156 



Musivgs in the Temple of JVature. — Ploughs. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 3iR, — I spnd for insertion in your pages another gem 

 — akin to that most beautiful " Hymn to the Flowers," 

 at page 285 of the third volume of the Cabinet. The 

 subject is the same, the metre also, being peculiarly 

 suited to tliose " holy musings," which may indeed be 

 said to come home to the "business and bosom" of 

 every one. A Constant Reader. 



Musings in the Temple of Nature. 



BY DR. CHATFIELD. 



Man can build nothing worthy of his Maker — 



From royal Solomon's stupendous fane, 

 Down to the humble chapel of the Quaker, 



All, all are vain. 



TThe wondrous world which he himself created, 



Is the fit temple of Creation's Lord ; 

 There may his worship best be celebrated. 



And praises poured. 



Its altar earth, its roof the sky untainted. 



Sun, moon and stars, are lamps that give it light, 

 And clouds, by the celestial artist painted, 



Its pictures bright. 



Its choir, all vocal things, whose glad devotion. 



In one united hymn is heavenward sped. 

 The thunder-peal, the winds, the deep-mouthed ocean, 

 Its organ dead. 



Tlie face of nature, its God-written Bible, 



Which all mankind may study and explore, 

 While none can wrest, interpolate or libel. 

 Its living lore. 



Hence, learn we, that our Maker, whose affection, 



Knows no distinction, suffers no recall, 



Shedfi his impartial favour and protection 



Alike on all. 



Thus by Divine example do we gather, 



That every race should love alike all others, 

 Christian, Jew, Pagan, children of one Father, 



All, all are brothers. 



Conscience, Heaven's silent oracle, the assessor 



Of right and wrong in every human breast. 

 Sternly condemns the impenitent transgressor 

 To live un blest. 



The pious and the virtuous, tho\igh assaulted 



By fortune's frown, or man's unjust decrees. 

 Still, in their bosoms, find a pure, e.xalted. 



Unfailing peace. 



Hence do we learn, that hardened vice is hateful, 



Since Heaven pursues it with avenging rod; 

 While goodness, self- re warded, must be grateful. 

 To man and God. 



O! thou most visible, yet unseen teacher, 



Whose finger writes its lessons on our sphere, 

 Ol thou most audible, but unheard preacher. 



Whose sermons clear. 



Are seen and read in all that thou performest. 



Wilt thou look down and bless, if, when I kneel, 

 Apart from man-built fanes, I feel the warmest 

 And purest zeal ? 



Jf in the temple thine own hands have fashion'd 



'Neath the bright sky, by lonely stream or wood, 

 I pour to thee with thrilling heart impassion'd. 

 My gratitude ? 



If in thy present miracles terrestrial, 



Mine eyes behold, wherever I have kneeled. 

 New proofs of the futurity celestial. 



To man revealed? 



If fearing thee, I love the whole creation. 



Keeping my bosom undefiled by guilt, 

 Wilt thou receive and bless mine adoration t 



—Thou wilt, thou wilt. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Ploughs. 



Mr. Editor, — In a late work " on the con- 

 struction of ploughs," mention is made of an 

 implement, invented by Lord Somerville, for 

 turning two furrows at the same time, the 

 bodies of the ploughs being fixed into a 

 crooked beam, so that one plough is made to 

 precede the other, just turning its furrow to 

 escape that which follows immediately in the 

 rear. The writer supposes that such a plough 

 would be advantageous, but conjectures that 

 it would be difficult to guide: now, the fact 

 is, such ploughs require no guidance. 



While on a visit to Dudley, in Stafford- 

 shire (England), I was in the practice of vis- 

 iting the farms in the neighbourhood, and 

 was one morning highly gratified to find a 

 double-furrow plough turning lay land for 

 wheat, in a manner delightful to behold: 

 there were four horses attached to it in a sin- 

 gle line, and the driver walked by the side, 

 having only to throw up the plough on the 

 mould plates when going round at the ends 

 of the land, and setting it upright on coming 

 in, when it would immediately, and of its 

 own accord, settle down to its work in the 

 most elegant way imaginable. The plough- 

 man invited me to hold and guide it, but I 

 found that to be impracticable, for while my 

 attention was given to one plough, the other 

 was making tracks which were out of my 

 guidance entirely — the fact is, one plough 

 acts as a check to the other, and renders un- 

 necessary any guidance at all ; and I never 

 saw better work than it made, or a cleaner 

 furrow struck on a two year old clover lay, 

 carrying two deep furrows, about a foot in 

 width, throwing them to an angle of 45° — 

 which is there preferred to a flat surface, as 

 their lay wheat-tilths are always clean — as 

 true as a line could be laid. 



Now I should be glad to know why such 

 ploughs cannot be introduced amongst usl 

 Surely they would be of far more importance 

 in this country than in any other, for here 

 every thing is conducted on the go ahead 

 principle, and the price of labour is consi- 

 dered to be the only drawback on our farming 

 operations, when compared with the wages 

 of other countries ; I am amazed that such 

 an instrument has not found its way amongst 

 us, when I see, in the sands of Jersey, a 

 plough, a man and two horses, turning one 

 furrow at a time, in a soil which, as some one 

 says, requires only a sharp knife and a couple 

 of rabbits to do the business most effectually : 

 and this waste of labour is only a part of the 

 evil, for the ploughman, finding it so easy for 

 him and his team to operate on so light a soil, 

 is induced to carry a wider furrow than the 

 plough can take up and carry completely 



