398 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



say, I was at the Chincha Islands three months; 

 there were probably from three thousand to four 

 thousand seamen and others enj^aged in the labor 

 of digging guano and transporting it to the ships. 

 It is often a hazardous business, in which men are 

 marred and wounded almost every day ; they live 

 in its dust, and inhale it freely, and often use it as 

 soap to wash with, without regard to sore hands, 

 and sailors and laljorers are always wading about 

 in it without regard to sore feet, and yet I never 

 heard any complaint of its dangerous tendencies or 

 effects. 



BUGS OX VINES. 



Equal quantities of flour and black pepper 

 mixed dry, then wet the leaves and sprinkle with 

 the dry material, has proved with me a positive ex- 

 terminator. Nathan Beiggs. 



Marion, July 17, 1857. 



MR. FRENCH lU ENGLAND. 



In the "JI/arA Lane £.r/?ress," published at Lon- 

 don, we find an account of a recent meeting of the 

 '•Suffolk Agricultural Jlssocialion," held at Ipswich, 

 England, which was attended by many distinguished 

 agriculturists of that country, by a "representative 

 of one of the most distinguished families of Aus- 

 tria," and Mr. French, one of the editors of the 

 Farmer. There had been a show of cattle and 

 horses, which was followed by a dinner, much like 

 our own custom in similar gatherings. At that din- 

 ner, however, a large portion of the time was 

 spent in toasts to the Queen, army. Prince, navy, 

 and individuals, most of which was entirely inap- 

 propriate to the occasion. Mr. French's speech 

 seems to have "set the table in a roar," and estab- 

 lished general good feeling. He was called out as 

 follows : — 



The President gave the healths of the distin- 

 guished foreigners who had honored the meeting 

 with their presence. (Three times three.) 



The Hon. H. F. French said : My Lord and 

 Gentlemen, it must be hard indeed if I could not 

 respond to such a welcome as this, I am called 

 upon to respond to the toast drunk to the stran- 

 gers present ; but were it not for the word uttered 

 by my hon. friend, 1 should forget that 1 was a 

 stranger in a strange country. It is true that 1 

 have come three thousand miles from my own 

 home, alone, with no excuse of business, and with 

 no object before me but to see the ])eople of Old 

 England — especially the agricultural people. I 

 have the honor to be a vice president of the Unit- 

 ed Stales Agricultural Society, and the president 

 of the society in the county of Ilocki.)gham, in the 

 State of New Hampshire — a similar association to 

 the present one. 1 have also the honor to be the 

 bearer of a letter of introduction given me by a 

 vote of the United States Agricultural Society, at 

 their annual meeting at Washington, last January, 

 introducing me to agricultural societies abroad, and 

 asking them to give me a cordial welcome. Upon 

 the presentation of that letter to the ofhcers of this 

 Society, I have received a welcome such as I have 

 no douijt you will receive if you should return the 

 visit I have made. I have received, from the time 



that I first set my foot upon English soil, nothing 

 but kindness at the hands of strangers. The very 

 first gentleman I met, in coming by the train from 

 Liverpool to old Chester, took me by the hand, 

 when heknew me to be an American, and invited 

 me to Lincolnshire ; and when I leave Suffolk 

 county, I shall proceed on my way to Lincolnshire, 

 to fulfil the invitation. A stranger, gentlemen ! I 

 can hardly feel that I am one in any respect. I 

 have walked down to Westminster, and read there 

 the inscriptions in honor of your literary men- 

 Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, Addison, and a thou- 

 sand other brilliant stars in literature j and I have 

 felt, my lord and gentlemen, that this was not on- 

 ly English literature, but American literature too. 

 Their names are household names in America, as 

 much as they are in England, and we do not forget 

 them when we speak of our literature. (Applaase.) 

 From Westminster Abbey I went into Westmin- 

 ster Hall, and there I saw the M'igs and gowns 

 which we have laid aside, as not being practically 

 necessary to the administration of our laws (laugh- 

 ter ;) but apart from these matters of form — which 

 may as well be laid aside according to our republi- 

 can notions — there was nothing to make me forget, 

 even in a court of justice, that I was not at home. 

 The English common law is the foundation of our 

 jurisprudence, and we cite now the latest decisions 

 of your courts, not as binding authorities, but as 

 the best expositions of those principles which lie at 

 the very foundation of our administration of justice. 

 I am myself connected with the administration of 

 the law — you know a Yankee generally has three 

 or four matters on hand — but I say that, even in 

 your courts of justice, if certain ornaments were 

 laid aside, I should hardly know that I was not at 

 home. As to your form of government, 1 have 

 nothing to say. It is probably the best government 

 for Englishmen, although I should be very sorry 

 to say that we have not a much better one in our 

 own country. Probably there is no desire on the 

 part of any of you, to give us any other ; but, after 

 all, there is a great deal of good sense in the lines 

 of the old poet, though I never could see much po- 

 etry in them : 



"For forms of government let fcols contest ; 

 That which is best administered is best." 



There are, however, weighty difi'erences between 

 the habits of the people ot the old country and the 

 new. The expression is a solution of the matter, 

 for one is an old country, and the other is a new 

 one. In Old England you have the grand old es- 

 tates, the grand old parks, the grand old trees, and 

 the grand old landscapes, which nothing but time 

 can make. We have, instead, the primeval for- 

 est — trees towering up by hundreds and thousands 

 (if acres — a very different thing from the landscapes 

 of England. There is nothing, however, next to 

 the countenances of your people, upon which I so 

 love to dwell as an English landscape. (Applause.) 

 There are those marks of permanence and good 

 living around you, which cannot be the work of a 

 day. It takes centuries to grow such a country as 

 England, and no new country can compare with it. 

 Your habits of life are also different. This coun- 

 try, if I may use a homely expression, is like a well- 

 to-do gentleman in middle life, who has made his 

 fortune, and sat down under his own vine and fig- 

 tree to enjoy himself ; while America is like a young 

 stripling, barely out of his time, who has gone out 



