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NEVV ENGLAND FAlliMEU. 



I'roin the Connecticut Herald. 



AN ACRF. OF CORN.— By Dr. Percivai.. 

 I am a poor I'loughman, who never have- wandcrM 



Away from the sight and the pleasures of home ; 

 I have always been pnident, and never have fijuander'd, 



And so 1 have never been driven to roam. 

 For thirty long summers my shoulders have bended 



In tilling the farm where my fatlu T was born ; 

 I live undtr his roof, and this s< ason have tmdtd 



With the plough that he left me, an acre of corn. 



Though others may go to the Southward and peddle, 



And bring liome of gtrineas and dollars good store, 

 I never have desir'd with their cranknms to meddle, 



But to hoe in my garden that lies by my door. 

 When the sun is first rising I always am hoeing 



The mould, when His wtt with the dews of the morn ; 

 And when he is higher you will find me a mowing. 



Or driving tiie plough in my acre of corn. 



There arc sonic who are crossing by sea to the island 



They call Santa Cruze, with their horses and hay ; 

 For my part, Pd rather be safe here on dry land, 



And hoc in my garden, or work by the day. 

 1 am out to the field with the sun, and am mowing 



'Till called up at noon by the sound of the horn ; 

 *'■ Or else I am twirling my hoe, and am (browing 



The mould round the roots iu uiy acre of corn. 



This corn is the sort that is tufted ami bowing, 



\iMi when we have thresh'd it, 'tis made into brooms ; 

 *' ,Tis the best of all besoms, so far as Pm knowing, 



To sweep out the dirt and the dust from our rooms : 

 They always have rais'd it, since I can remember. 



And, my father once told me, before I was born 

 lie made brooms for his trade, and I guess by December 



I shaH make up a load from my acre of corn. 



AURORA EORF.AUS, OR NORTHERN LIGHT. 

 (Concluded from page 28!!.) 



It is known that the electrical fluid pervades 

 every pnrt of the earth and its atmosphere. — 

 This substance, like all other fluids, has a ten- 

 dency to become equally as well as universally 

 diffused over all the objects and space which it 

 pervades. The equilibrium, however, may, by 

 various causes, be destroyed for a time. The 

 process which nature institutes for restoring the 

 equilibrium is sometimes carried on in a silent 

 and invisible manner — sometimes it is accom- 

 panied with a hissing, or crackling noise, and 

 sometimes it flashes in lightning and roars in 

 thunder. A body which has more than its nat- 

 ural quantilij of the electric fluid is said to be 

 positively or too much eleclrilled ; and a body 

 which has less than its natural quantity is nega- 

 ti'cchj or too little electrified. These extremes 

 may be produced by art. In turning the glass 

 cylinder of an electric machine you deprive the 

 rubber of its natural quantity of electricity, and 

 it accumulates in the glass, and thus the former 

 becomes 7iegutivcli/, and the latter positively 

 eleciritied. By presenting a needle towards the 

 conductor you will see a bright point near its 

 cxtremit}', and hear a hissing noise. This is 

 the same phenomenon, on a small scale, with 

 that which appears so wonderful in the aurora 

 borealis. 



It has been well ascertained that cold air, or 

 cold substances, such as ice or snow, are posi- 

 tively electrified. Warm air, especially if it is 

 moist, is negatively electrified, or a non-electric 

 substance. Those substances which are posi- 

 tively electrilicd are perpetually giving out the 

 electric fluid to all surrounding objects, and 

 those which are negatively electrified are per- 

 petually receiving the same fluid from objects 

 about them. The same thing takes place with 

 regard to caloric or the matter of heat. If a 

 red hot iron is exposed to the atmosphere, sup- 



pose at the temperature of summer heat, it 

 gives out caloric to the atmosphere ; but a piece 

 of ice, with the same exposure, would receive 

 caloric from the atmosphere. And, in the same 

 way, ice or snow, having a surplus of electric 

 fluid, discharges a part into the atmosphere, 

 when it Is comparatively warm, and has of 

 course a deficiency of the electric fluid. But if 

 the earth be warmer than the atmosphere the 

 former becomes non-electric and receives the 

 electric fluid from the latter, as is generally the 

 case in thunder storms, when some parts of the 

 atmosphere must be intensely cold, which is ap- 

 parent from the circumstance that such storms 

 are often accompanied with hail, which could 

 only be generated where the cold was extreme. 



We shall attempt to make our meaning very 

 obvious by advertinT to some instances of the 

 electric fluid rendered visible to the senses, in 

 its passage from the earth into the atmosphere. 

 On the 18th of Jan. 1817, in Andover, Vermont, 

 there was a heavy fall of snow, accompanied 

 with lightning and thunder. Joel Manning, Jr. 

 Esq. of^ that place, in a communication for the 

 Vermont Republican, states that during that 

 storm, he, together with a companion observed 

 " on the top of a stake in the fence, a light, re- 

 sembling a blaze of fire, about two or three in- 

 ches in length, though not so red and brilliant. 

 We soon observed that on every stake was a 

 light, and also on the highest branches of bushes 

 by the side of the fence. This excited so much 

 wonder and curiosity that we called the people 

 of the house, and also some who were passing 

 in the street, to see the phenomenon. We soon 

 observed it on our hats, hair and mittens, when 

 held up, not in the form of a blaze, but of bright 

 white sparks of various sizes, from those which 

 were just discernible to those of the size of 

 buck shot. On one stake there were three ol 

 those blazes. On two or three stakes they 

 emitted a sound resembling the hissing of a pot 

 when it boils." 



Similar appearances were crbserved in Putnev, 

 Vermont, during the descent of a moist snow, 

 accompanied by a heavy clap of thunder, on the 

 evening of the 3d of April, 1818. These phe- 

 nomena, were, no doubt, aurorse boreales on a 

 small scale, and resembled tho.se which have 

 been before mentioned as having occurred in 

 Siberia, even to the " hissing or crackling noise" 

 which has been represented as adding terror to 

 the sublimity of their appearance. 



It is undoubtedly the case that many of the 

 prodigies recorded in ancient history were 

 caused by apparitions of the electric fluid, sim- 

 ilar to those above described. Streams of elec- 

 tric fire have been seen issuing from the points 

 of the bayonets of soldiers passing the Alps and 

 other mountainous places. Vessels at sea some- 

 times show their mast heads and yard arms illumi- 

 nated as it were by magic, and men's heads have 

 been seen surrounded with a halo of glory, such 

 as painters represent about the head of a saint. 

 These, as well as the northern and southern 

 lights, are unquestionably among the modes by 

 which electricity, that universal, all-powerful, 

 but usually invisible agent sometimes makes it- 

 self manifest to our senses. 



It has been generally supposed that northern 

 lights were never seen or noted by the ancients. 

 The first notice of them in English annals, ac- 

 cording to Kees' Cyclopedia is an account of an 

 appearance, Jan. 30, 15C0, called " burning 



spears," by an author of that period. In 

 country they are said to have been first oh 

 ed a little previous to the old French 

 There is, however, but little doubt but 

 prodigies mentioned by ancient historians, 

 as armies in the sky, troops of celestial ht 

 men skirmishing in the heavens, &c. werei 

 ing more than northern lights, magnified 

 shaped into fighting phantoms by fear aqi 

 perstition. These were particularly noti 

 iiaving appeared at the siege of Jerusalem 

 death of Julius Cxsar, and other great and 

 emn occasions. The following from II Ms 

 bees, ver. 2, .'^, seem as remarkable, and 

 perhaps, as vividly described as any record 

 ancient history. 



" And then it happened, that through all 

 city, for the space of almost forty days, t 

 were seen horsemen, running in the aii 

 cloth of gold, and armed with lances, til 

 band of sOTdiers. 



" And troops of horsemen in array, enc 

 tering and running one against another, 

 shaking of shields, and multitude of pikes, 

 drawing of swords, and casting of darts, 

 glittering of golden ornaments, and harne: 

 all sorts." 



K 



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 Merchants' Hall, Boston, Mass. Aprfl 



h 



NEW GARDEN SEEDS. 



FOR sale, by GEO. MURDOCK, No. 14, M:*" 

 Square, a great variety of English and Amei* 

 GARDEN SEEDS, of the last year's growth ; co- •■ 

 ing of early Frame, Hotspur and Charlton Pease 

 and late Cabbage ; early and late C'auliflower ; 

 Marjoram, Thyme, &c. with every other Seed si;i 

 for a Kitchen (iarden. Jllso, 40 lbs. Mangel V\ > 

 or Scarcity — 100 lbs. Ruta Raga or Swedish luro- 

 a quantity of ArmaQk or Carrot. March 29.-6 



