>!.. XXI. NO. 83. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



1/. 



"< 



For Ihe New England Farmer. 



;A)MMODATIONS AT CATTLE SHOWS, 

 t Editor — Complaints hnve been made for a 

 er of years past, of the scanty accomnioda- 

 at our agricultural fairs, both for spectators 

 rticles exhibited. These fairs are every year 

 ff in interest and importance ; and, for this 

 and the absence of other holidays, such as 

 ry musters, they arc frequented by vast niulti- 

 besides those immediately concerned in agri- 

 re. Consequently, the rooms for the show of 

 and articles of domestic manufacture, are so 

 ged, that a peep at them can be gained only 

 risk of one's garments, if not of his person, 

 improved agricultural implements, too, are 

 rally exhibited on the road-side or m some 

 w back yard, scattered hero and there, so that 

 ommittee often must spend a good part of the 

 o discovering their locality. In other depait- 

 3 similar inconveniencies are often c.xperienc- 

 nd the inquiry naturally suggests itself wheth- 

 me remedy cannot be provided and the public 

 itter accommodated. 



has seemed to me that these desirable objects 

 )e effected in one of two ways. First, by hav- 

 he shows held, at some one central place every 

 and by the erection of a suitable building 

 Dens for that purpose. Some of our ngricultu- 

 ocieties have ample funds — and such as have 

 might raise them by assessments — which might 

 pplied to this object. It may be said that it 

 d be a dead investment, as the building would 

 eed but once a year. But if the building were 

 populous town, a portion of it might he rented 

 •stores and other purposes. At all events, 

 .her used for the shows only or not, it is deserv- 

 )f consideration vvhethersuch a building should 

 be provided. 



ut many persons object to holding the shows 

 y year in the same place; they urge that the 

 -est in them would be weakened, and the pub- 

 honvenience would not be so generally consult- 

 jy such a system. This objection certainly 

 not apply to large counties like those of VVor- 

 er and Berkshire, having a large central town, 

 inconvenience is experienced in those counties, 

 ■re the shows are held in the one at the town of 

 rcester, and in the other at Pittsfield. But 

 Te the objection would apply, and it should be 

 jght best to remove the shows yearly to diffe- 

 l towns, the great object of the public conveni- 

 e could be accomplished in another way — by a 

 ;e and substantial tent, to be owned by the So- 

 ;y, and used for the show. We have had lately 

 otable sample of a tent of this description, pro- 

 ed by the followers of Mr Miller, wherein to 

 d their public meetings. Perhaps this very 

 t may be purchased at a bargain in season for 

 next agricultural sho'ws. But if it could not 

 we might at least copy their pattern in a new 

 t to be made expressly for the shows. Such a 

 t would make quite an imposing appearance on 

 field; it could always, too, be placed in the 

 nediate neighborhood of the cattle pens and 

 wing ground, which would save lime and trav- 

 ng, when so much is to be done in a single day 

 it would shelter from rain as well as any build- 

 ; of wood or brick, and might as easily be divid- 

 into apartments for the different exhibitions. 

 Now wl'.cre is the objection to making such tents 

 such purposes .' None, it seems to me, unless 



the expense, and that should not stand in the way 

 if greiit benefits are to flow from it. 



As another advantage of these tents, it might be 

 observed that they would give opportunity to many 

 small towns to have \he shows held therein, which 

 are now shut out entirely from this privilege for 

 want of the necessary accommodations. 



Hoping that yourself or some of your correspon- 

 dents will notice this subject, for the present I close. 

 ALLEN W. DODGE. 



HamiUon, JVov. 22, 1842. 



For the New England Farmer. 



EXTRAORDINARY BEET. 



Mr Editor — I have observed in the New Eng- 

 land Farmer and other agricultural journals, fre- 

 quent record oC large beets, or teets of extraordina- 

 ry size, each professing to beat all other beets. 

 But a beet was exhibited at the rooms of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Horticultural Society, by my brother, 

 John A. Kenrick, of this town, about five years 

 since, of the mangel wurtzel species, which for 

 size, as I believe, exceeded any other beet which 

 was ever raised in the country, weighing 36 pounds, 

 without the tops. Several others were produced 

 by him in the same year, which weighed 2.5 pounds, 

 without the tops. I think I may safely challenge 

 any nne to prove that a beet so large was ever pro- 

 duced before in tliis country. Thus much for New 

 England. 



Gen. Beatson, who was formerly Governor of St. 

 Helena, has published an account of a beet of this 

 same species, which was raised by him in that cli- 

 mate and place, which was 18 months growing, and 

 which weighed, ijiclniivig Ihe tops, over 100 pounds. 

 This beet was sent by him to England, and the 

 truth of his statement cannot be doubted. 



WILLIAM KENRICK. 



.Yonanium Hill, ,N'ewton. 



Indian Mode of Dressing Skins Mr Catlin 



gives the following as the method by which the In- 

 diana of the far West dress their skins : 



"The usual method of dressing the buffalo and 

 other sliins, is by immersing them for a few days 

 under a ley from ashes and water, until the hair 

 can be removed, when they are strained upon a 

 frame, or upon the ground, with stakes or pins 

 driven through the edges into the earth, where 

 they remain for several days, and at last finished 

 by ' graining,' as it is termed, by the squaws, who 

 use a sharpened bone, the shoulder-blade or other 

 large bone of the animal, sharpened at the edge 

 somewhat like an adze, with the edge of which 

 they scrape tlie fleshy side of the skin, bearing on 

 it with the weight of their bodies, thereby drying 

 and softening the skin and fitting it for use. 



The greater part of these skins, however, go 

 through still another operation afterwards, which 

 gives them a great value, and renders them much 

 more serviceable; that is, the process of smoking. 

 For this a small hole is dug in the ground, and a 

 fire is built in it with rotten wood, which will pro- 

 duce a great quantity of smoke without much blaze ; 

 and several srjiall poles of the proper length stuck 

 in the ground around it, and drawn and fastened 

 together at the top, around which a skin is wrapped 

 in form of a tent, and generally sewed together at 

 the edges to secure the smoke within it ; within 

 this the skins to be smoked are placed, and in this 

 condition the tent will stand a day or so, enclosing 



the heiitcd smoke ; and by some chemical process- 

 or other, which I do not understand, the skins thus 

 acquire a quality which enables them, after being 

 so many times wet, to dry soft and pliant as they 

 were before, which secret I have never yet seen 

 practiced in my own country, and for the lack of 

 which all of our dressed skins when once wet are, 

 I think, chiefly ruined. 



An Indian's dress of deer skins, which if wet a 

 hundred times upon his back, dries sufl ; and his 

 lodge also, which stands in the rain, and even 

 through the severity of the winter, is taken down 

 as soft and as clean as when it was put up." 



Life and Death oj the Sixes. — The laws of life 

 and mortality between the sexes are very remarka- 

 ble. They may be stated thus : 



1. In the present condition of Ihe white popula- 

 tion of the United States, the number of femaleg 

 born per annum is about twelve thousand less than 

 the males. This determines of itself that polyga- 

 my is not a natural condition of man, and that the > 

 laws of our religion and nature are the same — that 

 one man shall be the husband of one woman. 



2. At twenty years of age the females exceej 

 the males. This proves that between birth anil 

 twenty, the mortality among the boys has been 

 much greater than that among the girls. 



3. From twenty to forty, the men again much 

 exceed the women, which shows that this is the 

 period of greatest mortality among women. 



4. From forty to seventy, the difference rapidly 

 diminishes, the t'emales, as in the early part of life, 

 gaining on the males. This shows that this is the 

 period of greatest danger and exposure to men — 

 the least to women. 



5. From seventy onwards, the women outnum- 

 ber the men. This shows conclusively, that rela- 

 tively speaking in comparison with men, the healthi- 

 est period of female life is the close of it. Abso- 

 lutely, however, no period to either sex, is bo 

 healthy as that of youth, the blooming period of 

 boyhood and girlhood. 



The above deductions of statistical tables, cor- 

 respond with every-day observations of human life. 



Women are exposed to peculiar hazards in the 

 middle of life ; but, in the long run, far the largest 

 part of exposure, danger and risk, in civilized na- 

 tions, fall on men in the active periods of life. — 

 Selected. 



.Anecdote of Franklin Dr. Franklin, while min- 

 ister to France, was surrounded one evening with 

 a circle of the aristocratic party in that country, 

 who argued warmly during the course of the con- 

 versation that our country would never prosper with 

 the democratic principle that the majority should 

 rule. Franklin contended stoutly for the princi- 

 ple, but his courtly opponents insisted that the wis- 

 dom of every country resided in the minority. The 

 question was finally put to vote, and the whole 

 company, with the exception of Franklin, Tosa in 

 the affirmative. Solitary and alone, our shrewd 

 Yankee, nothing daunted, rose from his seat, adroit- _ ^ 

 ly renin rking, " I rise, gentlemen, upon your princu ^..' ■ 

 pie, as the wise minority, to decide the questioR«, 

 against you !" — Selected. 



A lady asked her physician whether snuff 

 injurious to the brain. "No," said lie, " 

 one who has any hrains ever takes snuff." 

 vere pinch. 



for no 



A se- 



