

 from the dreadful moral evils which are avoid- 

 ed by its disuse, they can perform more labor, 

 and with less fatigue, when they totally ab- 

 stain from it. The most experienced and ju- 

 dicious physicians who have closely studied 

 the efiects of ardent spirits on the human bo- 

 dy, find that while it affords for a short period, 

 an artificial and unnatural stimulus to the 

 system, this state of excitement is quickly suc- 

 ceeded bv a lassitude, exhaustion and thirst, 

 which renders the drinker almost unfit to la- 

 bor, and impels him soon to drink again. And 

 although each repeated draught may excite 

 him for a few minutes, and seem to allay his 

 appetite for liquor, it is only to prostrate him 

 still more and to torment him with a burning 

 and almost insatiable thirst. 



Ardent spirits always create a feverish ac- 

 tion in the system, which is increased by the 

 heat of the weather — they debilitate the sto- 

 mach, impede the process of healthy digestion, 

 create obstructions in the liver, and other 

 viscera, and thus weaken and destroy the ap- 

 petite and give rise to dyspepsia, head-ache, 

 apoplexy, &c. Persons who are much ex- 

 posed to the sun in summer sjiould never 

 drink ardent spirits, as the practice exposes 

 them to imminent danger of sudden death 

 from apoplexy or stroke of the sun. 



Any one who has noticed a regular dram 

 drinker, must have observed how little he eats 

 when working hard, compared with a man 

 who has never disordered his stomach with 

 the poisonous article. I have often been 

 struck with this, when those who drink drams 

 and those who do not are sitting at the same 

 table. Nothing is more certain that to enable 



