THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



141 



luitted to the frieuds of siich a Society from all 

 parts of the Union, to be held at the city of Wasli- 

 ington on the second Wednesday of the ensuing 

 session of Congress : 



Solon Robinson, Esq. of Indiana ; Hon. Henry 

 L. Ellsworth, District of Colnnihia; Hon. James 

 M. Garnett, Virginia : Hon. Chilton Allen, Ken- 

 tucky ; Hon. Oliver H. Smith, Indiana; Hon. 

 Thomas S. Hind, Illinois: Hon. Lewis F.Linn, 

 Missoin-i ; Hon. Francis H. Gordon, Tennessee ; 

 M. W. Philips, Esq., Mississippi ; Hon. Dixon H. 

 Lewis, Alabama; Hon. Ale.\'r. Moutou, Louisia- 

 na; Hon. Wm. S. Fulton, Arkansas; Hon. Au- 

 gustus C. Dodge, Iowa ; Gov. James D. Doty, 

 Wisconsin; Hon. William Woodbridge, Michi- 

 gan ; Wm. Neft; Esq., Ohio ; Wm. P. Kinza, Esti., 

 Pennsylvania ; Edmund D. Morris.s, Esq., New 

 Jersey ; Dr. James W. Thompson, Delaware ; 

 Hon. John S. Skinner, Maryland ; Hon. Edmund 

 Deherry, North Carolina; Hon. Francis W.Pick- 

 ens, South Carolina ; Hon. Wm. C. Dawson, Geor- 

 gia ; Govl Call, Florida ; Caleb N. Benient, Esq., 

 New York ; Solomon W. Jewett, Esq., Vermont ; 

 Hon. Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire; Hon. 

 George Evans, Maine"; B. V. French, Esq., Mas- 

 sachusetts; Wm. C. Chapin, Esq., Rhode Island ; 

 Hon. Thomas B. Osborii, Connecticut. 



Mr. Robinson accompanies the proceedings of 

 this meeting with an address calling on the 

 friends of Agriculture to unite in aiding the ob- 

 jects of this Society. From Washington, before 

 lie returns to Indiana, he announces the intention 

 to continue his tour through the Eastern States, 

 where he hopes to have personal interviews with 

 many of his agricultural friends. 



From the American Farmer. 



A Word to old Bachelors— Different sorts of 



Wives. 



Detorr'd tlie common joys of life, 



And that prime hliss — a loving wile ! 



Oh ! wiiat's a table, richly spread, 



Without a woman at its head ? 

 I fear, Mi: Editor, you will think me "more nice 

 than wise ;" but my notions, if fastidious or pe- 

 culiar, liave the merit at least of not leading to 

 extravagance. — You must know, or if ignorant of 

 a matter so important, let this inform you, that 

 as far back as I can remember, I have had a nat- 

 ural proclivity ibr the softer sex: When yet a 

 very little chap, I liked to go to school with the 

 girls, to sit on the girls bench, and to learn out of 

 their books ; and at dinner time to play with 

 them, for, be it remembered, we went three miles 

 to a country school ; aye, and, you may believe it 

 or not, until some vague notion of its iuipropri- 

 ety caiTie over the old people, which then I did 

 not so well comprehend, my decided preference 

 was to sleep in the " Lady's chamber." It was 

 my wont, on rainy days, and Saturdays, to " use" 

 with mother and the sisters, and their young 

 coinpanious, to plague them at their quilting 

 matches, and to attend them, not willingly it must 

 be confessed, to open the gates going to church ; 

 but most willingly to the closet, when they went 

 there to get or give out, the sugar and the sweet- 

 meats — Hence, even now, when I take my va- 

 grant pen to scribble something for the " Far- 

 mer," my inclination is somehow to get into the 

 Housewife's Department — for, in fact, is it not there 

 that you are most apt to find something good, 

 especially for a mortal sinner who confesses to a 

 -sweet tooth! Yes, Mr. Editor, its "a disease 1 

 shall die on," and sooner shall 



" The I)oui.d bo hunted by the hare, 



" Than I turn rebel to the Fair." 

 It may be the result of these early propensities 

 and associations, that prompts me when I go in- 

 to a strange house, to throw my eyes slyly around 

 on the things that seive, like tne index of a book, 

 to show Ihe character of the Mistress. If, for in- 

 stance, I descry cobwebs in a corner of the ceil- 

 ing, dust on the chair board.s, or the mantle, fly 

 dirt on the window, verdigris on the brasses, and 

 n dirty hearth ; I say to myself, " here wants the 

 eye of the Mistress — wonder what time she gets 

 up ?" Does a little daughter come in caterwaul- 

 ing, with a dirty apron, slip-shod shoes, her face 

 unwashed and hair uncombed, I say to myself 

 again, " this looks worse still ! — here's maternal 

 delinqUency-^wonder if the mother don't give 

 her time too niuch to rending novels." — Warned 

 by these premonitory .symptoms, when her Lady- 

 ship makes her appearance, it does not surprise 

 nie if she speaks only when si>oken to, and then 



in monosyllables, and looks gruni enough to turn 

 sweet milk into " hard cider" — whilst — a good 

 Housewife, on being introduced, suppose the 

 husband to be absent in the tield, or at his oflice, 

 will receive you with a smile of affability — good 

 humor and cheerfulness light up her countenance, 

 and she has ready words of encouragement to 

 disembarrass you, and put you at once at your 

 ease — with a single coup (Vail I take a vie\y with- 

 out her jierceiving it, of her cap, her hair, her 

 neatly " done up" handkerchief, if she wears one, 

 her gown to note if the color and fashion are be- 

 coming and suitable to her age and figure ; and 

 then for the life of me I can't keep my eye from 

 dropping down to glance at hex shoe and slocking '. 

 Pretty as are small hands and feet, we have no 

 right to insist upon, what the lady cannot con- 

 trol — but we have a right to insist on a cap nice- 

 ly starched and trimmed, with its ribband and 

 her sash in keeping with each other and with the 

 complexion — who could bear the sight of a lilac 

 or green ribband, on a dark brimette .- and then 

 you steal a glance at the hands and finger nails, 

 to see that all is fair and elean as soap and brush 

 can make them ; and as for stockings with hole 



spot as big as a pin's head, whoever saw such 

 a thing, on a Lady ! Well then, besides her own 

 person and her house, there is another touch- 

 stone — the Table — Not that a man ot sense or 

 taste cares so much for how much is on it, in the 

 way of " creature comforts," but whatever it be, 

 let it be the best of its kind — and above all, let all 



appointments be " as clean as clean can be" ! 

 How reh-esbing a snow white well-ironed table 

 cloth, without speck or stain ! napkins ditto — and, 

 let Fanny Wright and five points democracy say 

 what they will, a silver fork after all is a right 

 comfortable thing ; were it only that by drop- 

 ping it in warm soap and water, you are sure to 

 have it perfectly clean ! Then one can't help no- 

 ticing whether the tea or dinner service is 

 throughout of homogeneal colors— milk white 

 the best, — and then the quality of the tea and cof- 

 fee. There is no place or occasion where the 

 " penny wise pound foolish" policy is more irk- 

 some or misplaced than in a false economy of the 

 table. For want of a few yards more of diaper, 

 and Some little more expenditure of "elbow- 

 greiise" and soap, by the washwoman, every thing 



spoiled — sight disgusted, and temper and ap- 

 petite destroyed together. — Many a nice break- 

 fast has been spoiled for want of a lew grains 

 more of tea or cofti?e. — But above all things to 

 have these given to you — the one weak and cold 

 — the other thick and muddy ! ! Ah, Mr. Editor, 

 can you tell me if Job's patience was ever put to 

 this greatest of all tests 9 One thing more would 

 I ask of the good lady whenever to be had — a 

 plate of light soup for dinner, which may be 

 made of almost any thing. But all the goods of 

 bounteous fortune, splendid equipages, liveried 

 servants, well stored larders, the most costly fur- 

 niture, tlie rarest wines, the most enchanting mu- 

 sic, paintings of the oldest masters, the choicest 

 library — all, all will not compensate for the want 

 of neatness, affability and good humor in the lad)'. 

 And now, Mr. Editor, having indicated some of 

 the signs of a good honsewile, shall I toll you on 

 what the existence and possession of that bles- 

 sing very much depends.' On Ihe husband ! 



and what, say you, are your signs for a good hus- 

 band ? Let husbands ask themselves the ques- 

 tion until you hear again, by next mail, from 

 your correspondent, Q in the cokner. 



Makiug of Manures. 



Compost manure is usually made by a depos- 

 ite of muck or mud, or the turf and soil by the 

 road-side, or vegetables or leaves, in barn and hog 

 yards. Thei-e is undonhtedly a great advantage 

 and a groat accumulation in the admixture of 

 other materials with barn and stable manure ; for 

 the loss in the virtue of manure is great beyond 

 caleidation when it has a long exposure to the 

 atmosphere from the escape of ammonia ; indeed 

 we are of opinion that the almost exclusive loss 

 of manure is in the passing ofFof the strength in 

 the air. Every material mixed with the clear 

 dung of the yard, absorbing its liquid strength, 

 contributes to increase its value nearly in propor- 

 tion to its increased volume, until the inciease is 

 doubled. 



But the bnrn-yard and the hog-stye are not the 

 only places in which valuable compost may be 

 formed. We believe excellent manure mav be 



made in the field. It is sometimes inconvenient 

 to draw muck, &c., into the yards. Ashes and 

 especially lime may be used to great advantage 

 in the manidacture of compost; and of the value 

 of this article there cannot be a doubt. We have 

 an instance this summer in point. With ten 

 casks of Thomaston lime, Benjamin Emery, Esq., 

 of Chichester manufactured a full hundred loads 

 of compost. The lime was applied about a year 

 ago to swamp muck in the proportion of one 

 cask to every ten loads. It was pounded from 

 the stone and mixed in, slacking itself af\er the 

 admixture till it pervaded the whole mass. The 

 effect of the lime was a complete fermenta tion ; 

 and the decomposition of the muck or vegetable 

 material was carried on through the winter by 

 freezing and thawing. 



Four acres of common hardwood soil were 

 prepared for planting in the spring. On one half 

 of it were spread twenty-five loads to the acre of 

 the best stable manure ; and on the other half 

 was spread an equal quantity of the lime and 

 muck compost. After the corn and potatoes had 

 sprung from the ground a spoonful of plaster was 

 applied to the hill of the whole field. The result 

 of the matter is, that in the compost ground the 

 crop of corn is fi-om six to eight for one, and the 

 potatoes four for one to the same crops where the 

 common yard manure was spread.The truth is,that 

 while there was a tolerable cro]) of corn in the 

 one case, it was almost entirely cut off by the 

 drought in the other. 



It remains to be ascertained whether compost 

 prepared in this way will he valuable in a wet as 

 well as in a dry season. We do not doubt there 

 is great intrinsic value in most of the black mud 

 taken from swamps, and that lime, by the decom- 

 position which it urges on, will greatly facilitate 

 the operation of this valuable material. 



From the Wew York American. 

 On a Fair Lady. 



She shone upon the brif;ht saloon 



Mid mirth and music's sound, 

 Lilie moonlight, on the glimmering 



Of tapers dim around, 

 And when she walked, 'twas wonderful 



How all our hearts she bowed, 

 And how she tamed the manliest, 



And how stie awed the proud. 



By grudging JNa 

 To teach us here how beautiful 



The angels are in heaven ; 

 And snch was she, the queen of all, 



The fairest of the fair, 

 The lady of the gentle heart, 



But soul-subduing air. 



Value of Ashes. — Professor .lackson, in one 

 of his lectures in Boston, in illustrating the man- 

 ner in w hich soils might be rendered ftrtilc, said 

 that: — 



"A farm within his knowledge was blowing 

 sand, a pine barren, and almost hopeless, on 

 which ten bushels of corn to an acre could 

 scarcely he grown, hut, by the judicious aiipljca- 

 tion of ashes, had been made to i)roduce forty or 

 fifty bushels to the acre." We do not question 

 the correctness of Dr. Jackson's statement. — Our 

 observation has convinced us that on sandy soils, 

 with the exception of clay marl, llicre is nothing 

 more beneficial in the a[)[ilication to snch soils 

 than ashes; and very fortiuialely, unless uncom- 

 mon quantities of acid exist in such soils, leached 

 ashes are nearly as beneficial as uiileached ones. 

 Ashes do what lime cannot — they render the soil 

 more tenacious of niuisUue, and althoujih their 

 action is not as jirompt or efficitnt on cold sour 

 soils, they are for the reason assigned, coiipidercd 

 as valuable on light sandy ones. Of this fa<'t, the 

 farmers on the light soils of Long Island and 

 New Jersey are well aware, and in the gathering 

 and application of ashe.s, find certain sources of 

 profit. 



Profit of Acbiculture.— Five thousand dol- 

 lars worlh of green corn has been brought to this 

 city ahead}', this season, from Burlington county, 

 N. J. Large quantities of vegetables are also sent 

 to Philadelphia from that fertile county. A single 

 farmer near Burlington last week received, in the 

 Philadelphia market, near $7C0 for his week's 

 marketing. This is better than working a gold 

 mine, or speculating in morns multicaulis, or 

 fancy stocks, or politics. — .V. Y. •S'lm. 



