No. 133.] 323 



Syracuse. If he invented any labor saving machinery in tillage, 

 the historians of that time have not deigned to mention it. Ag- 

 riculture and the mechanics aj-ts were abandoned to slaves and 

 menials, throughout the lofig career of Greek and Roman great- 

 ness. 



Could old Cincinnatus rise from his grave and see one of the 

 most approved plows ot the present day, he might be tempted to 

 use it all the time — and would hardly be satisfied with the limit- 

 ed extent of his farm of four acres. 



It would be interesting to know what sort of a plow it was to 

 which the prophet Elisha had hitched his twelve yoke of oxen, 

 when he was called from his laborious vocation to receive the man- 

 tie of Elijah. Either the cattle must have been very small or the 

 plow a poor one. 



The old Duke of Athel, planted a forest on his estate in Perth- 

 shire, 15,593 acres — and when he died he had on it upwards of 

 twenty-icven millions of young trees — his successor set out on 

 poor mountain laud 6,500 acres with larches, valuable for ship 

 timber. The land was not worth over twenty two cents an acre. 

 Now with the timber on it, is valued at thirty-two millions five hun- 

 dred thousand dollars. This statement we take from the letter of 

 Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, in the published proceedings of the 19thi 

 Annual Fair of the American Institute. I recommend an impor- 

 tation of birds to save our corn. Woolen manufactories. Our 

 people must wear wool here. Flannel prevents the too sudden 

 cooling of the body. No clothing made of vegetable texture can 

 ever be equal to that which the God of nature provides, to retain 

 animal heat. The fowls of the air -and the beasts of the fields 

 are all covered with permanent coats, but the " featherless biped '> 

 man is left to cloth himself by his own ingenuity. He can al- 

 ways vary his covering with the changes of the weather, taking 

 from tlie sheep, the cashmere goat or the alpacca, the "excessive 

 quantity with which nature has provided ihem. 



He speaks of the deserts, once fertile fields, of Babylon, Baal- 

 bec, &s., for want of agricultuie, its irrigation, &;c. He recom- 



