Vol. virr.— No, 41. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



325 



■ suffers, when, after a sharp burst, there coines 

 sudden check, and the pampered and shivering 

 able horse is exposed with liini a considerable 

 me to a [liercing northeaster. The one cares 

 othing about it ; the other may carry home the 

 eds of dangeroi'is disease. 



;ONSUMPTION OF SPIRITOUS LIQUORS 

 &c, IN ENGLAND. 



The English Quarterly Review, for January 

 St contains a very able article on ' liiter- 

 %l Policy,'' from which the following is extract- 

 i 



Ale and porter had long been the favorite 

 average of the English people, and the amazing 

 icrease in the consumption of them, which took 

 lace during the war, was constantly referred to 

 3 conclusive evidence of the flourishing state of 

 le country, and comfortable state of the lower 

 ders. Had only a reasonable portion of the 

 trnings of laborers and mechanics been then ex- 

 uded on malt liquor, had it been consumed 

 their own tlwellings, and properly divided 

 nong the members of the family, the rapid 

 crease of its consumption might have deserved 

 have been viewed in this way ; but it may well 

 3 doubled, whether the amount of ale and porter 

 hich has been brewed, i)roved anything more 

 an the vast quantity of them, which the earnings 

 "working people then enabled them to swallow, 

 ives and children were more frequently impov- 

 ished than enriched by the exorbitant wages 

 '"Ihich their fathers and husbands during high 

 Ties were able to obtain. It was then the ex- 

 ssive resort to public houses began, which has 

 own from year to year, imtil it lias become al- 

 ost impossible to stop or correct it. It has been 

 •enuously urged that the trade in strong and 

 irituous liquors ought to he made as free r.s thai 

 any other commodity ; but notwithstanding ail 

 e wit and arguments which have been employ- 

 I, wc deprecate such a measure as one of the 

 ost pernicious which could be resorted to in this 

 )M;itry, and in the present state of society. Li- 

 ases to s ■11 strong liquors ought rather to be re- 

 tained til, 11 facilitated. Public houses are temp- 

 tions, wliicli the lower classes are scarcely able 

 resist. They have always been more numerous 

 lan necessity or convenience required, and the 

 ' lultiplication of them has never met with that 

 neral and marked disapprobation which it so 

 ■* Dviously merits. Let public houses be conduct- 

 1 with as much good order as they may, they can 

 arcely fail to be mischievous. They retain or 

 ithdraw every man wiio frecjuents them from 

 is home and family, which ought always to be the 

 " sntre of his thoughts and affections; encourage 

 'I jbits of idleness and irregularity ; and destroy 

 ''' laC frugality and forethought which in all ranks of 

 * le community are invaluable, but among the low- 

 l* ', are the source of almost every other virtue. We 

 ■e satisfied therefore, that a great deal too much 

 ixiety has been evinced by our gentry and our le- 

 slature to increase the consum])tion of malt liquors 

 hether the means, comfort or reasonable recrca- 

 on of consumers justified it or not ; and that to 

 le inveterate custom of resorting to public houses 

 1 all occasions may be traced much of the pecu- 

 lary distress and domestic unhappiness which 

 ow afflict so large a portion of the laboring class- 

 3 of the people. 

 ' All these objections apply with ten fold force 

 ) that immoderate use of spirits which various 



unconnected causes have of late rendered more 

 general. The ingredients besides malt and bops, 

 which brewers now introduce into their manufac- 

 ture, have rendered malt liquors to most jiersonsa 

 less agreeable beverage than they formerly were ; 

 the reduction made by government in the duties 

 on spirits, in order to destroy smuggling has ren- 

 dered these fiercer stimulants so cheap that'it has 

 confirmed the use of them, which the dislike to 

 ale and porter had begun ; and the hardness of 

 the times has driven many to seek in dram-drink- 

 ing and intoxication, that temporary oblivion, 

 which is sure to be followed by a t rrible aggra- 

 vation of their miseries. Thus distress and drink- 

 ing act and re-act on one another. Distress, 

 whether produced by vice or misfortune, leads to 

 dram-drinking and intoxication ; and dram-drink- 

 ing and intoxication, are sure in their turn to re- 

 double and perpetuate the sufferings in which 

 they originated. 



# # * * 



The increase of dram-drinking and intoxica- 

 tion has now become a matter of univers il noto- 

 riety and observatien. It has lately drawn forth the 

 marked animadversion of the bench of magistrates 

 in whose jurisdiction the greatest part of the me- 

 tropolis is situate ; and the testimony of those 

 who are most cajiable of forming an opinion, 

 shows that the love of ardent spirits is spreading 

 in almost every part of Ireland, Scotland and of 

 England, among all classes, and both sexes with 

 most alarming rajiidity. In 1824 the amount of 

 duty raised on home and foreign spirits, as exact- 

 ly as we can collect from the perplexing manner 

 in which they are entered in the iiublic accounts 

 amounted to 5,.305,77G/. 9s. 2 3-4rf. In ISa.^ not- 

 withstanding the reduction of the rates of duty, it 

 rose to 5,786,333/. \s. 5 l-4d. ; in 1826, it was 

 0,474,632/. 10s,iS-id.; in 1827, 7,492,221/. 7*. 

 l-4rf. : and in 1828, the revenue arising from 

 spirits alone amounted to very little short of eight 

 millions, and formed almost a seventh part of the 

 whole annual revenue of the nation. He must be 

 callous indeed, who can listen to such a statement 

 without the most painful emotion. Whoever 

 catches the least glimpse of the interior of a gin 

 shop, as he passes along, must feel his heart sink 

 within him, when he reflects that governmen 

 draws so large a profit from the dreadful trade 

 which is there carried on. Politicians may 

 despise or disregard the principles of morality in 

 their schemes of finance, but they will find it in 

 practice most hazardous to counteract them. A 

 tax which begins by making the people more 

 profligate, will assuredly end in making the na- 

 tion more poor ; and whatever be its productive- 

 ness, or the facility and cheapness with which it 

 is levied, it will be found on the closest and full- 

 est examination to be the mo.st profitable as well 

 as virtuous policy to abandon it. If the ?;ood or- 

 der, industry, and sobriety of the people he the 

 chief source of a nation's wealth and power, then 

 the circumstances which have led to the rage for 

 spirituous liquors now pervading the country well 

 deserve consideration. Scarcely any single vice 

 can be named which exercises so baleful an influ- 

 ence on mind, body, and affections. Adieu, among 

 them whom it enslaves, to 



' The native feelings strong, the guileless way.' 

 It degrades them both in their individual and 

 social capacity — renders them reckless and ripe 

 for every sort of mischief ; and, as one of its most 

 certain and melancholy effects, they become both 



unable and unwilling to profit by that moral and 

 religious instruction which, in all times and places, 

 has had so benign an influence on the character 

 and condition of the people.' 



GROWTH OF SILK. 



The French govermnent is seriously occupied 

 in attenq)ts to inlroducc the cultivation of the 

 mulberry tree in France, so as to be able to do 

 without foreign silk. For this jiurpose they 

 have offered premiums for the most extensive 

 growth of mulberry trees, and the largest quanti- 

 ties of silk; and some of the ministers have given- 

 instructions to their stewards in the country to 

 plant several acres with this tree. It ap|)ears that 

 with careful cultivation, the mulberry may be 

 brought to maturity, as to the yielding of fruit in 

 five years ; and as the wood is excellent for mak- 

 ing wine casks, giving an agreeable flavor also to 

 the wine — two objects of national industry may 

 be accomplished at the same time. A readier 

 way than the regular planting, however, is recom- 

 mended for the fooil of silk worms. It is advisa- 

 ble to sow, as in China and in some parts of 

 America, the seed of the tree, and to cutofl"the 

 young shoots and leaves in the following year — 

 to continue doing this as long as fresh shoots are 

 thrown out, and then root up the plants, ma- 

 nure the land well, and repeat the process of 

 sowing. It is found that the fruit of the rauUierry 

 tree fattens pigs'and poultry rapidly ; and that the 

 leaves, carefully housed, form good winter fodder 

 for cattle. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1830. 



Cm.TIVATING FOREST TREES. 



A correspondent writes as follows : ' I have 

 attempted the two last years to cultivate the 

 Spruce, but they withered and died soon after 

 transplanting. The soil on which they were pla- 

 ced was a gravelly loam. I intend making 

 another attempt this spring, and if you will in- 

 form me what kind of trees would be most suita- 

 ble for the soil and situation, it being in front of 

 my dwelling house, together with the course to 

 be pursued in transplanting them, you will much 

 oblige,' &c. 



In the Massachusetts Jigricidlural Ripositor>j, 

 for June, 1822, the Hon. John Loweli,, then con- 

 ductor of that work, gives an account of his mode 

 of rearing forest trees. In 1807, 1808 and 1809, 

 he planted with forest trees from two to three 

 acres of land, which was barren and unproduc- 

 tive, its whole value per annum not ten dollars. 

 The trees were white pine, larch, fur balsam, and 

 in the better parts, oak of various sorts, maple, 

 beech, ash, elm, locust, spruce, Spanish chestnut, 

 &c. 



' The land was about half of it ploughed and 

 keiit open with potatoes for 2 year.^, and then 

 abandoned to the course of natuie. The pines 

 were taken up out of the f irest with great care, 

 not more than 5 feet high. Wherever I had the 

 cupidity or impali unce to introduce a larger tree, 

 I either lost it or it became sickly. In some places 

 I planted acorns, and as to my hard wood forest 

 trees, transplanted from the woods, finding they 

 looked feeble and sickly when they shot out, I in- 

 stantly sawed them oflf at the ground or near it. 

 This required some resolution, but I have been 

 abundantly paid for it. 



