378 
AMERICAN ACRICTTLl URIST 
Of mountains reared alike to mock 
The storms career, the lightnings shock— 
My own green land forever.” 
“ The blessing of our Motherland” 
Be “ on us” where “ we go.” 
Anne Hope. 
--- 
A Large Lot of Babies. —The Dayton (Ohio) 
Gazette gives an account of a German woman 
living in that county, who had six children at 
one birth. The children are now six months 
old, all alive, and were at Dayton with their 
mother, on Tuesday. They were in a wagon 
with her, snugly propped up in a wine basket. 
They are all boys, and small of their age. 
We do not know whether the above is de¬ 
rived from Munchausen or not, as we believe he, 
too, was a German. But at any rate, we think 
the babies ought to be entered for a premium 
at the great Ohio Agricultural Show, which is 
soon to come off. They will at least take the 
first prize for numbers, if not for beauty and 
size. 
-- 
Those Watermelons. — The Wakulla (Fla.) 
Times of the 2d, is responsible for the follow¬ 
ing : That watermelon, a slice of which we ate 
on Sunday, weighed 50 pounds. In the lot 
from which it was taken, there was one that 
weighed 81 pounds. They were raised by Mr. 
M. M. Isler, of Leon county. 
Wonder if our friend of the Times has not 
mistaken this for a Valparaiso Squash ! 
A North Carolina Editor. — The Milton 
Chronicle sums up the occupations of his neigh¬ 
bor of the Spectator as follows : 
“ He is an officiating minister of the gospel; 
a licensed attorney; a Newspaper Editor; Agent 
for nearly all the Insurance and Assurance com¬ 
panies north of the Potomac; commissioner for 
thirty States, and an applicant for the same 
when Kansas and Nebraska shall have come in; 
Bank Director; Chairman of the Board of Su¬ 
perintendents of Common Schools Temperance 
Orator; Agent and Counsel for Wake Forest 
College; President and Secretary of all the 
Boards of the Baptist Church, &c.; and in addi¬ 
tion, he owns more town property, has the 
neatest farm, the best fruits, and the finest cat¬ 
tle, of any man in the county. 
There seems to be an anomaly in some parts 
of this statement. How an officiating minister 
of the gospel, and a Newspaper Editor should 
own more town property, have the neatest farm, 
&c., of any man in the county, seems to us as 
strange as that a poet should live on Fifth 
Avenue and keep a carriage. The other offices 
account for it, probably. 
-»-+-•- 
EXTRACT FROM A PRIVATE LETIER. 
East Cleveland, Ohio, Aug. 14th. 
I There is supposed to have been rain in these 
parts in the days of Noah; but since that time 
it is doubtful. The oldest inhabitant is “ largely 
oblivious.” Vegetation is greyer than the dawn 
of day, and smaller than the compassion of an 
“arch-angel fallen.” Farmers and stock are 
expected to live, for the next year, upon the 
hopes of the future and the remains of the past. 
L. W. Ford. 
-» • •- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CROPS IN ORANGE COUNTY. 
The weather continues very dry with us. Our 
pasture has failed now on every farm. There 
is nothing on our fields, except corn, that has 
a green appearance, and that is fast drying up. 
Early corn will be a failure, and there will not 
be more than half a crop of late, unless we have 
rain soon. Buckwheat, in many cases, is but 
just out of the ground, so that we cannot ex¬ 
pect to have a crop now. Farmers are looking 
with wishful eyes for rain. Clouds pass over 
and around in all directions, but we get no rain 
as yet. E. S. 
August 15th, 1854. 
■-- 
“ Base and Tinsel Trappings.”— The New- 
Brunswick Fredonian is guilty of the following: 
“ Trapp” must leave or send his real name to 
this office before he can expect his communica¬ 
tion to receive that consideration or examination 
necessary to insure it a place in our columns. 
We never allow ourselves to be en trapped into 
publishing articles in the Fredonian without first 
knowing from whom they come. 
Smj-iiook. 
PILGRIM MOTHERS. 
A lady of San Francisco, being invited to 
send in a toast to be read at the anniversary 
celebration of the landing of the Pilgrim Fath¬ 
ers, furnished the following. It is spicy enough 
to flavor half a dozen anniversary dinners : 
The “ Pilgrims Fathers,” forsooth ! What 
had they to endure in comparison to the Pil¬ 
grim Mothers ? It is true that they had hunger, 
and cold, and sickness, and danger—foes with¬ 
out and within—but the unfortunate Pilgrim 
mothers! they had not only all these to endure, 
but they had the Pilgrim Fathers also ; and yet 
their names are never mentioned. Who ever 
heard of the Pilgrim Mothers ? Who ever gave 
a dinner in honor of them ? Who ever writes 
songs, drinks toasts, and makes speeches in re¬ 
collection of them ? This self-sufficiency on the 
part of men is beyond endurance. One would 
actually suppose that New-England had been 
colonized by men, and posterity provided by a 
special act of Providence ! Only Mrs. Hermans 
has ventured to insinuate that there ever was a 
woman in the case — that the May Flower ever 
brought any thing but men across the Atlantic. 
I assure you, my dear friend, that I am perfectly 
disgusted with the self-conceit of men ; they 
appropriate every thing to themselves—even the 
settlement of a colony, and the peopling of a 
whole continent. I did hope there was one pre¬ 
rogative they would leave to women. We have 
submitted quietly to their inventions in super- 
ceding us in many things, but w r e will not 
tamely submit to be deprived of this one privi¬ 
lege ; we will not ourselves be deluded into the 
belief that New-England was settled and peopled 
entirely by Pilgrim Fathers. How could they 
have been Fathers if there had been no mothers? 
And I hope, dear Captain, that I have succeeded 
in convincing you that you will be lending your¬ 
self to an act of great injustice toward us, if 
you do not propose for your toast, “ The Pilgrim 
Mothers.” 
- • ® »- 
THE MILKMAN. 
Jinks, the Hastings milkman, one morning 
forgot to water the milk. In the hall of the 
first customer in his round, the omission dashed 
upon Jinks’ wounded feelings. A large tub of 
fine clear water stood on the floor by his side; 
no eye was upon him, and thrice did Jinks dilute 
his milk with a large measure filled from the 
tub, before the maid brought up her jugs, 
tlinlcs served her, and went on. While he was 
bellowing down the next area, his first custom¬ 
er’s footman beckoned to him from the door. 
Jinks returned, and was immediately ushered 
into the library. There sat my lord, who had 
just tasted the milk. 
“Jinks!” said his lordship. 
“ My lord!” replied Jinks. 
“Jinks,” continued his lordship, “I should 
feel particularly obliged if you would henceforth 
bring me the milk and water separately, and al¬ 
low me the favor of mixing them myself.” 
“ Well, my lord it’s useless to deny the thing, 
for I suppose your lordship watched me while— ” 
“ No,” interrupted the Nobleman. “ The 
fact is, that my children bathe at home, Jinks, 
and the tub in the hall was full of sea water, 
Jinks.” 
AGRICULTURE IN ICELAND. 
On stepping ashore in Iceland, the total ab¬ 
sence of trees and forests, and the astonishing 
purity of the atmosphere, strike the spectator 
as among the most remarkable characteristics 
of the country. The fields are beautifully green; 
the mountains, clothed in purple heath, appear 
so near that you are almost tempted to reach 
forth your hand to touch their sides. At fif¬ 
teen or twenty miles distance, they appear but 
three or four; and at seventy or eighty miles, 
they seem within ten or fifteen. Such is the 
effect of the magical purity of the atmosphere. 
In other countries you go and visit cities and 
ruins; here you see nature in her most fantas¬ 
tic forms. In other states you pay a shilling, a 
franc, or a piastre, for a warm bath in a vat of 
marble ; here you bathe in a spring of any de¬ 
sired temperature, or plunge into a cool lake, and 
swim to the region of a hot spring in the bot¬ 
tom, guided by a stream on the surface. In 
other lands you step into marble palaces that 
are lined with gold and precious stones, and 
find hereditary legislators making laws to keep 
the people in subjection ; here you see a grass- 
grown amphitheater where an elective congress 
met and legislated in the open air for nearly a 
thousand years. In other and more favored 
climes, you find comfortable houses, and “ fruits 
of fragrance blush on every treehere, not a 
fruit, save one small and tasteless berry, and 
not a single variety of grain, will ripen, and 
their houses are mere huts of lava and turf, 
looking as green as the meadows and pastures. 
In other lands coal, and wood fires enliven every 
hearth, and mines of iron, lead, copper, silver, 
and gold, reward the labor of the delver; but 
here not a particle of coal, not one mineral of value 
and not one stick of wood larger than a walk¬ 
ing-cane can be found. Many of the mountains 
are clad in eternal snows,and some pour out rivers 
of fire several times every century. But, though 
sterile the soil and scanty the productions, our 
knowledge of the country must be limited if we 
consider it barren of historical facts and literary 
reminiscences. A country like this, nearly as 
large as England, must possess few agricultural 
and commercial resources, to have at this time, 
nearly one thousand years after its first settle¬ 
ment, a population of only sixty thousand souls, 
yet the Icelanders, while laboring under great 
disadvantages, are more contented, moral and 
religious, possess greater attachment to country, 
are less given to crime and altercation, and show 
greater hospitality and kindness to strangers, 
than any other people the sun shines upon. 
Their contentment and immunity from crime 
and offence, do not rise from sluggishness and 
indolence of character; nor or they noted alone 
for their negative virtues. They possess a 
greater spirit of historical research and literary 
inquiry, have more scholars, poets, and learned 
men, than can be found among an equal popula¬ 
tion on the face of the globe. Some of their lin¬ 
guists speak and write a greater number of lan¬ 
guages than those that I have ever met in any 
other country.— Miles' Rambling in Iceland. 
- « «« - 
Cruel Work. — “Do you do crewel work?” 
asked a Boston lady of her New-Hampshire 
cousin, while on a visit up country. 
“Well, yes, I do sometimes; I kill the tur¬ 
keys and the chickens, when father goes to 
market, and its cruel work enough I tell you. — 
Lynn Mews. 
