August, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



llf 



firriiinstances, did 1ip fii;i!;e liinisclf .imh a man. 

 We s.iy not this lor his gloriticalicni, Imt to show 

 that tlie cliai-ucter and userulnK.ss of a minister 

 are Mot dependent upon oirrumstanccs, luit upon 

 lii.-nself; any where lie may he learned, good and 

 fe'reat. 



SULLIVAN. 



The road from Harrisville to Snilivan follows 

 the stream having its soin-ce in the pond, and 

 proceeding v.ith r.Mi.arknlile iK-auIv all its way 

 till its jnnetion «ilh III' Aslnii lot ; now d;'sliing 



ng the trees which 

 lis heaiitifnl stream, 

 and the "forest road," which folloivs its course, 

 we began to ascend the loiiir and lii,;;h swells ot 

 land, on whose summit is situated tjie meeting 

 honse of Sullivan. If we forget not, the ascent 

 is nearly three miles, some part of which is con- 

 siderably arduous, tliongh the traveller will not 

 stop so often from weariness, as to gaze upon the 

 magnificent scenery. It is a well wrought road, 

 going np to the house of God like those which 

 once conducted the tribes to Zion, and like them 

 we are happy to learn, well trod upon the S.ib- 

 halh.— HiL'hl'y ciiltivateil farms succeed each oth- 

 er, with houses and oiiihuildings worthy of Cen- 

 tral IMassacliiisctts. Indeed llie whole town is 

 admirably adapte.l to .-i^iricnllure, especially graz- 

 ing, nor have the owners been slow to improve 

 their advantages. The pnpnl.iiidn dues not ex- 

 ceed 500, and yet we were tolil iliat the inonev 

 they had at interest proliahiy was s(iO,CiOO, wliicii 

 equally divided wonlil gii e "six or seven hundred 

 dollars to every fimily. f>iieh u sweep of pros- 

 l)ect is seldom taken in by the eve, as from the 

 house of the pastor. Rev. I\lr. AlvoVd ; New Hamp- 

 shire, Massachusetts, and Vermont, at once offer 



well rounded and lcin<_dv mountain, .-ind voiider 

 Wachusrtt, and voiider still Aloinit liolyoke and 

 Tom, with iiinni'iierable hills int.Mvonin"- all lit 

 up in the uorgeoiisni'ss of ihc setliim sun, and as 



spires, and happy inhabitants — a magnificent dis- 

 play. Tlinnlis to Heaven ! 'I'here is but one 

 SPOT in the creation without its beauty and at- 

 traction ; and that no one will visit but as a wil- 

 limr traveller. 



On this high hill ofSullivnn, with heaven above, 

 the world lK/iicatn,aiid universal stillness around, 

 we found tlie ministers and delegates o-f the 

 churches asseu>hled " to take sweet counsel to- 

 gether" — a place, as we tho't, such as Christ 

 would have selected for retirement and devotion 

 with his disciples. 



ishment to the animal w hen about to pass in 

 state of complete inactivity, 'fhe plant spn 

 by the extension of its fiwii siriicinrc, and 

 by the production of minute gerii.s, which 

 taken up by the circulating blood and carrici 

 distant pans of the body ; the disease invariably 

 occasions the death of th& silk-worm, hut d 

 not show itself externally until afterwards, when 

 it rapidly shoots forth from beneath the skin. 

 The cater|iillar, chrysalis, luid moth are all sir 



ptili 



till- 



Growth of Vegetables iu the Living Bodies 

 of Auimals. i 



Animals, ns well as jilants, are liable to the 

 growth of fungi within their bodies. There is a 

 speciea of wasp' in the West Indies, of which 

 individuals are often seen flying about with 

 plants, of their own length, projecting from some 

 part of their surtiice ; the germs of these having 

 lieen originally introduced through the breathing 

 pores at their side, which greatly resemble those 

 of i.dants, and taking root, a.s it were, in their 

 substance, so as to develope a luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion. Ill time, the fmigous growth spreads 

 throDgh the body alid destroys the life of the iu- 

 sectj when it grows more rapidly, the decompos- 

 ing tissue of the dead body being still more 

 adapted than the living structure, to aftord it 

 nutriment. A very curious example of the growth 

 of fungi within the living animal body has lately 

 been detected, ami the knowledge of it has prov- 

 ed of great importauce. The silk-worm breed- 

 ers of Italy and the south of France, especially 

 in particidar districts, have been subject to a con- 

 siderable loss by a disease termed muscardine, 

 which sonietitnes attacks the worms in large 

 numbers just when they are about to enter the 

 chrysalis state. This disease has been ascer- 

 tained to l>e due to the growth of a mimite vege- 

 table of the fungus tribe — nearly resembling tiie 

 common mould, within their bodies; and it is 

 capable of being communicated to any indi- 

 vidual from one already affected, by the iiitro 

 duction beneath the skin of the former, of some 

 particles of the diseased portion of the latter ; 

 and it then spreads in the fatty mass beneath the 

 skin, occasioning" the <lestruclion of this tissue, 

 which id very important as n reservoir of noiir- 



into the circumstances which tavor tli.> proi 

 tion of the fungus-, and it li.ts been shovvii, 

 if the .bodies of the caterpillars whicii, f 

 various causes, have died during breeding. 

 thrown together in heaps and exposed to tht 

 fliience of a w.irm and moist atmosphere, this 

 fungus almost invariably ajipears upon them 

 just as other kinds of mould appear upon otlie 

 decaying siibsrances: and it is then pro|)agatei 

 to the living worms by the diffusion of its iiermi 

 thiongh the atmustiherc. The knowledge o 

 this tiict, and the precautions taken in conse 

 qiience, hnve greatly diminished the mortality.— 

 Veg. Phy. 



The Ice-Bonud Ship. 



The following account of a thrilling adventure 

 in the Arctic, seas is from a Magazine, published 

 some time since. The circumstances are certain- 

 ly in the range of possibility, since no putrefjic- 

 tion could lake place, whilst the bodies of the 

 unfortunate sufferers were in the temperature of 

 a vessel "encased in thick ribbed ice." 



"In the spring of the year 18-24, a whaling 

 vessel sailed from the port of London, upon a 

 voyage to the Polar .seas. Nothing material is 

 said to have occurred until the arrival in tlio.se 

 region.*, when it became the duiy of the crew to 

 keep a perpeti:al look-out upon the horizon in 

 setirch of fish; while thus employed, it was fan- 

 cied by one of the seamen, that a sail was dis- 

 cernible as far to the northward as the eye could 

 reach, and as the comse of the whaler was to- 

 wards the supposed vessel, a ii«ist became grad- 

 ually distinguishable amidst the mountains of ice 

 which appeared in that qiKirter to have hound 

 the sea. It was now siinuner, and the afternoon 

 unusually calm, whilst the whaler grudiially near- 

 ed the object in view, the supposition being that 

 it was a vessel engaged in operating upon the 

 blubber whicli would o|)en to view upon ap- 

 pi-oaching nearer to the ice. Upon arriving, how- 

 ever, on the spot, it became clear that the vessel 

 was a wreck, embedded in the ice, and could only 

 be approached by a boat. This having been low- 

 ered, the captain and several seamen landed on 

 the ice, and approached the vessel, which proved 

 to be a brig. 



'-The sails were furled; very little appeared 

 ii|ion deck, and all the arrangements were those 

 of a vessel laid up for a consider.ible period of 

 time. Descending to the cabin, the first object 

 that was seen was a large Newfoundland dog, 

 coiled upon a mat, and apparently asleep. Upon 

 touching the animal, it was found to be dead, and 

 the body frozen to the hardness of stone. En- 

 tering the cabin, there was next seen a young 

 lady scaled at a table, licr eves open, and gazing 

 with mild and steadfast expression upon the new- 

 comers to that solitary spot. She was a corpse, 

 and in that apparent resigned and religious atti- 

 tude, had been frozen to death. Beside her was 

 a young man, who, it appeared, was the brother 

 of the young lady, and doubtless commander of 

 the brig. He too was dead, but silting at the ta- 

 ble, and before him lay a sheet of paper, upon 

 which he had written tiie following words:— 



'Oiir cook has endeavored, since yesterday 

 morning, to strike a light, but in vain; all is 

 over.' 



"At the otiier side of the cabin stood the cook, 

 with a flint and steel in his hand, frozen to a 

 statue, in the vain endeavor to procure that fire 

 whicli alone could save himself and bis compan- 

 ions from the cold arms of death. The super- 

 stitions terrors of the seamen now hurried the 

 captain away from the wreck, the log book alone 

 being brought away ; and from this it appeared 

 th»t the ill fated vessel was a brig which had 



belonged to the port of London, and had sailed 

 fur the Artie regions more Hum fourteen years 

 before ."' 



From Dana's Farmer's Muck Manual. 

 Manures. 

 The quantity of liquid manure produced hy 

 one cow annually, is equal to fertilizing l.i acres 

 of ground, producing effects as durable as do the 

 solid evacualions. A cord of loam, saturated 

 with urine, is cqii.il to a cord of the best rotted 

 diiiii:. it' the liquid and the solid evacuations 

 iiiiliiiling till- litter, are kept separate, and soak- 

 iiiL' up III'.- liipiid by loam, it has been found they 

 .\ill manure liiiid, in proportion hy bulk of 7 

 liquid to G solid, while their actual value is as 2 

 to I. 



One hundred pounds of cow's urine afford 

 lliiiiy-five pounds of the most powerful salts 

 which have ever been used by farmer.s. The 

 simple statement then, in figures, of difterence 

 in value of the solid and liquid evacuations of a 

 cow, should impress upon all the importance of 

 saving the last in preference to the first. Let 

 both be saved. If the liquids contained natural- 

 ly, geine, they might be applied alone. It is the 

 want of that guiding principle which tenches 

 that salts and geiiie should go hand in hand, 

 which has sometimes led to results in the appli- 

 cation of the liquor, which have given this sub- 

 stance a bad name. 



It has been been proved that ammoniacal salts 

 of urine have a forcing power on vegetation. 

 The value of ammonia was long .ago understood 

 by Davy, and its carbonate was his favorite ap- 

 plication. Plants watered with a simple solu- 

 tion of sulphate of ammonia, an abundant salt in 

 cow's urine, are 1.5 days earlier than those water- 

 ed with pure water. Grass land watered with 

 urine only, yields nearly double to that not so 

 manured." In a garden on land of very poor 

 ipialily, near Glasgow, urine diluted with water, 

 nearly doubled the grass. But upon wheat, sown 

 on cl.ay land, it did no good; it injured barley, 

 potatoes grew rank and watery, and on turnips 

 the effects were only half as good, as mere uii- 

 fermented dung. The circumsfRtrce of the soil 

 in this last case, was probably a deficiency of 

 geine. 



The liquid evacuation of the horse is compos- 

 ed of 



Water, 94. 



Urea, .7 



Chalk, 1.1 



Carbonate of soda, .9 



Hippurate of soda, 2.4 



Muriate of iintash, .9 



The lii])p»n-ic acid is not peculiar to the horse. 

 The urine of most herbivorous animals contains 

 ppurate, formerly called benzoate of soda, its 

 acid having the fragrance of gum benzoin. If 

 lan takes benzoic acid, hippuric replaces uric 

 acid in the urine. According to the composition, 

 horse stale, pound for pound, is equal to the value 

 of cow dung. 



But rich as are the liquid evacuations of the 

 stable and cow yard, they are surimssed by those 

 of the liirmer's own dwelling, especially when it 

 considered with what ease these last in.-iy be 

 ved. According to Dr Thomson, 1000 parts 

 of this substance, tl>e human liqiml evacuation, 

 contains 49J pounds nearly of salts, which are, 



42.489 



Water, 967.511 



There is scarcely a single element in this 



liquid which is not essentially an ingredient in 



all plants. In every hundred pounds of cow'is 



urine, are 



Urea, 5.^ ">«!. 



In horse's urine, •''O " 



In human urine, 2.36 



The urea being called equal to ammonia, it is 



seen that the ammoniacal sails in human urine 



are very nearly the same as those in cow dung, 



but its effects in actual practice are found to b» 



