54 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
From the Southern Planter. 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL AND OF THE MIND. 
The la e excellent Judge Buel, ha.s lelt us 
much information upon the “ improvement of 
the soil and ol the mind.” li I forget not, he 
generally had an essay on the impiovement of 
the mind, forthe benefit of the rising generation, 
both male and female. It is evident to every 
observing man, that the improvement of the soil 
and the mind must go together. Their influ- 
ence acts reciprocally on each other. The wi- 
sest of men, Solomon, says, “ I went by the field 
of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man 
void of understanding ; and lo, it was all grown 
over with thorns, and nettles had covered the 
lace thereof, and the stone wall thereolwas bro- 
ken down. Then I saw, and considered it well ; 
I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet 
a little sleep, a little slumber, a little lolding ol 
the hands to sleep : so shall thy poverty come as 
one that travaileth ; and thy w'ant as an armed 
man,” (a sentinel, I suppose, who dare not 
leave his post until relieved.) See Book of 
Proverbs, xxiv. 30-34. 
Again he says, “ Seest thou a man diligent in 
his business 1 He shall stand belore kings ; he 
shall not stand before mean men.” 
All nature is progressive, and man, the lord 
of this lower world, by Divine appointment, is 
commanded to grow in favor and knowdedge ot 
his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ This is 
done, by the works ol creation, and revelation, 
understood and obeyed. The Author of all na- 
ture has given a constitution for the physical 
universe, for his cieature man, and for Christ’s 
Church. These are as immutable as his throne, 
and admit of no improvement or amendments. 
Progressiveness is an essential attribute ol all 
beings except the Deity — its absence implies 
either a state ol absolute perlection, or an in- 
susceptibility to any improvement. The first 
state is applicable to the Divine Being alone, 
and the second applies not to man, physically, 
politically, intellectually, or religiously, consid- 
ered. Progressive improvement — constant, un- 
interrupted and perpetual, entered into the design 
of God, in the formation of all organized bodies, 
whether animate or inanimate, physical or men- 
tal. The vegetable, animal, and intellectual 
world, when uninterrupted by the perversions of 
art, afford constant, sensible demonstrations of 
the universality of this principle. The infant 
plant, in its regular and rapid advances to a 
state of maturity — the iniantman passing grad- 
ually and regularly from the cradle upw'ards, 
through the gradations of boyhood, and man- 
hood, to maturity ot stature and texture; the in- 
fant mind, which is first limited in its capacities, 
to the direct objects of sense, but soon acquires 
the art ot reasoning and reflection, and contin- 
ues to advance to the stature oi a powerful ge- 
nius, all tend to demonstrate this undeniable 
truth. The arts, sciences, politics, and reli- 
gion, have had their infancy, and the various 
stages ol their progress and improvement make 
up their whole history. 
How incompatible with the design ol God, 
are those authoritative and proscriptive creeds, 
political and religious, which trammel the hu- 
man mind, and set those narrow bounds to in- 
vestigation and lesearch ! What would be the 
result, should some misguided cultivator at- 
tempt to set physical bounds to his stalks olcorn, 
before they arrive to maturity? or should some 
capricious or fanciful parent in vent some physi- 
cal contrivance to prevent the further develop- 
ment of his son’s physical system, and apply it 
at the age of ten years, w’hat would be the re- 
sult? Equally absurd is it to collect the agri- 
cultural, political, or religious sentiments of 
any man or set of men of any age, and out of 
them constitute a proscriptive creed for the pre- 
vention of all further advances ot light and 
truth : such a course would be disastrous to the 
peace and prosperity of society — and has been 
the cause of much political and religious fac- 
tion, and is now rending and tearing the world 
to pieces. This is the fruit ot bigotry and in- 
tolerance, produced by the demon of party spirit. 
Demosthenes, when asked the first requisite 
to eloquence, replied, ‘‘action,” — w'hen asked 
the second, he replied, “action,” — and the third, 
he still replied, “action.” Industry bears the 
same relation to agriculture that action did to 
eloquence, in the estimation of the Athenian 
orator. With industry, the farmer may accom- 
plish every thing — and without it, he can do 
nothing. Let him study the value of time. 
Time is his great capital, and should be well 
invested. The wealth ol the world, its high 
civilization, and its magnificent improvements, 
have been created and finished by the labor and 
industry of man. The poorest soil and most 
unfavorable climate are scarce impediments to 
an industrious and energetic people. Look at 
Holland, reclaimed Irom the ocean, fenced in 
by her embankments and mud walls, literally a 
smiling garden, where once there were nothing 
but bogs and ocean’s wave. Look at Switzer- 
land, where an industrious and hardy people, 
contending against the avalanches of snow and 
ice, and the embankment of mountain masses ol 
rocks, falling and crushing for miles square 
every thing belore them, have cut the hills and 
mountains in terraces, and planted them with 
vines ; accc.rding to the account of travellers, 
lands which before were worse than nothing, 
by this improvement sell lot ten thousand francs 
per acre. 
If there is one who may eat his bread at peace 
with God and man, it is that individual who 
has brought that bread out of the earth by his 
own industry: it is cankered by no fraud, it is 
stained by no blood, it is wet by no tear, but the 
sweat of his own brow. 
I will conclude by giving you the true test of 
fame. The truest seeker after fame is the 
man who labors to make his children useful and 
honorable in their generation. In this way, edi- 
tions of his works may go on multiplying, in- 
stead of, perhaps, sinking into oblivion with his 
own time. 
If acceptable, I may furnish extracts of inter- 
est to your readers occasionally, upon the va- 
rious duties ol this life. 
King & Q,ueen. 
From the Soathern Planter. 
BEDS- COMFORTERS— MIN CE-PIES. 
Mr. Printer — I don’t often spend a night 
from home, but last July 1 went to see a neigh- 
bor, richer than John and I. A rain kept me 
there all night. They put me to sleep in a 
room right well aired, but in a feather-bid! The 
night was very hot, and you may ne sure I suf- 
fered. 
Isn’t it wonderful that people should know so 
little about comfort, as to sleep in feather beds 
in summer? In all the houses I go to, some 
richer and some poorer than ours, I see none but 
feather beds. Now, I have been sleeping, win- 
ter and summer, upon a mattrass made ol corn 
shucks, with layers of wool, and upon my word, 
I would not give it up, and sleep on a feather 
bed, for fifty dollars a year. The feathers heat 
you too much in warm weather, and atall times, 
they let the body bend so in their mushy hol- 
lows, that it is filled with aches and cramps. 
Dr. Mason says, (and John calls him my ora- 
cle,) that in bilious fever neighborhoods, people 
who sleep on mattrasses like mine, or hair mat- 
trasses either, or nice straw beds, are a great 
deal less apt to have the fever, than people who 
Sleep in feather beds. He says the feathers re- 
lax the system, make the sweat excessive and 
irregular, and disorder the digestive organs. — 
(You see I’ve learnt some of the Doctor’s hard 
words.) 
John went to M iddlesex last summer, and says 
they almost sweated him to death in their feath- 
er beds. They have a fever harvest there eve- 
ry September. Such a mattrass as mine, any 
woman can make, with a little help from her 
husband. I made mine. One can be bought 
lor six or eight dollars. I hear that at the Ex- 
change Hotel, and all the most fashionable 
houses, they sleep only upon mattrasses. 
Now, about comforters. There are many Vir- 
ginia people, quite well off in the wuiid, wUo 
won’t buy blankets, through “ economy,” as 
they call it. There are others who can’t allord 
to buy them ; some, through real poverty, and 
some because they can’t spare the money fiom 
their grog-shop allowance Most of these peo- 
ple cover their beus with quilts. I v. ould al- 
most as lieve have a sheet of iron spread over 
me, as one of these quilts — it is so cola and hea- 
vy. There’s a philosophy about this, as there 
is about ripe bread. (Quitting the bats oi cot- 
ton in the quilts, with such close rows of stitch- 
es, makes it solid and compact, so that it con- 
ducts away the heat of the body. For things 
close-grained, or compact, are conductors ol heat 
— while things that are spongy, or open, like 
locks of w'ool or cotton, are TioTi-ronductors of 
heat. Now, I can tell these frugal people how 
they may have coverlets for their beds, a great 
deal warmer, and cheaper too, than bed-quilts. 
Take three pounds of cotton, carded in bats, 
lay them smoothly and regularly over a sheet 
of cotton or cheap calico ; spread over them an- 
other sheet, and stitch the two sheets together by 
long, easy stitches, in rows at least eight or ten 
inches apart. The stitching is only to keep the 
bats in place. Bind the edges with any thing 
you plea.se. You will find such a comforter 
warmer than three blankets. And five pounds 
of cotton, carded into light, loose bats, will make 
it too wai m to sleep under, except in the coldest 
weather. 
Albclothing warms us, not by any warmth of 
its own, but by confining to our bodies the heat 
that comes out of them. The bats being so 
loose and spongy, make the comforter a non- 
conductor ol heat. So it confines the heat to our 
bodies, and keeps them warm. No blankets 
have been on our beds for ten years, and nobo- 
dy sleep- cold in our house. 
Mince-pies, it is thought, can’t be made tooth- 
some without wine or brandy in them. It is not 
so. No pies of mine have had a drop of any in- 
toxicating liquor for three years, yet the best 
judges have said, and behind my back, loo, that 
my mince-pies were equal to any they had ever 
ta.sted. Besides, Mr. Printer, I have the com- 
fort of knowing, that in these three years, no re- 
formed drunkard has ever tasted relapse and ru- 
in at my table, though several have eaten of my 
pies, and that no child or servant of ours is ever 
seen coming from the liquor-shop with a jug or 
bottle— no liquor seller can say “ the Dump- 
lings are customers” of his. 
This is my 
receipt for mince-pies without wine or 
SPIRITS. 
Take 4 pounds of plums, 1 pound of currant, 
2 of cherries, 3 of beef suet, 4 of sugar, a fresh 
beef’s tongue, | a pound of citron, 1 ounce of 
mace, J an ounce of cloves, 1 nutmeg the juice 
of 2 lemons, vinegar to your taste. Make 
mince-meat of these materials, and put it by for 
use. When you make pies, add syrup, or juice, 
or stewed apples, to make the mince-meat li- 
quid, and some fresh apples chopped fine. 
In place of citron, marmalade or preserves 
will do. Dorothy Dumpling. 
Leuisa, January, 1844. 
GREASE SPOTS. 
A correspondent of the Southwestern Farmer, 
who signs “ J.j^. W.” gives the following as a 
good recipe for taking grease spots out of clo- 
thing, &/C. : 
“ Take the yolk of an egg, entirely free from 
the white, (be sure not to sca((i the egg,) and 
with a soft brush apply the mixture, and rub it 
on the spot until the grease appears removed or 
loose. Wash off the egg with moderately warm 
water, and finally rinse off the whole with clean 
cold water. Should not all the grease be re- 
moved, which may arise from being on a long 
time, or not sufficiently washed, dry and repeat 
the operation.” 
The writer of the above, says that a fine Me- 
rino shawl, which had been badly smeared with 
tar and grease, (gudgeon grease,) was perfectly 
cleaned by this process in a few minutes. 
