158 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



which ;ifk!s greatly to its value. The quantity of i have heard shepherds say that sheep, and espe 

 carrot juice to be added, must be ascertained by | cially lambs, are the most active before a rain. — 



When drops of water appear on a whiie stone, or 

 on a Clip of water, or any cold substance, then 

 look out for rain ; for these signs show the air to 

 be full of moisture. When no dew is seen on the 

 grass iu the morning, then v.-e may suppose the 



experiment, and the judgment of the manufactur 

 er. Feeding cows witli carrots, will have a simi- 

 lar effect, and answer .'i better purpose than mix- 

 ing the carrot juice with the cream. 



E. II. Derby, Esq. of Salem, Mass. recommends 

 making butter by the aid of frost, as follows : — j moisture is gathering in the clouds for rain 

 "The milk when taken from the cows is immedi-i The falling of snow in a particular time of the 

 atcly strained into earthern pans, and set iu the | moon, is no sign of its durability. But any whim, 

 coldest part of the house ; as soon as the frost; well stuck to, will guncraly satisfy some persons; 

 begins to operate, a separation takes place, the \ for if it turns out otherwise, it is easy to impute it 

 cream rises in a thick paste to the top, and leaves; to some unknown cause. One woman told the 

 the milk v/ithout a particle of cream, frozen in weather by observing v.fhich way the old sow root- 

 the pan. The cream is not so hard but that it ed, and which w.Tya cat turned herself to the fire, 

 can be easily scraped off with a spoon, to the solid One woman thought lier flativons did not hold heat 

 ice ; it is then set aside until a sufficient quantity well, because they were cast in a wrung time of the 

 is collected for churning, when it is warmed just moon. I have seen publications in favor of cutting 

 so much, as to thaw the cream sufficiently to put timber, at a particular time of the moon, but I am 

 it into the churn. I have never known it to re- ! well satisfied that the moon's being either new or 

 quire more than five minutes to convert such old makes no difference in the cutting of timber. 

 :ream into butlor, after the churning had com- : But the shining of the moon is of great use to give 



menced.' 



If you feed your milcli cows with roots, cab- 

 bages, or other nourishing food, you may continue 

 to make butter during the winter ; and may, per- 

 iiaps, derive some advant.-.ge from the above di- 

 rections. 



METHOD OF rO.MSIlI.NG OR Cl.EAKISG A STOVE. 



Take one quarter of a pound of black lead, 

 mi.\ it with water, then put il on the stove, with 

 a p.nint brush, and after it is perfectly dry, take a 

 .stiff brush to it, which in a few minutes will pro- 

 duce a handsome polish. 



light to those who happen to be out in moonlight 

 evenings ; and as we have the light of the moon 

 about half the evenings in the year, I have thought 

 it might be well to appoint such public meetings 

 as wc wish to have in the evenings, on moonlight 

 nights ; for sometimes accidents happen to those 

 who choose darkness rather than light,even if their 

 deeds are not evil. 



I have written down the weather for years past, 

 and then compared my memorandum wdth the 

 changes of the nrioon, and did not find them to cor- 

 respond with the generally received opinions of 

 mankind. Many people suppose that the last Fri- 

 RE.MARF.S OxN THE JKJON, WEATHER, &c. '^'^V^" ^^^ "^""''^ '^ ''" almanac for the next month; 



It is generally known, that the moon appears but it does not appear to me very likely that the 

 new or full, by our seeing that part of her which weather is made to conform to our mode of count 



the sun shiues upon; and I think that the borrow 

 ed light of the sun has no inlliience on the earth 

 when coming from the moon, either as it regards- 

 the weather, or the growth of vegetation, or of 

 peeling of bark or cutting of timber, to make it 

 durable, or any other similar whim. 



The sun and moon attract the sea, and cause 

 the tides to ebb and flow ; but the shining of the 

 moon makes no diiTerence. When tiie moon is 

 new or full, wc have higher tides, for the sun has 

 nearly an equal effect in both c.i.=cs. 



Clouds running in opposite directions i-.idicate 

 'lUing weatlicr. It has been said, that thunder- 

 -tonns go against the uind, and that other storms 

 'io not. But it is a fact tiiat long -torms progress 

 directly against the wind th.it blows near the 

 -nrth. The upper wind cariies the main cloud, 

 ■1 hile the lower wind drives uiidersliirliug clouds 

 1.1 quick succession, which help fill up ai.d con- 

 linue the storm, and when it t=i ended the wind 

 generally blows the same wny near the earth 

 'lial the main cloud came fioin. Northeast storms, 

 as we generally terra them, begin at the south- 

 west ; and soutliCust storms f^ncrally begin st 

 the northweyl, and they travel from 100 to 1000 

 miles in twenty-four hours. 



ing time. Other.s suppose that the 12 days a.'"ter 

 Christmas is an almanac for the 12 months of tlic 

 next year ; or that the wind will blow the same 

 v.'ay each month as it blow on each of those days : 

 — but they all appear to me alike ridiculous. 



^Imrrican Sentinel. 



PU.NCTUALITY. 

 When Gen. Washington assigned to meet Con- 

 gress at noon, he never failed to be passing the 

 door of the hall while the clock was striking 12. 

 Whether his guests were present or not, he al- 

 ways dined at four. Not unfrequcntly new mem- 

 bers of Congress, who were invited to dine with 

 him. delayed until dinner was half over ; and he 

 would then remark, '-Gentlemen, we are punctual 

 here. My cook never asks whether the company 

 has arrived, but v.hpther the time has." When 

 he visited Boston in 1789, he appoi-nted 8 A. M. as 

 the hour when he should set out for Salem ; and 

 while the Ohi South clock was striking cisrht, he 

 was mounting his horse. The company of cavalry, 

 which volunteered to escort him, were parading in 

 Treiiiint street, nft-r his departure; and it wns 

 not, until the President reached Charles River 



, . , .Bridge, that tliev overtook him. On the arrival 



miles in twenty-tour liours. ,.,,., , " ^ • , ..u r- . i 



., , J ■,, I - .1 .! , o., lot the (^orps. the Presi.'ent with perfect good na- 



A ha'V cloud W! be seen ni the sout iv.cst 2-1 1 .,',,. , , ,. . i , 



, ,- f ... . A 1 1 ifro, <iatd, " Mnior, I thoMuht vou had been to.> 



honrM '".■t,)re a northenst snow storm. A cloud ' > .i 



will I'C ioen in the northwest from six to eight 



ho'jrs hf'fore a southeast storm. And a southeast 

 wind on our coast will generally produce rain in 

 fifteen or Iv.-enty hours. When uncommon birds 

 are heard to make a noise, and the brute ere 

 ation, as well as winged fowls, appear to be 

 liaore active than usual, then lock out for rain. I 



long in my family, not to kno-.v when it was eight 

 o'clock." 



Capt. Pease, the father of the Stage Establish- 

 ment in the U. S. had a beautiful pair of horses 

 which he wished to dispose of to the President, 

 whom he knew to be an excellent judjrc of horses. 

 The President appointed 5 o'clock in the morning 



Dec. 7, lS<!r. 



to examine them. But the Captain did not arrive 

 with the horses until a quarter after five, when he 

 was told by the groom, that the President was 

 there at five, and was then fulfilling other engage- 

 ments. Pease, much mortified, was obliged to 

 wait a week, for another opportunity, merely for 

 delaying the first quarter of an hnur. 



[From llie Bellows Falls lutelligencer.] 



EDIBLE BIRDS' NESTS. 



Mr. Editor, — I noticed in one of your paper': 

 a short time since, a paragraph on the use of bird- 

 nests as an article of food among the Chinese — 

 which seems to display no little incredulity on the 

 subject. But the fact is as stated, that they do 

 actually use them in that manner, and not only 

 so, but account them great luxuries and pay a 

 verv extraordinary price for them. 



It must not be imagined, hovvever, that these 

 birds nests are such as we see in our own coun- 

 try ; a collection of horse hair, straw, threads, 

 sticks, moss, dead leaves, thistles, down, and the 

 like, a composition which ilonbtless would suit the 

 Chinese palate little belter than our own. On 

 the contrary, the edible birds' nests, (as they are 

 called) are composed of what, upon external ex- 

 amination, appears to be a sort ot gum, which by 

 boiling, dissolves in water, imparts lo it the pro- 

 perties of this jelly and highly nutritious qualities, 

 and when properly seasoned v\ ith spice, &,c. is 

 extremely grateful to the taste , resembling, in 

 short, our animal jellies, or in some manner, those 

 farinaceous preparations such as arrow-root, sago, 

 tapioca saless, which aie used as extremely deli- 

 cate articles of nourishment for the sick 



T.hese birds' nests are comparatively very scarce, 

 being formed only by one pecuii r siiFcies of birds, 

 bclongi'ig, (as I think,) li) the svirhi- or martin 

 trilie, and arc obtained alm"«t if nm qtiite wholly 

 from a single Islnn>l in tii Chinesi- seas, one of 

 the Formosa Islands, if I recollect ri.'htly. In this 

 Island which is little better than nn abrupt mass 

 of rocks rising out of the ocean, are larire caverns 

 in the cliffs, to which these birds resort for the 

 purpose of propagation. Against the wall of these 

 caverns they lix their nests, which are formed out 

 of a peculiar gelatinous substiincc produced from 

 their own bodies, much as the bee forms its cells 

 of the wax also so produced, or at least prepared. 



After the period of hatching is past, and the 

 young birds are become able to fly, the caves are 

 visited by the islanders, who strip them of the 

 nests of which tliey make an article of traffic with 

 the Chinese, who send vessels for the purpose of 

 procuring them. As only twenty or thirty thou- 

 sand of these nests are procured earii year, and 

 as they are looked upon as articles of great luxu- 

 ry by the Cliinese, their price is proportionably 

 high ; and the material of which they are coin- 

 posed being extremely light, wc may well believe 

 what is asserted, that they are frequently sold ii, 

 t!ie Chinese market for their weight in gold. This 

 indeed, would not he a higher price in proportion, 

 thin is frequently paid in England. ar,d occasion- 

 ally in some parts of our own country, for luxurit ■ 

 of the (able ; such as t! e fir:it ripe cherries at i. 

 guinea a pint, or the first fresh .salmon at twc. 

 dollars a pound. 



The birds by whicli this singular kind of nest 

 is fabricated, are birds of passage, visiting the 

 island only at a certain time in each year. One 

 or two of them were a (^v; years since procnred. 



