Vol 1.— No. 44. 



AND CJARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



349 



The Nelumbrium or Cyamus, said by Nuttall to 

 have the largest flower of any plant in the Uni- 

 ted States, I have seen in Sandusky bay. Our 

 winters are short. Lake Erie is usually open for 

 navigation from Cleveland to the West, from the 

 1st to the 10th of March; although to Erie and 

 Buffalo, it is closed till from the 10th of April to 

 the 1st of June. There is no finer peach country 

 in the world. The gourd seed corn is the kind 

 commonly raised, and it seldom fails of coming to 

 maturity, though it would seem from a late num- 

 ber of the Genesee Farmer, as if it was yet a 

 question whether it is adapted to that climate. — 

 And a Detroit paper of the '23d September, states 

 (hat the corn of the St Joseph country, in Michi- 

 gan, is generally lost. E. Y. 

 Cleveland. 



FOR THE GENESEE PARMER. 



MILITARY TRAININGS,— No. 1. 

 To support and respect the laws of the land is 

 the duty of every citizen — an attempt to bring 

 into disrepute the general laws of the country 

 would admit of no apology. But in a country 

 like ours, where the people make the laws, — and 

 make so many too — and while imperfection con- 

 tinues inseparably connected with every thing 

 human, to point out the defects of existing laws 

 with a view to their abolition or amendment, is 

 not only the right, but a high and imperious duty 

 of every citizen. With this view, we shall at- 

 tempt, in a few shori numbers, to show the im- 

 policy and inexpediency, not to say injustice of 

 the laws of this state in regard to " the militia 

 andpublic defence." No one need be informed 

 that in this state, every able bodied free white 

 male citizen between the ages of eighteen and 

 forty-five is subject to military duty — nor need a- 

 ny one be informed in what this military duty 

 consists. Every person has seen a military train- 

 ing. The duty can in no case be performed by 

 less than two days actual service in each year — 

 computing the time of an able bodied man to be 

 worth one dollar per day, and his incidental ex- 

 penses for two days training at one dollar, we 

 have $3. This is exclusive of equippage. — 

 Taking equippage into account, and likewise the 

 tact that some are obliged to be officers, and e> 

 quip themselves more superbly, the. average ex- 

 pense to every individual that is obliged to do 

 military duty, cannot be less than 5 dollars year 

 ly. In this calculation we leave out all the extra 

 time and expense required from independent 

 companies — General and field officers and their 

 Marl's. From the returns of the Adjutant Gener- 

 al in the fall of 1830, we learn that the number of 

 the militia, rank and file in this state in that year 

 was 188,526. Estimating the loss of time and 

 expense of these at the moderate rate of $5 per 

 man instead of &'10 per man, which would be 

 much nearer the truth, and we have $042,636. 

 This tax falls mostly upon the young men. — 

 Hence many a young man with little or no prop- 

 erty pays a tax equal to the man worth $5,000 or 

 $10,000. If a direct money ta \ were imposed in 

 so unequal a manner, would it not be pronoun- 

 ced monstrously unjust and oppressive ? we ask 

 what is the difference 1 — and yet indeed there is 

 a great difference between such a tax and an or- 

 dinary money tax — the man who pays a tax of 

 $5, assessed upon his property pays so much to 

 support the government under which he lives — 



while the man who pays an equivalent for the 

 same sum as a military tax, neither confers any 

 benefit upon his countiy or derives any himself 

 by the payment of the tax. Hence we say that 

 the tax is not only unequal and unjust, but per- 

 fectly useless. To illustrate these propositions 

 more at large, will be the work of another num- 

 ber. S. 



SELECTIONS. 



From the Nfw York Farmer. 



THE COUNTRY FARMER— NO. VI. 



On the proper Education of the Sons and 

 Daughters of Farmers. 



Mr. Fleet Whatever may be the con- 

 dition of the Common, or Primary Schools, 

 of the country of an Agricultural communi 

 ty, they are, and must be, the schools at 

 which the sons and daughters of Farmers 

 receive their school learning. If the con- 

 dition of these schools be bad, let it be a first 

 object of the Farmers to improve that con- 

 dition, and elevate their character. The 

 common schools are the common seminaries 

 of learning for common men, and of course 

 it should be the prime object of patriotism 

 to see that they are good schools. If gov- 

 ernments neglect this, let it be the business 

 of the People. By far the largest proportion 

 of the youth of every countiy, are indebted 

 to those schools, alone, for all of what is 

 called, however erroneously, their education. 

 And by far the largest proportion of those 

 who have become, in the brief period of A- 

 merican history, our most eminently useful 

 men, enjoyed no other opportunities, in this 

 way, and yet have become conspicuous over 

 the world, as among the best, and wisest, and 

 most talented and useful of men. This is no 

 small praise, for it is truth. It is a like 

 truth, also, that the good habits of life, ac- 

 quired by those men in infancy, and as part 

 of their education, from necessity, probably, 

 in most cases, inured them to thought, ru- 

 minating thought, and thus laid the ground- 

 work for manly maturity of mind, as well 

 as of body. A half century has passed a- 

 way, since our Fathers drew their sword for 

 liberty, and gave to America the government 

 of its choice. To say nothing of the cau- 

 ses, let me seriously ask of every man, who 

 shall read these papers, to reflect upon the 

 character of the Men of the Revolution, as 

 they may well be characterized, as to phys- 

 ical, moral and intellectual stamina, com- 

 pared with our men of the present day. In 

 hardiness of constitution, firmness of mus- 

 cle, and of purpose, as well as in personal 

 appearance, and deportment, they stand con- 

 spicuous, models of men, long to be remem- 

 bered. There-was much less of effeminacy, 

 in those days, and men were moulded lor, 

 and by, the exigencies of the times, leaving 

 a distinct impress, upon the memory of suc- 

 ceeding generations, of the nobleness ofj 

 character of oui Men of the Revolution. If, 

 our happy country is to be blest with such: 

 models, in coining ages, it will be to the Faf-j 

 iners that it will be indebted for their pres- 

 ervation, and to our Common Schools. 



Having dwelt pretty fully upon the plan, 

 and mode of education, of Farmers' Sons. 

 in No. V., little more need be said upon 

 the education of their Daughters, than, that, 

 like that of their sons, it should be confined 

 to English literature, and useful branches of 

 instruction, in Common Schools. The boy, 

 who has bespattered his ideas with the stud- 



ies of an .Academy, or College, a little Latin 

 a little Greek, a little rhetoric, a little logic, 

 and got his head filled with notions of ' the 

 classics,' is spoiled, forever, for the Farm. — 

 Think a little, — recollect what you have seen, 

 and known, and you will see that this is, at 

 least as a general proposition, strictly true. 

 So it i with the girls, also, afu-.r iiaving been 

 'eddycated' at one of our fashionable Board- 

 ing Schools, where their brains have been 

 turned with ' ac omplishments,' music, draw- 

 ing, painting, belles-lettres, and a thousand 

 fanciful notions of fashionable follies! Here 

 is the true explanation, Mr. Editor, of the 

 mystery you sought total! y to unravel in speak- 

 ing of the ' Mortgaged Farms of New Eng- 

 land,' and the •Employment of Farmers' 

 datigh ters.' They are first spoiled by their 

 education, unfitted fur every employment, as 

 Far-iners' daughters, or Wives for Farmers' 

 sons, and by consent of their parents, and 

 then you would begin to talk about the em- 

 ployment of Farmers' daughters, and the 

 mortgaged Farms I ^11 that has been said 

 about the importance of habits, in the educa- 

 tion of boys, Farmers' sons, and of his mode 

 of implanting those with their -chool learn- 

 ing, applies equally well in the case of girls, 

 Farmers' daughters. The only difference, 

 is, as to the season of the year ; for girls can 

 generally attend school better in summer 

 than in winter. Females, too, are best taught 

 by Female teachers; a Mans school in win- 

 ter and a Woman's in summer, is the best 

 plan that was ever adopted, in Farming dis- 

 tricts, for Common Schools. He must be 

 either an invalid, or a very drone of a man, 

 who, in a Farming neigiiborhood, where 

 there is so much wcrk in the fields, can con- 

 tent himself with teaching the alphabet to 

 little girls. The very example, is a bad one, 

 unless, unfortunately, the poor man is una- 

 ble to toil in the fields. 



He who would bring up his daughters for 

 usefulness, as daughters, and for wives by- 

 and-by, should be careful to have them 

 taught nothing, at school, but what is useful. 

 We have a saying, amongst us Fanners, that 

 the daughters uf the most of our town ac- 

 quaintances, are brough up for ' dolls,' pretty 

 enough to look at, but never will do for 

 wives. Bred to look upon labor as vulgar 

 affairs for vulgar folks, and themselves as 

 ladies, the more helpless the more genteell, 

 it is no wonder such 'iacltes' are sinking 

 funds, in the wrong way, for their Fathers' 

 fortunes, whether bred in town or in the 

 countiy. By far too much of this kind of 

 of feeling, is getting into many a Farmer's 

 family, and, 1 am sorry to say it, Mr. Editor, 

 even away np here, in the country. In my 

 next No., 1 will endeavor to trace the causes 

 of this evil, and may say something more a- 

 bout the necessary correctives. 



Fifty years ago, when I was a Farmer's 

 boy, — or even 30 — when, like you, Mr 

 Fleet, I was rather a young old bachelor,' 

 — and used to visit the Farmers' daughters, 

 — I never saw them in such aflutter, to hide 

 a spinning v heel, when their ' company' was 

 coining, as we see now a days Instead of 

 stealing off silently to milking, as if ashamed 

 of having cows to milk they used to accept 

 our help; and many a time luve I thought 

 that they put on the more airs, foi the num- 

 ber of cows in iheii Father's dairies. In 

 loose days, too, there were oilier m;irks of 

 womanhood, about the daughters of Farm- 

 ers, besides mere dress, beaulies, in form and 

 figure, which have vanished berore the refor 



