74 



&l)c JTavmcr's iHoxitljlu Visitor. 



well with a spoon. If too thin, add more Indian 

 meal ; if too stiff", thin it with a little more milk. 

 Beat or siir it loiii» and hard. Butter a tin or 

 iron pan ; put the mixture into it, and set the 

 pan immediately into an oven, which must be 

 moderately hot at first, and the heat increased 

 afterwards. A Dutch-oven is the hest for the 

 purpose. It should hake an hour and a half or 

 two hours, in proportion to its thickness. Send 

 it to the table hot and cut into slices. Eat with 

 butter or molasses. — Exchange. 



Commerce and Navigation. 

 We are indebted to Mr. Smith, member of 

 Congress from Illinois, for one of the most valu- 

 able of the congressional documents, namely, 

 the report from the Register of the Treasury, of 

 the Commerce and Navigation of the United 

 States for the last fiscal year. This document, 

 being difficult to print, generally makes its ap- 

 pearance among the very last, although laid be- 

 fore Congress at an early period of the session. 

 The report was not made this year, however, un- 

 til the twentieth of January, on account of the 

 illness of a principal clerk in the Register's 

 office. The fiscal year ended June 30, 1848. 



The document presents as complete a view as 

 the public offices and papers afford, of the Com- 

 merce and Navigation of the United States, viz: 

 the Exports, Imports, Tonnage, Ship Build- 

 ing, &e. 



The value of exports was $154,036,436 — 

 $132,904,121 of the growth, produce and manu- 

 facture of the United Slates, and $21,132,315 

 foreign produce. Of this, more than three- 

 quarters were agricultural products, namely, cot- 

 ton about $62,000,000, breadsluffs $25,000,000, 

 tobacco 7,500,000, anil beef, pork, butter, cheese, 

 &c., $12,500,000. 



The value of imports was $154,998,928— ex- 

 ceeding the exports by less than a million of 

 dollars. The revenue collected on these imports 

 is not given in the schedules. By a statement 

 which we publish to-day in another column, it 

 will be seen that the value of the dutiable mer- 

 chandise imported at this port exceeds $21,000,- 

 000, on which duties to the amount of nearly 

 $5,000,000 have been collected — averaging about 

 twenty-five per cent. 



The number of vessels which cleared from 

 the United States for foreign countries, dining 

 the year, was 17,329, of an aggregate burthen of 

 3,865,439 tons, embracing crews to the number 

 of 170,715 men and 7,256 boys. Of these 9,695 

 were American vessels. The clearances from 

 Boston exceeded those from New York, viz: 

 from Boston 1006 American, and 1834 foreign 

 vessels— total 2840 ; from New York 1351 Amer- 

 ican, and 992 foreign— total 2343. 



The number of vessels which entered from 

 foreign countries was 17,274, of which 9,643 

 were American. The number of entrances into 

 Boston exceeded those into New York, viz: into 

 Boston, 1098 American, and 1825 foreign vessels ; 

 into New York, 1924 American, and 946 foreign. 

 The tonnage of New York was much larger — 

 nearly double. 



The total registered and enrolled and licensed 

 tonnage of the United States is 3,154,041 tons; 

 that of Boston being 285,410 tons, New York 

 733,077 tons, and New Orleans 225,080 tons. 



The whole number of vessels built in the 

 United States during the last fiscal year was 

 1851, of an aggregate burthen of 318,075 tons, 

 viz: 254 ships, 174 brigs, 701 schooners, 547 

 sloops and canal bouts, and 175 steamers. Maine 

 bears the palm in ship-building — having buih 

 130 ships, 1 18 brigs, and 1 14 schooners ; Massa- 



chusetts comes next — 53 ships, 17 brigs, and 107 

 schooners; New York next— 27 ships, 5 brigs, 

 and 100 schooners. Pennsylvania built the most 

 steamers, 48; Tennessee 39; New York 21 ; and 

 Missouri 20. The tonnage built last yearexceeds 

 that of any former year seventy-five thousand 

 tons. — Boston Traveller. 



From the Plow, Loom and Anvil. 



Book Knowledge of Farmers— Derided by 

 whom ! 



With a man of any reflection and honest care 

 for progress in all the arts and employments of 

 useful industry, there are few things more trying 

 to his patience than to hear men, sometimes even 

 gentlemen, who have some pretensions to edu- 

 cation, and who therefore ought to know belter, 

 denouncing book knowledge, as affording any 

 guide in practical husbandry. Now, to all such, 

 and especially to practical men who succeed 

 well in their business, and who have always 

 something useful to impart, as the result of their 

 own personal experience, does it not suffice to 

 say, "lam obliged to you for what yon have 

 told me ; your integrity assures me that it is true, 

 and your success convinces me that yours is the 

 right rotation, and yours the proper process, 

 since I see that while you gather heavy crops, 

 your land is steadily improving ; but now, my 

 friend, let me ask you one question further. 

 What you have imparled is calculated to benefit 

 me personally, and unless communicated again 

 by me to others, with me its benefits will rest. 

 Now, suppose, instead of the slow and unsocial 

 process of waiting to be interrogated, and mak- 

 ing it known to one by one, as accident may 

 present opportunities, you allow me lo have re- 

 course to the magical power of types, which will 

 spread the knowledge of your profitable experi- 

 ence, gained by much thought and labor, fur and 

 wide throughout the land, that thousands may 

 enjoy the advantages which otherwise I only 

 shall reap from your kind and useful communi- 

 cation. Will not that be more beneficial to so- 

 ciety, and is it a benevolent and christian duty 

 not to hide our lights under a bushel.-" Doubt- 

 less such a man, if not a misanthropic churl or 

 fool, would say, Yes. Yet the moment, by 

 means of types, such knowledge is committed to 

 paper, it becomes (by fools only derided) book 



knowledge. 



mi 



Culture of Stisaweberies. — A practical 

 man who writes in the Horticulturist, says: — 

 " Strawberries can be produced in great abun- 

 dance, and wiili more ease than any oilier valu- 

 able fruit. Willi a moderate degree of care and 

 attention, they will yield at the rale of one hun- 

 dred bushels per acre. They will grow freely on 

 any soil that will give a good crop of corn ; and 

 if planted early in spring, will yield a fair crop 

 in June." He says a common error is to plant 

 them in an old worn-out garden soil, or to ma- 

 nure them too highly, which gives vines, hut no 

 fruit. The best is a good, de-p, new soil, not ex- 

 cessively rich. 



of nightingales, and bearing only the. lowing of 

 oxen, you are taken by surprise. 



Out steps a fair creature — crosses a glade — 

 leaps a stile. You start — you stand lost in won- 

 der and astonished admiration ! You take out 

 your tablets lo write a sonnet on the return of 

 the Nymphs and Dryads to earth, when up comes 

 John Tompkins and says, "lis only the farm- 

 er's daughter." What ! have farmers such 

 daughters now-a-days? Yes, I tell you they 

 have such daughters. Those farm-houses are 

 dangerous places. Let no man with a poetical 

 imagination, which is only another name for a 

 very tender heart, flatter himself with fancies of 

 the calm delights of the country; with the se- 

 rene idea of sitting with the farmer in his old- 

 fashioned chimney coiner, and hearing him talk 

 of corn and mutton; of joining him in the pen- 

 sive pleasure of a pipe and a jug of brown Oc- 

 tober ; of listening to the gossip of the comfort- 

 able farmer's wife, or the parson and his family, 

 of his sermons, and his pig; over a fragrant cup 

 of young hyson, or wrapt in the delicious luxu- 

 ries of custards or whipped creams. In walks u 

 fairy vision of wondrous witchery, and with a 

 curtesy and a smile of winning and mysterious 

 magic, takes her seat just opposite. It is the 

 farmer's daughter, a Jiving creature of eighteen . 

 fair as the lily, fresh as May dew, rosy as the' 

 rose itself, graceful as the peacock perched on 

 the pahs there by the window, sweet as a posy 

 of violets and clover' gillivers, modest as early 

 morn, and amiable as your own imagination of 

 Desdemona or Gertrude of Wyoming. You are 

 lost. Its all over with you. I wouldn't give an 

 empty filbert, or a frost-bitten strawberry, for 

 your peace of mind, if that glittering creature 

 he not as pitiful as she is fair. And that comes 

 of going into the country, out of the way of 

 vanity and temptation, and fancying farm-houses 

 nice old-fashioned places of old-established con- 

 tentment.—" The Hall and the Hamlet," by Wil- 

 liam Howitl. 



The Farmer's Daughter. 



There's a world of buxom beauty flourishing 

 in the shades of the country. Farm-houses arc 

 dangerous places. As you are thinking only of 

 sheep or of curds, you may be shot through by 

 a pair of bright eyes, and melted away in a be- 

 witching smile that you never dreampt of till 

 the mischief was done. In towns and theatres, 

 and thronged assemblies of the rich and titled 

 fair, you are on your guard ; you are exposed to, 

 and put on your breastplate, and pass through 

 the most deadly onslaught of beauty safe and 

 sound. But in those sylrnn retreats, dreaming 



John Randolph and the Merchants' Bank — In 

 New York, many years ago, during a suspension 

 of specie payments, John Randolph, of Roanoke, 

 went there on business. Having a check on the 

 Merchants' Bank for a large sum, be called for 

 the cash, and would take nothing but specie, 

 which the tellers obstinately refused to pay. 

 Randolph disdained to bandy words with their 

 clerks or principals; believing himself swindled! 

 he withdrew and had a handbill printed and cir- 

 culated all over the city, which set forth that 

 "John Randolph, of Roanoke, being on a visit 

 to New York, would address his fellow-citizens 

 that evening on the Banking System, from the 

 steps of the Merchants Bank," Long before the 

 hour, a crowd began to gather, which increased 

 to a fearful number, when the officers of the 

 hank taking the alarm, sent Mr. Randolph his 

 money in gold, who received it with a sardonic 

 smile and apt quotation -. — Chastatium invention 

 dorcan keliquil. Me lefi New York next morning 

 in a stage, before day; and his being unknown 

 in the city, the handbill passed off" for a hoax on 

 the public. — Massachusetts Stale Register. 



A World on Fire.— Lieut. Maury, Superin- 

 tendent of the National Observatory, Washing- 

 ton, says, in a late address; It may be that there 

 is now, at this very time in the firmament above, 

 a world on fire. Argus, a well-known star in 

 the southern hemisphere, has suddenly blazed 

 forth, and from a star of the second oi third 

 magnitude, now glares with the brilliancy of thu 

 first. 



