THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
175 
rest its steady progress to an overwhelming ex- 
tent. The time will come when even cotton 
will be second to silk on the list of our staple 
productions. But, before all this can happen, 
our people will have to learn to be satisfied with 
moderate but remunerative profits, and to ga- 
ther these in particles so small that the common 
or unpractised eye would scarcely discern them. 
They must also learn to make up large results 
from small items. Did it never occur to you, 
Messrs. Editors, that the great difference be- 
tween our Northern and Southern people con- 
sists in this peculiar feature— they ol the North 
are satisfied in collecting large sums from the 
congregation of extremely small items, almost 
ultimate aton's ; while they of the South can 
never contemplate with composure anything 
less than a crop ol a thousand bales of cotton, 
that is to yield them twenty to thirty thousand 
dollars'! Even these \a\Xer., with big eyes, can 
only see a large cotton field of one hundred to a 
thousand acres; the individual plant itself is 
too small for their vision. They forget that it 
is only from the aggregation of the products of 
these individual plants that their hundreds or 
thousands of bales are made up. Now, silk is 
a peculiarly small article — small, I mean, in 
physical proportions; but there is no article so 
well adapted to aggregation into large mas.ses 
ol value. 
Please say all this to vour much respected cor- 
respondent in Paris. Tell him that the self- 
complaceney of the Journal des Debats is mis- 
placed, and bid that Journal and the people of 
Prance, and those of Italy w'ith them, beware 
of “ American competition” in the production 
of silk. Respectfully, 
Gidkon B. Smith. 
Baltimore, September 13, 1845. 
Rural Architecture in New England, 
We extract from the correspondence of one 
of theeditors of the Louisville Journal, travel- 
ling in New England, the following notice, ef- 
fectively descriptive of the character of the im- 
proved rural edifices in that country : 
“ I had a great desire to see the lovely cotta- 
ges at New Bedford, of which Dowming speaks 
in his Landscape Gardening, but this pleasure 
I could not enjoy without detaining my com- 
panions, and I relinquished it with the less re- 
luctance from having already seen at Boston a 
number of exauisite rural structures ot different 
styles, built since my visit to Boston in 1843. 
These are the Italian villa of Theodore Ly- 
man, six or eight miles from Boston, and a 
group of cottages at Linden Place, near Bos- 
ton, some in the Italian and others in the En- 
glish Gothic style, but all differing materially 
in their details. I wisn it were in my powei to 
give your readers some idea of the delightful 
emotions with which the sight of these exqui- 
site specimens of art filled me. If it were, I 
might contribute thus to create a taste in the 
Vv^est for rural architecture, of w'hich, I am 
sorry to say, it is almost wdioll)’^ destitute. 
These buildings are all of wood — their cost 
ranges from S2,000 to S10,000 — certainly not 
more than that of the suburban dwellings of the 
West generally, and yet they are exceedingly 
beautiful, perfect gems of architecture, produc- 
ing an effect infinitely more charming than the 
most costly Grecian structure, I have seen 
mo.st of the costly public edifices in this country, 
but none of them, with the single exception of 
the new Gothic churcb in Broadway’', New 
York, give me anything like the pleasure of 
the cheapest and simplest of these wooden cot- 
tages, where effect depends in no degree upon 
size, costliness or material, but wholly upon 
the magic of art. 
“I am glad to find that in every quarter of 
the Eastern and Middle States, the Grecian 
style of architecture, for dwelling houses, is 
universally condemned and rejected. Every 
gentleman of taste here would prefer a tasteful 
wooden cottage, costing but 3f2,000, to Girard 
College with its thirty-two immense Corinthian 
columns. The Grecian style in domestic ar- 
chitecture is now regarded as vulgar, and no 
costliness or magnificence can redeem it from 
the air of inappropriateness and upstart preten- 
sion. Columns and walls, without visible 
roof or chimneys look very fine in the ruins of 
Greece and Rome, and can be endured in le- 
gislative halls in America, but in tne dwelling 
house give us the warm hospitable aspect of the 
old English cottage, with its steep, projecting, 
bracketted roof, its sharp gables, its swelling 
and sociable bag-windows, and its long, con- 
spicuous, ornamented chimney shafts — a style 
susceptible ot never-ending variety of detail. 
But I must refer the reader to Downing’s Rural 
Architecture, trusting that no one will hereafter 
build the cheapest cottage without first consult- 
ing that work, or getting a design from an ar- 
chitect ol taste, one who rejects the Grecian 
styles, and assuring the reader that, however 
admirable may appear the designs in Down- 
ing, the houses themselves appear infinitely 
finer. Theodore Lyman’s Italian villa looks 
well in Downing, but the villa itself infinitely 
surpasses the idea conveyed by the picture. I 
neglected to mention Bute cottage, which was 
built, I think, previous to my visit in 1843. It 
is a small cheap cotiage, but it is, to my eye, 
the most charming of all. I noticed one defect, 
and that wasin the color of the verandah, which 
is green, and does not harmonize with the other 
colors of the building. The new cottages are 
none of them white, but of some quiet unobtru- 
sive color, drab or light chocolate.” 
A Chapter on Feathers and Feather Beds. 
From the Indiana Farmer. 
He is poor indeed, in this land of abundance, 
this paradise ol geese, and turkeys, who cannot 
feather his own bed. At the West, at any rate, 
whatever other thing is wanting, none need 
lack a feather bed ; no girl is of a marriageable 
age or condition who has not earned a feather 
bed. The careful mother, intent on her daugh- 
ter’s dower, weaves her sundry woollen blan- 
kets, (ye gods of the loom! how thick and 
warm, and cosey, of a winter’s night!) and 
makes her a huge, well-stuffed feather bed. 
The Dutch, when fresh from “ fader-land,” 
sleep not leather beds merely, but under 
them, employing them instead of bcd-clothes. 
It is very well, then, to attend to the science 
of feathers, or as the old sermonizers used to 
say, their “ origin, nature, and uses, w’ith some 
practical reflections.” 
1. The best feathers lor domestic purposes 
are geesc-feathers, being the most elastic and 
durable. There is about as much difference in 
their quality as in the wool of different breeds 
of sheep. The quality depends on their 
strength, elasticity and cleanliness ; and these 
again, depend upon the condition of the bird, 
its health, food, and the time of plucking its 
leathers. Down is the term applied to under 
feathers— most abundant in water-fowl, and in 
those especially which live in cold latitudes, 
being designed to protect them from wet and 
cold. The eider-down, from the eider-duck, is 
of the most repute. It is brought from extreme 
' northern latitudes, and is used for coverings to 
beds, rather than for beds themselves, as, by be- 
ing slept upon it loses its elasticity. 
Poultry feathers, as those of turkeys, ducks 
and chickens, if assorted and the coarse ones 
rejected, afford very good beds; but they are not 
so elastic as geese-feathers. 
2. Everybody knows that live geese-feathers 
are the best. Every one does not think of the 
reason; which, a.s it is the key to the art of Iiav- 
ing good leathers, we shall propound. 
So long as a bird is alive the feathers are as 
much an object of nutrition as the flesh, the 
bones, or any other part. When the bird has 
been for any time dead, its parts relax, and the 
feathers are also affected, although from their 
chemical elements, the decomposition is not as 
rapid as it is in the flesh. But it begins. 1 hey 
lose their glossy color, their spring or elasticity, 
and like the rest of the body, they are dead. 
Those feathers are best which are plucked in 
the very height ol health and growth. It is 
well known that sickness changes the hair and 
skin of animals. A dull colored hair, dry and 
rough, is a concomitant of sickness in the 
horse, ox, &c. On the other hand, a bright, 
glossy hue is a sign of health. Every one has 
noticed the same thing in fowls — the drabbled, 
rumpled, lack-lustre plumage of sick ones. 
The higher the condition, and the more vigor- 
ous the health of a flock of geese, the better the 
fieece-, while a meagre, draggling, half anima- 
ted flock, never will yield live-geese feathers. 
The same results arise from the age of fea- 
thers. They ripen and are shed as the hair of 
animals. At the time of moulting the feathers 
are dry and lifeless— because they are spent, 
and are to be cast off as dead. Whentowls 
are killed, the feathers will be alive and good, 
if immediately plucked off before the body 
grows cold. Sometimes geese are plucked five 
times a year, but only when they are owned by 
a greater goose than themselves. Such ava- 
rice defeats itself. No geese can be healthy un- 
der such cruel extortion; and, without health, 
feathers cannot be good ; twice a year, in spring 
and mid-fummer, is often enough. 
2. After fea'hers are picked they require care- 
ful attention. 
Every feather is largely imbued with oil, by 
which it is defended from w'et ; and this oil must 
be removed or neutralized before feathers are 
fit for beds. This is effected by heat, or by heat 
and an alkali. As soon as picked they should 
be spread upon boards and oven dried, or they 
■will hf-at and stick together and putrify. Up- 
holsterers prepare the feathers by rejecting from 
them all coarse ones— the tail and small wing 
feathers. They are next put into rooms heated 
artificially, with ventilators at the top to let off 
all impure vapors which arise from them. In 
this room they are frequently turned till quite 
drv. They are put into a coarse bolting ma- 
chine, and whirled round with great velocity 
until all dirt and dust is driven off. The whole 
process of curing will reduce their weight 
about one pound in seven. 
They are sometimes prepared by sprinkling 
a little quick-lime over them, which combines 
with the oil and prevents its becoming rancid. 
Another mode is to take a round of quick- 
lime to a gallon of w'ater, stir it well, then let 
the sediment form, and turn off the clear vi'ater 
from the top. Immerse the feathers in this for 
two or three days; then spread them upon 
coarse nets to dry. Shake them from time to 
time, and when perfectly dry, put them loosely 
in hams and beat them thoroughly, and they will 
be ready for use. 
If a recipe i.? required for a bed fit fora car- 
rion-crow, here it is : Let your geese be as un- 
healthy as possible. Either pluck them four or 
five times a season, or, if you kill them, let 
them lie several hours till cold. Then put them 
into hot water to make the feathers come easy. 
In pulling, take out large handsful at a time, so 
as to have scraps ot meat and shreds of skin 
adhere to the quill ; let them lie for several days 
in wet heaps to ferment a little. Then dry them 
suddenly by violent heat, cram them into the 
bed-tick, and jump on, and if you have not an 
odorous bed, and. in a month or two, a bed full 
of visiters seeking food, then there is no truth 
in the laws of nature. 
4. The care of beds, is not understood, often, 
by even good housewives. When a bed is 
freshly made it often smells strong. Constant 
airing, will, if the feathers are good, and onlj'- 
new, remove the scent. 
A bed in constant use should be invariably 
[ beaten and shaken up daily, to enable the fea- 
thers to retain their elasticity. 
It should lie after it is shaken up. for two or 
three hours a day, in a well ventilated room. 
The human body is constantly giving off a per- 
spiration; and at night more than usual, from 
the relaxed condition .of the skin. The bed w'ill 
become foul from this cause if not well aired. 
If the bed is in a room which cannot be spared 
for such a length of time, it should be put out tc- 
air two full days in the weelr. 
