219 



N E W E N G L A N l> F A R M K U , 



JAM. IS, iH'A6\ 



and researches, than the naval officns. They 

 meet, in every foreign port, the ships of England, 

 France, Russia and Holland, charged with the 

 honorahle duties of acquiring nautical intelligence, 

 correcting their national charts, opening new 

 channels for coininercial speculation, collecting 

 specimens for the cabinets of science, and what- 

 ever may he deemed worthy of introduction to 

 their several nations, to increase manufacturing 

 industry and give an impulse to tillage. Such 

 interviews cannot but excite painful sensations, 

 from the lamentable and degrading contrast which 

 they present, between the enlightened munificence 

 on the part of the European sovereigns, and the 

 disgraceful negligence of their own government. 

 They anxiously wish and richly merit to be jilaced 

 on a level, at least, in these respects, with the 

 enviable condition of the officers of other fleets, 

 who do not surpass them in skill, energy, and 

 ability, to maintain the glory of the flag, wliich 

 waves over their beads. 



The probability of finding in China, numerous 

 valuable or ornamental trees and plants, better 

 adapted to the climate of the United States, than 

 those produced on the western coast of the east- 

 ern continent, has been repeatedly suggested ; but 

 as the reasons for this assumption have been so 

 clearly stated and conclusively urged by Mr Rey- 

 nolds, in his very interesting journal of the voyage 

 of the Potomac, under the command of Commo- 

 dore Downes, it is desirable that they should be 

 more generally known. I have, therefore, made 

 the following e.\tract, with an ardent hope, that 

 some of the gentlemen who are in constant cor- 

 respondence with the " Celestial Empire," will 

 become the benefactors of their country, by suc- 

 cessfully transplanting such specimens of the veg- 

 etable products of that vast region as may be 

 deemed either useful to the farmer, or interesting 

 to the horticulturist. 



Extract frnm Revnold's Journal of the Vovage of the U. S. Frigate 

 I'otoraac Uouiiil the World, in Uie years'l831, '32, '33, and '34. 



"A proper estimation, in this country, has never 

 been placed upon the benefits which might result 

 to agriculture, and particularly to horticulture, 

 from an expedition to the coast of China. That 

 country has a climate very similar to our own, 

 arising from its similar position ou the eastern 

 edge of a great continent. Both are dry, and 

 subject to greater vicissitudes of heat and cold 

 than countries in the interior, or on the other side 

 of the great continent. This being the case, the 

 vegetable productions suitable to the one, cannot 

 but thrive well in the other. 



" China has been a long time civilized, and the 

 whole extent of its coast has been for ages under 

 a government, which has paid more attention to 

 agriculture, than any other government that has 

 ever existed. Under such circumstances, it is 

 impossible to be otherwise but that the vegetables 

 and fruits of the various climates have been accli- 

 mated to a degree much beyond what they have 

 with us, or in Europe, from whence we derive 

 our fruits and vegetables. 



" The territories of China, embracing both sides 

 of the troj>ic of Cancer, we have every reason to 

 believe, that the productions of the south, have 

 been extended, as far as possible to the north, and 

 those of the north to the south. 



"By getting, therefore, fruits and vegetables 

 from a country thus situated, we get the advantage 

 of a thousand or more years of acclimation. For 

 instance, we get our apples and pears from Eng- 



land and France. The apple we have not yet 

 acclimated as far south as Georgia. There are, 

 we believe, only one or two varieties, which, in 

 the upper part of that State, jjrove fruitful in some 

 years. Their flavor is very indifferent. So with 

 the pear. Coining from the latitude of from forty 

 two to fifty, it is unproductive south of Baltimore, 

 and so with other fruits. 



" Who can doubt but that, in a country in which 

 the extension and prosperity of agriculture have 

 been the great object of government, their fruits 

 and other vegetables have, in the course of fifteen 

 hundred years, been extending gradually to the 

 south, so as to become used to a climate, which it 

 will take nearly the same period to reach, with the 

 varieties of fruits, which we now have. It is the 

 same with the fruits and vegetable productions of 

 the south. The tropical fruits and vegetables 

 must have been brought as far north as they can 

 be profitably cultivated. From fifteen hundred 

 to two thousand years have been passed in this 

 process of acclimation. 



" Why should we undergo this long proci'ss, 

 when a few thousand dollars may introduce them 

 among us .' 



" It is well known, that among other plants, the 

 sugar-cane may be gradually introduced into a 

 climate which was at one lime uncongenial to it. 

 The Otahite has been introduced into Louisiana. 

 What a gain it would be to our country, if a vari- 

 ty could be procured which could be raised one 

 degree further north than the Otahite 1 The ad- 

 vantages from this single plant alone would a 

 thousand times compensate for all the expenses 

 of such an experiment. For the introduction into 

 this country of the various fruits and vegetables 

 which such a country as China must produce, 

 might be attended with advantages almost incal- 

 culable, 



"We have already received from China one 

 animal, the benefits of which to our country sur- 

 pass a thousand times the expenses which might 

 accrue in setting on foot the proper inquiry in 

 relation to this matter. The Chinese hog is the 

 animal to which we allude. A long series of 

 years devoted to the selection of animals having a 

 propensity to fatten, could alone have produced 

 the breed, which has added so much to the wealth 

 of our farmers, and to the pleasure of our epicures 

 who admire a nice ham. What would our gar- 

 deners think of the immense piles of headed let- 

 tuce, described by travellers in China, as heaped 

 up at the gates of the cities, preparatory to enter- 

 ing and being distributed among the morning 

 markets ? We have nothing of the kind in the 

 United States or Europe. We cannot have, un- 

 less by hundreds of years of |)ersevering industry 

 and care. 



"These things are more particularly of impor- 

 tance, because they are those in which the great 

 mass of the community are directly and jirinci- 

 pally interested. They add to the comfort of the 

 poorest, as much as they do to that of the richest. 

 All are benefitted, and none could complain of an 

 expenditure which all acknowledge is for the ben- 

 efit of all classes and all sections. If there be any 

 section that may be more benefitted than anotlier, 

 it is from latitude thirtytwo degrees south. 



" The introduction of one single vegetable, the 

 turnip, into England, changed the whole face of a 

 large district of country, and rendered it, from be- 

 ing almost barren, one of the most fertile in the 

 kingdom." 



Splitting Rocks. — In the granite quarries 

 near Seringapatam, the most enotmous blocks ai-et 

 separated from the solid rock by the followingi 

 neat and simple process. The workmen having 

 found a portion of the rock sufficiently extensive 

 and situated near the edge of the part alreadj 

 quarried, lays bare the upper surface, and marks '" 

 on it a line in the direction of the intended sepa. 

 ration, along which a groove is cut with a chisel 

 about a couple of inches in depth. Above thii 

 groove a line of fire is kindled, and this is main 

 tained till the rock below is thoroughly heated 

 immediately on which a line of men and women 

 each provided with a pot of cold water, suddenl] 

 sweep off the ashes, and pour the water in thi 

 heated groove, when the rock at once splits will 

 a clean fracture, square blocks of six feet in thi 

 side and upwards of eighty feet in length, an 

 sometimes detached by this method. Hardly leg 

 simple and efficacious is the process used in sorrn 



parts of France, where millstones are made 



When a mass sufficiently large is found, it is cu 

 into a round form, several feet high, and the quea 

 tion then arises, how to divide this into pieces o 

 a proper size for millstones. For this purpos. 

 grooves are chiseled out, at distances correspond 

 ing to the thickness intended to be given to tb 

 millstones, into which grooves wedges of drier 

 wood are driven. These wedges are then wetted 

 or exposed to the dew, and next morning tb 

 block of stone is found separated into pieces c 

 a proper size for millstones, merely by the expat 

 sion of the wood, consequent on absorption c 

 moisture; an irresistible natural jrower thus fin 

 ishing, almost without any trouble, and at no ei 

 pense, an operation which, from the peculiar hare 

 ness of the texture of the .stone, would otherwif 

 be impracticable but by the most powerful nij 

 ehinery, or the most perservering labor. 



For Housekeepers : a short way to mak 

 oLn Bread new, or better than new. — Brei 

 that is several days old, may be renewed so as 1 

 have all the freshness and lightness of new breai 

 by simply putting it into a common steamer ovi 

 a fire, and steaming it half or three quarters of 8 

 hour. The vessel under the steamer containin 

 the water, should not be more than half full, otl 

 erwise the %vater may boil up into the steamer aD 

 wet the bread. After the bread is thus steamei 

 it should be taken out of the steamer, and wrappe 

 loosely in a cloth to dry and cool, and remain I 

 two or three hours, when it will be ready to I 

 cut and used. It will then be like cold ne' 

 bread. By this process we may work such 

 change in oW bread, as will make it in all respecl 

 new except in its deleterious qualities — an.l thu 

 at the same time, gratify the taste, and subsen 

 the purposes of health and economy. Ne' 

 bread, it is well known, cannot be eaten with pel 

 feet impunity, until it has undergone the procei 

 of ripening — and indeed, physicians say it ougl 

 not, as a general rule, to be eaten till the day aftf 

 it is made. A way is pointed out above, by whic 

 a taste for new bread may be gratified, withoi 

 exposure to injury. 



V\^e have received the above suggestions froi 

 an experienced housekeeper who has often trie 

 the experiment, and, to our knowledge, with coB 

 plete success — and we publish it for the benef 

 of others. — Springfield Gaz. 



There is more mirth than tears in the world- 

 miserable as we think it to be. 



