1857. 



NEW ENGLAND PAHMER. 



179 



For tlie New England Farmer. 



LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



Preparations for Irauguration — Crowded Hotels — "Spring 

 Time o'year is Comin"' — Cows and Pastures— Southern 

 Conveniences of I-ife — Appropriatiou3 for Agriculture. 



Washington, D. C, Feb. 24, 1857. 



My Deak Brown : — Once more I am taking a 

 brief glance at Washington and its affairs, which have 

 for most men, just now, a peculiar interest. Great 

 preparations are making for the inauguration of 

 Mr. Buchanan, and the worshippers of the rising 

 sun are assembling in such numbers, that beds at 

 the hotels are said to be luxuries not to be asked 

 for. They have a caricature about the streets, 

 •which represents a hotel office, and a stranger in- 

 quiring for a room and bed. "Rooms and beds," 

 replies the landlord, "have been all engaged for a 

 fortnight, but we have one excellent bag left on 

 that hook, that you can have if you speak quick ;" 

 and the picture represents rows of sacks hanging 

 on the walls, with a man in each, with his head 

 looking out at the top. At one of the hotels, an 

 alarming illness among a great proportion of the 

 boarders, members of Congress and their families, 

 has prevailed. 



The Board of Health has published a statement 

 that the cause has been ascertained and removed, 

 and to pay for not gratifying the public curiosity 

 by stating the cause, somebody, whether truly or 

 not, doth not appear, has put the story into circu- 

 lation, that, on examining the water tank which 

 supplies drinking water for the house, sixty dead 

 rats were found in it, which had been poisoned 

 with arsenic ! It has been doubted by some wheth- 

 er this can be the true solution, because, it is sug- 

 gested, many who have been ill there, have not 

 drunk water enough during the session to produce 

 the effect which is ai3parent. The rat story may 

 be an idle rumor, but is not without a moral. Rats 

 poisoned with arsenic always rush to water if pos 

 sible, and the practice of poisoning them in this 

 way should not be adopted, without due consider 

 ation as to where the bones of the dead will be likely 

 to be found. A rat alive and stirring is a far more 

 agreeable companion than a deceased rat "behind 

 the arras," where Hamlet sought sucb animals, or 

 served up with soup from a cistern. 



Spring has thus early brought out to view here 

 her earliest flower, the crocus, the grass upon the 

 lawns in the public gi-ounds has become beautifully 

 green, and farmers in Maryland, close by this city, 

 have already commenced their plowing. To a New 

 England man, it seems strange that, with these ad- 

 vantages of a short winter, of a long season to pre- 

 pare and plant the ground, of a soil easy to culti- 

 vate, free from stones, and far more fertile than our 

 own, farming should not be a profitable business, at 

 present prices. Cows are turned loose into the 

 streets, and range over hundreds of acres of unfenc- 



ed lands, free of cost. No such thing is known as 

 an enclosed pasture near the city, and fifty cows in 

 a drove may any day be seen now, wandering about, 

 anxiously looking on the earth to see if the grass 

 is coming through, and exhibiting strong indica- 

 tions that they have very little dependence except 

 upon Nature's supply, without man's intervention. 



Milk, as a consequence of this thriftless style of 

 doing things, is sold at eight and ten cents a quart. 

 The city turns out bulls upon the common, and 

 each cow has her calf when she thinks proper, so 

 that it is, of course, an interesting subject of inquiry 

 when a cow stops giving milk, whether she intends 

 to commence again this season or next. 



Let a Northern man think for a moment, of liv- 

 ing in a house without any cellar, without a closet 

 of any description, without an aqueduct, cistern or 

 well on his premises, and no means of procuring 

 water except from a pump in a well seventy feet 

 deep in the street forty rods distant, and he will 

 begin to realize some of the ideas of comfort which 

 prevail about the greater part of this citj'. Prices 

 of perishable articles of course must fluctuate with 

 the weather. Potatoes in a mild day perhaps may 

 be sold at one dollar a bushel, and in a week after, 

 in a cold snap, will command double that sum, and 

 merely because nobody can keep two weeks' sup- 

 ply, for want of a cellar. Congress, with its usual 

 magnificence, has commenced an aqueduct, capable 

 of supplying twenty such cities as this, and at some 

 time, in this or a future generation, will furnish the 

 inhabitants of the District with rivers of pure wa- 

 ter. In the mean time, a darkle, with a pail of wa- 

 ter on her head, is the "peculiar institution" to be 

 relied on. Whether the people are waiting for Con- 

 gress to provide cellars and other conveniences for 

 their houses, is not known. There is undoubtedly 

 a general disposition to be taken care of, rather than 

 to take care of themselves, in all places where there 

 is a great and wealthy power for any people to de- 

 pend on. Self-reliance is the main spring of enter- 

 prise. A boy, or a society, whether religious or 

 civil, that has a fortune to depend on at the start, 

 seldom develops much energy. He who, like Wii- 

 kins Micawber, is always waiting for "something to 

 turn up," generally waits till death overtakes him, 

 while he who knows that nothing will "turn up" for 

 him, unless he puts a crowbar under it and applies 

 his own force, is pretty certain to see the bottom 

 of things speedily. 



I am glad to perceive here that the United States 

 Agricultural Society has exerted a favorable influ- 

 ence on the public sentiment, or at least, on the 

 sentiment of public men. The appropriations for 

 agricultural jjurposes have not yet been made, and 

 the Secretary of the Interior, whose office ends next 

 week, did not recommend any appropriation for 

 the ensuing year ! Last year, the appropriation was 

 $75,000, besides $15,000 specially for the impor- 



