310 



Remarks on the Cabinet. 



Vol. V. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Remarks on the Cabinet. 



Mr. Editor, — At our last Wednesday's 

 meeting at the store, which was very well 

 attended, inuch praise was bestowed upon the 

 Cabinet for having rescued from oblivion, by 

 means of a remarkably well executed por- 

 trait, and exact admeasurement, the noble 

 Ox " Pennsylvania." Great interest was 

 taken in the subject, for many had fed large 

 beasts, and others were doing so, and such a 

 document as that would be preserved with 

 care for future reference. One of the mem- 

 bers mentioned particularly, that Mr. Sheaif, 

 of the Highlands Farm, Whitemarsh, is now 

 feeding an animal, of which your engraving 

 is an exact likeness, and, what is more, that 

 his feeder is as truly pourtrayed in the Cab- 

 inet as is the ox ; and it is expected that this 

 ox — whose name is "Tippecanoe" — will, 

 when finished, weigh perhaps 500 pounds 

 more than the "Pennsylvania." He is a 

 magnificent animal, and all agree, that if any 

 one can do him justice in feeding, it is his 

 owner, whose care, attention, and neatness in 

 all farming operations, constitute the theme 

 of general admiration. This spirit ol emu- 

 lation must be productive of infinite g)od, it 

 is the sweetener of the labours of the agri- 

 culturist. 



The attention of the meeting was drawn 

 to the article contained in the March num- 

 ber of the Cabinet, on emigration to the Del- 

 aware and Maryland peninsula ; manymem- 

 bers were well acquainted with that pirt of 

 the country, and bore willing testim<ny to 

 the truth of the description there givei of its 

 advantages, which were not consideed by 

 any means overwrought. One membr re- 

 lated the history of a colony, who, someyears 

 ae-o, removed thither from Delaware ounty, 

 w~ith the brightest hopes, which, however, 

 were never realized, although no faut was 

 found with the country, properly speaiing — 

 but their prospects went out ; and thoe who 

 did not remove, were left to wear awa their 

 existence without energy or hope, ad yet 

 none complained of disappointment ol their 

 expectations of cheap lands — neither di they 

 attribute their failure to the unhealthinss of 

 the climate, admitting that other parts )f the 

 country are worse in this respect; bu still 

 there was a something which sapped al their 

 exertions, and silently undermined thei con- 

 fidence — a sort of gangrene, which peyed 

 upon the bud, and prevented the devlope- 

 ment of their best-laid plans ! Now, , was 

 reasonable to inquire the cause of thismna- 

 tural state of things, and it was believd by 

 some to be owing to the spirit of slvery, 

 which, like the leprosy, admits of no allia- 

 tive, enervating the whole system ; for /here 



that exists, be it in ever so slight and modi> 

 fied a degree, labour is disreputable, and the 

 sweat of the brow, without which no man 

 can cultivate the ground, is deemed a curse ; 

 while, on the contrary, labour is, in reality, 

 the greatest blessing of life — for without it 

 no man can be either healthy or happy, the 

 greatest curse being freedom from labour, and 

 so our judges consider it, for whenever they 

 condemn a man to the severest punishment 

 they incarcerate him in a prison and prevent 

 him from labouring ! In this conversation no 

 allusion whatever was made to the state of 

 the bondman, but to the effect on the land 

 owner, considering this to be the cause of the 

 paralysis which falls on those who purchase 

 lands in that otherwise very desirable part of 

 the country. 



One remarkable circumstance, relating to 

 the connexion of the society with the store, 

 is, I think, worth mentioning — by it, I find 

 that I dispose of a far greater quantity of 

 hardware and carpenters' tools, while the 

 sale for nails has increased a hundred fold j 

 this I attribute entirely to the improved taste 

 and relish for comfort and neatness which 

 have been created and are fostered by these 

 meetings, for many who had been accustomed 

 to see their fences and parts of their pre- 

 mises waving in the wind for want of a nail 

 or two, are now shamed by their neighbours 

 into a more tidy way of doing things ; and 

 this, too, is the cause of my selling a much 

 greater quantity of paint, for after a place 

 has been repaired, its owner finds that a lit- 

 tle paint would add greatly to its appearance, 

 and many have discovered the truth of the 

 Dutch proverb — paint costs nothing — mean- 

 ing, the preservation of the wood is quite 

 equal to the value of the paint bestowed 

 upon it. And indeed it is astonishing how 

 much can be done with very small means by 

 a man with a little genius in the way of re- 

 pairing, and a few handy tools. I once knew 

 one who came a stranger into the country, 

 and purchased a small and very poor house 

 in a garden, out of which he contrived to 

 manufacture a little Eden ! The house con- 

 sisted of two rooms only on the ground floor, 

 and two above, with a wide passage through 

 the house from front to back. He began by 

 removing the front door, and erecting a cir- 

 cular building, a sort of large porch, taking 

 in the passage as far as the entrance to the 

 two rooms from the back ; this gave him an 

 extra room, and by placing a second-band 

 window in front, and another in each end, he 

 obtained one of the prettiest little boxes ima- 

 ginable, with balcony ; these windows were 

 furnished with white curtains inside, drawn 

 up in neat festoons, the walls were hung with 

 book-shelves — and this he called his library. 



By this he was restricted to one door 



