30 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol. 2. 



Sketches of Travel. 



Ncirporl, R. I., July ] . 



Here we arc at A. C. J.I's. delightful cottage. For 

 me to atlempt to describe the measure of niy comforts 

 and pleasurable sensations here, would be labor 

 lost. I have been within higher and more massive 

 walls, where the decorations of man's invention 

 spoke more worldly splendor; but here, in the midst 

 of Nature's magnificence, there is in union with it, 

 in this house, a chastened simplicity and neatness 

 of arrangement truly admirable. Our unpretcnd. 

 ing hostess is one of those intellectual females who 

 regulates her mansion with noiseless efficiency. If 

 her rules partake of the self-denying discipline of 

 that society, in which she is a ** bright and shining 

 light," even the more worldly of her inniatcs arc too 

 well bred to wish to infringe them. 



But who can, in this delightful spot, desire the 

 sound of factitious merriment, the gross amuse. 

 ment of mere sense? Sufficient for me was the 

 all-subduing in6uence of Nature's charms. Every 

 morning at day dawn, 1 opened my chamber win- 

 dows and set ajar the blind to look out upon the old 

 shingled wind mill, Brindley's little pond and old 

 rope walk, the narrow-walled lanes and neat little 

 fields, where 1 had so often played in my boyish 

 days. The deep continuous roar of the breakers 

 on Easton's beach, was now more audible than at 

 any other hour. I felt tliat this same reverbera- 

 ting roar was the music of my boyhood — forty years 

 had neither impaired its freshness nor its power, 



" States fall — arts fade: 

 But Nature doth not die." 



At the close of this day, while sitting in the 

 front piazza of this delightful cottage, looking down 

 upon the quiet town below, and the resplendant bay 

 and islands beyond, I saw some half a dozen chai. 

 ses, accompanied by two or three modern buggies, 

 returning from a ride of pleasure on the island and 

 over its beautiful bcaciics. Each vehicle held a lo. 

 ver and his mate, as if mystified by the tender pas. 

 sion, or perhaps only with feelings imbued with the 

 power of Nature's more magnificent attractions, the 

 whip cracked not, and the horses trotted lazily along. 

 How different is all this in Western New York. 

 There our young people bundle into one or more 

 large carnages or carryalls, drawn by two or four of 

 the fastest trotters. Jehu like they drive — all is life 

 and noise and nonsense — putting the horses to the 

 lop of their speed, as if to annihilate time and 

 space to the manifest jeopardy of life and limb. — 

 Thiji, said I to my wife, speaks the difference be. 

 tween the Yankee and the New York character. 

 The one is econoniical, even in his pleasures ; the 

 other loves stronger excitement, he even carries his 

 enterprising spirit into his amusements. 



Sunday morning, went to Friend's meeting. This 

 venerable house, with all its accoinpaninients, re- 

 minded me of other days, save the absence of those 

 hoary heads which now " were not." Here was no 

 longer a D. B. or C. R. on the high seat ; no T. R. 

 with his full bottomed whig below ; no G. VV. with 

 his huge ivory headed cane, on the high scat in the 

 wing. This huge wing was also razed, and gave a 

 concession to the republican feelings of these after 

 times ; but the same ponderous oaken beams support- 

 ed the quaint looking roof, the attic and the galle- 

 ries. This unity of strength and plainness, a work 

 of the 17th century, carried a sentiment of rever- 

 ence with it. 



I have sometimes heard apparently thinking men 

 complain of the irksomeness of the hour spent in 

 the silence of a Quaker meeting. I can only say, 

 let such an individual take up his cross for this sin. 

 gle hour. If he is poor, let him take to himself the 



rich promises of that Gospel, which was in the be. 

 ginning p.-cached, first of all to the poor. If he is 

 rich, let him employ this brief hour in examining 

 his own heart, lo the end that he may not incur the 

 penally pronounced against the rich man, hardened 

 in sin and selfishness. 



In the afternoon, we went to old Trinity. The 

 congregation large, fashionable, attentive. The 

 evening service was read by the venerable Dr. W., 

 with a pathos and unction suited to the holy purposes 

 of its ofliee. What contrite heart will say that 

 these forms of glowing ]iioty, framed by the saints 

 of old, are a "killing letter?" If such an one 

 there be, may he be eoiiipelled to listen a full hour 

 to the dull sermon of a man who has no reverence, 

 no spiritual nature in him. " * 



The subsoil of R. Island is dark clay, but unlike 

 the clayey regions of the West, it is here intermixed 

 with stone and gravel, and so compact as to be very 

 difficult to e.\cavatc. On the surface small boulders 

 of slate, flint, and granite, abound. The upper stra. 

 turn is also relieved by sand or gravel. At the 

 North end of the Island, below the schistous forma, 

 lions, anthracite coal is found ; but it is more fria. 

 ble, and of course less valuable, than the anthra- 

 cites of Pennsylvania. The predominant rock is 

 coarse gray wacke slato : it bounds the head lands 

 at the South part of the Island, forming with its 

 thick annual coat of rock weed, an impenetrable 

 barrier to the ocean's increasing surge. Also at the 

 South part of the Island, there are valuable quarries 

 of building stone, and some few ledges of irregular 

 granite, too full of seams for such uses. I know of 

 but one ledge of lime rock, and this ia principally 

 under water at high tide. It is coarse in te.vture, 

 and nearly white ; bearing little rcscrnblanco to our 

 own deep blue fine grained carbnniferous variet3-. 

 But if Nature has furnished us of the West with 

 her more fertilizing fossils, limestone and plaster, 

 here she dispenses her blessings inanoher shape,witii 

 no niggard hand. Here the everlasting ocean not 

 only yields its vast shoals of the oily raunhadcn fish to 

 the net of the fisher, but everyeastcrn gale drives to 

 land an endless variety of marine vegetables and 

 shells, in such abundance as to furnish both lime and 

 vegetable matter to the grateful soil. 



Indian corn, rye, oats, and barley, are the princi. 

 pal grains grown on the I4and. It is said that in 

 an early day wheat grew Wi 11 on the opposite Is- 

 land, Conanicut. Hence its present failure may 

 not altogether be attributed to the influence of the 

 sea fogs. Grass seemed to me, at this time, July 1, 

 to be the most promising crop. Siich Timothy 

 (Piileuni pratensc,) now in full bloom, I rarely ever 

 saw in the dry, hot, champaign West. The Locust, 

 (Robinia pscud-acaeia,) together with many other 

 ornamental trees, do not thrive well on the Island. 

 TheBultonwood (Platanus occidentalis) is the only 

 ornamental tree which seems to thrive gracefully 

 here. Perhaps the pure damp sea air is quite as con- 

 genial to it, as the mephitic vapours of the Western 

 creek and river bottoms. S. W. 



Gardening for Ladies. 



The nceompnnying omneing and instructive obser- 

 vations are taken from an exeillont article in the 

 Gardener's Magazine, entitled " Instructions in Gar- 

 dening for Ladies," by Mrs. Loudon; — 



To derive the fullest enjoyments from a love of 

 flowers, it is absolutely necessary to do something to- 

 wards their culture with their own hands. Labor is 

 at the root of all enjoyment. The fine lady who has 

 a nosegay put uix)n her table evrry morning by her 

 gardener, has not a tenth of tbc enjnyment from it 

 that the lady has who has sown the seeds, or stuck the 

 cuttings, and watered and shifted,^or transplanted, pru- 

 ned and lied up, or pegg»d down or thinned out the 

 plants, and nl last gathered the flowers herself, But 



we would have ladies of leieure do a great deal more 

 than this. Let them hoe, and rake, and dig, and 

 wheel a barrow, and prune and nnil wall trees, handle 

 a syringe, and work one of Read's garden engines.— 

 By these, and similar operations, they will ensnre 

 health, without which there can neither be good tem- 

 per, nor any kind of enjoyment whatever, mental or 

 corporeal. The grand and all pervading evil among 

 ladies of independent fortune, is eTiniii, which, every 

 body knows, is brought on from a want of rational and 

 active operation. Now the pursuits of botany and 

 gardening supply an occupation which is at once 

 rat'onol and active; and ihcy supply it not only 

 to the lady who has merely a love of flowers with- 

 out a scientific knowledge of botany or a taste for 

 the arts of design, and who may, therelore cultivate 

 her flowers, and perform ber garden operations, with- 

 out a greater exertion of mind than is required trom a 

 gardener's labor; but to the scientific lady, whose bo- 

 tanical knowledge, like that of the ecienlilic gardener, 

 may enable her to raise many kinds of flowers, fruits, 

 and culinary vegetables, by the different processes re- 

 quired for that purpose; and to the lady of artistieal 

 taste in drawing, painting and sculpture, who may 

 direct her attention to landscape gardening, and more 

 especially, to the designing of flower gardens, and the 

 introduction in them of the various kinds of orna- 

 ments of which they are susceptible; a subject at pre- 

 sent as much in its infancy as botany was before the 

 time of Linnirus. But, says some of our readers, 



" What, theUuebcss of wheeling a barrow, 



and nailing wall trees V Yes, certainly, if she have 

 nothing else to do, that will be an occupation equally 

 active and rational. Whv not a Duchess as well as a 

 plain mistrefs ? Suppose this Duchess at work in her 

 garden, and that you are not aware that she has any 

 title. Suppose her dress in the simplest manner, (as 

 were the Vicompte D'Ermenonville's wife and daugh- 

 ters in the gardens of Ermenonville,) what wonder 

 would there be then ? Ladies of rank are as much 

 subject to ennui as ladies without rank; and every la- 

 dy, as well as every gentleman, has a portion of the 

 day that she can call her own, when she may indulge 

 in what she likes. If she has not, her lite is not 

 worth keeping. Did not the F.arl of Chatham, not- 

 withstanding bis being prime-minister at a period the 

 most important that ever ocenrred in the annals of this 

 country, find time not only to lay out his own grounds, 

 hut to assist Lord Lyttleion in laying out Hogley 1 — 

 We insist upon it, therefore, that what we propose is 

 just and suitable and necessary for ladies of the highest 

 rank as it is for those without rank, provided they are 

 equally without active and rational occupation of soma 

 other kind. 



The following excellent communication deserves 

 an attentive perusal from every mother and daugh- 

 ter in our land ; and in behalf of our fair resders, we 

 tender Fa.nnt many thanks. At the same time we 

 think she has mistaken the meaning of Anxettr, 

 and applies the hickory without real cause. We do 

 not believe that Annette meant to " attribute oM 

 the discontent and unhappiness of farmers' daugh- 

 ters to a mis. education, and put the blame upon 

 teachers and seminaries." In the communication 

 referred to, she was only speaking of a certain, class 

 of danghters, not of the majority ; and we think 

 an attentive perusal of her several communications, 

 will show that she does not reason altogether in 

 " logical circles." — Kds. 



Farmers* Homes Wives, and Danghters. 



Messrs. Editors — I noticed, in your December 

 number, another chapter of grievances from Annette; 

 but having had Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New 

 Year days to attend to, (which are the climax of all 

 enjoyments in the country,) no lime was allowed to 

 reply last month; and although I feel no disposition to 

 criticise, or drive my amiable fOiuliataTit from the field, 

 still I think a little sprig of hickory from Walnut 

 Grore, may serve to drive her from some of her logi- 

 cal circles. 



In your July mimber of last year, she nttribules alt 

 the discontent and unhappiness of farmers' daughters 

 to a mis-education, and puts all the blame upon teach- 

 ers and seminaries. .Voir she says that teachers and 



