44 



THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



Vol 



menls,'' and hia reniarkB on Silk. -C'liUure. — Eds. 

 Falmkr.) 



comforts op a hew england winter. 



The long winiera of New England are often com- 

 plained of. But let us look nt this. The season of 

 cnliivation ia long enough fur the maturing and per- 

 fection of oil the vegetable products which the clirnote 

 and Bod are capable of producing; and these einbraces 

 an abundance and prohision of ibe most valuable 

 grams, graeses, vegetables, and fruits, for the whole 

 year. The temperature is favorable to labor. The 

 long winters bring with them opportunities of social 

 intercourse of the most delightful character. While 

 the bracing air of winter gives elasticity to the mue- 

 cles and vigor to the mind, it alTorde, in its leisure from 

 out-door labor, the most favorable opportunities for in- 

 tellectual improvement. The farmer, in this respect, 

 has advantages which fall to the lot of few other con- 

 ditions in life. Hnppy is it for him, when an enlarged 

 education and a taste tor books and ecientilic inquiries 

 enable him to improve them to the greiitest advantage. 

 Under these circumstances, no condition in life, to a 

 man of reasonable desires, whose heart is not poisoned 

 by avarice or ambition, seems more privileged or more 

 enviable. 



I have said that agriculture as an art, is as yet im- 

 perfectly understood. But it is encouraging to con- 

 template the improveincnts which have been mode in it 

 within the lost halt or even quarter of a century, and 

 the rapidity which it is still advancing. 



HORTICULTURE AND FLORTICULTORE. 



Among the interesting exhibitions of this occasion, 

 Horticulture and Florticulture have presented their 

 liberal contributions. In tlie variety and perfection 

 of Indian corn, esculent vegetables, and the most val- 

 nftble fruits, we see every reason to be tatisficd with 

 our local condition. If peculiar obstacles to their cul 

 tivation present themselves in the soil or climate of 

 New Cnglaud, we may with an honest pride congrat- 

 ulate ourselves upon that industry and skill, which in 

 detiance of sueb obstacles successfully produces them 

 in abundance and perfection. 



Flora, likewise, on this charming occasion, holds 

 her court among you, adorned with more than orien- 

 tal splendor. In the two great tiorial kingdoms of 

 nature, the botanical and the human, if we must yield 

 the palm to that which is alike transcendant in the 

 beauty of form and motion, and in the higher attri- 

 butes of intelligence, innocence and moral perfection, 

 yet it con be no derogation to admire, with a rapture 

 bordering upon enthusiasm, the splendid products of 

 the garden; and especially when their beauties are 

 combined and arranged as on this occasion, with an 

 exquisite and refined taste. What is the heart made 

 of which can find no sentiment in flowers ? In some 

 of the most striking displays of this occasion, in the 

 dahlias for example, we see what can be done by hu- 

 man skill and art in educating and training a simple 

 and despised plant, scarcely thought worthy of culti- 

 vation, to the highest rank in gayety and glory and 

 ever varying perfection in the aristocracy of flowers. 

 We may learn from auch success, a lesson of encou- 

 ragement in the education and training of flowers ol 

 an infinitely higher value and perfection. 



The vast cre.ition of God, the centre and source of 

 good, is every where radiant with beauty. From the 

 shell that lies buried at the depths of the ocean to the 

 twinkling star that floats in the still more profound 

 depths of the firmament, through all the forms of ma- 

 terial and animated existence, beauty, beauty, beauty 

 prevails. In the floral kingdom it appears in an infi- 

 nite variety, in an unsiinted and even rich profusion 

 than in other departments of nature. While these 

 contributions are thrown out so lavishly at our feet, 

 and a taste for flowers seems almost an instinct of na- 

 ture, and is one of the most innocent and refined sen- 

 timents which we can cultivate, let us indulge and 

 gratify it to the utmost extent, whereever leisure, op- 

 portunity, and fortune give us the means. There is 

 no danger of an excess under these reasonoble resti ie- 

 tions, which all our sentiments demand. " But,"' 

 says some cynical objector, " flowers are only to please 

 the eye." And why should not the eye be pleased ? 

 What sense maybe more innocently gratified ? They 

 are among the most simple, and at the same time a- 

 mong the cheapest luxuries in which we can indulge. 



The taste for flowers, every where increa.^ing a- 

 mong us. is an omen for good. Let us adorn our 

 parlors, doorways, yard?, and roadsides, with trees, 

 and bhrulw, and flowers. What a delight do they give 

 to the passer by ? What favorable impressions dn 

 they at once excite towards those who cultivate their 

 own gratification, and find, after all, their chief plea- 

 Bare in the gratification they afford to ethers. What 



an affeetiiig chorm, associoted as it is with some of the 

 best tentimems of our nature, do ihey give to the sad 

 dwelling places of the departed and beloved. 



The moral influences of such embellishments de- 

 mands our consideration. 1 do not mean merely the 

 substitution of such refined tastes and pursuits in 

 place of the gratilieation of the lower appetites. This 

 is no small matter. But another influence should not 

 be overlooked. 



Every one familiar with human life must be sensible 

 that mere persi>nal neatness and order are themselve 

 securities of virtue. As we cultivate these habits and 

 in respect to our residences and the things and objects 

 around us, make a study of rendering them orderly 

 and beauiiful, and of adding to them the highest em- 

 bellishmenisof art, our own self respect is greotly in- 

 creased. Next to religious principle nothing operates 

 more than self-respect, as a safeguard to virtue and a 

 stimulant to excellence. 



" HOME, SWEET HOME." 



The direct tendency of all such embellishments in 

 our grounds and habitations is to multiply the attrac- 

 tions of home, and to strengthen the domestic ties. It 

 is the glory of New England that these piecous ties 

 are no where stronger or more sacred. I would 

 bind her children if possible, by chains a thousand 

 times more enduring. In all my jnurneyings into oth- 

 er lands, favored as ihey may be by the highest ad- 

 vantages of climate and soil, I come back to New Eng- 

 land with all the enthusiasm of a first love, and a filial 

 afr.'ction which, if possible, has only gained new 

 strength from absence. Indeed there is every thing 



n her to love and honor. Let us seek to render eve- 

 ry spot of her rude territory beautiful. 'I'o the emi- 

 nent picturesqueness of her natural scenery, adding 

 the triumphs of an industrious, skilful, and tasteful 



ultivaiion, every substantial want of our nature will 

 be supplied, every refined sentiment of the mind grat- 

 ified; and the true New England heart will seek no 

 other Eden this side of that better country where flow- 

 ers bloom with a radiance which never fades, and "one 

 unbounded and eternal spring encircles all" 



A Correction—Peeding Berkshires. 



Messrs. Editors — I wish to correct a small mis- 

 toke that appeared in the published report of the com- 

 mittee on Swine, appointed by the Tompkins County 

 Agricultural and Horticultural Society to report at its 

 last annual fair. It is contained in the extract you 

 have made from that report (on page 24, last month.) 



It reads "Fat, 8| G| 9." It should be 



Feet. The error is a small one, but is somewhat im- 

 portant, as it shows the difference in the coarseness 

 of the three animals. I made another experiment the 

 past fall in cutting up two three-quarter blood Berk- 

 shire hogs, and found the result to correspond very 

 nearly with the table you hove published, although 

 the hogs were heavier, weighing 360 each. 



The reading of T. C. Peters' valuable letter on the 

 eubject of " Piggery and Pork Making," induces me to 

 give you a short account of my method of wintering 

 store swine, consisting of ten full blood Berkshire 

 breeding sows, three full blood Berkshire boars, and 

 shonts of difl^erent ages, to make in all twenty-two. 

 These I have shut up in lots of from two to four each, 

 and feed them twice a day, say morning and evening, 

 with one cent's worth of bailed corn each — com at 

 38. Cd. per bushel — or 1 lb. 4oz. each, before it is boil- 

 ed. I boil the corn about twelve honrs by putting it 

 over the stove in the morning in a copper boiler, and 

 let it cook through the day — let it cool in the night, 

 and feed it the next day. I find that twenty-eight 

 pounds of corn, when boiled will weigh sixty-eight 

 pounds, and it increases as much in bulk as in weight. 

 I feed no water nor slop of any kind to my hoge; 

 they have nothing but the boiled corn, and they come 

 out in ihe spring in as good condition as they were in 

 the fall This is the second winter that I have pursu- 

 ed this practice. I have also tried the plan of boiling 

 potatoes ond ruto baga, and mixing bran, shorts, &.c. 

 with them, to make swill; but it costs more that way 

 than on boiled corn. 



I wish to inquire of Col. Sawyer whether the por- 

 traits that yon gave of hia Bfrksbire swine are cor- 



5,00111' 

 tanb 



(till 



reel in their proportions. If they are not theyj" 

 tendency to mislead the public; but ifthey are) 

 they add value to your journal. It ia a subjeol 

 hope gentlemen giving portraits of animals ^ 

 careful about, — that the beouty of the portrai 

 depend on the excellence of the animal and noi 

 skill and fancy of the artist. 



Yours respectfully, 



E. CORN 

 Ithaca, Tompkins Co., Feb., 1841. 



Remark. — The Portraits are pronounced 

 rcct, — Eds. 



J 



Maple Sugar. 



The following communication contoine ei; 

 hints on the subject of making maple sugar,| 

 two leading requisites for success, we helievi 

 boiling the sap as fresh from the tree as possi 

 the most punctillious cleanliness in all the 

 operations. As the season for this work wij 

 commence, we recommend the remarks of 

 respondent to those interested, on well as thoi 

 S. Chew, from the Ohio Farmer, poblished li 

 on page 45 of this journal. We believe it 

 easy and economical, by proper management, uii 

 beautiful, white, crystalized maple sugar, as the 

 mon, dirty looking, brown substance, which 

 generally in fact, the very cleanest production 

 material world. 



Messrs. Editors — Having seen in your p| 

 inquiry for making a vat or box for boiling 

 having long wondered that bo little attention was) 

 to making maple sugar, I give some of my own 

 rience in relation to it. I have been surprised t 

 so little disposition to improve the usuol ma 

 catching the sap in troughs, and boiling it in i> 

 hung on a pole, by which it is filled with all 

 of filth, and the article of maple sugar, (the pi 

 all sweets,) rendered unwholesome and fbrbidi 

 it comes into market. 



From twenty years' experience and obser 

 using kettles in various ways, I have adopted 

 iron pans, which are here coming into commi 

 and have been used for ten or twelve years will 

 success. Pans with sheet-iron bottoms and 

 sides did not puccced well. The pans are si 

 sheet of Russia iron turned up at the sides am 

 about three inches, and will hold about thri 

 while boiling. A rim of band iron is rivelted 

 about one inch wide, with rings as handles, 

 cost of pon is about $-1. Two or three 

 lengthwise on an arch, built of stone; from oni 

 half to two feet in deptb, and about twenty ini 

 breadth, the pan being about twenty-two ii 

 The arch should be even on top, and a wide 

 wrought or cast iron across the arch between 

 der the pans to prevent the heat from the fire n 

 the sides. The pans are slid ofTwhen emptied, 

 of these will boil about as much as a cauldron ki 



I have for some years past used six, set three 

 arch, side by side, and have about six hundred trei 

 buckets for the same, and average about twelvcjl 

 dred pounds per year of sugar, which fetches.^.pj^ 

 cents per pound, and the profits arefiom $80 to I )( , 

 This is done at a season of the year when littl< 

 can be done on a farm. 



The sugar boiled in pans, I believe to be IB 

 cent better than in kettles, other things being 

 To make maple sugar as it should be, much 

 needed to keep every thing used about it clei 

 sweet, and the sap should he boiled as soon as 

 be to prevent feimentation. Maple sap of itself 1 

 color, and if it could be crystalized without 

 would be white and transparent, and the sweet 

 purest kind. Much is said about cleansing sngi 



