28 



&l)e JFcirmcr's iHontl)Iij tUMtor. 



From the Massachusetts Ploughman 

 Agriculture— True Source of National Wealth. 

 Among the various employ inenls and pursuits 



of men, not least in importance is that of the 

 Agriculturist. While each and every other use- 

 fid occupation contributes essentially to national 

 prosperity, by multiplying the facilities for social 

 and domestic enjoyment, agriculture furnishes 

 the staple productions upon which man is de- 

 pendant for subsistence. 



The wealth of a nation is not to be estimated 

 by the amount of its financial resources, or the 

 magnitude and extent of its mineral productions, 

 but by its ability to confer upon the whole pop- 

 ulation — from the highest to the lowest — the 

 greatest amount of social and domestic felicity. 

 In this respect the people of this country stand 

 far in advance of any other nation upon the face 

 of the globe. In no other country are the means 

 so abundantly enjoyed by all classes ill commu- 

 nity, for procuring the comforts of life as in the 

 United States. Nor can we find a nation where 

 all ranks in society are so thoroughly guarded 

 against the approach of want and whose condi- 

 tion is more prosperous and happy. Recently 

 our ears have been pained — our hearts have 

 sunk within us, as we have listened to the reci- 

 tal of suffering and woe visited upon the sub- 

 jects of a foreign government, upon whose pos- 

 sessions it is said that the sun never sets, and 

 " whose sails whiten every sea." We have seen 

 in this instance, that the wealth of a nation, con- 

 sisting of dollars and cents merely, however 

 abundant, is totally incapable of guarding it 

 against the approach of famine and saving its 

 population from actual starvation. 



While subjects of the British Government, 

 during the period referred to, were suffering for 

 want of the means of subsistence, our own 

 country was enabled to contribute liberally, 

 breadstuff's from her surplus to save from death, 

 multitudes ready to perish. Starving men, wo- 

 men and children can not (em\ on dollars and 

 cents, and the reason why aid was received from 

 this country, was not because in financial re- 

 sources the United Slates exceed Great Britain, 

 but because in agricultural productions we are 

 so far ahead of her in proportion to our popula- 

 tion. 



In the year IS 10 there were employed in ag- 

 ricultural pursuits in the United States 3,717,750 

 persons and more than four times as many as 

 were engaged in all other industrial employ- 

 ments put together. 



From the most authentic sources of informa- 

 tion we learn that tin; total value of the products 

 of agriculture in 1847 amounted to 1,291,151,130 

 dollars. During the same year there were raised 

 in the United States 114,215,500 ' bushels of 

 wheat— 539,350,000 corn — 1)2,222,700 bushels 

 rye— 11,673,500 bushels buckwheat. After mak- 

 ing reasonable allowance by fair estimation for 

 the amount consumed by man and beast and re- 

 eerviug a sufficient quantity for seed, a surplus 

 i- left of about 224,384,502 bushels for exportation, 

 the value of which would not vary far from 

 121,079,421 dollars— and this for breadstuff's 

 alone. 



The agricultural population of the United 

 States are spread over a vast territory, embrac- 

 ing natural and artificial advantages imequaled 

 by any oilier section of the globe. The ex- 

 hv.ni'ly low price of government land in the 

 new ly settled portions of the country, furnishes an 

 opportunity lor a man with limited means, and ii 

 might be said, to a man of industrious habits 



with no pecuniary means to possess himself of 

 a good farm with a fair prospect of having in a 

 few years, "a home of bis own." Multitudes 

 have availed themselves of advantages thus af- 

 forded and now are enabled to live in a style 

 truly independent. 



During the last twenty years great improve- 

 ments have been made in agriculture, and much 

 light shed upon the pathway of the tanner, from 

 the numerous agricultural publications which 

 come or which should come to him weekly 

 freighted with a store of useful knowledge. No 

 farmer should be without an agricultusal paper. 

 No occupation or calling demands more investi- 

 gation — research and study, than that of the ag- 

 riculturist. W. 

 Sturbridge, Feb. 17th, 1819. 



The Dying: Storm. 



BV H F. GOULD. 



1 am feeble, pale, and weary, 



And my wings are nearly furled ; 

 1 have caused a scene so dreary. 



1 am glad lo quit the world. 

 White wnh bitterness, I'm thinking 



On the evil I have dune, 

 To my caverns deep I'm sinking 



From the coming of the sun. 



Oh ! the heart of man will sicken 



In that pure and holy light, 

 When he learns the hopes I've stricken 



Willi an everlasting blight ! 

 For. so widely in my madness 



Have I poured abroad my wrath, 

 I've been changing joy to sadness ; 



And with ruins strewed my path. 



Earth has shuddered at my motion,— 



She, my power in silence owns; 

 While the troubled, roaring ocean 



O'er my deeds of honor moans. 

 1 have sunk the dearest treasure, 



I've destroyed the fairest form ; 

 Sadly have 1 filled my measure, 



And I'm now a dying storm. 



Yet, to man among the living, 



Wilh my final gasp and sigh, 

 1, a solemn caution giving, 



Fain would serve him while I die. 

 Not like me, shall he, descending 



Swift to death, from being cease : — 

 He's a spirit ! — fleeily tending 



To eternal pain or peace ! 



Sympathy. — It is a pure stream that swells the 

 tide of sympathy— it is an excellent heart that 

 interests itself in the feelings of others — it is a 

 heaven-like disposition that engages the affec- 

 tions, and extorts the sympathetic tear for the 

 misfortunes of a friend. Mankind are ever sub- 

 ject to ills, infirmities, and disappointments. 

 Every breast, at some particular period, experi- 

 ences sorrow anil distress. Pains and perplexi- 

 ties are long-lived plagues of human existence; 

 hut sympathy is the halm that heals these 

 wounds. If a person, who has lost a precious 

 friend, can find another who will feelingly parti- 

 cipale in his misfortune, he is well nigh com- 

 pensated for his loss. And delightful is the task, 

 to a feeling heart, of softening the painful pillow 

 of disease, of amusing the unfortunate, and al- 

 leviating the tortures of the afflicted. 



Sorry lo sec it. — It is a sad indication of char- 

 acter lor a man to take a paper from the office 

 six months, and then tell his Postmaster to order 

 it discontinued without payment. The law re- 

 gards it as presumptive of fraud, and can any one 

 deny its justice ? Is the character worth more 

 than three or six month's subscription to a news- 



paper 



Are such persons willing we should 



publish facts and names? We discontinue no 



paper, except we so prefer, till it is paid for. — 

 Maine Farmer. 



Decidedly Mean. — A woman who puts less 

 shortening in the under crust of a pie than the 

 upper. 



Clarified honey, applied on a linen rag, is said 

 to cure the pain of a burn almost instantane- 

 ously. 



Health of Children. — Rising early is a habit of 

 high importance to fix in children; and in form- 

 ing it, there is far greater facility than in other 

 cases. There is a natural propensity in children 

 generally lo early rising, which needs only lo be 

 gratified and encouraged. They usually retire 

 to bed some hours before their parents, and at 

 daylight, or at least sunrise, are generally awake, 

 and anxious to rise. Many of them are actually 

 bred up with difficulty to the habit of taking 

 morning naps, which, when ouce formed, gene- 

 rally prevail through life. Let his father deny 

 himself so far as to retire early, and become an 

 early riser also. His health, enjoyment, and 

 usefulness, he may depend upon it, will be per- 

 ceptibly benefited. And this may be connected 

 with another preventive of disease— active em- 

 ployment. The morning is the season for activi- 

 ty ; the frame, invigorated by repose, is prepared 

 for exertion, and motion gives pleasure. The 

 pure atmosphere, so much more bracing than at 

 other hours, so much sweeter and more exhila- 

 rating than the air of a confined chamber, has 

 been prepared to be breathed; and, like all na- 

 ture's medicines, it is superior to any which sci- 

 ence can produce. Early rising and early exer- 

 cise might more properly he called food than 

 medicine, as they are designed for daily use, and 

 to protect us from disease rather than to remove 

 it. Every thing, except mere sloth, invites us, 

 nay, requires of us, to train up our children to 

 use them. The morning is Ihe most favorable 

 season for exercising the frame, as well as for 

 making useful impressions on the mind and 

 heart; and whoever tries to conduct the educa- 

 tion of his child independently of this practice, 

 will lose some of the most favorable opportuni- 

 ties. — Dwighfs Father's Book. 



Recipe for Hhile Swellings and Felons. — To 

 cure white swellings and felons, a correspondent 

 of the South- Western Farmer says, " take cop- 

 peras, blue stone, alum, table salt, and flowers of 

 sulphur, of each the size of a pea, put them into 

 a four-ounce phial, and fill it with strong apple 

 vinegar, and in twenty-four hours or less it is fit 

 for use. If to be applied to a bone felon on the 

 finger, the skin is to be pared with the razor, the 

 phial being well shaken ; wet lint, and apply it 

 three limes a day. It will instantly relieve pain, 

 take out the fever, and effect a cure. If a sore 

 leg, the sore must be washed twice a day wilh 

 Castile soap — then apply the wet lint." Most 

 bruises and diseases of the flesh may be benefit- 

 ed, and generally cured, it is said, by this appli- 

 cation. 



Pateut Office. 



The Patent Office was organized in 1790, and 

 from that time up to the commencement of the 

 present year, 1849, the number of patents issued 

 was about 16,200. It is an interesting moral de- 

 duction, lo be able to draw from this statement 

 the fact, that useful invention has kept pace wilh 

 physical want. Thus, the largest class of inven- 

 tions have been for agricultural improvement; 

 the second for articles of clothing, or the textile 

 fabrics, and the economies and comforts of im- 

 parting warmth lo the body, 



Dectruciive inventions have come few and far 

 between, and the whole number lias not exceed- 

 ed 250 of the lu',000 and upwards which have 

 been granted by the Patent Office. A fact like 

 this speaks well lor ihe triumphs of peace, and 

 of the moral turn given to the inventive genius 

 of the country. Indeed, there is no department 

 of the public service more suggestive of inter- 

 esting fact, than that of the Patent Office. 



New York has the honor of receiving almost 

 one third ol all the patents granted.and New Yoik 

 city almost as many as the entire slave Slates. 

 The great bulk of the whole come from ihe free 

 States, a fact which will suggest others of inter- 

 est without the necessity of comment. — .V. T. 

 Express. 



