116 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR 



Atigust, 1842. 



have imagined to exist in your case. Mr. Br.-id- 

 Icv I happen to know, to be in precisely that sit- 

 uation. He is much in want of money at this 

 time. His anxiety to **ell caused him to act up- 

 on what 1 think aValse principle. He knew that 

 you would cheapen the goods, and therefore he 

 asked vou a very high price. Perhaps, had he 

 not been so much pressed, he would have asked 

 only a fair price, and not receded fiom it." 



ftirs. Shannon began to have a glimpse of the 

 principle of action laid down by her friend. But 

 It was only a glimp.=e. 



'• I suppose," she said, after a pause, " that my 

 shawl is not much of a bargain after all. But I 

 hardly think I have paid too much for it." 



"Only fifty dollars more th;m Mrs. Harper 

 paid for hers." 

 .- "What!" 



" I was with Mrs. Harper when she purchased 

 her shawl ; and seventy-five dollars was all that 

 iMr. Bradley asked for it. His price was i)aid 

 without a word, for Mrs. Harper had the fullest 

 confidence in him. .^nd you see now how hon- 

 estly he is disposed to deal with a fair customer 

 Mrs. Jenkins was very anxious to have the fel- 

 low that you have bought, and she told me this 

 morning that her husband was willing that she 

 should buy it, and that she was going out at once 

 to secure the shawl. She has doubtless before 

 this met the disappointment that awaited her. 

 The error that you have committed, Mrs. Shan- 

 non, in picking up that shawl so eagerly, to pre- 

 vent Mrs. Jenkins from getting it, has resulted in 

 a disappointment to you botli. I trust, my friend, 

 that you will not soon forget the lesson, and that 

 its efl'ect may be salutary." 



Just then llie servant handed a sealed letter 

 which was instantly broken open by Mrs. Shan- 

 non. It contained a bank bill for fifty dollars, 

 and run thus:— 



"To Mas. Shannon— iUa<iam: The value oF the 

 Bhawl that you bt.-u;,'ht of me this morniu!;, was seventy- 

 five dollars, at which price the profit to me is a fair one. 

 But as 1 knew that you would not buy it, unless I fell 

 considerably on the price I doubleil to leave ample room 

 to come down. You did not beat hard enough, and so 

 paid, and willingly too. hftv doll.ira more than it was 

 worth. The silk you paid hail' a dollar a yard more than 

 ray living price -, but as you got the lace at a dollar a yard 

 less than it cost me, those two items w ill balance each 

 other. The fifty dollars enclosed will reduce the shawl 

 to its real value. And now, madam, I shall be happy to 

 wait on you again : but remember, that I shall ask you only a 

 fair profit, and I will deal fairly with you. But do not 

 " mpt me to adopt a principle of action that "I can- 

 ) feeling to be wrong. Yours, 



John Bradley." 



A burning blush of shame covered the fijce of 

 Mrs. Sliarnon as she finished this letter. She 

 sat musing a few moments, and then handed it 

 to Mrs. Cleveland. On reading it that lady re- 

 marked — 



" I cannot say, Mrs. Shannon, that I regret the 

 occurrence of this incident. It will be a lesson 

 that you can never forget." 



"Indeed it will. But pray, Mrs. ■Cleveland do 

 not mention it. I shall be mortifjed to death if it 

 gets out And as to this shawl, tell Mrs. Jenkins 

 that she is welcome to it if she wishes to have 

 it. Indeed, I shall never put it on, that's set- 

 tled." 



"Do not fear that I shall mention it, Mrs. 

 Shannon. I shall be far more gratified in seeing 

 you act from higher principles than such as have 

 influenced yon, than in giving circulation to an 

 afiair calculated to wound the feelings of a 

 friend." 



"You are always kind and generous in your 

 feelings, Mrs. Cleveland. Would that I could 

 act from as high motives," Mrs. Shannon said, 

 grasping the hand of her friend as fhe other rose 

 to depart. 



"Try, then, to think right ; and afterwards to 

 act from those true perceptions of right. In this 

 way, you will gain the power to do unto others 

 as you would have others do unto you." 



.4nd so saying, Mrs. Cleveland shook the hand 

 of her friend and turned away from the door. 

 The lesson was not lost on Mrs. Shannon. She 

 never again indulged in the evil of trying to get 

 goods at less than cost. ■ The offer of her shawl 

 to Mrs. Jenkins was accepted, and one was as 

 willing to part with it as the other was to receive 

 it. 



As to Mr. Bradley, his conscience troubled him 

 after Mrs. Shannon had left the store. Fifty dol- 

 lars, he felt, was too much to take from" her. 

 While debatiog iu his tnind what to do, a custo- 



thclpf 



mer from the country came in and (laid him a 

 liill of five hundred dollars. This determined the 

 (juestion in his mind, and produced the note and 

 enclosure sent to Mrs. Shannon. 



Carbon, Oxygen, Ilvdrogeu, and Nitrogen. 



Of the 55 simple sulislaiices into w liich the 

 solids, fliiid.'i, and gases of the inorganic world 

 may he separated, vegetaldes ai-e principally made 

 up of four; and of titese, only three exist in any 

 large proportion ; these three are carbon, oxygen, 

 and hydrogen. Of these, carbon is by far the 

 iMo.^t aliiind.uit : it is nearly identicd with char- 

 coal, u liich consists of tlie carbon of the wood 

 niixrd up with a small quantity of earthy mutter. 

 If this charcoal be burned, it passes off in the 

 form of carbonic acid gas, leaving a uiiiuite por- 

 tion of white ash, which is principally of a min- 

 eral nature. It is chiefly to the carbon which ii 

 contains, that the hardiitss and solidity of wood 

 are due ; and in so large a portion does it exist in 

 that ti.ssue, that when the other elementary bodies 

 — the n.xygen and hydrogen — have been separa- 

 ted, the carbon retains the form of llie tissues in 

 great beauty and perfection, so that a pieca of 

 charcoal will indicate the character of ihe wood 

 fiom which it was made, nearly as well as would 

 a section of an iinbiirnt branch. On ihe oilier 

 hand, in proportion as (he tissues of the pl.uit 

 are defined in carbon, do we find them defiiirni 

 in firmness of structure. When, therefore, we 

 consider the large quantities of carbonic acid 

 extricated by the respiration of animals, and by 

 the immense amount of combustion o;' coal 

 which is consta;u!y going on in onr large towns, 

 there would seem no difficulty in understanding 

 how it may be supplied to plants; but so vast is 

 the extent of the atnio.'sphere through which the 

 carbonic acid bus to be difliised, that any given 

 bulk of air only contains about 1-lOOOlh jiart of 

 this gas. Hence, it might be supposed impossi- 

 lile for the gigantic mass of carbon contJuneil in 

 the wood of a wide-sjireading forest to have 

 been derived chiefly, if not entirely from this 

 source, and such is seen to be the case; for al- 

 though the soil may contain carbon, none of it 

 is taken up in a solid form ; and its quantity 

 rather increases than diminishes in the course of 

 years. 



Oxygen is contained largely in plants ; and the 

 presence of it in the air which surrounds them, 

 is very necessary to their healthful existence, 

 chiefly as affording the means by which, as al- 

 ready explained, the superfluous carbon is re- 

 moved. This element is equally necessary to 

 animals, and it constitutes about a fifth part of 

 the air we breathe. A portion of this air is dis- 

 solveil, as it were, in water, and it is in tiiis man- 

 ner that IJeli and other aquatic animals as well as 

 plants are supplied with oxygen. Most, if not 

 all, however, of the oxygen which is contained 

 in vegetable substances, is taken up by them, 

 either in combination with carbon, or in unison 

 with hydrogen — a body with wliich it forms 

 water. 



Hydrogen is also contained largely in plants; 

 and in most of the -iibstances into whose com- 

 position it enters, it is combined with oxygen 

 nearly in the sjinie proportion as in water; al- 

 though it is probable that a small quantity is in- 

 troduced with nitrogen in the form of ammonia — 

 the pungent gas which gives strength to harts- 

 horn, smelling .salts, &c. We may regard the 

 water introduced into the substance of plants by 

 their roots, and also in part absorbed by their 

 general surface, as the chief source of this ele- 

 ment, a.s well as if the o.xygen contiimed in the 

 vegetable structure. 



JVilrogen has not been commonly regarded as 

 an important element of the vegetable structure, 

 but it has been lately shown to exist largely in 

 the growing parts of plants; and there seem.< 

 reason to believe its presence to be essential to 

 the increase of their fabric by the formation of 

 new parts. It is an important ingredient in the 

 substance called gUiien, which exists largely in 

 the seeds of the various kinds of corn or grain, 

 and most of all, in wheat; and it is in part on 

 this account that wheat-bread is the most nutri- 

 tious of all vejictable substances ordinarily used 

 as food, since it approaches nearer in compo- 

 sition than almost any other to animal flesh, 

 which contains a much larger piopnrlicui of ni- 

 trogen than exists in most vegelable substances. 

 It is. Indeed, on account of their entire deficiency 



in nitrogen, that gn 

 products are not lit 

 themselves. Nitro:;( 

 tlie Htinospliere, but 



ite qufiMiily 



forms aiiiiiionta, of 

 iKvays c\i.-.ls in the 



er; and this "is absoi 

 ip by the roots; and 



■ ey 



! other similar 

 iiiiiuud life by_ 

 fbur-fili'is of 

 111 to be taken 

 ; but this gas 



' 1^" ihe 



supply ot ammonia wliicli they yield, that the 

 principal benefit of animal manure seems to con- 

 sist. — Treatise of Veg. Physiology. 



The Highlands of New Hampshire. 



[By the t:ditor of the Congregational Journal.] 



STODDAnD. 



Agriculture is the first interest of our country; 

 we love ro see its iiiipiovenients aiul progress, 

 espici,dl> Hhoii it is obliged to combat with bro- 

 ken liill,~, i;iaiiiiic- m.isscs. and a steril soil, and 

 wins its Mii-torirs with the toil and energy of a' 

 New llaiiipshire "Highland" fiiniier. — The road 

 we travelled was must admirable ; for a part of 

 the way it was Mcldamlzal by nature, and firm 

 as a rail road ; such granite block.s, and piles, 

 and boulders, we never saw; they looked like the 

 sea, ulicii the waves are "chopped up" by the 

 "iii(l;aiid wliciicesoever they came, whether 

 they Were hurled down in the Titanic war with 

 the gods, or hurled up by the fires raging at the 

 centre of the globe, their profusion and magni- 

 tude would almost assure us little of the material 

 was left liidimd. Still the soil between the rocks 

 is productive, and yields the sweetest and richest 

 pasturage ; we observed the highest hill, rather a 

 high nioimtain, cleared to its very summit, along 

 which a lc;nce was run at a giddy elevation ; flocks 

 were nipping the tender grass on the slopes, and 

 the beeves for which the town is fltmous, were 

 lazily reposing at the base. With all its disad- 

 vantages, the town is independent and thrifty un- 

 der the industry and economy it has long practi- 

 sed, while in oilier sections there is le.ss occasion 

 to complain of the evils to which we allude. Our 

 fellow traveller called our attention to a little 

 garden of remarkable neatness, and as flourish- 

 ing as it was neat : between large rocks rising 

 four or five lt;et above the ground, beds had 

 been laid out with the taste and proportions of 

 city horticuhurc ; not a weed was to be seen, and 

 over the whole iiiaiilled the most luxuriant vege- 

 tation ; the house of which the garden was an 

 appendage, was small and (infinished ; few wind- 

 ows admilled the light, and not a clapboard cov- 

 ered the seams between the rough boards nailed 

 on to keeji out the cdlil and (lie storm; still in 

 the garden and the huirible dwelling there was 

 an air of taste and eonilort iiidicaliiig ciihivation 

 and inielligence. As we were puzzling our wits 

 to search out the cause, we discovered a little box 

 fastened to a post tiy the roa<l-siile, in which the 

 news carrier weekly drops his paper, without the 

 inconvenience and delay of leaping over the gate- 

 less and stileless fence, fronting the house. 



The Congregational minister of StoddartI, Rev. 

 Mr. Uobiiison, is a rare instance of eelf-timde 

 men. Without the advantages of a collegiate ed- 

 ucation, without the excitement of a cultivated 

 and lea»ne<l congregation, and without that com- 

 petent support which jrerniits the minister to 

 pursue his studies, and the duties of his calling, 

 uuembarrassed by secular cares and labors, Mr. 

 Robinson has attained a high reputation as a 

 scholar and tliviiie. Obliged to cullivate the soil 

 with his own hands for a part of his support, we 

 have been told he was accustomed to take his 

 Greek and Hebrew lexicons and giammars to the 

 field, where, when tired wiili the plough, the hoe 

 or the scythe, he applied himself to the acquisi- 

 tion of these hmguages, in which he attained to a 

 critical knowledge, putting to the blush many a 

 ilignified professor and divine, who has stupidly 

 and uselessly slept out his lili; in the walls of a 

 college. In a controver.'sy with the Unitarian 

 minister of Keene, some dozen years ago, the 

 pamphlets he wrote are replete with critical acu- 

 men in the discussion of the controverted |)as.<a- 

 ges in the original Scriptures, and with profound 

 views of the principles of theological science. 



Willi other departments of learning and sci- 

 ence he is not less fiimiliar, and especially geol- 



iiioiive in the magnificent developeinems of na- 

 ture about hitn. In such n fplaca, and under such 



