No. 7. 



Low Prices. — Dry icood, or Green wood, fyc. 



219 



soned as I now do, and before a year had 

 passed, he had sold his grain for a price ad- 

 ditional, sufficient to pay for his new build- 

 ing ; since which, I have known the price 

 of wheat to be five dollars a bushel. Let 

 us therefore not despair, but hope; and 

 things will some time or other come round 

 of their own accord: depend upon it, we 

 have still far more to be thankful for than 

 we deserve, and the reflection should keep 

 us humble and confiding." 



My venerable friend has relieved my mind 

 of a load of anxiety. I have no more hogs 

 to sell, but I have six in pickle, and a beef 

 to slaughter. My health is good, and I have 

 a blessed wife and four dutiful children, with 

 food in store for a year. My wood-house is 

 well filled, and my chimnies never smoke. 

 I have a capital lard lamp and a small li- 

 brary of books ; and subscribe and pay for 

 the Cabinet, and two others of our best ag- 

 ricultural journals. I have a chest of tools 

 for a rainy day; shelter for all my cattle, 

 and provender for the winter; with a well 

 of as pure water as Adam ever drank of— a 

 real Jacob's well, from which " I drink myself, 

 and my children, and my cattle." A church 

 not distant, which serves for a school during 

 the week; and a pastor for my minister- 

 one who is as ready to weep with those who 

 weep, as to rejoice with those who do rejoice ; 

 fulfilling also the duties of a physician to 

 the body, as well as the soul ! I fear, indeed, 

 that I have fir more blessings than I de- 

 serve, and the thought shall henceforth keep 

 me li humble and confiding." 



" Truly, the lines are fallen unto me in 

 pleasant places ; 



Yea, I have a goodly heritage !" 



John Dorsay. 



Schuylkill county, Dec. 3d, 1842. 



For tlif Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Soap Suds. — There is no better manure 

 than dirty soap suds; and there is not a farm 

 house in tiie country, but what produces 

 enough of it in the course of a year, to ma- 

 nure a garden, two or three times over. 

 Dirty suds, after washing, is almost univer- 

 sally thrown into the nearest gutter to be 

 washed away and wasted. Would it not be 

 an improvement, and show a laudable econ- 

 omy in the good woman of the farm house, 

 to have it conveyed to the garden to enrich 

 the ground, and make the vegetables grow 

 more luxuriantly ! The pot-ash, the grease, 

 and the dirt, all of which are component 

 parts of soap suds, are first rate manures, 

 and should always be applied to make plants 

 grow, and especially when hard times are 

 loudly complained of, and sound economy is 

 the order of the day. C. 



From the Massachusetts Ploughman. 



Dry wood, or (»reen wood—which gives 

 the most heat? 



I wish to say a word on the article of 

 fuel. I frequently, in the papers, read an 

 article by some theorist on the advantage of 

 seasoning wood for the use of a family ; it is 

 frequently stated that there is more heat in 

 dry, than in green wood; — in some kinds of 

 wood it is evidently the case, as in white 

 pine, poplar, and some ethers; but with sap- 

 pling oak, as far as my experience goes, I 

 contend that there is more heat in it when 

 green, than when dry, especially if seasoned 

 out of doors. Frequently I have had wood 

 dried out of doors, particularly old frow oak, 

 that would not burn near so freely as green, 

 taken directly from the stump. 



The sap of trees is composed of some- 

 thing more than water, as it is frequently 

 supposed. This is evidently the case with 

 the sap of the rock-maple, the pitch-pine, 

 the fir, &c. For instance, cut two lots of 

 wood, coal or char one when green, and let 

 the other dry before charring. The coal 

 from the green wood will be as much hea- 

 vier, as the green wood was heavier than the 

 dry, and will substantially heat in a black- 

 smith's fire, as much more iron, and spend 

 as much farther as it is heavier than the 

 other. Of this, I am able to speak from ex- 

 perience ; now, if the sap was nothing but 

 water, this, I think, could not be. I have 

 tried wood almost every way, and by expe- 

 rience I prefer the following as the best 

 economy for the poor. The rich may do as 

 they please. 



Select one third, and never one half dry, 

 for unless you have a bad stove indeed, you 

 can cook equally as well, and be as comfort- 

 ably warmed, and save one quarter of the 

 expense. Every man that can, should sea- 

 son his wood under cover, as its value is 

 much increased thereby. True economy is 

 the weallh of the nation, and it should be 

 the pride of all our pursuits, the pillar of our 

 domestic happiness; for it makes the most 

 of our means for supplying our ow r n wants, 

 and for being useful to others. It is truly 

 the poor man's wealth and capital. 



Yours, &c, S. P. 



A century ago, poor Richard, to whom 

 we are indebted for much valuable instruc- 

 tion, said, that "He who hath a trade, hath 

 an estate, and he who hath a calling, hath 

 an office of profit and honour.'''' 



This, like all other truths, hath lost none 

 of its good qualities by age, for truth never 

 spoils by keeping, and a thousand years 

 hence, it will be no less true than at the 

 present time. 



