130 



®l)e farmer's ittontljli) btaitor. 





ing from its spiracles, and portions of its lance- 

 lacerated lungs and the contents of its capacious 

 stomach are vomited at the mouth. 



I cannot hear to see the death agony of any 

 creature, even the smallest that God. has given 

 lite to ; much more that of one in which life 

 is so lively, and tenacious, and animating so vast 

 a hulk. And though it he true what the dra- 

 matic poet said — 



The sense of death is most in apprehension, 

 And the poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal suffering feels a pang 

 As great as when a giant dies j 



yet 1 am not one that can see the last agony of 

 so mighty an organized creature as the whale, 

 with as little emotion as some feel at the crush- 

 ing of a reptile, or the writhing of a worm. 

 Nor do I believe that the suffering in the one 

 case is as great as that in the other; but it is 

 painful enough to see any thing bereft of the 

 boon of life, the gi'"t of him that made us all, 



Who gives its lusire to the insect's wing, 



And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds. 



Cowper's principle in regard to animals and in- 

 sects is the right one : — 



The sum is this : if man's convenience, health, 



Or safety interlere, his rights and claims 



Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. 



Else tfiey tire all — the meanest things that are — 



As free to live and enjoy that lile, 



As God was free to form them at first, 



Who in Ins sovereign wisdom made them all. 



The substance called ambergris, and highly 

 prized in perfumery, is obtained from the sperm 

 whale, being formed in that stale of the system 

 which calls for a cathartic. A peck of Morri- 

 son's or the tomato pills, the horrrteopathic dose 

 of a pound of calomel and jalap, would probably 

 remove obstructions in the creature's abdominal 

 viscera, and prevent the formation of ambergris 

 concretions, with undoubted benefit to the whale 

 from the drastic operations. It is a pity that 

 nine-tenths of all such drugs in existence could 

 not he employed to purge the huge intestines of 

 whales, lather than to irritate the bowels, and 

 loosen the teeth", and produce caries in the bones 

 of men. If t lie gigantic denizens of the deep 

 were as much physicked i dare say there would 

 be full as much sickness among them as among 

 human bipeds on land. 



The size of a sixty-foot right-whale, which is, 

 perhaps, that of the average, can be somewhat 

 clearly apprehended by Captain Scorsehy's es- 

 timate of its weight at seventy tons, or the 

 weight of three hundred fiit oxen. Some, whale- 

 men judge it does not attain its full size until 

 twenty-five years, by cerlain notches which they 

 think they can observe in the slabs of whale- 

 bone. But this cannot be deal ly ascertained. 

 The natural life-time of the annual is undoubt- 

 edly very much longer. Analogy would lead to 

 the inference that it might be as long-lived as 

 the elephant, to which it bears a resemblance in 

 cerlain other particulars besides its size. The 

 calf of a large right-whale, at birth, is about 

 fourteen feet long, and weighs a ton. The milk 

 of the cow is then very abundant. I have heard 

 those who have seen it, say that when the mam- 

 mae of the nursing cow whale are cut, the flow 

 of milk will whiten the ocean. The ascertained 

 fact that it brings forth its young only one at a 

 time, or at most two, anil probably onee a year, 

 together with the rapid decrease of their num- 

 bers by slaughter on ever} cruising ground in 

 the ocean, where whalers have found ihem, to 

 the number often of hundreds at once, would 

 seem to he evidence of its slow growth and long 

 life. 



The only natural enemies it is known to have 

 are the sword-fish and killer. The latter is it- 

 self a specie's of whale that has sharp teeth, and 

 is exceedingly swift in the water, and will bite 

 nnd worry a whale until quite dead. When one 

 of ihem gels among a jam or school of whales, 

 he spreads great consternation, and the timid 

 creatures fly every way, like deer chased by the 

 hounds, and lall an easy prey to whale-boats thai 

 may he near to avail themselves of the opportu- 

 nity. I have heard a captain detail, with great 

 interest, a scene of this kind, in which ihe kill- 

 ers and the harpooners were together against 

 the poor whales, ami the killers actually Bucceed- 

 ed in pulling under and making off with one 



prize, which the whalemen thought themselves 

 sure of. 



Since I have become acquainted with the ha- 

 bits of the great right-whale, how quietly it 

 grazes through the great paslure-ground which 

 God has ordained for it, and rilled so well to be 

 its home, and have observed the hazards thai 

 have to be encountered, and the perils to he sur- 

 mounted in its capture by man, and have coupled 

 with this the consideration of the various other 

 sources from which the human family can now 

 he supplied with oil, whether lor burning or the 

 ails, 1 begin to be somewhat doubtful about the 

 lawfulness and expediency of the whale-fishery. 

 I am well aware that this may seem foolish. 

 But if the business cannot be successfully pur- 

 sued without the flagrant violation of the Sab- 

 bath now caused by il, and the consequent dis- 

 astrous effect upon the moral and religious char- 

 acters of those engaged in it, no well-grounded 

 Christian will he in doubt as to ils unlawfulness 

 and immorality. 



Whale-ships, almost without exception, dese- 

 crate the Lord's day, by taking their game and 

 making away with it, just as on any common 

 day. They pay no practical regard whatever to 

 the great law of the Sabbath, seeming utterly to 

 forget the combined prophecy and principle, 



Who resleth not one day in seven, 

 That soul shall never rest in heaven ! 



But of this more hereafter. Meanwhile, let 



me say lo any seaman that may chance to read 

 this, hold fast to the Sabbath, claim it of your 

 employers as a right, stipulate beforehand il 

 shall be yours for rest, religious reflection and 

 worship, and refuse on principle to desecrate it 

 by any other labor than may he necessary for 

 Ihe safely and proper working of the ship. As 

 the fragment of a poem I have just met with 

 has it : 



Sailor ! on the dark blue sea, 

 As /our bark rides gallantly, 

 Praver and praise become ye well, 

 Though ye have no Sabbath bell. 



_ H. T. C. 



The Farmer's Wife. 



The life of the farmer is so often made the 

 subject of complimentary remark, so often 

 praised for ils peacefulness and independence, 

 that the farmer's wife might very rationally be 

 supposed to be the happiest woman in the 

 world. From her relation to the " lords of the 

 soil," she should he ihe lady of the soil, a peace- 

 ful, healthy, independent woman. That the re- 

 verse of this is the general fact will be univer- 

 sally conceded by the wives of the farmers. 



A young farmer arrives at an age when he 

 thinks il lime to get married and "seltle down." 

 He hae had a respectable education, and wants a 

 woman who is his equal. Me looks about him, 

 and makes his choice. She is a girl bred beside 

 him in the country; has been well educated: 

 reared by careful parents, and is in ihe truest 

 sense a lady. She loves books, possesses skill 

 and taste in music, and is in all points fitted to 

 reign the queen of a happy home. She becomes 

 the wife ol the fanner, is ambitious to do as 

 much as her neighbors, and her husband is soon 

 avaricious enough to allow the woman of his 

 love to become his most devoted drudge. 



From thenceforth her life is one of the most 

 unremitting toil, it is nothing but mend and 

 patch, cook and hake, wash and iron, churn and 

 make cheese, pick up chips, and draw water, 

 hear children and nurse ihem. The family en- 

 larges, the husband grows wealthy, becomes im- 

 portant in the community, rides to town every 

 day, takes his ease when he chooses; but the 

 cares of his faded and broken down wife know 

 no relaxation. She may oullive her husband, 

 hut rarely does, and not uufrequeutly a second 

 wife comes in to share in the money that should 

 have been enjoyed by her predecessor, through 

 a quiet old age of rest. 



This is no fancy sketch ; it is drawn from life, 

 and in every country town and neighborhood its 

 truthfulness will be recognized. Now we de- 

 spise the good-for-nothing of fashionable life, as 

 much as any one, and have no affection for 

 drones in any hive. We are aware that circum- 

 stances sometimes demand extreme labor of the 

 farmer's wife, but in New England those circum- 

 stances do not prevail; and while we would 

 leave no woman to eat the bread of idleness, we 

 would see the class of which we are speaking 

 released from the circle of everlasting drudgery, 

 which deprives them of the privilege of relaxa- 

 tion for a day, and the time which they would 

 gladly devote to the maternal education of their 

 children. 



From this life (he girls of our day learn to 

 shrink, not because they are lazy, hut because 

 they know they are to he sacrified. Not because 

 the calling of the farmer is not respectable, but 

 because they do not wish to become his mistress, 

 maid-of-all work, nurse and boot-jack. Now 

 the foundation of all this wrong is that avaricious 

 spirit handed down by father to son, which makes 

 the dollar the standard of respectability, and land 

 the only source of happiness. We hope to see 

 the day when the farmer's wife shall share in 

 Ihe peacefulness and independence of ihe farm- 

 er's lot. and we call upon the ladies lo engage in 

 the reform themselves, and to teach the lords of 

 the soil, that there is something to live for be- 

 sides potatoes, and that life can be enjoyed more 

 truly by a proper preservation of the health, 

 beauty, accomplishments an/I good spirits of 

 their companions. — Springfield Republican. 



Improvements in Farming. 



Professor Ma pes, in the July number of his 



Working Farmer, thus speaks of the progress of 

 improvement, and of ihe beneficial influence of 

 agricultural papers. The Professor is a success- 

 ful ami scientific farmer, and both by precept and 

 example, he is doing much to arouse ihe farmers, 

 and to lead them lo the adoption of improved 

 modes of agriculture : 



" We find whole neighborhoods, where our 

 journal circulates, adopting the improved jneth- 

 ods of culture we have suggested; and many 

 fertilizers long neglected, have been brought in- 

 to a. 'live use. Subsoil ploughing, Ihe greatest of 

 modern improvements, is being adopted even by 

 those who have always professed lo be opposed 

 to novelties — the wet and sour soils are fast 

 yielding lo the influence of uiider-drains. 



"Our readers are beginning to understand the 

 use of charcoal as manure, and we have received 

 many letters which speak warmly in favor of ils 

 beneficial effects already ascertained. The mar- 

 ket gardeners who used slight top-dressings of 

 sail, find their young plants not destroyed by 

 grubs, and we daily receive letters of thanks Col- 

 our suggestions in relation to ihe destruction of 

 insects. 



" Let any practical farmer read the agricultural 

 papers attentively for one year, and adopt such 

 parts of his acquired knowledge in his practice 

 the next year, as lie may have become convinced 

 are true, and our word for it his income will he 

 doubled. When we commenced in 1847, our 

 readers will recollect that we required three or 

 four yoke of oxen to move the subsoil plough iu 

 our hard pan subsoil. Let ihem come now, and 

 they may see a single pair of mules moving- the 

 same plough with ease; indeed our soil has been 

 more improved by subsoiling than by manuring, 

 but by the united effects of both, we have chan- 

 ged thirty-two acres of apparently worthless 

 soil, into a garden capable of raising any crop in 

 comparison with any field in our Slate. By lid- 

 lowing the rules we have collaied and published 

 in the Working Farmer, we have now the full 

 varieties of crops without a failure. We have 

 been neither lucky or unlucky: we have obtain- 

 ed the best results, and simply by adopting the 

 best means. We have no secrets, nor do we be- 



