£l)c .farmer's ittontljlij Uisitor. 



131 



lieve any exist which are worth knowing. Our 

 farmers are philanthropists, and any new discov- 

 eries of importance are sure i<> find their »vay 

 into the agricultural papers. These are well 

 read divines, lawyers and physicians, and we are 

 unwilling lo receive the advice of any others. 

 Win [hen should we not have well read farmers? 

 What excuse can a tanner find lor not making 

 himself acquainted with the current improve- 

 ments of the day ? As to doubting the truth ol 

 these improvement's, he might as well shut his 

 eyes and then dunht that the sun shines. No 

 farmer's gate is shut against an enquiring broth- 

 er, and therefore the troth is not difficult to be 

 arrived at. Manure sheds are being built in all 

 parts of the country. Messrs. Allen and others 

 are called on for increased quantities of subsoil 

 ploughs; the refuse of factories and chemical 

 works are eagerly bought up by farmers, and the 

 marshes and other natural deposits of organic 

 matter, are being removed to ihe uplands by the 

 way of the compost shells. The comparative 

 value of the different kinds of fodder engages 

 the attention of farmers, and indeed the whole 

 face of [he country smiles from its improved 

 condition. 



"Men of all grades are now engaged in agri- 

 Culture, and the best talent of the land is active 

 in the good cause. 



••Look for the great men of our nation, and 

 you will find them when absent from public du- 

 ties, engaged in agriculture. We now only re- 

 quire the efforts of legislators in behalf of agri- 

 culture, 10 insure a state of national prosperity 

 such as we have never before enjoyed. Let our 

 statesmen join with one effort in the proper or- 

 ganization of a Home Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington, and we shall be enabled at an 

 early date to give a new impetus to commerce, 

 an increased amount of raw material for manu- 

 facture, and in due time an educated agricultural 

 community, such as is required for the proper 

 maintenance of our free institutions." 



The Gold Dollar. 



The little "almighty dollar " is a decided hum- 

 bug. It is suitable only for the most delicate 

 taper-fingered Miss Nancyish portion of the pub- 

 lic. To place one into the bauds of the farmer 

 for a bushel of potatoes, or into the hands of the 

 mechanic for a day's labor, would be a burlesque ; 

 still there is a curiosity to have the " little joker " 

 and we shall keep a measure of them to sell, so 

 lung B3 they will bring a premium. — Bank-JVole 

 Ktporti r. 



The secret of this " broker"ish sneer at the 

 gold dollars is, no doubt, because it is too small 

 to be shaved. Every paper dollar remitted to 

 this city from the country leaves a portion of it- 

 self, in the shape of a discount, in the hands of 

 some broker or other before it gets back to its 

 place ol' issue. In fact, one half the paper mo- 

 ney afloat costs more to keep it in circulation 

 than the value stamped upon its face. The same 

 bank bill may, and beyond a question does, pass 

 in and out of a broker's office at least fifty times 

 a year, and each time it goes through the pro- 

 cess, h leaves behind three-quarters to one per 

 cent, of its value, which in the course of two 

 years, would eat it up altogether. But it keeps 

 good for shaving purposes a surprising long 

 time. Some of the bank hills which we occa- 

 sionally receive have been eight or ten years in 

 circulation, and from their tattered and torn con- 

 dition — have evidently submitted to hundreds of 

 shaves. Now the little gold dollar will submit 

 to nothing of the kind. — New York Mirror. 



The Lowell Vox Populi states .-is an illustra- 

 tion of what a smart and skilful girl may earn, 

 and sometimes does earn, in Lowell, that at the 

 last payment on the Merrimack corporation, one 

 female weaver received for twenty-four (lays 

 work, $27; or, including board, $35 SO— about 

 $1 35 per day. She tended six looms, which 



few can do. This is admitted us an extreme 

 case ; but (here are many who earn $4 to $5 per 

 week. 



It is this kind of pay which draws so many 

 girls from Maine and the British provinces into 

 the mills of the Massachusetts companies, and 

 those in New Hampshire, which are principally 

 owned by people in [Massachusetts. 



It is worth noticing, because it shows the dif- 

 ference in skill among operatives, that the girls 

 who tend so many looms, turn out the best work 

 in the mill, making better cloth than those who 

 tend two, three and four looms. If it were not 

 so they would not be allowed so many looms, as 

 the superintendents are generally reluctant to 

 allow them so many. 



Those who think mere human machines only 

 are needed in mills, make a great mistake. No 

 where is the difference in " help " as it is termed, 

 more marked. With the best help in the mill, 

 the superintendents seldom or never have any 

 trouble. The only dissension, generally, is on 

 the part of the most inefficient class of opera- 

 lives, who have but little skill anil industry, and 

 who would not be employed were it not that in 

 tl new and rapidly growing country, labor of till 

 kinds is always scarce. 



Neatness of Farming:. 



We have somewhere beard the remark, that 

 with the good farmer, every thing gives way to 

 his business — that utility is all, and appearance 

 nothing; hence you are not lo expect neatness 

 about his dwelling, his door-yard being cut up 

 into mud boles by the farm-wagon and the ma- 

 nure-cart, and the contiguity of barns, pig-pens 

 and kitchen, such as convenience, and not free- 

 dom from the peculiar odors of hog-yard and 

 rich manure-heap, may dictate. 



Now, to speak bluntly, this is all nonsense. It 

 so happens that in farming, neatness and thrift 

 almost invariably go together. The same love 

 of order which prompts the farmer to clear his 

 yard of broken barrels, old hoops, fragments of 

 boards and sticks of wood, and whatever else 

 defaces and defiles bis premises, also prompts 

 him to have a place for every thing, and every 

 thing it its place, which is calculated to bear 

 upon real substantial profit. 



Some of the very best farmers with whom we 

 are acquainted — whose eminent success and 

 heavy profits separate them in litis respect in 

 bold distinctness from the rest of their neigh- 

 bors — are patterns of neatness; and the touch of 

 their hand in the expulsion of every kind of 

 nuisance is visible all over their farms. Their 

 door-yards show that the master is "at home;" 

 the barn-yard, which is not so near the bouse 

 that all the butter and cheese manufactured is 

 Savored with the effluvia, exhibits the same 

 neatness even where all the refuse of other pla- 

 ces is collected for enriching, in due time, the 

 rest of the farm. A farmer of our acquaintance, 

 with one hundred and sixty acres, in whose 

 farm-yard we could scarcely discover a wisp of 

 straw in the wrong place, remarked, "Ob, I 

 don't attempt to make a great deal from my 

 farm — I expend so much in improvements that 

 my clear pro/its are only about a thousand dol- 

 lars a year." Another of those neat fanners, in 

 whose fields cockle, docks and chess obtain no 

 foothold, nor along whose fences a solitary elder 

 bush or nettle is ever seen, raised twenty-seven 

 hundred dollars' worth of farm produce at the 

 prices of 1844; and both of these farmers live 

 in Western Pjfew York, where prices are com- 

 paratively low, entirely away from the peculiar 

 advantages of market which nearness to great 

 cities gives. 



Now, let no one say that these remarks are 

 made at the wrong season of the year, and that 



nothing can be done for neatness and order in 

 the winter. The same general rule, in some 

 shape or variation, has an almost infinite number 

 of applications. The care of domestic animals 

 ill winter needs pre-eminently the application of 

 this rule. No animal can thrive well in the 

 midst of dirt. 



Even a pig does not love dirt for dirt's sake — 

 he oidy happens to be so much of a philosopher, 

 or rather a stoic, that he is willing to endure 

 dirt for the sake of a toft and cool bed in sum- 

 mer, for it has been found that these animals 

 thrive better and fatten faster when kept clean 

 and well curried. 



Horses and cattle are often neglected in clean- 

 liness. We have actually known some who did 

 not clean the manure from horse stables for 

 months, allowing it gradually to thicken uiider 

 feet with the accumulating liner till a foot in 

 thickness; reasoning, doubtless, as the boy did 

 who combed bis head once n month and was 

 astonished that such torture anil trouble from 

 the operation could be endured daily by other 

 people. A farmer who does his own chores, can 

 hardly afford to keep bis horse as finely as the 

 gentleman of wealth, who has a man for no 

 other purpose ; but every one should have his 

 stable floor perfectly clean at least twice every 

 day, once in the morning and once at night be- 

 fore littering, and oftener would be belter. 



Remember that the oftener it is done the easier 

 it is accomplished. 



There are many other particulars where neat- 

 ness may be attended to in winter. 



Gate binges and gate fastenings ofien need re- 

 pair, that they may shut like lock-work ; boards 

 become loose on old barns and board fences; 

 tools become awkward for use, and- need re- 

 modeling or renewing; and many other small 

 matters in doors and out, require attention. Wo 

 are aware that to many of our readers, who are 

 already examples for others, such hints as the 

 preceding are not applicable ; to such we can 

 say that they need not read them — like the man 

 who chiseled on the stone at the fording place, 

 " When the water comes to this stone it is un- 

 safe to cross." — Lynchburg Virginian, 



Improved Fence. 



The friend of improvement in every thing, I 

 deem it my especial duty to suggest to those 

 who have lands to enclose, the propriety of mak- 

 ing trial of a species of fence of which I have 

 recently had a description, and which is said to 

 be both cheap and efficient. The posts tire 

 made of common clay, struck in moulds of the 

 desired size, and burnt in kilns, the same as 

 bricks. These posts are perforated with holes 

 of the size of a common pipe-stem, and are 

 either three or four in number, as required, and 

 are made before burning, or in the mould. The 

 posts are set in the soil, after receiving a coat of 

 coal tar. Wires are then passed throtlgh the 

 holes, from post to post, properly secured, and 

 coated with coal tar or | aint, to preserve the 

 surface from atmospheric action, and prevent 

 rust. This fence is cheap, looks well, and is 

 very durable. — Cor. Germuntown Telegraph. 



Bensalem, May 39, 1819. 



Converting Salt Water into Fresh. — The 

 Boston Journal speaks very favorably of the 

 condensing apparatus for converting salt water 

 into fresh, recently invented by Capt. II. IJ. 

 I'm hes and Mr. Ericsson, which the editor re- 

 cently saw in successful operation in that city. 

 The Journal says : — 



" The whole apparatus, including boiler, fur- 

 nace, condenser, &c. &.C., may be furnished at 

 an expense not exceeding two bundled dollars, 

 and it occupies so small a space as to he but lit- 

 tle in the way on the deck of a large ship. With 



