102 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



Juhj, 1842 



Earthquakes are almost always preceded l.y 

 unusual agitation of the waters, drying of the 

 springs, and which have sometimes sent forth 

 hlack. fetid mud. They are generally preceded 

 hy long droughts and electrical appearances in 

 the ail-. — .Vewburyport Herald. 



Power of the A'oice Over Children. 



/tis usual to attempt the management of child- 

 ren either hy corporal punishment, or hy rewards 

 addressed to the senses, or hy words alone. There 

 is one other means of government, the power and 

 importance of which are seldom regarded. I 

 refer to the human voice. A blow n)ay be in- 

 flicted on a child, accompanied by words so ut- 

 tered as to counteract entirely its intended effect. 

 Or, the parent may use language in the correc- 

 tion of the child, not objectionable in itself, yet 

 spoken in a tone which more than defeats its in- 

 fluence. 



We are by no means aware of the power ot 

 voice in swaying the soul. The anecdote of a 

 good lady, in regard to her minister's sermons, 

 is to the point. She heard a discourse from him 

 which pleased her exceedingly. She expressed 

 to a friend the hope that he would preach it 

 again. 

 ' "Perhaps," said her friend in reply, "he may 

 print it." "Ah," said she, "he could not print it 

 in that holy toiie." Tliere is a tone in the pulpit, 

 which, false as is the taste from which it pro- 

 ceeds, does indeed work wonders. So is there a 

 tone in our intercourse with children, which may 

 be among the most efficient aids in their right 

 education. 



Let any one endeavor to recal the image of a 

 fond mother long since at rest in heaven. Her 

 sweet smile and ever clear countenance are 

 brought vividly to recollection. So also is her 

 voice: and blessed is that parent who is endowed 

 with a pleasing utterance. What is it which lulls 

 the inlant to repose? It is no array of mere 

 words. There is no charm to the untaught one 

 in letters, syllables and sentences. It is the 

 sound which strikes its little ear, that .soothes 

 and composes it to sleep. A few notes, however 

 unskillfiilly arranged, if uttered in a soft tone, 

 are found to possess a magic influence. Think 

 we that this influence is confined to the cradle? 

 No, it difl^uses ovei' every age, and cea-ses not 

 wliile the child remains under the i)arental roof 

 Is the boy growing rude in manner or boisterous 

 speech ? I know of no instrutnent so sure to 

 control these tendencies, as the gentle tones of a 

 mother. She who speaks to her son harshly, 

 does but give to his conduct the sanction of her 

 own example. She pours oil on the already ra- 

 ging flame. In the [jressure of duty, we are lia- 

 ble to utter ourselves hastily to our children.— 

 Perhaps a threat is expressed in a loud and irri- 

 tating tone. Instead of allaying the passions of 

 the child, it serves directly to increase them.— 

 Every fretful expression awakens in him the 

 same spirit which produced it. So does a plea- 

 sant voice call up agreeable feeling.s. Whatever 

 disposition, therefore, we would encourage in a 

 child, the same we should manifest in the tone 

 with which we address him. 



There is nothing more desirable in a daughter, 

 than intelligence joined to a gentle spirit. The 

 mind is fashioned and furnished, in the main, at 

 school. But the character of the afl'ections is 

 derived chiefly from home. How inestimable is 

 the confidence of that mother in producing kind 

 feelings in the bosoms of her children, who nev- 

 er permits herself to apeak to them with a loud 

 voice, and in harsh, unkind tones. 



I have heard of a father, who, when his child- 

 ren became engaged in a dispute, would at once 

 require them to unite in a song. The blending 

 of their voices in harmony was soon found to 

 subdue their angry and contentious feelings. — 

 There is a native, spontaneous untaught music. 

 It consists in the tones which issue from her who 

 is overflowing with Christian love. While, then, 

 I would advise the mother to the culture of a 

 pleasant voice, and warn her of the evils of ad- 

 dressing her children harshly, I would still more 

 earnestly counsel her to discipline her heart. — 

 Out of a kind heart come, naturally, kind tones. 

 She who would train up her family in the sweet 

 spirit of Christ, can succeed best and most en- 

 during of all, by cherishing such sentiments as 

 shall seek their own unbidden expression in gen- 

 tle, yet all powerful tones.— Hartford Courant. 



Political Anomalies or Inconsistencies. 



BY RKV. HENRV COLMAN. 



We are not willing to plunge into the political 

 sea, turbid and bitter as it waters are too often 

 rendereil by parly excitements, prejudices, and 

 resentments; hut any calm observer camiot fiiil 

 10 be struck with the anomalies and inconsisten- 

 cies, which every where present themselves. — 

 We are told even by those who have lived long- 

 est, that the times were never harder tliiui at 

 present ; and that there has never been mure 

 general distress and suffering and want than now 

 prevail in our community. Yet all this in a coun- 

 try, where there is neither war, nor sickness, nor 

 famine, nor o[)pression ; where the ta.xes are not 

 even felt by the people; where the blessings of 

 education, and law, and order, and civilization are 

 enjoyed to the full ; where the most li^rtile soil 

 under the sun is to be had for asking; and where 

 in the free States is enjoyed as much of personal 

 liberty, as ever fell to the lot of man in a social 

 condition, and a perfect security of the fruits ot 

 his own industry. Now, where is the cause or 

 the seat of the disorder and suffering, which are 

 so prevalent, and every where the topic of com- 

 plaint ? Again look at the foundation of com- 

 plaint everywhere explicitly avowed ; over-pro- 

 duction — over-production. It is not want: it is 

 not failure of crops; it is not universal indolence 

 and inactivity. No, it is too much bread ; too 

 much clothing ; too much luxury ; loo much of 

 every thing that is pood ; too much personal in- 

 dustry and labor. We must cut off the producers 

 and increase the consumers. Ah! is all griiti- 

 tiide to Heaven, and all humanity dead in the 

 soul of man ? 



Then again another cause of complaint is, that 

 our farmers are losing the market for their grain 

 and their meat, becau.se of the Temperance ref- 

 ormation and tlie progress of Graham principles. 

 That is, we are becoming too moral ; too absti- 

 nent : we are not willing to indulge oursel 

 enough; we are not willing to poison curselv 

 we are not willing to make ourselves and our 

 friends miserable and iiifamou.s, in order to en 

 courage agriculture. How selfish and unpat 

 riotic ! 



We might go on to extend this table of social 

 anomalies and inconsistencies until we reached 

 the end of our humble sheet, but we must for 

 bear. We throw out these facts, if facts they are 

 for reflection. So far and so intimately do they 

 connect them-selves with the condition of our 

 ral population, that we hold them open to, and 

 invite discussion in oup column.^. We bel 

 tor ourselves that the source of them lies much 

 deeper than most persons imagine. We bel 

 that no government that has ever existed can 

 cure them. They are far beyond the reach of all 

 artificial remedies. They grow out of the fi.xed 

 and unalterable laws of Divine Providence, 

 which in its certain retributions men seek con- 

 tinually to contravene. We have had already a 

 great deal too much law and too much political 

 quackery. The diseases of the social condition 

 spring out of the unmitigated selfishness, and 

 unbridled rapacity and availce of the human 

 heart. 



Sir Robert Peel, in his late extraordinary 

 speech on the revision of the British Tariff, re- 

 marked that his proposed reduction of the duly 

 upon cured fish, (by which condition the poor 

 would be greatly alleviated,) was very warinly op- 

 posed by' n man extensively engaged in the 

 Herring Fishery in the island of Jersey, who 

 very frankly wrote to him, that, "he was for 

 free trade in every thing but herrings." Here is 

 the secret out. "I mistook ; it was your bull that 

 gored my ox." "Ah !" said the impartial magis- 

 trate, "that alters the case," entirely. 



From the Transactions of the N. Y. Agricultural 



English Agriculture— A Glance at its Progress 

 and Prospects. 



By John Hannam, J\lorlh Deighton, fVetherhy, 

 Yorkshire, England. 



The paramount imporlance of agriculture, as 

 a producer of national wealth, its capability of 

 rendering a people independent of others for the 

 means of life and enjoyment, have always enti- 

 tled it to take the first rank in a nation's estima- 

 tion. And, although it has not always secured 

 this estimation, we shall find, if we examine care- 

 fiillvthe record?, both of sacred and profane histo- 



ry, that the policy which has sanctioned this neg- 

 lect, has caused the ruin of the best interests of 

 the coimlry. 



But although this truth has been open to the 

 eyes of the world for ages, it is an extraordinary 

 evidence of the perversity of human intelligence 

 that it is only within, comparatively speaking, a 

 few years, that it has been perceived, or at least 

 acknowledged, so as to be acted upon in England. 

 The efltict, however, of this knowledge has been 

 so magical, yet so palpably evident ; the improve- 

 ment and extension of agriculture, as a practice, 

 has been so rapid, and its estimation, as a sci- 

 ence, so great, that it would be a labor worthy of 

 the ablest pen to trace that progress, because it 

 is a labor that would be fully appreciated by 

 every inquiring mind. Composed, however, as 

 such an inquiry should be, of n history of its 

 condition, principles, [iractice and statistics, and 

 that too, in a country where an endless variety, 

 seasons and climate combine to make exceptions 

 to every principle, to vary every practice, and to 

 mystily every calculation, it would seem to be a 

 work which, if not above the power of an indi- 

 vidual, would re(|uire every assistance that time 

 and talent could secure him. To attempt, then, 

 had we the ability requisite, to give such a histo- 

 ry, of even one branch of the subject, in a paper 

 like the present, and that too, in the few days 

 which circumstances over which I have no con- 

 trol, (I am now writing at exactly one month 

 from the day, yet more than four thousand miles 

 from the place of publication,) I am able to give 

 to its consideralion, would be absurd. Yet, al- 

 though th; comprehensive nature of this subject 

 prevenis any attempt at such a view of it, it is 

 attended with one advantage, its high importance 

 will give, even to this cursory "glance,'^ which it 

 would not otherwise |)ossess. That this interest 

 will not be entirely wasted, I have the presump- 

 tion to hope. luforniatioii is the corner stone of 

 interest, and few inquiring minds can be led to 

 the view of any subject in its past and (iresent 

 phases, without making some lesson for the fu- 

 ture. 



In entering upon the first part of our subject, 

 the progress of English agriculture, the course 

 that suggests itself to us is to divide it into those 

 marked epochs of transition, or change, which 

 are discoverable in the progress of every thing 

 connected with, or influenced by, liumnn nature ; 

 and to look at the spirit pervading the practice at 

 each period. Taking, however, a general view 

 of the subject, we observe but one period of 

 marked transition ; a change froma state of things 

 under which agriculture languished tor hundreds 

 of years, without making any a.dvance, to one, 

 under which, in fewer months, it has made won- 

 derful progress and improvement. This is the 

 great [ihenomena that presents itself to us in tra- 

 cing the progress of English agriculture; and 

 indeed that a science which was necessarily prac- 

 ti.«ed and extended with the increase of popula- 

 tion, should remain, comparatively speaking, sta- 

 tionary ; at least that it should be surpassed by 

 every other art or science, in all approaches to 

 permanent principle ; and that, after a torpid ex- 

 istence of more than UiOO years, it should start 

 at once into the vigor of youth, develope, in the 

 course of a generation, the energies that centu- 

 ries had failed to elicit, is one of no mean order. 

 In order therefore, to illustrate this progress it 

 will be necessary for us to look, first, at the prac- 

 tice of agriculture previous to the transition ; at 

 the influences tending to produce a change ;^a 

 third, the result of these influences, us developed 

 in the practice up to the present time. 



Of tiie practice of agriculture in England be- 

 fore the Roman invasion, we find little mention 

 made by historians. We are tohl by Ccesar that 

 it had made some slight progress in the counties 

 of Somerset, Hants and Wilts; that they grew 

 corn, manured the hind, and had abundance of 

 cattle ; while the rest of the people led a more 

 savage life, jiving upon the game of the forest 

 and the spontaneous productions of the earth. 

 After the conquest of Britain, a change took 

 place. ''Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he in- 

 habits," says Seneca, (Consolat. ad Helvatiam c. 

 6:) and where he inhabited, history assures ns 

 he always carried the language, the manners, the 

 arts and the vices of Rome. Africa, Spain, Gaul 

 and Pannonia, are, as is attested by Apuleius, 

 Strabo and Paterculus, evidences of the manner 

 in which "the nations of the empire insensibly 



