266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
landholders. But as the tillers of their own 
soil, their skill and ingenuity would be taxed, 
their self-respect be fostered, and they would 
make men of intelligence and enterprise, such as 
the State could rely upon in every emergency. 
The system of large landed estates works badly 
in European countries, and badly in our own 
Southern States. The tendency in New-Eng- 
land is to the division and sub-division of farms, 
and we hail it with satisfaction. The freeholder 
with fifty acres, near by a thriving village for a 
market, is far better off than with five hundred 
acres remote from market, and the necessity of 
raising cattle or grain as the only methods of 
getting money. There is no good reason why 
this tendency should not continue to prevail 
among these hill and valleys, until New-England 
shall rival the Old, in her wealth and popula¬ 
tion. We have the soil and the men. Time 
will give us the capital and the skill, and we 
trust our institutions of religion and learning 
will give us a disposition to realize a beauty of 
physical culture, and a perfection of social life, 
such as the world has never witnessed. May 
the millenium of our art be hastened ! 
Burlington , Vt., June 15, 1854. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
TO BOIL RICE. 
"What you say, Mr. Editor, on page 233 of 
the American Agriculturist , about cooking 
rice is very good, so far as it goes, but you 
omitted to inform such of your readers as are 
ignorant of the fact, that one of the greatest 
modern improvements is to be found in using a 
vessel such as I shall endeavor to describe. It 
is a double tin vessel, a saucepan within a sauce¬ 
pan. These are made like an ordinary tin pail, 
each with a wire handle over the top, and a 
wooden hand piece. The outer vessel is fur¬ 
nished with a supply tube on the outside, which 
permits water to pass to the bottom, and steam 
to escape. The inner saucepan fits into the 
outer about four-fifths down, the remaining fifth 
is left for water. This saucepan has a cover 
with a small pipe in center to carry off steam. 
It is needless to add that this arrangement en¬ 
tirely prevents burning at the bottom, and al¬ 
though a little slower than the old system, is al¬ 
together better, and for rice, hominy, mush, and 
all such food, it is so superior to all other modes 
of cooking that it only needs a trial to insure its 
universal adoption. I find it is generally called 
Keeker’s farmer boiler, from having been first 
invented for this purpose. Mbs. M-. 
HOW TO GET RID OF FLIES. 
It was on a subject of general interest that 
Mr. Spence wrote, when he communicated to 
the Entomological Society the account of a mode 
employed by a friend of his in Florence to re¬ 
move this drawback to the comfort of existence. 
He tells us that his curiosity was greatly excited 
on being told by a gentleman residing in the 
neighborhood of that city, that for two or three 
years he had entirely succeeded in excluding 
Hies from his apartments, though allowing the 
windows to be open wide for the admission of 
air. While the sitting and dining-rooms of his 
neighbors were swarming with them, a strict 
search was necessary to detect even two or three 
in his apartments. The possibility of excluding 
flies from a room where the windows were wide 
open was explained by the curious fact, that 
flies will not pass through the meshes of a net, 
even though those meshes are more than an 
inch in diameter. The plan of this gentleman 
was simply to suspend a net made of light-col¬ 
ored thread to the outside of the window, and 
although every mesh was large enough, not 
only to admit one fly, but several flies with ex¬ 
panded wings, to pass through at the same mo¬ 
ment, yet from some inexplicable dread of ven¬ 
turing across the mesh-work, these insects were 
effectualL excluded. It is necessary to state, 
that in order for this plan to succeed, it is essen¬ 
tial that the light enter the room on one side 
only, for if there be an opposite side-window, 
the flies pass through the net without scruple. 
The fact of these insects being excluded by the 
simple means above stated (when the room is 
lighted from one side only,) has been repeatedly 
noticed and confirmed. Nor are we dependent 
only on account of this fact as received from a 
foreign country; it has been noticed and con¬ 
firmed also by observers in England. 
Dr. Stanley gives an account, in the “ Trans¬ 
actions of the Entomological Society,” of some 
experiments entered on by him, in order to the 
satisfactory investigation of this singular discov 
ery.— Bohn's Pictorial Calendar. 
A SUMMER HYMN. 
It is summer on the meadows, 
And the earth is bright with shadows 
Of the sunbeams floating lightly o’er the eky : 
The bells are gaily ringing, 
And they mingle with the singing 
Of the lark that, ever singing, soars on high. 
All is brightness—all is beauty— 
To rejoice now is a duty— 
Let us fill are hearts with gladness to the brim; 
It is flowing o’er the land, 
Scattered freely from His hand— 
Let our songs of blessing sweetly flow to him. 
To Him, our God, who reigns 
Over hill and sunny plains, 
We will rejoice with joy exceedingly, 
For we know our Heavenly Father 
Hath spread, that we might gather, 
This banquent of delight, so full and free. 
Let us wander o'er the mountains, 
Let us rest beside the fountains, 
And taste the balmy odors breathing round : 
While in garments rich and golden, 
Royal robes, rare, and olden, 
The Monarch of the day is robed and crowned. 
At noon, it is too bright 
To roam beneath his light— 
We will seek the shelter of the leafy grove; 
There, a mossy couch is spread 
For our pleasure in the shade, 
Till evening tempt us forth again to rove. 
On a crimson throne of splendor, 
The sun listens to the tender, 
Soft farewells of the zephyrs, low and sweet; 
our hearth; and all within and without is dis¬ 
mal, cold and dark. Believe me, every heart 
has its secret sorrow which the world knows 
not, and oftentimes we call a man cold when he 
is only sad.— T^ongfellow. 
AMERICAN INGENUITY. 
From an article in the Qiornale di Pome 
upon the Great Exhibition of 1851, we copy the 
following: 
“ Let us take a brief survey of American ec¬ 
centricities in the Palace. First of all, cast 
your eyes open that case—it is no larger than a 
portmanteau—upon it, and you will find therein 
an entire house of caoutchouc , which you may 
erect, wherever your roving fancy may lead you, 
upon a very slight foundation, which folds up 
into the smallest possible compass, no bigger 
than an umbrella. All necessary furniture for 
the establishment is packed in the same case— 
to wit, an excellent elastic mattress which you 
may blow up at pleasure; small packets also, 
which with a breath you may convert into most 
commodious cushions. Is the evening fine and 
starlit ? Take that long band—it may be easily 
inflated into a luxurious sofa, upon which your¬ 
self and your whole family may sit at ease. In 
the course of your peregrinations, do you sud¬ 
denly encounter a broad river, whose waters 
bar your further progress? You may navigate 
the stream; lay hold of that 'paletot —you never 
met with its equal before—it is no bigger than 
an ordinary Mackintosh —you would take it to 
be one—you may see one like it every day in 
Hyde Park, or in the Champs Elysees; no 
dandy appears without one. But feel in one of 
the pockets—you will find therein a small pair 
of bellows; apply the tube to a little opening, 
and suddenly your paletot swells out, changes 
its shape, and is in a trice transmognified, to all 
intents and purposes, into an excellent service¬ 
able boat. A couple of oars lie hidden at the 
bottom of the wonderful case—you embark, 
seating yourself upon the same serviceable case 
in which your house is contained—you pass the 
river, and your canoe resumes its original form. 
According to the temperature of the atmosphere 
it remains on your shoulders, or disappears into 
its hiding-place—from the container becoming 
the contained. 
Extraordinary Yield of Pigs. —The San 
Jose Telegraph, a short time ago, stated that a 
sow in that neighborhood had brought forth at 
one litter 42 pigs. The same paper has since 
been informed that 36 are now living. This re¬ 
markable physiological fact is undoubtedly true; 
the sow, at one litter, gave birth to 42 pigs. 
The Stockton Republican says: “A French 
gentleman, formerly a resident of Chile, knew 
a sow to produce at one parturition 40 pigs; 
and we have learned that, in another instance, 
in this city, 32 pigs at one litter have been pro¬ 
duced. California is ahead of the rest of the 
world, certainly, not only in the vegetable, but 
in the animal kingdom ; and we should not be at 
all surprised to find, that after the Anglo-Amer¬ 
ican race becomes fully adapted to the country 
and climate that the natural and ordinary pro¬ 
duct of the race should be doxiblets. 
Then sinks iuto the ocean 
With a slow and graceful motion, 
While the white-browed waves are crowding round 
his feet. 
Bright and Gloomy Hours. —Ah! this beau¬ 
tiful world. Indeed I know not what to think 
of it. Sometimes it is all gladness and sunshine, 
and heaven itself is not far off. And then it 
changes suddenly, and is dark and sorrowful and 
the clouds shut out the sky. In the lives of the 
saddest of us there are bright days, and when 
we feel as if we could take the great world in 
our arms. Then come the gloomy hours when 
the fire will neither burn in our hearts nor on 
Oh! Ladies. —An exchange paper says—an}' 
one would suppose that the enjoyment of sew¬ 
ing w r as the most peaceful and quiet occupation 
in the world; and yet it is absolutely horrifying 
to hear ladies talk of Stilettos, bodkins, gather¬ 
ings, surgings, hemmings, gorings, cuttings, 
whippings, lacings, cuttings and bastings! 
What a list of abominables. 
A Witty Witness. —A gentleman by the 
name of Slaughter, living at a distance from 
this place being subpoenaed as a witness in a 
case pending in our Circuit Court; and being 
about to marry a Miss Lamb, writes the Court 
that he “cannot attend as a wfitness this Court, 
as he expects to Slaughter a Lamb next Sun¬ 
day.”— Montgomery (Ala.) Journal. 
