No. 6. 



Suitable Dress. — Female Dress. 



195 



passes between the particles and produces 

 adliesion, so as to render it more tenacious, 

 and consequently, more retentive of moisture ; 

 in other respects its operation is the same as 

 on a clay soil ; but a sandy soil being warmer 

 than clay, manure decomposes in it with 

 much more rapidity, and its effects are more 

 transient ; of course, the antiseptic operation 

 of lime is, in that respect, more important to 

 it than to a stiff, cold soil. 



The prevalent opinion, that carbonate of 

 lime is insoluble, has led to many errors in 

 regard to its mode of operation in promoting 

 vegetation; but chemists have long known, 

 that water, holding carbonic acid gas in solu- 

 tion, dissolves it readily. The surface soil, 

 particularly where vegetable matter is abun- 

 dant, contains much of this gas, and when 

 the rain falls — particularly if it falls gently 

 — it takes it in solution, and if it comes in 

 contact with carbonate of lime, it dissolves it 

 and forms what is generally called limestone 

 water ; and this, it is supposed, is what is so 

 beneficial to plants — for lime while undis- 

 solved, can render them no service. Hence 

 lime requires time to dissolve before it acts, 

 and in some seasons its action is less conspi- 

 cuous than in others. 



All the lime-stone water of wells, and that 

 which issues from springs, is formed by the 

 above natural method ; and the fissures in 

 rocks, caves and sinks, which abound in lime- 

 stone districts, are produced by water impreg- 

 nated with carbonic acid passing over them, 

 and carrying away the stone in solution, leav- 

 ing the cavities, which are so numerous in 

 our country. 



Your valuable correspondent, A. S. R., in 

 his interesting essay, uses the terms humic 

 acid, and humate of lime, which, not being 

 generally understood by farmers, I beg leave 

 to explain — having had some trouble to find 

 their meaning, myself. 



When vegetable bodies putrefy on the sur- 

 face of the ground, they at last leave a black- 

 ish-brown powder, to which the name of hu- 

 mus, or geine, has been applied, and this sub- 

 stance when united with oxygen, is humic 

 acid, or united with lime, is called humate 

 of lime. Humus is a Latin word, and Geine 

 is Greek, and means the same thing precisely. 



Agricola. 



Suitable Dress. 



The labours of the farmer are nearly all 

 such as require a free use of the limbs, espe- 

 cially the arms ; cast ofl^", then, those useless, 

 inconvenient bands of the shoulders — those 

 braces ; let the lower garments be made 

 short, so as to button close above the hips; 

 lengthen the vest — a coat to meet them — the 

 expense of the latter being nearly or quite 



saved in the former ; and then when you go 

 forth to labour, lay aside the outer garment, 

 and nothing restrains the free use of the 

 arms, save the loose shirt. In mowing, raking 

 or pitching hay ; in cradling, reaping, bind- 

 ing or handling grain to the barn ; in shovel- 

 ling, chopping, threshing, fencing, draining, 

 ploughing — in short, in almost any labour the 

 tarmer has to perform, such an arrangement 

 of his dress would aid him much — how much, 

 he can not know until he has tried it. I 

 have long proved it by experiment, and, al- 

 though out of fashion, shall still continue it. 



Again — it is thought because the farmer 

 shovels manure, holds the plough, drives team, 

 and does a hundred other things, that there- 

 fore he must, of course, be constantly dirty, 

 not fit to be seen ; but it is not so : a shovel 

 is made to handle the manure with, and fol- 

 lowing the plough or driving team, may be 

 done without getting dirty, if one is suitably 

 dressed. Every farmer should have a frock 

 — a sort of over-all, to put on outside his vest 

 or coat, as the weather may require, coming 

 just below the knees, and buttoning in front, 

 with a belt around the waist, two pockets, in 

 which to rest his hands, when not immedi- 

 ately engaged — a great luxury — to be made 

 of cotton for summer, and woollen for win- 

 ter. Such a frock is put on or off without 

 trouble ; there is no putting over the head, 

 and it catches all the flying dust that comes 

 from rubbing against the team and elsewhere, 

 and leaves the clothes at the end of the week 

 as clean almost as they were on the Monday 

 morning. It saves much in a cleanly man's 

 feelings; more, in the wear and tear of gar- 

 ments, and '}nosl of all, in the labour and pa- 

 tience of the women, who of course deserve, 

 and that righteously, to be consulted in such 

 matters. — Selected from the Yankee Far. 



Female Dress. 



" There is not an hour in a day in which 

 a man more likes to see his wife dressed with 

 neatness, than when she leaves her bed-room 

 and sits down to the breakfast-table. At any 

 other moment, vanity may stimulate her 

 efforts at the toilette, for she expects to be 

 seen ; but at this retired and early hour, it is 

 for the sake of cleanliness alone, the very 

 sake of pleasing her husband, that she thus 

 appears neat and trim. Some one says, a 

 wife should never appear untidily or badly- 

 dressed in the presence of her husband. 

 While he was a lover, what a sad business 

 if he caught her dressed to disadvantage! 

 ' Oh dear, there he is, and my hair all in pa- 

 pers ! and this frightful, unbecoming cap; I 

 had no idea he would be here so early ; let 

 me be off to my toilette !' But now that he 

 is your husband, 'Dear me, what consequence 



