156 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



iDoniestic IDepartmcnt. 



For the New England Farmer. 



Domestic ITappixess. — The pursuit of happiness 

 is laudable, and is more easily secured than some 

 would suppose after realizing the uncertainty of its 

 acquisition by the often tried means of unlawful 

 schemes for its attainment. Within the family circle 

 there is ample room for the full display and expan- 

 sive influence of the heaven-born virtue — domestic 

 happiness. Each and every member thereof has his 

 or her respective duties and obligations to perform, 

 in order to render home just what it should be — the 

 seat of quietude and enjoyment, the reservoir of the 

 choicest blessings of earth. 



" Domestic happiness, thou only bliss 

 Of Paradise, that has survived the fall ! 

 Though few now taste thee unhnpaired and pure, 

 Or, tasting, long enjoy thee ! too infirm. 

 Or too incautious, to preserve thy sweets 

 Unmixed with drops of bitter, which neglect 

 Or temper sheds into thy crystal cup ; 

 Thou art the nurse of Virtue ; in thine arms 

 She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is, 

 Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again. 

 Thou art not known where pleasure is adored. 

 That reeling goddess with the zoneless waist 

 And wandering eyes, still leaning on the arm 

 Of Novelty, her fickle, frail support ; 

 For thou art meek and constant, hating change, 

 And finding in the calm of truth-tried love 

 Joys that her stormy raptures never yield. 

 Forsaking thee, what shipwreck have we made 

 Of honor, dignity, and fair renown ! " 



Thus the man of true poetical genius left his tes- 

 timony to the priceless value of social, domestic 

 happiness. 



Let not this blessed "survivor of the fall" be cast 

 off and displaced, which, if done, will be succeeded 

 by a plant of a rank and bitter nature. 



Domestic happiness ! in thy very name are charms 

 which invest thy votaries in the pleasing mantle of 

 quietness, assurance, and peace. J. 



Vinegar. — Many families purchase their vinegar 

 at a very considerable avuiual expense : some " make 

 do" "with a very indifferent article ; and others, for 

 vi'ant of a little knowledge and less industry, go 

 withcRit. It is an easy matter, however, to be at all 

 times supplied with good vinegar, and that too with- 

 out much, expense. The juice of one bushel of su- 

 gar beets, worth twenty-five cents, and wdiich any 

 farmer can raise without cost, will make from five to 

 six gallons of vinegar, equal to the best made of cider 

 or wine. Grate the beets, having first washed them, 

 and exi^ress the juice in a cheese press, or in many 

 other ways which a little ingenuity can suggest, and 

 put the liquor into an empty barrel ; cover the bung 

 with gauze, and set it in the sun, and in twelve or 

 fifteen days it will be fit for use. — Fanner's Ad- 

 vocate, 



To TAKE Ink out of Linen. — Editors' and clerks' 

 wives will learn v/ith yjlcasure that to take a piece of 

 tallow, melt it, and dip the spotted part of the linen 

 into the melted tallow, the linen may be washed, 

 and the spots will disappear, without injuring the 

 linen. 



PiFTY years ago, Mrs. Washington knit stockings 

 for the general : now, there are not fifty ladies in a 

 city who can play that part, and hundreds know not 

 how the apple gets into the heart of the dumpling. 



Bojis' liDcpartnunt. 



Early Rising and Industry of Birds. — The zeal 

 and perseverance with which some persons devote 

 themselves to the economy of nature, to the devel- 

 opments of science, the observation of animal life es- 

 pecially, cither in its structural forms or its habits, 

 prove that there is something perfectly unselfish in 

 human nature ; a love of truth for its own sake, ab- 

 solutely disinterested. The whole history of science 

 manifests this. Bacon, it is true, defiled his mind 

 with the love of lucre, and sullied his great name bv 

 acts unworthy of an honest man ; but generally the 

 true devotee of science is one who postpones all 

 other gratifications to the end he has in view — simply 

 to explore Nature, and to demonstrate her laws. 



One of my friends in Paris has an acquaintance 

 remarkable ifor the simplicity of his manners and 

 the kindliness of his disposition, who, like Alexander 

 Wilson and Audubon, delights himself in the history 

 and the habits of the feathered race. M. Dureau de 

 la Malle is not adventurous, like our American orni- 

 thologists. Linnaeus sometimes employed himself 

 with satisfaction upon a few si^uare feet of grass 

 ground, to study the varieties of its vegetable prod- 

 ucts, and the multitude of insects that find their 

 sustenance upon them ; and vSt. Pierre, in the vitality 

 of a single strawberry plant, beheld with admiration 

 the wisdom and goodness which bestow conscious- 

 ness and enjoyment in minute and innumerable forms 

 of life. T\I. de la Malle, in like manner, watches over 

 the affections, the industry, the pleasures, and dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities of the pretty creatures who 

 have made their resting-place under his windows. 

 To do this, for half the year he accommodates his 

 own habits to theirs. "For the last thirty years," 

 says he, " in the spring and autumn, I go to bed reg- 

 ularly at seven o'clock, and rise at twelve — a prac- 

 tice necessary to make observations upon the m_atinal 

 habits of birds." Eight species have aftorded the 

 following results: The chaffinch {pinson Francais) 

 awakes from one to half after one in the morning ; 

 the linnet {fanvette) between two and a half and 

 three ; the blackbird {merle) between three and a 

 half and four ; the nightingale {rossingol des mu- 

 railles) between three and three and a half ; the lap- 

 wing (pouUot) at four ; the sparrow {moj/icaii) at from 

 five to five and a half; the tomtit {mcsange) also from 

 five to five and a half. Thus the chaffinch is the most 

 matinal and the sparrow and tomtit the most dilatory 

 of the birds observed. 



Endeavoring to ascertain the causes of these differ- 

 ences in the commencement of their diurnal activity, 

 M. do la I^Ialle noticed some curious facts in regard 

 to several individuals. June 4, 1S46, the linnet 

 and the blackbird, which had not previously taken 

 flight until four o'clock, changed the time to two and 

 a half. AVhat was the occasion of this? Their lit- 

 tle ones were hatched ; the necessities of each family 

 had mcreasod. Until this day, the provident male 

 obtained food for himself, and had relieved the pa- 

 tient hen, both enjoying a protracted repose, com- 

 pared with other tribes ; but the increase of a bird's 

 nest, like that of a human family, demands increase 

 of means, and, therefore, increase of toil to supply 

 their wants. By the clear light of the moon, the 

 fathers and mothers of the two species were then, 

 and afterwards, seen busy, searching among the 

 grass and along the flower borders for insects, and 

 stray particles of nutritious substance, destined to 

 feed the nestlings. 



June 11, the linnet was awakened some hours 

 before the usual time by the light of a brilliant lamp, 

 and began to sing ; but perceiving that she was out 

 of season, she composed herself again. Free black- 

 birds, fuU grown, were never observed to imitate any 



