152 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SELECTED roR. THK NEW EXCLA.\D FARMFR. 



RURAL SCE.XERY. 



Sec whore the fanner, with a master's cy' , 

 Surveys his little king^dom, and exults 

 In sovereign independence. At a word, 

 His feathery subjects in obedience flock 

 Around his feeding hand, who in return 

 Yield a delicious tribute to his board, 

 And o'er his couch their downy plumaj^e spread. 

 The peacock liore expands his gorgeous plumes, 

 A glittering pageant to the mid-day sun : 

 In the stiff awkwardness of foolish pride, 

 The swelling turkey apes his stately sif p. 

 And calls the bristling feathers round hi* head. 

 There the loud herald of the morning struts 

 Before his cackling dames, the passive slaves 

 Of his promiscuous pleasure. O'er the pond, 

 Iiehold the gander, and his female train, 

 Bending their lofty necks ; and gabbling ducks, 

 Rejoii-ing on the surface, clap their wings ; 

 Whilst wheeling roujd, in airy wanton flights, 

 The glossy pigeons chase tlieir sportive loves, 

 Or in soft cooings tell their amorous tales. 

 Here stacks of hay ; there pyramids of corn, 

 Promise the future market large supplies : 

 While with an air of triumph he surveys 

 liu piles of wood, and laughs at winter's frown. 

 fn silent rumination, see the kine. 

 Beneath the maple's shade, patiently wait 

 To pour into his pails their milky stores. 



These his amusements, his employments these ; 

 Which still arising in successive chansre, 

 Give to each varied hour a new delight. 

 Peace and contentment with their guardian wings 

 Enclose his nightly slumbers. Rosy health, 

 When the gay lark's sweet matin wakes the morn, 

 Imprints her dewy footsteps round the field, 

 And cheerfulness attends his closing day. 

 No racking jealousy, nor sullen hate. 

 Nor fear, nor envy, discompose his breast. 

 His only enemies the prowling fox 

 And haggard wolf, that thin the bleating fold ; 

 The bristly porcupine, the cruel hawk, 

 With eye malignant on the little brood 

 Palling around portentous. 

 Th' amphibious otter bold ; the weasel sly, 

 I'ilfering the yolk from its enclosing shell ; 

 And moles, a dirty undermining rare. 

 These are his foes, and these, alas, compar'd 

 With man to man an inoffensive train. 

 'Gainst these assisted by th' entangling net, 

 Th' explosive thunder of the levelPd tube. 

 Or toiU unwearied of his social friend. 

 The faithful dog, he wages rural war, 

 .\nd health and pleasure in the sportive field 

 Obtaining, he forgives their venial crimes. 



Pigs in tlie character of Ministers of Justice. 



An ohl Eng-li^li writer g-ivos lliR fdllniving' uc- 

 «'OU!it of a signal instance of justice jierfornieil 

 by ()ic;s. — " Certain pirates, nlio seem not well 

 to have learned their busiiie*';, since thev were 

 unable to swim, had landed on the coast of Tus- 

 cany, and carried ofl" the sivine from a farm. 

 A- the robbers were jiaddling off from the shore, 

 their keeper returned and blew his horn, by 

 whicii he had been accustomed to call his .swine 

 to their tncals. At the well known sound, the 

 ^rnnters all started up, and crowding to one 

 side of the boat, overturned it, and swam ashore 

 to their ketper, leaving the unfortunate thieves 

 to drown. 



A liORKID .SCLM. OF CllUKKTV. 

 The following is taken from Laicrence^a Treatise of 

 Xcat Cattle. The author is an Englishman, whose 

 works have been praised in British Reviews and quot- 

 ed with approbation in British Cyclopedias, and other ] 

 works of science. We do not give this relation by way 

 of ."'jgmatiziug the lower orders of the English as pecu- 

 liarly atrocious, nor by way of halancini; the charges 

 which some foreigners have exhibited against Ameri- 

 cans, for not being so civil, humane, enlightened and 

 highly polished as their brethren on the other side of 

 the Atlantic. But we exhibit it by way of shewing 

 what ferocious animals mankind arc, when they can 

 divest themselves of the restraints which religion and 

 the regulations of society impose upon their passions 

 and propensities. 



" I s^ive place tn the following anecdote, from 

 a sense of duty, and by no means in a frame of 

 mind, to treat the subject in a tender, still less in 

 a ludicrous way. Far from thinking that the 

 knowledge of flagrant acts of cruelty should be 

 delicately hushed and suppressed, in m}' opinion, 

 they cannot be proclaimed too loud, or dissemin- 

 ated too widely, for the purpose of raising a 

 general abhorrence, exciting a due sense of 

 shame, or imparting the needful information to 

 those whom custom and prejudice hold in a con- 

 temptible and degrading state of ignorance. I 

 dare trust myself with making few remarks ; in- 

 deed the bitterest language of execration would 

 fall I'ar short of what is due to the enormities 

 of the tale to be told ; the senseless and beastly 

 actors in which are, however, inferior in guilt 

 to the cool, deliberate, and argumentative de- 

 fenders of such infernal games. ' November the 

 Sth, last, at Bury, a bull, naturally gentle ! which 

 had in the morning, previous to baiting, been 

 privately baited, and goaded with sharp instru- 

 ments, in order to render him furious, though 

 tied down with ropes, in his agony from being 

 worried by dogs, and goaded by more inhuman 

 dogs in human shapes, burst his ropes, to the 

 terror of his tormentors, and the no small danger 

 of the peace of the inhabitants : after this, the 

 poor beast was doomed to be the victim of the 

 still greater barbarity of fresh tortures — he was 

 entangled again with ropes, and, horrible to re- 

 late, his hoofs were cut off, and he again baited 

 while he had to defend himself on his mantrled, 

 bleeding stumps. The magistrates of Bury 

 have repeatedly tried to prevent such infernal, 

 demoniacal proceedings ; but the demons are 

 sanctioned, it seems, bv a.n act of parliami:nt ! 

 Surely such an act is highly disgraceful to 

 the age we live in, and to this country. Kxtrac- 

 ted from a magazine; and sorry I am to observe, 

 that HO doubt need be made of its authenticity. 

 Should this account chance to fall into the hands 

 of actors in scenes like these, or into those of 

 the still more guilty palliators of them (lor hy- 

 pocritical extenuation is intlnitely the greater 

 crime,) 1 beg of them seriously to reflect on the 

 possiliility of those tortures, which they have 

 thus wantonly inflicted, although upon a poor 

 and friendless beast, intruding upon their minds, 

 when their own bodies may be racked and tor- 

 iured with disease, perhaps on their death bed, 

 and in their last agonized moments. Will they 

 t/un thiidi, that the infliction of torments upon 

 one animal ou^ht to convey pleasing and mirth- 

 ful sensations to the breast of another?" 



PATENT GRIDIRON. 



New-York, 12th Nov. 1822 

 To Mr. Mcssey. 



I willingly, sir, give you my opinion on yo 

 patent, economical utensil, the hollow-barr 

 Gridiron, with a Reflector and a Dripping-P; 



Broiling has been considered as the most 

 voury, but at the same time the most vvastei 

 way of cooking meat. Your invention remo'v 

 in a great measure, from this operation, t 

 charge of extravagance, by saving the fat a 

 juice from destruction by the hot coals. T 

 rays ol' heat, repelled from the bright si 

 face of tin, aild to it the valuable properties 

 the Dutch oven. Having satisfied myself 

 experiment that it is admirable in a saving mt 

 nor, I recommend your gridiron and its appt 

 tenance, as a piece of kitchen apparatus, to ; 

 house-keepers who are desirous of combini 

 the luxury of eating with frugalitv in cookir 

 SAMUEL M'ITCIIELL. 



N. B. The above Gridiron may be seen 

 this office, and orders received for them. 



a; Y. J^at. Adv. 



Rare Sport. — A Farmer who lived on the la 

 shore, observing a bear crossing a bay was at 

 ious to kill him. He ran to his skiff and wit 

 out reflecting that he had no weapon but 1 

 j paddle, worked his way to the bear, who imil 

 diately sprung into the skiff, and to the gn 

 terror and consternation of the farmer, very ( 

 liberately sat down on the bow. The Farm 

 after some reflection, determined to carry h 

 b.ick and attempted to turn the boat, but the b« 

 made an advance to prevent him, and the b( 

 impelled by the wind having gained its first j 

 silion the bear again very quietly took his st 

 on the bow. The farmer made a second a 

 third attempt with always the same result; a 

 perceiving that when the boat went the w 

 the bear was swimming, he was quiet, he ve 

 prudently determined to reach the land in tl 

 direction. He accordingly went on, and wh 

 he was within a few feet of the shore, the bla 

 passenger leaped out, to the great satisfaction 

 both himself and the ferryman. — Western pap 



I Franklin. — It is rather a curious incident tl 

 Iwhen the Americans sent Dr. Franklin, a pr 



ter, as Minister to France, the Court of Vi 

 1 sallies sent M. Girard, a bookbinder, as Minist 

 ' to Congress. When Dr. Franklin was fold 

 ! it, " Well," said he, " Fll print the Indepf 



dence of America, and M. Girard will bi'nd it. 



noOO persons are said to have attended an 

 Oratorio at Thiladelphia last week. 



In the year 1776 a Bill was introduced iol 

 the British House of Commons, for the bett 

 watching of the Metropolis, in order to efTc'" 

 which object one of the clauses went to propo 

 that watchmen should be compelled to sleep 

 day. Lord Nugent, with admirable humor, l 

 up, and desired that he might be personallij i 

 eluded in the provisions of the bill, being ti 

 quenlly so tormented with the gout as to 

 unable to sleep by day or by night. 



To desire little makes poverty equal wi 

 riches. He who wants, is not rich ; nor he wl 

 wants not, poor. — Riches are not to be ineasi 

 ed by their use ; 1 cannot call large possessio 

 rich, but so much as is conducive to comfort- 



