8 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



January , 1842. 



recently been taken, for an inconsiderable sum, 

 Iiaving his eye upon a morass of about two acres, 

 which he has conveniently drained, and finds in 

 it a bed of rich material worth, (as he says) all of 

 five hundred dollars for the use of his fiirm. 

 From this he hauls some hundreds of loads in 

 the winter to he mixed, rooted amongst, and con- 

 verted into excellent manure for liis farm one 

 year hence. 



Next neighbors to Mr. Knowles upon the plain 

 are the Messrs Abbott's, sons of Mr. Nathan A. 

 (there is a regiment ot Abbotts in Concord, and 

 many of them good farmers) who have a better 

 farm, and are not much behind their neighbors 

 in making improvements and in going ahead as 

 farmers. 



The examples of these and other enterprising 

 men, young and old, cannot but have a salutary 

 eflfect on the growth and prosperity of Concord 

 as an agricultural town. To make a flourishing 

 place of business of any village in the interior, 

 there must be first a flourishing Agriculture 

 around it. To this point the whole comnuinity 

 should have an eye. 



BY ALEXANDER COCHRAN. 



The wares are high, the night is dark, 



Wild roam the foaming tides, 

 Dashing around the straining bnrii, 



As gallantly she rides '. 

 " Pilot ! take heed what course you steer ; 



Our bark is tempest-driven !" 

 " Stranger, "be calm, there is no fear 



For him who trusts in Heaven 1" 



"Oh, pilot! mark yon thunder cloud — 



The lightning's lurid rivers, 

 Hark to the wind, 'tis piping loud — , 



The mainmast bends and quivers I 

 Stay, pilot, stay, and shorten sail, 



Our stormy try-sail's riven !" 

 " Stranger, what matters, calm or gale, 



To him who trusts in Heaven ?" 



Borne by the winds, the vessel flees 



Up to that thundering cloud, 

 New tottering low, the spray winged seas 



Conceal the. top-mast shroud. 

 " Pilot '. the waves break o'er us fast, 



Vainly our bark has striven!" 

 " Stranger, the Lord can rule the blast, — 



Go, put thy trust in Heaven !" 



Good hope ! Good hope ! 



! little 



" Stranger, good hope He giveth thee, 



.\s He has often given ; 

 Then learn this truth,— whate'er may be, 



To put thy trust in Heaven !" 



EPIGRAM. 

 Ofdiamonds, each component part 



We learn by chemis 

 t of those, by cl 

 never diamond made. 



Bradford, Jan. 10, 1842. 

 Gov. HfLL: — Sir — I have long been gratified 

 in seeing that the fume and good name of almost 

 every class and kind of farmers, housewives, 

 farms, orchards, gardens, buildings, horses, cattle, 

 sheep, swine and fowls, liave had the friendly 

 attentions of your excellent Monthly Visitor; and 

 each in its turn has left indelible impressions of 

 praise and respect upon the fair sheet, which 

 travels season after season round tlie year, to re- 

 late to neighboring towns and counties their 

 prosperity, management, condition and produc- 

 tions, fruitfiilness and kinds, beauty, and benefit, 

 location and construction, breed, colors, weight, 

 &c. and as the celebrated " Beikshires" have 

 grunted loudly of their superiority for some time 

 past, I have some desire that they would just 

 permit my white pigs to walk into the ranks, and 

 modestly boast of their weight with the rest of 

 the good natured story tellers. 



In 1839, one weighed, killed, 290 lbs. 

 In 1840, " " " 312 " 



In 1841, " " •' 322 " 



each about eight months old. 



Yours respectfully, 



JOHN GILLlNGHAiM. 



Woman i.n Sick.ness.— In no situation, and 

 under no circumstances, does the female charac- 

 ter appear to. siioIj advantage as v^'hen watching 

 beside the bed of sickui'sf. The chamber of dis- 

 ease may indi'dl be s.iid to be woman's home. 

 We there behold Iut in her loveliest, most at- 

 tractive point oi'vimv — firm, without being harsh, 

 tender, yet pot uctik; active, yet quiet; gentle, 

 patient, uncompluiiiing, vigilant. Every sympa- 

 thetic feeling that so peculiarly graces '.lie Itjiui- 

 nine character, is there called Uinli : uliile the 

 native strength of mind, which has hiilieitu slum- 

 bered in inactivity, is roused to its liillest energy. 

 With noiseless step she iMo\es about llie cham- 

 ber of the invalid; her listening ear ever ready 

 to catch the sii^hlest inurunir, her (piick, kuid 

 glance to interpret the unuttered wish, and sup- 

 ply the half-formed want. She smoothes with 

 careful hand the uneasy pillow which supports 

 the aching head, or with cool hand soothes the 

 fevered brow, or proffers to the glazed and parch- 

 ing lip the grateful draught, happy if she meet 

 one kind glance in payment for her labor of love. 

 Her's is the low whis|)ered voice, which breathes 

 of life and hope — of health in store lor happy 

 days to come ; or tells of better and of heavenly 

 rest, where neither sorrow nor disease can come 

 — where the dark power of death no more shall 

 have dominion over the frail, sufl^eriiig, perishable 

 clay. Through the dim silent watches of the 

 night, when all aroiuid are hu.shed in sleep, it is 

 her's to keep lone vigils, and to hold communion 

 with her God, and silently lift up her heart in 

 fervent prayer, for the prolongment of a lite for 

 which she cheerfully would sacrifice her own. 

 And even when exhausted nature sinks to brief 

 repose, forgetlulnes is denied. Even in sleep 

 she seems awake to this one great object of her 

 care. Starts and rises from her sluuibers, raises 

 her drooping head, watches with dreamy eyes 

 the face she loves, then sinks again to rest, to 

 start with every chime of clock ordistatit sound, 

 which formerly had passed uidieard, or only 

 served as a lullaby to her sw^et sleep. 



How lovely does the wife, the mother, the sis- 

 ter or the friend become to the eyes of grateful 

 aftection, while administering ease, comtbrt, nay, 

 altnost life itself, to the husband, the son, the 

 brother, or the friend ! — Spirit of the English Mag- 

 zines. 



The Silk Culture. 



We have received a communication relative to 

 an improved apparatus for feeding the silk worm, 

 recently invented by Dr. A. Spuulding of this 

 city, which with pleasure we notice. Everything 

 upon the subject of domestic silk maniilacture 

 claims attention. We doubt not the period is at 

 baud when Ohio will produce Iter own silks. We 

 subjoin an outline of Dr. Spaulding's invention. 

 It seems to us from brief examination, to com- 

 bine numerous excellencies. 



1. It secures the most i)erfect ventihitiou to 

 the worm in all its stages. 



2. It enables the feeder to change them as of- 

 ten as he pleases, with the utmost rapidity, even 

 an hundred thousand per hour, at any stage. 



3. It furnishes the most complete winding 

 chambers for the worm, exactly suited to its 

 wishes. 



4. The cocoons can be gathered from these 

 chambers 500 per cent, faster than from any other 

 known. 



5. It may be adapted to a room of any size, 

 and may be used in a parlor, without inconveni- 

 ence. 



C. It can he made by any one who can use a 

 handsaw and hammer. 



7. It can bo furnished by the inventor, at an 

 expense very little exceeding plaiti shelves. , 



A patent is about being secured, and, in the 

 course of a few weeks, it will be in market. 



Further information may be obtained by ad- 

 dressing Dod. A. Spaalding, Marietta, Ohio, pos- 

 tage being paid. 



We take the above from an Ohio newspaper 

 sent us tor the purpose of calling attention to 

 this subject. 



Of the imports into the United States the aver- 

 age has been in silk and the manufactures of silk 

 over twenty millions of dollars a year for the last 

 four or five years. The quantity has been much 

 increased since the duties were thrown off" of all 

 articles of which silk was the greatest part Fi oni 



high to low our females a|>pear now in silk 

 dresses; and rich silk velvets Ibrm no inconsid- 

 erable part of the fashionable clothing of tha 

 males. We have seen overcoats of silk — silk 

 without and silk within, manufactured as the 

 wale-doth of bedticking — wadded and quilted — 

 which were heavy and warm for wiuter wear as 

 the best and most expensive furs. 



Although we do not hold that the importation 

 of so much silk abstracts the full value in money 

 front the coimtry — for it is our belief that the 

 fVee importation of silk from France and o;lier 

 Eiu-opean countries, invites a ti'ade with those 

 coimtries by which lliey take at least an equal 

 amount ot our surplus products : yet it is desira- 

 ble, if we can raise and manufacture silk to as 

 good advantage as we can any thing else, that we 

 should do it even to the exclusion of foreign silks 

 which come to us cl.-eap, and which are exchang- 

 ed readily for such products as we can spai'e 

 from our own use. 



Three years ago, when the silk fever was rag- 

 ing — when enormous and ruinous speculations 

 were set on foot in that species of mulberry 

 called Moriis .Miilticaulis, we studiously withheld 

 every thing that should contribute to the excite- 

 ment: in the columns of the Visitor, which we 

 then published, we threw cold water on the l)ro- 

 ject — we asked for no legislative bounties and 

 |)reiuiums on silks; and many men, zealous for 

 the improvement ii' the raising mulliBrries and 

 manutiicturing silk, thought us much too cold a 

 trienJ of that kind of domestic improvement. 



We took our position then, partly fiom our 

 fears that the Morns Multicaulis would not turn 

 out what it was rec. muiended to be, and partly 

 from the coiiviciion that if it should succeed in a 

 warmer and milder climate, the plant was too 

 tender to grow and flourish in New Hampshire. 

 From personal observation it was likewise but 

 too evident that the common mulberry itself in 

 many positions coidd not withstand our severe 

 climate. We had seen the winter frosts cut down 

 the tree in various positions after it was one year 

 old and upwards. Most of the experiments made 

 with mulberry orchaids in this State, for some 

 cause, have failed : the common white mulberry 

 tree for the last six years has not, it is manifest, 

 had the growth of the trees indigenous to our 

 climate. 



Yet in the face of this want of success, we are 

 of o|iiniou that the silk culture may be made to 

 succeed in nearly every State of the Union. 

 There is no doubt that the mulberry may be ac- 

 climated ; and we think the northern States will 

 have the advantage of more health and certainty 

 in the production of perfect cocoons from the 

 worms than perhaps even a moi-e southern cli- 



For more than thirty years the late Rev. Dr. 

 Wood of Boscawen succeeded in amuially pro- 

 ducing silk. We believe one or more mulberry 

 trees of that age are still standing on the premi- 

 ses where he lived and died. He continued that 

 business from year to year with a perseverance 

 which was truly characteristic of the great tnan — 

 as great he was not only for his talents as the 

 preacher lor more than half a ccjitury, but as the 

 instructor in the higher branches of educatiou for 

 a long series of years of more youth than any 

 other man of the State. We also remember to 

 have seen a white mulberry tree in the garden of 

 the late Maj. Stark at Dunbarton, of healthy 

 growth, which must have been nearly forty years 

 of age. But the orchard set out some ten to fif- 

 teen years .ngo by the children of Maj. S. although 

 well succeeding while the enterprising ladies of 

 that family were not di'awn from its personal at- 

 tendance by other and more mournful duties, has 

 since been abaiuloiied— the trees having failed to 

 hold on in a healthy growth. 



A lady of our acquaintance at Hopkinton, in 

 this county, (Mrs. Kimball) has succeeded in 

 the cuKure of silk for a series of years. Slie has 

 not only reared the worms and obtained the co- 

 coons, but has carried out the production with 

 her own hands to the maniilacture of various 

 fancy silk cloths, some of which have been ani-.u- 

 ally exhibited before the Merrimack County .Ag- 

 ricultural Society. 



In conversation with Doct. Caleb Plastridce 

 of Lebanon, a successful farmer, as well as an 

 eminent practitioner of (ihysic, we found him 

 sanguine in the o|)iuioii th-.it the rearing of the 

 murberry and the prodneliiju of 



