80 THE S OUT HE 



his thousands ; though he says, he should be 

 very happy to know that the account was fairly 

 balanced. Fie insists upon it, that the preven- 

 tion of disease is no part of a physician's busi- 

 ness, and that to seek from a hungry candidate 

 for practice the means of arresting disease, would 

 be as reasonable, as to expect the assistance of 

 a lawyer in inculcating charity and good will 

 amongst men. The old gentleman has retired 

 on a large fortune, and, very disinterestedly, there- 

 fore, volunteers to open to the profanum valgus 

 the secrets of the charnel-house. We have al- 

 luded to him the more particularly in this con- 

 nection, because we have often heard him de- 

 clare, that two-thirds of the cases of chronic 

 disease he has witnessed in this country, had 

 their origin in the habit peculiar to our country- 

 men of bolting their food. We are, he says, in 

 too great a hurry to do every thing, and upon 

 the old maxim, " the more haste the less speed," 

 he maintains that we would " go ahead 1 ' faster, 

 if we eat slower. 



For our own part, we think that the moral 

 as well as physical health of our people would 

 be much promoted by a breach of this custom 

 of dashing through our meals. The table is 

 almost the only place where the man of business 

 meets his family and friends in a social way, 

 and if, instead of fifteen minutes of cutting and 

 slashing and swallowing, he would devote an 

 hour to social intercourse and faithful mastica- 

 tion, in the end, he would find his purse none 

 the lighter, his body much the plumper, and his 

 moral attributes greatly expanded. 



For the Southern Planter. 



MENDING ROADS. — FIRE-WOOD, SEASONED 

 AND GREEN. 



JVIr. Printer, — If, as there is no doubt, one 

 scraper is equal to twent} 7 men with hoes, for 

 mending roads, ought not road-overseers to get 

 scrapers 1 Along the James River canal, and 

 wherever a turnpike or raid-road has lately been 

 made, they can be bought very low ; perhaps 

 for two or three dollars. Wouldn't it be well for 

 the county courts to authorize the overseers to 

 to do so? They might be paid for out of the 

 fines collected for not working, or sending hands 

 to work on the roads. One scraper would do 

 for three or four overseers. But those who can't 

 get scrapers, ought never to neglect ploughs ; 

 and both should be used, if possible. 



Seasoned wood is so much better, and cheaper 

 than green wood, that I am astonished at any 

 body's using green. Nobody would, except for 



N PLANTER. 



the same reason that made the honest Dutch- 

 man put a stone in one end of his bag when he 

 went to mill, because his father and grandfather 

 had always done so. Nothing but old Custom, 

 and its child Prejudice, ever would make people 

 stick to what is so much against comfort and 

 economy. 



Why, Mr. Printer, a cord of green wood con- 

 tains 140 gallons of water, (1,440 pounds!) — 

 And not only have our horses or steers this extra 

 weight to haul, but this water has to be driven 

 out, (or evaporated,) before the parts of the wood 

 where it is, can burn. And to drive it out, a 

 large part of the heat has to be spent, which 

 would otherwise go towards warming the room. 

 This is the reason that a green wood fire is half 

 an hour in beginning to warm the sitters by, 

 when a seasoned wood fire blazes with a gener- 

 ous warmth in five minutes. If each, from that 

 stage, lasts an hour, a wiseacre says, " see, my 

 green wood lasts an hour and a half, while the 

 seasoned wood lasts only an hour and five mi- 

 nutes !" But he forgets that twenty-five minutes 

 were lost, with the green wood, in sputtering, 

 fizzing, and smoking. He forgets, too, that he 

 had on ten or twelve billets of it, while four or 

 five would do, of seasoned wood. 



Mr. Printer, did you ever see a wood-house ? — 

 I mean a plain, cheap house, or shed, to keep 

 wood under all the winter, with room enough 

 for one or two men to cut it ? Tell the planters 

 and farmers, that if they will but make such a 

 one, or get it made, they wili own it to be the 

 best spent five, or ten, or twenty dollars that they 

 ever laid out in all their lives. I know of but 

 one in this county. More's the pity ! If I was 

 a Peter the Great, it should be the law, that no 

 man should have an ice-house, till he had pro- 

 vided himself a wood-house. The Yankees have 

 wood-houses, and put their wood into them six, 

 twelve, or fifteen months before it is to be used. 

 Then, the comfort of having it perfectly dry in 

 the worst weather ! and the comfort and health 

 to those who cut it up, of having a shelter to 

 stand under, for that work ! 



Cannot you get some good hand to put a 

 drawing cf a wood-house in the Planter? 

 Your friend, 



John Dumpling. 



Louisa, March, 1844. 



We are inclined to think our readers will find 

 more difficulty in drawing the wood, than the 

 house. The proverbial tendency of mankind to 

 procrastination leads our farmers to postpone the 

 hauling of their fire-wood, until necessity forces 

 them to do it at a season when the transporta- 

 tion of one load is attended with more expense 

 and inconvenience than belongs to three at a 

 more propitious period. 



