Vol. IX.— Nn. 26. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



205 



Jtlic'ir heads inward. The grass, to look at it 

 ;hroii|;h the window, seemed of a yellow green ; 

 he suniB as to look through smoked glass upon 

 »rceii grass. 



I well renieniber, that the gentleman of the 

 lOHse read the following scripture by candle light, 

 ;o his numerous family : 



' The sun shall he turned into darkness, and the 

 noon into hloo<l, before tiiat great and notable day 

 )f the Lord's coming.' 



The darkness was so great in the night time, 

 ;hnt it was said by one Doctor Blackington, who 

 resiiled near the northeast part of Rehohoth, who 

 lad occasion to be out among his sick patients that 

 liglit, that he could not see his white pocket hand- 

 kerchief placed before bis eyes. The darkness 

 .vas so thick that it could be felt. 



The year 1780, was celebrated for the many 

 lortliern lights; they covered the whole horizon 



or ; — they would flash like lightning and fill the 

 lir with the smell of sulphur. The lights were so 

 •ed, that the flashes would bring warmth against 

 he fice. 



Tlic great snow fall was in December,1779, or 

 ■anuary, 17S0. It snowed seven days ; the snow 

 vas estimated to be four feet on a level, and the 

 Irifts from eight to ten feet high. The snow came 

 noist and coarse, and it was so cold that it con- 

 cealed very hard. The people travelled over stone 

 .vails with their teams. It was said to be a fact, 

 ;hat for thirty days, the snow did not melt from the 

 ;aves of the honses on the sunny side. The banks 

 were so high, that sheep were buried up in them, 

 ind there remained for forty days, until they were 

 bund by their air holes, and dug then out alive. 



This year the whole of the Narragansett Bay 



as frozen over so thick and hard, that the late 

 Honorable John Brown passed from Providence 

 n the river of ice, to Newport, and back, and I 

 elieve some went on skating parties the whole 

 ange. Gen. William Valentine sleighed wood 

 ixim Fall River to Newport, on the ice, through 

 Blistol Ferry. 



The people of Newport burnt their furniture 

 l> keep themselves from freezing. The British 

 'rmy had left the island of Rhode Island in No- 

 vember, 1779, and stripped the people of all their 

 aluables. In a manner the years of 1779 and 

 ,780, were the hardest winters known for a century 

 mt past. 



The weather was so severe in the winter of 

 780, that many people were frozen to death. A 

 nan went from Attleborough, Mass. with a load of 

 loops to Boston, and was caught in the great storm ; 

 ind returning home, was frozen to death, coming 

 kffBoston neck. His ox team was frozen to death, 

 Uld was found standing on their feet as the snow 

 ivas deep enough to support them. 



3. A man quite recently entered a store with 

 half a bushel of corn, all of which was bartered 

 for rum, even when his family needed it for their 

 daily sustenance. 



4. Within a month a wife has been driven from 

 her house on the morning of the sabbath to seek 

 refuge from the-brutality of her husband, who 

 threatened her life. Iler husband was maddened 

 by rum. 



5. Two individuals in this town have within a 

 fortnight suffered severe injuries in conseque«ice of 

 intoxication by rum. One fell under his cart 

 wheel which horribly mangled his leg — and the 

 other had his arm broki'n in a drunken quarrel. 



No men labor harder than printers — no men 

 are more scantily paid in proportion to the wear 

 and tear of mental and physical constitution — no 

 men in this community, we are quite certain, are 

 called upon for so large an amount, in proportion 

 to their means, of thpir gratuitous services — and 

 we believe that no men perform those unpaid ser- 

 vices with more cheerful alacrity. The boldness 

 or indifference with which some people lay an as- 

 sessment upon newspaper proprietors would justify 

 the inference that they supposed types and presses 

 to cost nothing, journeymen and tipprentices to la- 

 bor and live without need of food or clothing, and 

 paper-makers to furnish a costly material without 

 ever asking for payment. We have no doubt that 

 each of the proprietors of the daily papers in this 

 city, gives enough annually, in the way of gratuitous 

 advertising for persons or societies who are able 

 and ought to pay, in newspapers in which he gets 

 neither credit nor thanks, to defray tlie expenses 

 of educating his children, even though he might 

 have a son or two in college. If some rich fellow 

 who inherited his money without earning it, were 

 to give away half as much, he woidd be laud- 

 ed 'aky high ' as the prince of philanthropists, and 

 his name would ring along the Atlantic from Maine 

 to Mexico, and be echoed by the Rocky Mountains, 

 as a benefactor of his race. A few hundred dol- 

 lars, given in a lump, is something to tell of; si.x- 

 pence at a time, a dozen times a day, is never thought 

 of. — Boston Courier. 



sriBW issr^iLiisriD ^iiuimi2i2» 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY It, 1831. 



Premiums. — At a Meeting of the Trustees of 

 the Middlesex Agricultural Society, held in 

 Concord, on Wednesday, the 29th ult. the following 

 Premiums were awarded : 

 To Nathan Brooks, of Acton, for 36 1-2 bush. 



sis quarts of Rye from one acre and 



five rods, ' $15,00 



To Richard Hall, of Littleton, for 2144 pounds of 



Hops, first quality, from 148 rods, §10,00 



The following striking facts, we learn from the 

 Brunswick Journal, were communicated at the last 

 Ttecting of the Temperance Society in that town. 

 Let him who has a hankering for strong drink 

 ead and tremble least he become as miserable an 

 object as these. — Portland Courier. 



1. Within a sliort time a man in this town sold 

 is own coat twice, which was each time redeem- 

 ed by the lalior of his virtuous, industrious wife, 

 articles of clothing belonging to his wife, crockery 

 ftom his table, — and even a blanket taken from 

 his bed, all for rum. 



2. There is a female in this town who will sell 

 articles of provision, as grain, potatoes, or beans by 

 the pint, quart or peck to neighbors for rum. 



Manufactures of Greene County. — The Cattskill 

 Recorder of the 16th irist. says, on Monday last, 

 the sloop Cattskill sailed from the wharf of Messrs 

 Donnelly, Cookes and Co., having on board 

 10,000 sides of leather, worth more than 850,000, 

 all manufactured in that county. This they say is 

 but a small item of the inmiense amount of the 

 product of the Oak and Hemlocks of their moun- 

 tains. On the same day other sloops sailed from 

 there, freighted with the same article ; and from 

 ten to twenty loads of leather have been received 

 daily, for many days past, in that village, each load 

 averaging in value, from five to six hundred dol- 

 lars. So much for cultivating our own resources. 



Illinois. — Number of inhabitants 161,055. 

 1820, 55,21L Increase, 105,844. 



In 



USES OF THE POTATO. 

 The different uses to which the potato may be 

 applied are the thirtyone following. 



I, 2, 3. Itshaidm in a green state, is good food 

 both for cattle and sheep ; dried and burned the 

 ashes afford potash or will form artificial nitre beds. 



4. The tubers in a frozen state afibrd starch. 



5. Potatoes young or old, may be eaten roasted, 

 steamed or boiled. 



G. They may be made into bread, with one third 

 part of flour. 



7. Soups may be made of them ; they may be 

 roasted or fried. 



8. With the flour of potatoes every description 

 of pastry may be formed. 



9. Converted into fecula or starch or cut into 

 slices, and dried by steam, they may be preserved 

 for any length of time, 



10. Vermicelh, and tapioca, articles which may 

 be made of the flour or starch of any plant, may 

 of course be formed from them. 



II, 12, 13. They are mixed with gravy ; they 

 are made into j^aste and starcli. 



14. Mixed with stucco they form an improved 

 plaster. 



15. They nourish every description of domestic 

 animal, and during winter are eaten by hares an<l 

 rabbits. 



16. Cut into slices, and thrown in a certain pro- 

 jiortion into caldrons of boiling ^^'ater, they prevent 

 the sediment of water from adhering to the sides 

 and bottom of such vessels. 



17. They form a wash, or thin plaster for build- 

 ing, which may be colored by soot, ochre, or other 

 colors, as washes of lime are colored in this 

 country. 



18. Roasted to a brown state, and ground to 

 powder, they make a very good coffee. 



19. Crushed they are employed for whitening 

 linen and other cloth. 



20. The water expressed from bruised potatoes 

 is a rapid promoter of the germination of seeds. 



21. 22. The fecula, or starch, with sulphuric 

 acid, is converted into syrup, from which a S|)ecies 

 of sugar may be obtained, analagous to cassouade 

 (moist sugar.) 



I 23. With soot and other mixtures this syrup - 

 makes an admirable blacking. 

 ' 24. Crushed potatoes, or their fecula will afford 

 ' spirit by distillation. 



25. Potatoes may be cultivated in caves and 

 cellars, which resource might have saved Misso- 

 longhi. We were rather surprised at this remark 

 of Messrs Payen and Chevalier, as every gardener 

 knows that the young potatoes formed in cellars 

 are merely a remodification or transfer of the nu- 

 triment contained in the old potatoes and as this 

 transfer is always made at a great loss of nutri- 

 ment, if the besieged at Missolonghi had enougii of 

 potatoes to plant their cellars, it would have been 

 more profitable for them to have eaten them as 

 they were, than to have encouraged them to form 

 new tubers. 



26, 27. The water contained in the tubers of 

 young potatoes may be em|)loyed in dying gray, 

 and the blossom forms a beautiful yellow. 



28, 29. The water of potato blossoms cleans 

 cloth, of cotton wool and silk, and assists in the 

 manufacture of artificial soda. 



30. A potato diet cures the scurvy. 



