September, 1842. 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



US 



of Blay, and were in full bloom about the 3d of 

 Jnne. 



From Oct. 19, 1838, to April 18th, 1839, Snow, 

 67 times; depth of snow 5 feet 9 inches, and the 

 number of rains in 1839 was 113. May 16tl 

 Ajjple trees beginning to bloom, and were in full 

 bloom about the 25th of the same month. 



From Nov. 1st, 1839, to April 27th, 1840, Snow, 

 52 times ; depth of enow 10 feet Si inches. 

 Number of rains in 1840 was 83. May 17th Ap- 

 ple trees beginning to bloom, and were in full 

 bloom about the 23d or 24th. 



From Oct. 25th, 1840, to May 2d, 1841, Snow 

 50 times; depth of snow 12 ft. 7 inches. Num 

 ber of rains in 1641 was 111. May 27tli Appit 

 trees beginning to bloom, and were in full bloom 

 about the 3d or 4th of June. 



From Oct. 4th, 1841, to May 9th, 1842, Snow, 

 72 times: depth of snow 7 feet 6 inches. May 

 18lli Apple trees beginning to bloom, and were 

 in full bloom about the 1st of June. 



Saturday afternoon, Jnne lltb, 1842, there fell 

 nil of half an inch of snow on the high lands in 

 the towns of Gilmanton and Alton. 



There was all of two feet more of snow fell 

 in 1841 than there has been for any one year for 

 twelve years last past. J. K. D. 



Gilmanton, 1842. 



Miseries of ludolence. 



None so little enjoy life, and are such burdens 

 to themselves, as those who have nothing to do — 

 lor 



" A want of occupation ia no rest — 



A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed." 



Such a man is not of God's order; and oppos- 

 ing his obvious design in the faculties he has giv- 

 en him, and in the condition in which he has 

 placed him. Nothing, therefore, is promised in 

 the Scripture to the indolent. Take the indolejit 

 with regard to exertion. What indecision ! What 

 delay ! What reluctance ! What apprehension ! 

 The slothful man says, " there is a lion without, 

 and I shall be slain in the street" "The way of 

 the slothful man is a hedge of thorns; but the 

 way of the righteous is made plain." Take him 

 with regard to bealtb. What sluggishness of cir- 

 culation ! What depression of spirits! What 

 dullness of appetite ! What enervation of frame ! 

 Take bim with regard to temjjer and enjoyment. 

 Who is pettish and fretful ? Who feels wanton 

 and childish cravings ? Who is too soft to bear 

 any of the hardships of life ? Who broods over 

 every little vexation and inconvenience ? Who 

 not only increases real, hut conjures up imagina- 

 ry evils, and gets no sympathy from anyone in 

 either? Who feels time wearisome and irksome? 

 Who is devoured by ennui and spleen? Who 

 oppress others with their company, and their cen- 

 sorious talk ? The active only have the true rel- 

 ish of life. He who knows not what it is to labor, 

 knows not what it is to enjoy. Recreation is only 

 valuable as it unbends us ; the idle know notliirii; 

 of it. It is exertion that renders rest delightfid, 

 and sleep sweet and undisturbed. That the hap- 

 piness of life depend:* on the regular prosecution 

 of some laudable purpose of lawful calling, which 

 engages, helps, and enlivens all our powers, let 

 those bear witness who after spending years in 

 active usefulness, retire to enjoy themselves. — 

 Prayer should always be offered up for their ser- 

 vants and wives, and themselves too. The indo- 

 lent are a burden themselves. — W. Jay. 



For the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 

 Rev. John Flavel. 



The old Divines, it would seem, used to write 

 more in ancient times, as a general thing, than 

 they do at the present day. Perhaps they had 

 more leisure than the present generation. Though 

 they would sometimes reason upon abstractions, 

 and that profoundly, they would also tm-n Nature 

 into divinity. They were close observers of what- 

 ever transpired around them,and would discourse 

 learnedly on Agrieultme, Commerce, and the 

 Mechanic Arts, frequently spiritualizing as they 

 went along. 



Rev. John Flavel, an old English Divine, is 

 said to have been a very learned man, and quite 

 a controversialist in his day. But not always mint- 

 ing his teachings to the likings of the reigning 

 powers of his times, he was subjected to freciuent 

 persecutions. But though by the act of uniformi- 

 ty he was prevented from preaching for a while, 

 he did not remain idle, but wrote several books 



which were vei7 popular. Among these were 

 Navigation spiritualized, and Hushandry spiiitu- 

 alized. An extract from the latter work we shall 

 now give our readers, for two reasons, namely : 

 because it shows that though a |,rofessiona1 man, 

 Mr. Flavel was not an idle observer of the pur- 

 suits of the husbandman, and also because it 

 shows what advances the English fiirmer had 

 made in the arts of husbandry, even at that early 

 period. Mr. Flavel wrote this work as early as 

 before 1687. This is the extract : 



" What land is spent out by tillage, or for want 

 of manuring, the careful husbandman hath many 

 ways to recover and bring it in heart again. He 

 lets it lie fallow, to give it rest, and time to recov- 

 er itself: carries out his sand, lime and compost, 

 to refresh and quicken it again ; and in pasture 

 aud njeadow* ground, will wash it, if possible, 

 with a current of water, or the float of the ways 

 after a fall of rain, which is to the earth as a 

 spring of new blood to a consumptive body. He 

 cuts down and kills the weeds that suck it out, 

 and causes them to enake restitution of what they 

 have purloined from it by rotting upon the place 

 wliere they grew. As careful is he to recover it, 

 when it is spent, as an honest physician is of his 

 patient in a languishing condition ; for he knows 

 ins field will be as grateful to him, and fully re- 

 quite his care and cost." 



*Meadow land in England is tlie same with English 

 mowing with us. What we call meadow, the English call 



Interi;sting Geological Fact.— Dr. Charles 

 F. Jackson, of this city, who is now engaged in 

 a geological survey of the State of New Ha 

 shire, in a letter addressed to Gov. Hubbard, 

 nounces the discovery of an interesting general 

 law relative to the elevation of the strata of New 

 England. Anticipating the result that has fbl 

 lowed the investigations, ibr the sake of confirm 

 ing his conjectures, ho extended them into Ver 

 mont, where he made a hasty sketch of the strata 

 in a line across the centre of that State, and 

 found that what he had foreseen by previous ex 

 ()lorations on the eastern side of New Hamp 

 shire, was fully proved by the coincidence of the 

 phenomena on the west. 



Thus he discovered that the great tnass of pri- 

 mary rocks occupying the western part of Maine 

 nd a large portion of New Hampshire, Massa- 

 chusetts and Rhode Island, had been elevated 

 through and_ between the strata now constituting 

 the rocky foundations of Maine and Vermont, 

 and that New Hampshire is, in reality, the key- 

 -tone of this great arch, or is the centre of ele- 

 ation. In addition to this great centre of up- 

 heaval, there are others of a subordinate character 

 which are only local in their effect.*, the anticli 

 strata having been elevated only for a limited 

 area. It will at once bo perceived, on examin- 

 ng this subject, that the result to which he has 

 thus arrived, is not only curious, but is of impor- 

 tance in a practical light. It will be observed 

 that we camiot e.xpect the coal formation should 

 u- w ithin the limits either of New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, or in the State of Maine west of 

 the Penobscot river, and that the nearest coal 

 sti-ata occurs, on the eastward, in New Bruns- 

 ick and Nova Scotia, and on tlie west, in Penn- 

 Ivania and Kentucky. This (iiet will forever 

 |)iit an end to the fruitless explorations for coal 

 within the limits reliirred to, as more ancient 

 the coal Ibrmation. On the other hand, the 

 elder :>tiata in that Slate and its borders are emi- 

 nently metalliferous, and have been proved to 

 ain many valuable ores, which under fa- 

 ble circumstances may be advantageously 

 iirlit.— Bos/on .Mas. 



Iioam for Top-dressing-. 



Now is the time to pre|)are the rich loam from 

 the road-side, and excellent njanin-e from holes 

 where the wash accurmdates from surrounding 



lis and uplands, as a top dressing for swales 



id low English mowing ground. 



One of the best pradical farmers we have ev- 

 er known, for a series of years, to|)-dressed much 

 of his English mowing ground with nothing hut 

 common loam, and he assured us, that years of 

 ricnce had proved to his entire satisfaction, 

 that the practice was very profitaiile. 



Where this loam is thrown out by the plough on 

 to the udjoining mowing laiul, who has not seen 

 its good effects on the grasses ?—Bost. Cult. 



The Mint and its Operations.— The new 

 edifice upon Tower Hill was completed about 

 181 1, at an expense of about a quarter of a million 

 of money. This immense sum,however included 

 Boulton's expen.^ive machinery. In the present 

 interesting process of coining, the ingots are first 

 melted in pots, when the alloy of copper is ad- 

 ded, (to gold, one part in twelve, to silver, eight- 

 een pennyweights to a pound weight) and the 

 mixed metid cast into small bars. And now begin 

 the operations of the stupendous machinery, 

 which is unequalled in the mint of any other 

 country, and is in every way a triumph of me- 

 chanical skill. The bars, in a heated state, are 

 first passed through the breaking down rollers, 

 which,by their tremendous crushing power reduce 

 them to only a third their former thickness, and 



increase them proportionably in their length. 



They are now dashed through the cold rollers, 

 which bring them nearly to the thickness oi' the 

 coin required, when the last operation of this na- 

 ture is performed by the braw bench, a machine 

 peculiar to our mint, and which secures an ex- 

 traordinary degree of accuracy and uniformity in 

 the surface of the metal, and leaves it of the ex- 

 act thickness desired. The cutting out machines 

 now begin their work. There are twelve of these 

 engines in the elegant room set apart for them, all 

 mounted on the same basement, and forming a 

 circle range. Here the bars or strips are cut to 

 pieces of the proper shayie and weight for the 

 coining press, and then taken to the sizing room 

 to be separately weighed, as well as sounded on a 

 circular piece of iron, to detect any flaws. The 

 protecting rim is next raised in the marking room, 

 and the pieces, after blanching and annealing, are 

 ready for stamping. The coining room is a mag- 

 nificeiit looking place, vvith its columns, and its 

 great iron beams, and the presses ranging along 

 the solid stone basement. There are eight press- 

 es, each of them making, when required, sixty 

 or seventy, or even more, sti-okes a minute ; and 

 as at each stroke a blank is made a perfect coin — 

 that is to say, stamped on both sides and milled ac 

 the edge— each press w ill coin between four and 

 five thousand |>ieces within the liour,or the whole 

 eight between thirty and forty thousand. And to 

 accompany these mighty results the afternoon of 

 one little boy alone is required, who stands in a 

 sunken place before the press, supplying it with 

 blanks. — Knight's London, 



Female Loveliness.— It was in Albuquerque 

 that I saw a perfect specimen of female loveli- 

 ness. The girl was poor, being dressed only in 

 a chemise and a coarse woolen petticoat; but 

 there was an nir of grace, a charm Ebout her, 

 that neither birth nor fortune can bestow. She 

 was standing upon a vM, the taper fingers of 

 her hand .su|)porting a large pumpkin upon her 

 head, while her left was gracefully resting on her 

 hip. Her dark and lustrous eye was beaniing 

 upon us, full of tenderness and jiily, while an 

 unbidden tear of sorrow at our mislbrtunes was 

 coursing down a cheek of the purest and richest 

 brunette. Innocence and the best feelings of 

 our natine were playing in every lineament of 

 her lovely face, and ever and anon as some one 

 of us more unfortunate than the rest vvoidd limp 

 hailing by, again licr tears would illumine a coun- 

 tenance of purity. If 



" Chrystal tears from pity's eye 



Are the stars in heaven high,'" 

 some of them fell that day from the poor village 

 girl, drawn fioni their firmament to lighten the 

 sorrows of those upon whom misfortune had laid 

 her heavy hand. 



She could not have been more than fifteen ; 

 yet her loose and flowing dress, but half con- 

 cealing a form of surpassing beauty and fulness, 

 plainly disclosed that she was just "entering into 

 womanhood, llcr figure was fiurltless, and even 

 the chisel of Praxiteles himself ne"er modeled 

 ankles of such [inre and classic finish. As we 

 passed every eye was turned toward her, and ex- 

 clamations of admiration were upon every lip. 

 She beckoned to a young man alouirand present- 

 ed him the punq>kin, and as she did it the word 

 pohrecilos was beard gently falling from her lip.s 

 in tones of softest pity. The fairest flowers uro 

 ortenest found in obscurity, and I trust my read- 

 ers will not donbl my sincerity when I assert that 

 the prettiest girl 1 ever saw was selling woollen 

 stockings at twenty-five cents a pair at Holmes' 

 Hole, Massachusetts — her twin sister'in beauty 



