VOb. XVII. Nf>. !iS 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



219 



our teritory with canals and railroads, and leading- 

 on the senilis of civilization to a home on thd 

 Roi kv Mountains. I only wish to rejoice that a 

 balance wheel to this spirit is somewhere to be 

 tbniul. 



Iiuliistry, friigality, temperance, being necessary 

 to tlie worldly success of the farmer, are found to 

 tinive in this society. In no other department are 

 ti.iso better rewarded, and in none is the penalty 

 of a departure from them so certain. " The soul 

 of tlie slugiTHrd desireth, and hath nothin;;" — "The 

 sluggard will not plough, therefore shall he beg in 

 harvest" — are truths as applicable to the husband- 

 man now as they were when the royal preacher 

 pronounced them. 



In other particulars under this general head, 

 Agriculture will bear a triumphant comparison with 

 other secular callings. I do not include the cleri- 

 cal profession for that may be termed a sacred one. 

 Look at that of the law for a moment. In its 

 practice there is a necessary liability to high e.x- 

 citement of the passions. The fact that its field of 

 labor is that of disputed points, and that a valuable 

 consideration is at stake, and that there is uncer- 

 tainty as to the issue, makes it a profession which 

 addresses itself to all that is excitable in our na- 

 ture. I do not say that its members are always 

 thus excited in its practice, but iiat they are ex~ 

 ceedingly liable to be so is clear. Still, that pro- 

 fession lias its features of interest. A noble law- 

 yer, one who looks beyond his own gain, and en- 

 deavors, with candor and honesty, to adjust rather 

 than to make wider the difficulties among men, is 

 a noble member of community. But though sucli 

 men are to be found, my general propo.sition, that 

 the legal profession is an exciting one, is true. 



The merchant, too, occupies a station in which 

 he suffers from some of the tendencies alluded to. 

 His gains are measurably uncertain. lie cannot 

 generally calculate with certainty upon results. 

 The produce in which he deals may rise or fall ; 

 the goods upon his shelves may be more in quantity 

 than the demand ; and he cannot always rely upon 

 prompt payment from his customers. This latter 

 contingency seriously afiiscts him ; for at times he 

 may see bankruptcy staring him in the face, as a 

 consequence. But allowing that no e.itreme result 

 like this occur, the very uncertainty consequent 

 -upon ever varying markets tends to a feverish state 

 of mind, to which the man of the soil may be a 

 stranger. 



So with the medical man. He is the community's 

 bond-slave, noble and philanthropic as is his intrin- 

 sic position in society. By night, by day, in fair 

 weather and in foul, he must ride upon his often 

 ill-requited errand of good. And rarely indeed 

 can he calculate with certainty upon a specific in- 

 come from his services. The contingencies of his 

 profession are not friendly to the maturing of the 

 calm and patient sentiments, as compared with that 

 of the husbandman. 



A passing remark may be thrown in as regards 

 the intdlectual advantages of the agricultural oc- 

 cupation. The condition and habits of life of the 

 farmer, lead him to reason as do all true philoso- 

 phers, namely, from facts. He comes not in con- 

 tact with the hair-splitters of the schools. lie 

 instinctively reasons from cause to effect, and back- 

 ward from eifect to cause ; — the only true logic, by 

 the way, that is abroad ; a logic which is oftener 

 found by the farmer's fireside than in the temples 

 of Aquinas. They^ are not men of the copia ver- 

 borum, it is true, their mind being busy with truth. 



rather than with its philological garb. The farmer 

 sees in his department of labor a thousand things 

 which he cannot understand, and it thus becomes 

 a habit with him to spend but little time in agita- 

 ting subtle points. He is content with pursuing 

 inquiries on matters of obvious importance, and 

 on which success will attend the re.isoningof manly 

 common sense. Hence his mind is in a healthy 

 tone : and on matters of common concernment, as 

 at the ballot box, or on the jury, and in the various 

 social relations, his judgment is to be relied on. I 

 have mingled much with men of every condition 

 in all countries, and have a hundred times declared 

 that if my all were at stake I would rather call to 

 the jury twelve independent farmers than any 

 twelve men from the other occupations. I believe 

 they are the most accustomed to calm, sober, and 

 intelligent thinking. 



The remarks I have made apply with nmeli pro- 

 priety to the first settlers of a country. Of this 

 class a large majority of this audience is composed. 

 The first settler is the pioneer of civilization. He 

 must go in advance of all others. Without his 

 hardy energy, and his willingness to undergo the 

 peculiar privations attendant upon the clearing of 

 a new country, but little land would be possessed 

 by man ; and the human family would be crowded 

 into tlie narrow neighborhood of the sea-coast 

 Once our whole vast territory was a solitary wilder- 

 ness. The wild Indian roamed the forest, and 

 gathered a precarious living by tlie toils of the 

 chase. These noble rivers, these nobler lakes, 

 were solitary. No keel, save that of the bark ca- 

 noe, marked its pathway upon them ; no voice save 

 the wild fowl's, and the war-whoop, woke the long 

 and dead silence. But the pioneer settler pressed 

 his way hither, and before his axe, and his nerved 

 arm, the wilderness fell, and beauty and comfort 

 followed in his train. And now while I speak, the 

 same process is going on all around. He who 

 shall come after us, and shall pass through this 

 territory a few years hence, shall find these rough 

 and stump-filled fields like a garden. Yes, to you 

 who are engaged in clearing the land all owe a 

 debt. And when I ride along at the calm and still 

 hour of summer twilight, and see the pillar of blue 

 smoke rising up from the half-cleared field of the 

 pioneer, I involuntarily exclaim, ho-w much more 

 desirable are such monuments of praise than are 

 the mausoleums, and pagodas, and sculptured mar- 

 bles which stand in the Old World in commemora- 

 tion of the warrior's prowess or the tyrant's reign. 

 Truly these are the "men of the iron-nerve." 

 (To be conliaiiied.) 



The Potato. — The climate and soil of Maine, 

 like Nova Scotia, and other British provinces, 

 north, seems peculiarly adapted to that mealy es- 

 culent root, the potato, so indispensable to the table 

 and so excellent a substitute for bread. In fact, 

 there is nothing that can supply its place, and it is 

 itself a great nutrimental element of life — as we 

 see in the ruddy Irish people, who live on this 

 wholesome food, and buttef-milk, scarcely less un- 

 tritive and healthy. The people of Ireland, after 

 all we hear of starvation, never need complain of 

 that, nor would they, while they can have their cow 

 and their potato patch, whether the luxury of the 

 knowino- little pig is superadded or not to give a 

 gusto to their repast. 



Maine potatoes, from the immense quantities ex- 

 ported this year from the soil of their lake and 



river borders, and sent South, seem to threaten to 

 take the lead even of the Irish, Nova Scotia, and 

 Lancaslure. If the qualities are improved to the 

 degree the soil and climate admit, Maine has a 

 mine of gold in reserve, surpassing her timber lands. 

 She is now getting a return for the flour she was 

 indebted to the South for last year. It is a doubt 

 in our minds whether a luscious mealy potato is not 

 lull as wholesome as bread, though not having as 

 much nutriment — we mean bread such as is gene- 

 rally baked for us, often doughy and indigestible, 

 as well as sour and adulterated. Certainly, the 

 West Indians are idolitrons worshippers of Ire- 

 land's vegetable jewali — and with all the yams, 

 sweet potatoes, bread ftnait, ifec.'of the farinaceous 

 tribe tliat daily garnish their sumptuous tables, 

 each, iti itself excellent in its way, they cannot 

 live without the potato of the North, which is gen- 

 erally ten times more valuable there than the orange, 

 the- pine, &c. that we prize so much. It is con- 

 sidered as the peach is deemed by us, and is to 

 food in general what that is to the dessert. Long 

 live the Potato ! — A*. 1'. Star. 



KXasDachnsctts Horticnltoral Societr* 



EiHiBiTioH OF Fruits. 



Saturday, Jan. 5, 1839. 

 Pears. — A large and beautiful fruit, oblong and 

 somewhat truncated in form, of a yellow color and 

 breaking — tolerable only for dessert, but must 

 prove fine for baking, by George Brown, Esq. of 

 Beverly. 



Jlpples. — Chandler apple, by Mr Grosvenor, a 

 first rate red winter fruit 



A large red fruit of fine flavor and very beauti- 

 ful ; much resembling the Baldwin ; by John Prince, 

 Esq. of Roxbury. 



.For tlie Committee, 



WILLIAM KENRICK, Chairman. 

 i — 



Saturday, Jan. 12, 1839. 



EXHIBITION or FLOWERS. 



Mr William E. Carter, of the Botanic Garden, 

 Cambridge, presented a seedling Camellia japon- 

 ica variety, for which the specific of convotuta was 

 suggested. A flower of much merit, and the foli- 

 age' large and very beautiful. 



For the Committee, 



S, WALKEtl, Cluiinnan. 



In feeding horses with grain, the proper quan- 

 tity of the respective kinds is regulated by weight, 

 for in this propoi'tion are the dififerent kinds con- 

 sidered nutritious. As for example, we give to a 

 horse per day, half a bushel of oats, the weight of 

 which is 17 lbs., and if wo wish to change to oth- 

 er grain, as barley, rye, or Indian corn, the same 

 weight will suffice : and as these grains are much 

 heavier than oats, a proportionate less quantity 

 by measure, will suffice. Another rule, deemed 

 important, is this that whenever heavier grain is 

 substituted for oats, a quantity of fine cut straw 

 should be added, as a substitute for the husk of 

 tlie oats. This induces a more perfect digestion of 

 the grain. 



A Chuckle. — We learn from the Pickwick pa- 

 pers, that when a man bleeds inwardly, it is a dan- 

 gerous thing for himself — but when he laughs in- 

 wardly, it bodes no good to other people. 



