VOL. XVIII. NO. 4. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



Ri 



[For the New England Farmer. ] 



FARMERS CABINETS. 



J\'ew York July, 17, 1839. 



31 



Mr Colman, — My 'Dear Sir, While on 

 a visit tor a niglit, to a Pennsylvania German farm- 

 erne had some conversation oiv the facilities possess- 

 ed by t;irmcrs, for aiding in the general diffusion 

 of Knowledge. Among these facilities was speci- 

 fied tlieir knowledge of forest and fruit trees, and 

 tlieir convenience for preparing specimens for the 

 use of public cabenets. Within a «eek or ten 

 days after that, I received a letter from him, con- 

 taining the names of fifty different kinds of trees 

 growing in his vicinity, stating that himself and 

 son, since I left them, had procured specimens of 

 forty kinds, and expected soon to have the remain- 

 der, and probably several others. They also pro- 

 posed, during the fall to collect specimens of the 

 fruit or seed produced by the several trees ; also to 

 burnish, by impressions of the leaves, made by oil- 

 3d, smoked, paper, Snd by the leaves themselves, 

 "ormed into Foliums, to preserve the character of 

 ,he foliage of tlie various trees of their forests and 

 )rchards. 



His mode of preparing the specimens of wood 

 ^as to take from a limb or a small tree, from four to 

 iix inches in diameter, a section of four or five inch- 

 !3 in length, and split it into quarters or si.vths, 

 vith a portion of bark upon each, one side smootlied 

 vith a plane, and the other left in the form it took I 

 n splitting, and one end cut perpendicularly, the 

 ■ther obliquely, to the grain of the wood. The 

 lartic liar object of the specimens was for present- 

 ng to the cabinet of the County Lyceum, also an- 

 ther set to send to Philadelphia. 



My object in mentioning this fact, i,-' to present 

 ne, among many hundred modes, which have been 

 iken to promote and diffuse useful knowledge, a 

 uowledge of things, among all classes and ages cf 

 le community ; by wijich ignorant farmers,''even 



Dumb Dutchmen," can enlighten the minds of 

 lany, who already profess to have great light, and 

 ussibly to look upon their neighbors, less favored 

 lan themselves, as enveloped in thick clouds of 

 fnorance. 



In nearly every section of Pennsylvania "Cabi- 

 ETs OF Natdre and Art" are exceedingly corn- 

 on in families, schools, and Lyceums. These 

 ibinets consist of minerals, plants, embracing spec- 

 (lens of wood, seed or fruit and leaves ; shells, in- 

 lets, drawings, penmar-sliip, needlework, mechan- 

 m, &c. They are most always collected and 

 •epared by the younger members of families, both 

 r their homes and their schools. House plants, 

 id frardcn hprl« fnr fl,',,uo,.^ „M„ „..it;.......i .. -.i 



child can hardly be found over eight or ten years of 

 age, especially in many parts of the county, who is 

 not entirely familiar with all the connnon and most 

 of the useful minerals, and with a large portion of 

 the plants growing in their vicinities. 



In Westchester a small town, are five large build- 

 ings devoted to the purposes of education and 

 science, which cost not less than 20,000 dollars, be- 

 sides commodious houses for district schools. In one 

 of these buildings, the County Lyceum, forty feet by 

 fifty, three stories high, with rooms for some use. 



book; though these will all come in their course: 

 rather they will produce teachers, Jjooks, scientific 

 halls and a full supply of tlie very best instruments 

 of knowledge. 



Such being the character, and such the tenden- 

 cy and ri^sults of this natural, instructive, and de- 

 lightful mode of furnishing employment for children, 

 why not commence it at once ? Why not propose 

 soine day when the friends of schools, especially 

 the young naturalists in all our schools, shall be in- 

 vited to meet in every town or neighborhood in the 



m the basement and attic, ,s an extensive cabinet, country, (or presenting to each other, the fru.ts of 

 winch, besides specimens of all, or nearly all, the their efforts and intelligence previously encoura-red 

 ™!!fl .^: "".u ' ' '"'^'^f''" '""' °"-" "."ini^lH "^nJ aided by parents or teachers. 



I will take this opportunity to say, that I had no 

 intention in a hasty letter sent you a few weeks 

 since, to speak disparagingly of systematic, scienti- 

 fic lectures. As aids, not substitutes, for personal 

 effort, I liave deemed them the very best. To de- 

 preciate the lectures of Professor Sillman, would 

 be both unjust and ungrateful ; as he lias done 

 more, if I am not mistaken, than any other man in 

 the U. States to difl^tise useful knowledge, and as 

 I have partaken largely of his politeness, as well as 

 of his instructions. I am sincerely, 



and always Yours, 



J. HOLBROOK. 



found in the county, contains numerous foreio-n 

 speciirens in different departments of nature. 

 Their herbarium is probably among the most ex- 

 tensive in the United States, containing numerous 

 European plants received by way of exchange from 

 various parts of Europe, and probably from other 

 quarters of the globe. 



One school in this place, collected, pressed and 

 put up, two or three years since, in sheets or books, 

 forty four collections of plants, each containing one 

 hundred specimens for the Lyceum Cabinets in 

 each of the forty four towns in the county. An- 

 other school collected, labelled and put up, 250 small 

 mineral cabinets, for all the schools in the county. 

 Specimens of drawing and needlework, were also 

 prepared in the schools in this, as they were in 

 many other towns for the use of conventions held 

 in different parts of the state. These various 

 specimens of juvenile improvement, prepared in 

 numerous schools in the state were also sent to al- 



The Harvkst Prospect. In this eating world, 



the harvest question is one of much importance, 



far above that of the Presidential question, or a 

 thousand other questions which often interest the 

 public. It is stated in a New York paper, that 

 „ , , , I wherever the harvest has taken place, it has proved 



most every quarter of the globe, especially to the abundant, far beyond that of late yen s. 1 1 wlZ 

 various missionary stations in d.fferent parts of the I ern New York ,t is said to exceed all precrde i 

 earth A volume o 500 pr COO pages, describ- I„ the Scioto valley (Ohio) more wheat has been 

 ing^ll tjie plants ,n thiscounty, has been prepared j fathered than for any year for twenty back. lH 



More and Pennsylvania and Maryland the promise is abund- 



by Dr Darlington of West Chester 



better instruction in drawing, embracincr architec- 



ant; — and in short, every where. North and South. 



ture, machinery plants, birds, insects and other de- East and West, ha'rvest time has' proved, a bles" ng 

 partmenta of nature. IS nrobahv o-ivpn n Plina,l«>i_ „_j _i-._ „, ^, ' , a uitaoiug 



partmenta of nature, is probably given in Philadel 

 phia, than in any other town in the U. States. It 

 is also taught with great skill in many, if not most 

 schools, in all sections of the state. This exercise 

 is becoming exceedingly common, and ought to be 

 universal, or practised by every pupil in every 

 school, as one of the first and most elementary 

 branches. There is not a man or woman in the 

 whole world, who has not frequent occasion to use 

 it. If permitted, children will teach themselves 

 this art, and much better than they are taught by 

 most professed drawing masters, whom I have seen, 

 who merely teach their pupils to {mitnte pictures. 

 If permitted to tench Ihemse.lvcs, ciiildren will nev- 



and a source of joy. — Sntem Obs. 



House Plants. A method has been recently 

 discovered, by which even the most delicate plants 

 may be cultivated in parlors and elsewhere, with 

 great ease and perfect success, avoiding all the 

 evils resulting from the dust and smoke, and from 

 negligence in watering, which are the ordinary 

 course of decay and final destruction of plants kept 

 in dwellings. The remedy is, to enclose them in 

 glass cases, which may be either inverted vases, or 

 boxes containing earth in the bottom, and glazed 

 at the top and sides. The rapid evaporation is 

 thus prevented, and the plarits preserved from in- 



