/HI 



18 



THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 



[For the Country Qentleman and Cultivator.] 



More about Gormandizing and Dyspepsia. 



In the issue of the Co. Gent, of May 2, and in reply 

 to a " Suggestion to Mediciis," by J. L. R., we submitted 

 n few observations upon the evil.s and sufferings caused by 

 gormandizing, under which title we included the two com- 

 mon, and, for reasonable being."!, the two shameful, dis- 

 graceful practice.', viz., firstly, that of eating too much, or 

 stuffing down more than the system needs or can digest 

 in a proper or healthy manner; and, secondly, that of 

 swallowing the food too hurriedly, or without sufficient 

 chewing or mastication. To these remarks upon the evil 

 consequences of these two common and woi-se than beast- 

 ly practices, we added some observations upon the origin 

 or cause of these lamentable and di-sgraceful practices or 

 vices, ascribing them, in a great measure, to an over-esti- 

 mate of the gratifications of the palate or the pleasures of 

 the table, and the consequent inclination to carry indul- 

 gence in these lower gratifications to an extreme, and to 

 a too great disregard of what is taught by physicians, 

 hygienists, and common experience, as to what is good 

 and bad, wise and unwise, Iieallhful and injurious in this 

 everyday business of eatilNj. Our practical conclusion 

 from these seemingly well established truths as to the 

 cause or causes of the vices and their providentially-in- 

 flicted penalties which we had then under our considera 

 tion was, that the most effectual cure or prcveiition of 

 these vices, and of the miseries attached to them as cor- 

 rective punishments, is to be found in estimating much 

 less, or a.s a much lower good, the mere pleasures of the 

 palate, or the gratiliciition thereof, and in being guided 

 much more by the dictates of Reason, and by the lessons 

 which Providence is daily teaching upon this subject in 

 the sufferings which are inflicted by that Supreme Authori- 

 ty, and often stern Teacher, upon the transgressors of the 

 laws of health.. 



As the vice of gormandizing is a very common and a 

 very serious one, as well as one that is very severely pun- 

 ished by Providence — self-condemnation, loss of self-re- 

 spect, discomforts of various kinds, dyspepsia, disease, 

 and not unfrequently even death itself, being among the 

 number of these punishments — and as in the hurrying 

 times of haying, harvesting, and other kinds pf work in- 

 cident to summer, farmers and farmev.s' help a-n morn 

 than usually tempted both to eat too often, too much, and 

 too hurriedly, it has occurred to us that we might resume 

 the subject with some likelihood of contributing to the 

 abatement of the evil and its manifold punishments or 

 penalties. Certainly the desire and hope of contributing 

 to such an abatement, were our main inducements to pen 

 our previous article, as they are also now to resume the 

 pen. 



On the present occasion, we shall confine ourselves to 

 the consideration of such of the penalities or punishments 

 of gormandizing as usually pa.ss under the title of dy.spep- 

 sia. And that we may escape such misunderstandings, as 

 seem likely to spring fiom the very vague and erroneous 

 meanings quite commonly attached to this foreign (Greek) 

 word and technical term, we premise that dyspepsia is, 

 when appropriately employed, a general designation for 

 almost all the derangements incident to the process of 

 digesting our food and converting it into nutriment for 

 the sustenance of the body. In thi.», its proper and pro- 

 fessional meaning, dyspepsia is not " the dyspepsia," or a 

 name for any one particular form of disease, butageneral 

 title for a great many lorms of stomach derangement and 

 disordered digestion. 



In nine cases out of ten, or thereabouts, dyspepsia is 

 the penalty of gormandizing in one or other of the two 

 forms in which this vicious indulgence is practiced. In 

 other words, dyspepsia, inclusive of a large variety of 

 stomach ailments and derangements of digestion, is pro- 

 duced, in the majority of cases, either by eating too much 

 or over-loadiu" the stomach, or by Mtinij the food with- 

 out grinding it sufficiently in the mill which Nature has 

 provided. This latter faulty practice has much to do in 

 causing the former or overloading the stomach, for when 

 the food is bolted the feeling of satisfaction or having 

 eaten enough does not occur as early as when the same 

 amount of food is masticated more thoroughly and trans- 

 ferred to the stomach more slowly. Bolting the food, 

 then, is a cause of dyspeptic complaints in two different 

 ways ; and for this fact it is ea.>ty to see the magnitude of 

 this single mistake in eating, and how easily and obvious- 

 ly it may be prevented. Let dyspeptics, instead of be- 

 coming no wiser or not better by the corrective discipline 

 of suffering which Providence is inflicting upon them for 

 the very purpose of convincing them of their error and of 

 making them wiser and better, or instead of resorting to 

 drugs and doctors for the purpose of evading these Provi- 

 dential penalties of that kind of wrong-iloing which they 

 practice three timcsevery day, or often.er ; instead of do- 

 ing, we repeat, either of these foolish things, let them sim- 

 ply eat more slowly and chew more thoroughly, and Provi- 



dence may hold its liaixl and spare the rod, and drugs and 

 doctoi-s be found to be easily dispensed with, and hardly 

 a less evil, however skilful or well-intentioned the doctore 

 may be, than those dyspeptic sufferings which the Wise 

 Creator and Preserver of our bodies has ordained as the 

 corrective discipline of gormandizing folly, and of undue 

 indulgence in the pleasures of the palate. 



We pause for the present, but shall return to this highly 

 important subject in a week or two. Mkmccs. 



THE ARMY WO RM A ND CUT WORM. 



We copy the following letter from our State Entomolo- 

 gist, from the last no. of the Journal of the State Ag. 

 Society: 



8*LEH, N. Y., June 6th, 1861. 



Mr. B. P. Johnson— We are all familiar with the Cut 

 Worm, that severs the young cabbage, beans, &e., in our 

 gardens, and the corn in our fields. All tender succulent 

 vegetation, including trees that are just started to grow 

 from their seeds, is liable to be cut asunder at or slightly 

 above the surface of the groimd by these worms. They 

 are the progeny of those dark colored "millera" that 

 come into our houses on sunnner evenings and flv obout 

 the ceiling overhead. Though the worms are much alike 

 they in reality are of many different species, the most of 

 them belonging to the genus Agrostis, in the family 

 " Noctuida." 



The Army worm I suppose to be some one or more of 

 our common cut worms, multiplied to excess, and when 

 so multiplied, become gregarious and tnigratory just like 

 the locust. This name. Army worm, is given to a worm 

 which appears at irregular intervals, now in one place 

 then in another, immense numbers suddenly coming 

 abroad and advancing over the country in a particular 

 direction, like an invading army. Three years ago, Robt. 

 Kcnnicott sent me specimens of these worms from Illinois, 

 in a vial of spirits. They resembled the cut worm in 

 every respect, except that their colors were more bright, 

 which might arise from' their greater exposure to the liflit 

 of day than was their ordinary habit. They were greyish 

 brown with stripes of darker brown and white. 1 wrote 

 to have the moth bred from these worms, if possible sent 

 me, but have received nothing. Last October, Dr. Ed- 

 ward Jenkins of Talbot Co., Md., sent me three of the 

 moths, but they were so broken, and their marks so total- 

 ly effaced that I could learn nothing from them, except 

 irfat iney appeared more like an" Agrostis than any thing 

 else. I, therefore, do not know with certainty, what par- 

 ticular species the Army worm is. 



In this section of the Eastern States, we at long inter- 

 vals have had a worm with the same habits, and which 

 has been here called the Black worm. In 1743 there ap- 

 peared in Massachusetts " millions of devouring worms 

 in armies, threatening to cut off every green thing." 

 {Flint's 2d Rep., p. 36.) In 1770, a black worm about 

 an inch and a half long, almost covered 2 or 300 miles of 

 territory, devouring the grass and corn, moving mostly in 

 one direction. (Webster on Pestilence, vol. 1, p. 2D9.) 

 In 1700, the same worm reappeared in Connecticut, and 

 was very destructive to the gross and corn, (ibid., page 

 292.) In 1817, an account from Worcester, Mass.', May 

 22d, says, "the Black worm is making great rava"es iii 

 this town and many other places in this part of the'coun- 

 tiy. Their march is in a ' displayed column ' and their 

 progress is as distinctly marked as the coui-se of a fire. 

 Not a blade of grass is left standing iu the rear. Froni 

 the appearance of the worm and its manner of destroying 

 vegetables, it is supposed to be the same which usually 

 intcsts gardens, and is commonly colled the cut worm." 

 (Albany Argus.) The same newspaper adds, that this 

 worm is also destroying the vegetation in the northern 

 towns of Rensselaer and the adjoining ports of Saratoga 

 county. 



Thus all the evidence we have, indicates that these tra- 

 velling swarms of worms are nothing else than our own 

 common cut worm. i. Fitch. 



Jnly 4, 



[For tho Country Ocntleman and Cultivator.) 



Iiyury from the Cut-Worm. 

 A near neighbor of mine has a field of some eighteen 

 acres, planted to corn about the 20th April. Two-thirds 



of this field wos in clover in 1860, and in wheat in 1859 



tho other third in potatoes in 1859, and suffered to grow 

 up in weeds in 1860. The corn all looked well till about 



middle of May, when it commenced dying, or rather the 

 clover part did ; the weed part looks well ; the clover part 

 had been reifianted ; till last week not a stalk was to be 

 seen ; it wos then furrowed out ond plonted with eorly 

 corn, ond how it will do, con't say. On examination I found 

 from (our to twenty coiuinon grub-worms in each hill, (the 

 common white grub.) 



In hod a field of clover and timothy sod, planted 3rd 

 and 4th May; many hills in this field were killed by grub- 

 worms, and a good part ii\jured by worms eating the roota 



of the corn. It is now growing well, but looks a little 

 yellow. I have another field of over twcTity acres corn 

 adjoining, (planted to potatoes in I860-,) this looks fine, 

 hardly o hill missing— planted 24th and 25lh April 

 MlUon, Ky. wM. HALl. 



%)M gairy ^t\mx\mt\iX. 



BUTTER. 



No one of the dairy products, aside from Milk, comes 

 so near being a prime necessary of life as Butter. We 

 can very well dispense with dieese, at onr daily meals; 

 its absence from the table would scarcely be noticed ; but 

 if an American family could not hove butter at all their 

 meals and lunches, there would be trouble in tho house- 

 hold at once. 



The dairyman, of course, shonld not find fault with this 

 universal and excessive use of butter. Abroad, in almost 

 every family, butter is not used at meals where meats are 

 served, and the practice is worthy of imitation. There 

 the use of cheese is mnch more niiivcrsul than butter, 

 growing in part from the fact that it is the chejipcr of the 

 two. 



By the United States Census of 1850, it appears that 

 the proportion of butter to cheese over the whole Union 

 was OS three to one — for there was mode in 1849, of 



Butt". !il3,3«.3<16 lbs. 



Cheese. 105 j3ii,8!B lb». 



While in this State, for the some year, there was made, of 



5""" 79.766,0!M Ihn. 



Cheese 49.74lfH81b8. 



But the State Census of 1856 shows a large change, for 

 in the year 1854 there was made, of 



The census figures do not show nearly all the butter 

 produced — for there are hundreds of families with one or 

 two cows who make for their own use, and are not count- 

 ed with the aggregate. 



Of all the butter which goes to market from this State, 

 not one-fifth is strictly a prime article, and of that fifth 

 probably a half may be deducted for a not perfectly pure 

 article. . Indeed, so limited is the section where the very 

 best butter can be produced, that I doubt whether the es- 

 timate is not even now too high. 



Over a large portion of the State good butter, for im- 

 mediate consumption may be and is made, but it will hot 

 bear transportation. The best butter is made in Dela- 

 ware, Sullivan and Greene, upon the brown shales of the 

 Cattskills. The next best is made in Lewis, Broome, Ti- 

 oga, Chemung, Cortland, Cattaraugus, Steuben, Chautau- 

 qua, Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Alleghany, Chenango, Her- 

 kimer and Oneida ; and in these counties the best comes 

 only from the hilly and moimtninous regions which have 

 been longest in pasture. Upon the old and rocky pas- 

 tures of Putnam, Duche.»s, Columbia, Rensselaer ond 

 Washington, good butter is produced, but as a general 

 thing it will not compare favorably with that from the 

 west side of the Hudson river. Short, sweet herbage, 

 which only grows in perfection upon old pastures in hilly 

 or mountainous regions, pure air, and soft pure water, are 

 the indispensable requisites for pure butter All these 

 however, without the skillful manipulations of the dairy 

 woman, will avail nothing. 



The dairy woman cannot do her port well if she do'not 

 have the advontage of proper fixtures and implements. 

 A good, cool place for setting the milk in summer is abso- 

 lutely indispensable, ond there is no form where cows can 

 be kept profitably, thot such a place cannot be provided 

 at small expense. The use of spring houses is one of the 

 causes for the good butter of the hilly regions. But a 

 good spring house can be mode near a well, and oftener 

 much more convenient, as being nearer the house than the 

 spring. I saw a very nice one, which answered an ad- 

 mirable pourpose, and is a model of its kind. The ground 

 ^s excavated about four feet by some twelve feet square, 

 and a solid stone wall two feet thick,_laid in cement, four 

 feet high. The floor inside was also laid in cement, slight- 

 ly inclining to one corner. The wall was carried up full 

 width four feet, and then an offset of 18 inches was made 

 to the rear, carried up two feet higher, and connecting 

 with the wall to form the foundation. Upon this founda- 

 tion wos erected a balloon frame with eight feet posts, 

 boorded outside and in, and the woll made as tight as pos- 

 sible. Upon the ledge created by the offset a wall about 

 four inches high and wide is made on the front, by which, 

 being \vell plastered with the cement, a gutter or vat is 

 made some three inches deep, with a slight descent to tho 

 corner opposite to that where the water is introduced. 

 Into this vat the fresh milk is set while worm, and cold 

 water conducted into it from the well. The milk cools 

 rapidly, and a low temperature is raointained through the 

 day or night. At eoch milking the pans are removed to 

 the shelves to moke room for tiie fresh milk. Some very 

 nice dairy houses ore rigged up cntiiely above ground, and 

 one I saw last summer in the town of Solon, Cortland 

 county, was so arranged that it seemed almost as good os 

 spring-house. In that am} many others, I noticed tho 

 pans were set upon shelves mode by turning two narrow 

 boards edgewise, so that the least possible suiface was 



