262 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Nov. 



are unable to exclude these blessings from the 

 hands and heads of our studious neighbors. At 

 best our opposition to the teachings of periodi- 

 cals and books can only retard, not stop the 

 progress of human elevation. By falling in 

 with the natural movement of things as we find 

 ihem, great good may be done in directing 

 aright changes in the condition of society which 

 are inevitable. Standing absolutely still, with- 

 out advancement or retrogression is out of the 

 question. It is simply Avhether the community 

 shall improve or deteriorate — go forward and 

 upward, or backward and downward. Now, 

 while the few rise, the many sink. Help us 

 then to bear up the sinking ones. 



Men that do all by main strength are capital 

 hands to wear out or impoverish a good soil ; 

 but when it comes to a cheap renovation of the 

 same, science shows its vast superiority. We 

 have seen a girl in a cotton mill that tends six 

 power looms, and weaves 1260 yards a week, 

 for which she is paid five dollars. In India, 

 where weaving is done on the main-strength prin- 

 ciple, a woman must labor twenty weeks to pro- 

 duce an equal amount of goods, and will receive 

 4 cents a day, or 24 a week, for her services. 

 It is in this way that power-looms and labor-saving 

 agricultural implements injure working people. 



Science adds so immensely to the productive 

 power of human muscles that three hours toil 

 daily will suffice to feed and clothe one comfort- 

 ably, and thereb)'' leave six or nine hours each 

 day for moral, intellectual and social culture and 

 improvement. Who ^en will not lend a help- 

 ing hand to circulate this journal, in which 

 Science and Practice are happily blended in a 

 way well adapted to meet the wants and tastes 

 of all readers ? The Farmer should double its 

 present subscription list in 1849. Why not ? 

 Not one farmer in ten now takes it, or any other 

 work of the kind. The large extension of this 

 cheap paper will only prepare the popular mind 

 for reading of a heavier and more expensive 

 character. Our's is a pioneer enterprise, de- 

 signed to blaze forest trees, .and mark out a foot 

 path in a wilderness of prejudice, where the 

 locomotive will soon rattle and whistle over its 

 iron track. Recollect that we must all creep 

 before we can walk, and walk before we can run. 



Man's education begins at the cradle, and ends 

 only with the extinction of life. Procure then a 

 few more good books, study them closely during 

 the long winter evenings, and see how richly 

 you will be rewarded for your labor. 



Peat Charcoal the Best Deodorizer. 



TuE last London Farmer's Magazine contains 

 an interesting article under the above heading, 

 from the pen of JaspePu VV. Rodoers, Manag- 

 ing Director of the Irish Amelioration Society. 

 The great hindrance to the. saving and use of 



night soil which abounds in London and other 

 cities, is the extreme ofiensiveness of the gases 

 evolved from cesspools, or the excreta of the 

 human family. To find some cheap and abun- 

 dant substance that will effectually deodorize 

 this invaluable fertilizer has long been regarded 

 as a desideratum of the highest importance to 

 the health of cities and towns, and the improve- 

 ment of the farms and gardens in the United 

 Kingdom. The fact has come to be well under- 

 stood that it is organised animal and vegetable 

 matter, undergoing decomposition, which con- 

 taminates the atmosphere and renders it insalu- 

 brious for man, in all, or nearly all, unhealthy 

 localities, whether such localities are in cities, 

 on river bottoms, in swamps, or rich upland 

 prairies. 



During the 100 years that Augusta, on the 

 Savannah, in Georgia, has been a town and city, 

 the yellow fever has prevailed but once, and 

 that was in 1839. Previous to that year, and at 

 that time, it was the practice of the municipal 

 authorities to have the filth of the city hauled out 

 and cast into the river ofi' from a high projecting, 

 wharf-like structure, made for the purpose. The 

 summer and autumn of 1839 were remarkably 

 dry, and the Savannah so low as not to wash 

 away the decomposing mass that accumulated at 

 the place of public deposit in the bed of the 

 river. The wind blowing over this in the 

 direction of the city, carried with it pestilence 

 and death to hundreds, before anyone suspected 

 the cause of the yellow fever, in a form so ma- 

 lignant and fatal, where it had never before been 

 known. 



To render cities, villages and country resi- 

 dences perfectly health}', and at the same time 

 increase the productiveness of the earth, are 

 clearly objects of inestimable importance. Ireland 

 abounds in peat bogs, and in laborers starving 

 from a lack of bread and employment. This 

 peat can be easily converted into charcoal ; 

 and Dr. Rogers estimates that two millions of 

 tons of this coal can be profitably consumed 

 annually in London, in deodorizing the con- 

 tents of privies, sewers, and other sources of 

 pestilence, in that vast metropolis. The Mark 

 Lane Express, and other leading journals enter 

 warmly into the discussion of the subject. Coal 

 is light, and can be easily transported with the 

 absorbed fertilizing elements collected in cities, 

 to all parts of the country, by railways, which 

 radiate from cities as their natural centers. 



In corroboration of the soundness of the views 

 of Dr. R., Mr. Kimcerley thus writes to the 

 Farmer's Magazine, now before us : — " At pres- 

 ent it is quite sufficient to say, so far as your 

 [the editor's] inquiry is concerned, that for four- 

 teen or sixteen years I have been constantly 

 using peat both as a deodorizer and fertilizer 

 too, and for the purpose of making the human 

 excreta with all its parts, fit to carry about in 



