172 



SILK MANUAL, AN 



Frugal Honsevvife, for the females, so that tlie 

 very means of rewarding, should he an encour- 

 agement and guide to greater ^xcelienoe. 



But if, as niemhers of this society, you can do 

 but little to remedy this evil abroad, as members 

 of a more limited society you can do much to 

 remedy it at home. Fathers and mothers, you 

 stand at the fountain ; with the lightest trace of 

 your finger on the yielding soil, you can give a 

 direction to the infant stream. You can send it 

 gliding down through verdant fields and flowery 

 lawns, imf)arting new fertility and beauty, and 

 anfin contributing its strength to propel the com- 

 plicated machinery of industry : or you can send 

 it di'shing, foaming over precipices, to join with 

 other impetuous, headlong streams, carrying de- 

 vastation in their course: or you can suffer it to 

 roll its sluggish way into some stagnant pool, af- 

 fording a refuge for loathsome re})ti!es, and poison- 

 ing the atmosphere with its pestilential vapors. 

 In infancy and at home, the dee|)est and most 

 lasting impressions are made ; your children may 

 have able and faithful instructers, but there are 

 many lessons of practical wisdom which are not 

 taught in the schools. The mind of your child 

 is constantly busy — he will be learning a lesson 

 of you when you least think of it. To your 

 child your remark is wisdom ; your observation, 

 experience; your opinion, sound doctrine; and 

 your word, a law ; your child is learning a lesson 

 from every look and action — but most of all, your 

 examjile is educating your child. It is a book 

 constantly open before him, and which ho is con- 

 stantly studying. Be carefu', anxious father, fond 

 mother, that you insert no page which heroaJter 

 you may wish to tear, no line you may wish to 

 blot — be careful that you admit into that much 

 read volume no sentiment which you are unwil- 

 ling your child should transcribe on the fair tablet 

 within his own innocent bosom. 



Fear not that I am about at this late hour to 

 inflict on you a lecture on general education. — 

 Schools, academies aad colleges have been founded 

 for the education of the mind and the heart ; to 

 these we must leave them ; but what has been 

 done to encourage the education of the hand ? — 

 The heart and tlie mind should indeed be enlight- 

 ened, pure and undetiled, but the Jiand must be 

 busy and skilful. The great secret of hapj)iness 

 consists in never suffering the energies to stagnate. 

 Fortunately in the farmer's business there is no 

 want ef constant employment; if you can accustom 

 your cliiSdren to patient and cheerful labor, you 

 have secured for them the means of happiness 

 and inde|)endence. In other stations of life there 

 may be unfortunates 



" Stretched on the r )ck of a too easy chair, 

 Who by their everlasting yawn confess 

 The pains and penalties of idlenesB"— 



but this mortal sin should never invade a farmer's 

 dwelling. In training your children to a willing 

 industry, do not overtask their strength — let them 

 feel that they cai be useful, and that their assist- 

 ance is valued— There are various employments 

 in the house, the garden and the field that are 

 adapted to their tender years ; njver let their la- 

 bor be such in kind or amount as shall make it 

 disgusting, and if possible make them derive from 

 their labor some compensation in money, or relax- 

 ation, or indulgence ; never withhold the merited 

 I)raise or reward. Accustom them never to ex- 

 pect another to do for them that which they can as 

 well do for themselves, but to rely upon their own 

 strength, and to trust their own energies. What- 

 ever may be their prospects in life, teach them to 

 depend on their own i-esources. Help them to 

 cultivate an afltjctionate, accommodating disposi- 

 tion, moderation in their expectations and mode- 

 ration in their pleasures. Teach them to reve- 

 rence God and to love work — " neither to despise 

 labor nor husbandry, which the Most High has 

 appointed." " I'each them to bear the yoke in 

 their youth, and to do wit'i all diligence whatever 

 their hands find to do" ; so shall you deserve 

 their assistance in the management of your house 

 and your farms ; so sha'l you secure for them 

 that comfiptence and happiness of which the mis- 

 chances of this world cannot deprive them. And 

 when you shall have performed all life's duties 

 and enjoyed all life's pleasures, when your earthly 

 tabernacle shall fall into ruins, when your wearied 

 frames shall find quiet repose beneath the soil you 

 have faithfully cultivated, and when your spirits, 

 like shocks of corn fully ripe, shall be gathered 

 into store houses not made with hands, eternal in 

 the heavens — your grateful children shall arise 

 and bless your memory ; they shall be living mon- 

 uments which shall bear record that you laid for 

 them, in early habits of patient, cheerful and con- 

 tented industry, the foundation for a manly, vir- 

 tuous and honorable independence. 



Tobacco in Russia. — The Agricultural Society 

 of JMoscow has awarded gold and silver medals, 

 as premiums of encouragement for the culture of 

 American Tobacco, which has perfectly succeeded 

 in Russia. 



Mites and Weevils. — The following method 

 is practised in Germany for granaries infested by 

 mites and weevils. Let the walls and rafters 

 above and below of such granaries be covered 

 comjiletely with quick lime, slackened in water, in 

 which trefoil, wormwood and hyssop have been 

 boiled. This composition siiould be ai plied as 

 hot as possible. 



