THE FARMER'S MONTHLY ViSITOR. 



63 



ally produced from two to three tons of hay to 

 the acre. All that has been done to it has been 

 once in five or six years the spreading over at the 

 rate of ten or twelve loads of light manure to the 

 acre and the sowing in of herdsgrass seed. The 

 great failure in the crops of hay is because far 

 niers suffer so much of their most valuable lane 

 to lie inert. 



Cultivation of Flax, 



Two years ago we called the attention of the 

 farmers of New England to the raising of flax. 

 Generally soil that will grow good spring wheat 

 will grow flax. Every farmer who has a family 

 of daughters would do well to prepare his ground 

 and attempt to raise a patch of flax. 



A wiiter in the Philadelphia Farmer's Cabinet 

 (an excellent monthly agricultural paper) says 

 " it is understood that large quantities of the arti- 

 cle (flax) in a drsssed state, and immense quan- 

 tities of the seed, and the oil expressed from it, 

 are annually imported from foreign countries at 

 a great cost to the nation." 



" Moileru improvements have been made in 

 machinery, and in preparing this article for man- 

 ufacture, and it is now ascertained that it can be 

 spun and wove with nearly or quite the same 

 facility as cotton. The improved preparing and 

 bleaching processes give it almost the fineness 

 and soilness of silk." 



With a soil and climate as well adapted to the 

 growing of flax as any country on earth, and with 

 hands and artisans as ample as any other country 

 for its pre|)aration and manufacture, is it not as- 

 tonishing, that the linen fabrics, which come in 

 duty free, in the year 1839, should have amounted 

 to the sum of $7,750,33() ': Flax seed also comes 

 into the country duty fiee ; and many thousand 

 bushels are every year introduced from the East 

 Indies, on the other side of the globe. The raw- 

 flax, the seed and the oil, added to the linen man- 

 ufactured goods which are brought into the Uni- 

 ted States annually, may be counted ut the sum 

 of ten millions of dollars ! 



It would indeed require a rich country, as the 

 Cabinet observes, to stand such an importation as 

 this ; and it is a no less unnatural state of things 

 that the United States should import ten million 

 dollars in articles the production of flax than that 

 they should import twenty-five million of dollars 

 woith of silks in a year. 



We will not long do this : the sending State 

 certificates to Europe as a part of the two hun- 

 dred million dollars of State debts, has brought 

 these immense importations of linens and silks 

 into the country. The facilities of credit, the 

 temptations for speculation, which have been 

 stimulated by the desire to grow rich without 

 labor, have turned the heads of the people, male 

 and female, upside down. They can buy every 

 thing so cheap and so easy, that it is the merest 

 folly for any man or woman to raise or make 

 what is brought to them and forced upon them ! 



There are hundreds of farmers who will tell 

 you, if you attempt to raise a new croj) or in- 

 crease the products of your land under cultiva- 

 tion, that it will cost you more than it will come 

 to. There are rare speculators and usurers who 

 find it so much more easy to accumulate by buy- 

 ing and selling, and loaning money to the im- 

 provident and necessitous, that they will not only 

 not put their hands to any useful occupation, or 

 employ and pay others for doing it for them, but 

 will even taunt those who strive to make their 

 efforts usefid with laboring in vain. Nothing 

 seems more to gratify the croakers than the pros- 

 pect that the drought, the frost, the blight, and 

 the mildew will make the tiirmer's labors "a losing 

 business. 



How long will that country which produces 

 nothing be able to purchase cheap articles? 

 We want linseed oil to paint our houses and for 

 other purposes — we want fine and coarse linen 

 fabrics for the clothing of our families. Suppose 

 we can buy the foreign article cheap ; will it not 

 be better to raise and manufacture for ourselves 

 than to run into debt for the purchase even of 

 the cheap article ? So certain as we buy more 

 than we sell, whether what we buy and sell be 

 cheap or dear, we are contracting a dcibt which 

 will eat np what we already possess. The mere 

 sharper may congratulate himself that he is 

 growing rich while those around him arc beeoin- 

 ing more poor: when he has preyed ui)on the 

 lillle property of the lust man, how shall he con- 



tinue to accunndate ? If all the world, like him, 

 dei)ended for thrift upon the labors of others, 

 where would be found property, any thing valu- 

 able to be scrambled after ? 



Kennebunk, Maine, April 17, J 840. 

 Governor Hill — It may be worth while to le ■ 

 coi-d the fact for future reference that on the 15th 

 of this month, the sledding was so good that I 

 saw loaded ox-teams in this village from Alfred 

 and Sanford, one twelve, and the other fourteen 

 miles distance. The sleighing is brisk as at any 

 time during the long winter past. Many sleighs 

 are here from the neighboring towns. There is 

 much old snow on the ground yet, and the fiost 

 out only in few places. The snow is deep in the 

 woods, and the pastures and fields mostly cover- 

 ed. VVe have not had a more violent snow 

 storm this year than the one experienced here on 

 the 14th of this month; the weather cold. 



Yours, &c. O K . 



A Goon omen!— On Monday, April 19, the an- 

 niversary of the Lexington battle, a large hawk fly- 

 ing over the village, frightened probably with the 

 punishment which should await his cruelty and in- 

 justice, dropped in the garden directly in the 

 rear of our barns a fine large domestic hen. The 

 hen at first retreated to a covert, but finding she 

 was not in an enemy's country, soon added anoth- 

 er to the flock of more than twenty which for 

 the few past weeks have daily produced from a 

 dozen to twenty eggs. If the above means any 

 thing, it is, that good shall come to vs where evil has 

 been intended. 



N. B. We attribute our great abundance of 

 eggs to the buckweat which grew finely last sum- 

 mer in spite of the drought on newly broken up 

 pine plain land that stood in forest two years ago, 

 as being the best of all materials for fowls. 



From the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, April, 1839. 

 In Andover, in '38, three farmers all of good estate. 

 Sat out with propects fine, to see who 'd kill the largest 



The na 



, were William, 

 lilt, but Willia 



bcga 



of these ambitious three 

 James, t and Joseph E.t 

 The hogs were killed — acknowedgei 

 beat in spite of that. 



The senior James ho doth deny, that 



to try- 

 But James the second § must stand in, although his hog 



was rather thin — " 

 I hope my neighbors '11 not think hard to read a line from 



As it 's the tirst I 've undertook to rhyme the pork before 

 'twas cook'd. 



* William Graves', 717. t James Marston's, 57) . Jo- 

 seph E. Fellows', 565. ^ James Marston's, jr. 493. 

 Andover, East End, Jan. 30, 1839. 



Mammoth Hog, larger than the largest! 

 Mr. Editor — James Marsto.v, jr. slaughtered 

 a Hog on the 13tli inst. weiahing740 pounds, and 

 girthing 7 feet. Beat this, William G. 

 Andover, East Village, April 13, 1841. 



Farm House Agriculture. 



Mr. (JiLMAN,the ingenious Arcliitect,lias furnish- 

 ed u."-', in the fourth number of Farm House 

 Agncukurc,the jilan of a House and buildings cal- 

 culated to meet tlie «unts of the largest portion 

 of the farming interest. Tlic IIouso and out- 

 buildings are ingeniously laid and arranged, with 

 all the variety of conveniences and improve- 

 ments that may he imagined, and upon his plan 

 may be completed at an expense much less for 

 all than is sometimes laid out on a single dwell- 

 ing alone with far loss accoinniodation "than this. 

 We regiot that tliis inleresling number must be 

 deferred to our next month's jniblication on ac- 

 count of our inability to obtain tho requisite en- 

 gravings in season for this number. 



Birds. — We sometimes preach of birds— but 

 what is the use of preaching .' Our practice has 

 been for years not to let a single bird be shot on 

 our premises. No, not even the cherry bird that 

 comes without leave for his bag full of fruit, and 

 retires again without even singing for his supper. 

 Even the crow, the terror of the planter by the 

 wood-side, is more fond of mice than of corn, 

 and though he likes a few kernels during a very 

 short season in the spring to make up his meal, 

 he i)robably does us more good than harm by re- 

 ducing the number of the numerous vermin that 

 infest our fields. One half bushel of corn sown 

 on a field of six acres will effectually protect all 

 we bury in the earth. And wliat is the expense .' 

 It may be forty cents for a whole season. How 

 liltle compared with the e-xpense of trying to kill 

 them. 



In regard to all other birds at least, farmers 

 should strictly forbid their destruction on any part 

 of their premises. We are likely to lie overrun 

 with worms, if we don't persuade the birds to help 

 us. Robins will build their nests close to our 

 doors, if we make no war upon them — for they 

 fear the hawks when they build near the woods. 

 — Boston Cultivator. 



Yankee Intrepidity. — We do not remember, among 

 the many anecdotes of duelling, to have met with one dis- 

 playing more hardihood than the following, which, though 

 it happened many years ago, and was related to us by an 

 eye-witness, we have never seen in print. 



Mr. Spring had a farm on an island in Saco river, from 



nett. The channel was not very broad, and a few rods be- 

 low were some considerable falls. Spring built abutments, 

 and laid the string-pieces ; but Dennett came in the niglit 

 and tore them down. Spring, naturally enraged, threaten- 

 ed that if he did it again, he should answer for it to him 

 per'^onally. 



Unawed by this threat, no sooner were the beams again 

 laid on the abutments, than he destroyed so much of the 

 fiata 

 fall 



would be as certain death, as from the Goat Island bridge 

 above Niagara. 



According to his previous threat. Spring challenged Den- 

 nett to mortal combat. " I won't light," said Dennett, 

 "but I'll tell you what I will do. 



" Well ! " 



■' I'll take a keg of powder with a lighted candle, and 

 carry it on the centre of that string-piece. "Sfou shall sit 

 down on one cnil of it and 1 on tlie other, till the candle 

 burns down to the powder. That will be the test of our 

 courage." 



This terrible proposal was agreed to. The frail timber 

 bent beneath them as they coolly walked out and placed 

 the cask of powder in the middle, over the roaring flood 

 below, stuck tho blazing candle into it, and sat down to 

 watch its burning. Hundreds v.ere gathered on each side 

 awaiting in breathless silence the issue. 



Spring was a large fat man, and as the candle burned 

 slowly towards the powder, he was observed to grow more 

 and more nervous, wTiggling on his seat and looking ono 

 way and the other. .At last, when the flame was but half 

 an inch from the surface, he could keep still no longer, but 

 incontinently got up and made his escape. 



Dennett, who had throughout displayed the utmost cool- 

 ness, now very carefully took the blazing candle out of the 

 cask, threw it into the water, and with the powder as his 

 prize, went oft' in the opposite direction. The building of 

 the bridge was for ever abandoned. — Buffalo Patriot. 



STATISTICS OF THE LOiNDON POST OFFICE. 

 We gather the following facts from a report recently 

 made to our Government by Mr. Plitt, who was sent out 

 some time ago to Europe, by the direction of Mr. Van Bu- 

 ron. for the ['Urpcse of collecting information relative to 

 nd mail arrangement of the Old World. — 



■iml 



1 he aviTiii.-!' number 



The avGragn number < 

 elivcry in the Lond 

 The .averaffe number of Icttci 



ri 



stoflice, is 75,350. 

 of newspapers rcc 

 pott office, is 1I,4C0. 

 ' ' ■■ , daily posted i 



ved daily, for de- 

 ved daily, for 



go number of letters daily distributed and for- 

 i;e number of newspapers daily posted in 



London, is S3,ilO. 



The average number of newspapers daily distributed 

 and forwarded, is 3000. 



In the London district post, the average number of let- 

 ters received and delivered daily, is 08,000 j number of 

 newspapers, 3,6C0. 



Besides the letter-carriers, there are ,ilro attached to 

 the General Post, ninety-five belhi;en, who call at everv 

 house in their walk fcr IcUers to go by tho evening dcs'- 

 patch. ■ They carry a IccUcd bag, with an aperture large 

 enou:;h to drop in alctlcr, v\hii:li can onlv be opened at 

 the post oince. ,\ny per. nn lining letters to go by thf; 

 mail may drop them into Uil- Li,i.! himself, pay the bellman 

 his fee of one penny for c;u h li Vcv nnd tl c ii may rest as- 

 sured that they will bo d(;spul.J:cd by liii' mail i.t'the same 

 evening. 



Tho number of pest towns in tho United Kingdom is 

 3938; the number of miles upon which the mail in the 

 United ICingdom is annually cirricdhy mail coacliss, horfo 



