FARMERS' REGISTER— EFFECTS OF POOR LAWS. 



361 



ready market for all the bone-dust he can produce 

 — at 31 ceuts per bushel. We have seen state- 

 ments of the comparative expense of manuring, in 

 Scotland, with bone-dust, at 2s. 4d. sterl. per bush- 

 el, and cattle dung, as cheap as it could be had. 

 The advantage was two to one in Aivor of the bone 

 dust: and the.field where it was applied gave the 

 best crop. Its benefits are most apparent upon a 

 silicious soil, and upon the turnip crop. Twenty- 

 five bushels to the acre is a lair dressing. For 

 turnips the bone-dust is placed with the seed in 

 the drill; for other crops it is sown broad cast, 

 and blended with the soil by the harrow. We 

 have used bones, horn shavings and fleshings, the 

 two latter for years, and have found them truly a 

 valuable concentrated manure. The method of 

 preparing the bones is this : a large block, similar 

 to that used by butchers, is hewed on the outside 

 in angles, and pieces of boards, extending two to 

 three feet aliove the block, are nailed around, so 

 as to prevent the pieces, when broken, from flying 

 off — a space of a few inches being lelt on one side 

 to admit the use of an axe. The bones, in small 

 quantities at a time, are thrown on to the block, 

 and cut with an axe, till the mass is reduced to 

 small pieces, then thrown out, and a fresh supply 

 put in. They are afterwarils passed througli a 

 coarse riddle, and the large pieces returned again 

 to the block to be further reduced. Broken bones 

 are not so eflicient in immediate effect, a.s bone- 

 dust ; but they are more durable in their beneuls. 

 After being broken or ground, the bone should be 

 exposed and slightly fermented before it is ap()lied, 

 if it is intended to impart immediate benelit. Such 

 is the demand for bone-dust in Scotland, that we 

 observe in tlie last Edinburgh Quarterly Journal 

 of Agriculture that the price has advanced to 3s. 

 6d. (nearly 70 cents) per bushel. One hundred 

 parts of bones contain, according to Davy, 

 Solid gelatine, - - - - 51 

 Phosphate of lime, _ _ _ 37^7 



Carbonate of lime, - - - 10 



Posphate of Magnesia, - - 1,3 



100 

 Horns contain concentrated albumen, oil, gela- 

 tine and phosphate of lime. B. 



EFFECTS OF POOR LAWS. 



From Buhvcr's EngUuid. 

 The system of public charities, however honor- 

 able to the humanity of a nation, requires the 

 wisest legislative provisionsnot to conspire with the 

 poor-laws to be destructive to its morals. Nothing 

 so nurtures virtue as the spirit of independence. 

 The poor should be assisted undoubtedly— but in 

 what — in providing for themselves. Hence the 

 wisdom of the institution of savings banks. 

 Taught to lean upon others, they are only a bur- 

 den upon industry. The Reverend Mr. Stone has 

 illustrated this principle in a vein of just and feli- 

 citous humor. He supposes a young weaver of 

 twenty-two marrying a servant-girl of nineteen. 

 Are they provident against the prospects of a fa- 

 mily — do tliey economise — toil — retrench? — No: 

 they live in Spitalfields, and rely upon charitable 

 institutions. The wife gets a ticket for the " Roy- 

 al Maternity Society," — she is delivered for noth- 

 ing — she wants baby linen — the Benevolent So- 

 ciety supply her. The child must be vaccinated — 

 Vol. 1—46 



he goes to the hospital for vaccination. He is 

 eighteen months old, " he must be got out of the 

 way;" — he goes to the Infant School; — from 

 thence he proceeds, being " distressed," to the Edu- 

 cational Clothing Society, and the Sunday schools. 

 Thence he attains to the clothing charity schools. 

 He remains five years — he is apprenticed gratis 

 to a weaver — he becomes a journeyman — the ex- 

 ample of his parents is before his eyes — he marries 

 a girl of his own age — his child passes the ances- 

 tral round of charities — his own work becomes 

 precarious — 'but his father's family was for years 

 in the same circumstances, and was always saved 

 l)y charity ; to charity, then, he again has recourse. 

 Parish gifts of coals, and parish gifts of bread are 

 at his disposal. Spitalfields associations, soup so- 

 cieties, benevolent societies, pension societies — all 

 fostering the comfortable luxury of living gratui- 

 tously — he comes at length to the more fixed in- 

 come of parish relief — " he begs an extract from 

 the parish register, proves his settlement by the 

 chanty school-indenture of apprenticeship, and 

 quarters his family on the parish, with an allow- 

 ance of five shillings a week. In this uniform al- 

 ternation of voluntary and compulsory relief he 

 draws towards the close of his mendicant exis- 

 tence. Before leaving the world, he might, ner- 

 haps, return thanks to the public. He has teen 

 born for nothing — he has been nursed for noth- 

 ing — he has been clothed for nothing — he has been 

 educated for nothing — he has been put out in the 

 world for noticing — he has had medicine and medi- 

 cal attendance for nothing; and he has had his 

 children also born, nursed, clothed, fed, educated, 

 established and physicked — for nothing ! 



" There is but one good office more for which 

 he can stand indebted to .society, and that is his 

 burial! He dies a parish pauper, and, at the ex- 

 pense of the parish, he is provided with shroud, 

 coffin, pall, and burial-ground; a party of paupers 

 from the workhouse bear his body to the grave, 

 and a party of paupers are his mourners." 



Thus we find, that public charities are too often 

 merely a bonus to public indolence and vice. 

 What a dark lesson of the fallacy of human wis- 

 dom does this knowledge strike into the heart! 

 What a waste of the materials of kindly sympa- 

 thies! What a perversion individual mistakes 

 can cause, even in the virtues of a nation ! 



The efiects of the poor laws on the social system 

 are then briefly these; — they encourage improvi- 

 dence, for they provide for its wants; they engen- 

 der sexual intemperance, for they rear its offspring; 

 by a necessary reaction, the benefits conferred on 

 the vicious pauper, become a curse on the honest 

 laborer. They widen the breach between the 

 wealthy and the poor, for compulsory benevolence 

 is received with discontent; — they deaden the so- 

 cial affections of the laborer, for his children be- 

 come to him a matter of mercantile speculation. 

 " An instance," says Mr. Villiers, speaking from 

 his experience in the county of Gloucester, " was 

 mentioned, of a man who had lately lost all his 

 chddren, saying publicly, that it was a sad thing 

 for him, for he had lost his parish pay, and that had 

 his children lived he should have been well to do." 



The poor-laws, administered as at present 

 through the southern parts of the island, poison 

 morality, independence, and exertion; — the en- 

 couragers, the propagators, and the rewarders of 

 pauperism. To these evils we must add those in- 



