1801.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
271 
Bassa County, Liberia, large quantities of coffee 
are raised and exported. 
Cotton also grows wild there, and can be cul¬ 
tivated to any extent. Indeed the world can be 
supplied with coffee, cotton, and chocolate, 
from Western Africa. George Thompson. 
, ... ... I *9 4 TT| i— ► -* 
Blinks from a Lantern — XXVIII. 
Revisits Higgins’ Rest. 
My neighbor Higgins, city merchant, country 
gentleman, importer of rare swine, competitor 
for prizes at the agricultural fairs, keeper of a 
thousand hens on a large speculation, still lives, 
though I have had nothing to say of him for a 
year past. In my searches for a farmer’s wife, 
I have had to pass him by, though he ha^liard- 
ly been out of mind. He lost his wife a year 
since, and of course nothing noteworthy in the 
line of my researches among women, could be 
expected at his place. A note dated “ Higgins’ 
Rest,” received last evening, invited me up to 
the second-day wedding, of his new wife. I 
was a little taken aback at the place of date, 
not being acquainted with any such locality, 
though my travels have been extensive. On 
consulting Lippincott, I found Higgins, and 
Higgins’ Point, and several Higginsvilles, but 
no such place as Higgins’ Rest. 
At last I thought the usage of the ancients 
might have come down to modern times, and 
great men, like Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Cato, 
and others, might be giving names to the places 
of their residence. Higgins surely is man 
enough, not only to have a local habitation, but 
to have it named. Why does not Higgins’ Rest 
sound as well as Tusculum, or Tivoli, Tees 
Water, or Rydal Mount, Glen Mary, or Glen 
Betsey. It is certainly suggestive and appro¬ 
priate. Who would suspect that any body else 
but Higgins and his family lived there ? Rest, 
at least to a city merchant, is suggestive of 
peaceful scenes in the country, where fat 
beeves lie ruminating under shady trees, and the 
sleekest pigs thrust their shortest snouts into the 
tallest clover. 
To-day, as I rode up toward Higgins’ farm, to 
solve my doubts, I found the matter all ex¬ 
plained at the gate-way, at least a half mile from 
the mansion. The highway used to run within 
a stone’s throw of the door, and the first Mrs. 
Higgins used to delight herself with a full view 
of all the travel, consisting, generally, of two 
one-horse wagons, a load of wood, or a hay cart 
in the course of a summer day. In the time of 
washing sheep, a flock of those fleecy animals 
not infrequently swelled the tide of travel that 
swept by her door. She used to say that it gave 
great variety to her life “ to see the passing.” 
Higgins read in some work on Landscape Gar¬ 
dening and Rural ArckitcctdVe, that it was not 
in good taste to have the dwelling immediately 
upon the highway, that it gave an air of refine¬ 
ment and gentility to a house to seclude it from 
the world. Higgins, not dreaming that he was 
already quite enough out of the world, immedi¬ 
ately took the hint, and fell into a brown study. 
He had made some alterations to please his first 
wife, and himself more particularly. Why 
should lie not slick up a little, and make a gen¬ 
teel place, and give it a name, like the places he 
had read of in England, to please his intended 
bride. He could not very well move the man¬ 
sion, but he could move the highway, by and 
Avith tlie consent of the selectmen of the town. 
The road could be turned through a valley, at 
the foot of the swell of land upon which the 
mansion Avas built, so as to seclude him entirely 
from the world. The town fathers were sum¬ 
moned at once, and as Higgins had money, and 
would build the new road at his OAvn expense, 
they w'ere made to see that the neiv road Avould 
be shorter than the old one, and of course less 
expensive to keep in repair. They reported fa¬ 
vorably, and the new road Avas located according 
to the desire of Higgins, the Rural Improver. 
As 1 drew near the mansion, I was first struck 
by the entrance gate, a very substantial struc¬ 
ture, Avith stone posts arched with wood, on 
which flamed in large golden letters, Higgins’ 
Rest. But for this gilding, the sign would have 
done credit to a railroad crossing, warning the 
traveler to beware of the engine. 
There is something in this hanging out a sign 
over a country residence, that I rather like. 
Higgins is one of those matter-of-fact sort of 
characters, that leave nothing to be implied or 
suggested. He has every sheep marked Hig¬ 
gins, in full, and every horse blanket and robe; 
so that there may be no mistake about the own¬ 
ership. 1T } might mean Hatch, or somebody 
else. City people have their door plates with 
name in full, or in more aristocratic quarters, 
with only the sirname, as IIubbs, as if there 
were but one owner of that name, worthy of 
consideration. Why should not a country gen¬ 
tleman, who has labored assiduously to make 
the family name honorable, hang it out at the 
entrance of his domain, as if he had a proper 
self-appreciation, and iyas willing to be found 
by his friends. It might not be known that any 
dAvelling was to be found beyond the gate, if 
the fact was not announced. Now, every stran¬ 
ger that passes, will have the satisfaction of 
imagining the splendid abode that lies hid be¬ 
hind embowering trees, and wondering Avho 
Higgins is. 
I found Higgins had mounted a new hobby, 
as well as married a ucav wife, since my last 
visit. The pear he considered the leading fruit, 
and he had been making large importations from 
France of large trees, both standards and dwarfs, 
for his pear orchard. He can never do anything 
by halves. In his mania for pears, he had uproot¬ 
ed pretty much every thing else from his fruit- 
yard. The beautiful row of cherry trees, that 
had been out five years, were cut doivn because 
they did not yield much fruit, not having had 
time to come into full bearing. The Isabella 
vines, that only failed to bear and mature then- 
fruit, because they stood in the shade, were also 
torn up. The plums that failed on account of 
the curculio, and the peaches that were troubled 
w-itli the grub, were also exterminated. He 
wanted some kind of fruit that was not liable to 
disease, and that could be depended upon for 
fruit in his life time. The value of trees and 
vines thus destroyed in a freak, was not less 
than two hundred dollars, to say nothing of five 
years’ labor lost. He had a few pear trees that 
had been out a dozen years or more, and were 
beginning to bear generously. The dwarfs, he 
was told, he would not have to wait for, and so 
the most of the three hundred French trees 
were dwarfs. 
The transplanting of course threAv the trees 
into bearing, and like any greedy tyro, lie let 
them bear all they Avould, the first year. But 
the ground allotted to the pear orchard, hap¬ 
pened to be very rich, and very Avell adapted to 
the pear, so that most of the trees made wood 
plentifully, and the damage Avas less than might 
have been expected. Higgins was delighted 
with the French trees, and thought the Bart- 
letts, and the Duchess pears, must be of another 
variety, because they happened to be larger 
than the specimens he had seen grown on poor 
ground. Improving upon the work of the nur¬ 
serymen, who had begun to form pyramid trees, 
he had trimmed all the under limbs, about as 
high as he could reach. He did not Avant any 
underbrush on his premises; he liked to liax-e 
the fruit up where he could see it. This great 
change, letting the hot summer sun upon the 
bark of the trunk, had killed quite a number of 
his trees outright, but he did not suspect the 
cause. The broom Avas his model of a dwarf 
pear-tree, and he called upon all his friends to 
admire the spindling handles and the brush at 
the top. By thus cutting aAvay the wood, of 
course the remaining limbs were thrown into 
bearing, and lie announced this as a wonderful 
discovery in horticulture—“ Sacrifice your wood 
and you get fruit,” was bis golden rule in po¬ 
mology. I left, thinking Higgins’ Rest Avas a 
great country, if not a rural improvement. 
--- * - -- -- 
Agricultural Literature Extraordinary. 
[The following is printed just as received, verbatim , lit 
eratim, et spellatim. We let it pass for once, but don’t 
want any more such.— Ed.] 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
In your last number you sed somethin about 
punctuatin, I beg leaf to add a Word about 
Spellin and other matters. I keap a Market 
Garding and have Bean hopping you would let 
the lite of your favor shine upon me with a 
SoAvtli aspick. Tatcrs has reseaved my inten¬ 
tions for some time, and the American Institute 
has bien pleased to Complement me on the in- 
largement of my kidneys. Goosberries has 
employed my tliots much of lait, and my expe¬ 
rience sIioavs that a green Goosberry is of a 
larger size than a Red, and almost too large for 
bottlin. Cherries has bust a good deel especial¬ 
ly the black arts. Strawberries has magnified 
considerably, and I spect they Avill ere long ob¬ 
ject to lyin too in a bed. Cucumbers are as 
usual, of a singular sharp flavor, if the vinegar 
is good. I have an abundance of Red and 
white currancy, which goes well if enuff sugar 
is mixed in. My pitches lias suffered from tie 
yelloAA’s except those trained on the Wall. 
Not to be long for your pashance, I have 
been told of a discovery that if you take a 
sweet apple and a sour apple, cut em in too, and 
tie the sweet and sour together and plant them, 
you will get an apple tree bearin fruit, one side 
sweet and the other sour. This is no doubt 
true, bein in the nineteenth century, and it will 
be a grate benefit to the risin generation. Fees 
has done Avell. (Skate mischef has been dun by 
the birds. As to Graps, they dun wel till the 
Rust came, and besides there was a grate Robin 
by thievin Boys. 
My wife had a Hat that dyed last summer, 
and was buryed in the Garding, for the sake of 
enrichment to the goosberrys,—the red kind. 
Strange to say, this year, the caterpillars on the 
bushes Avas harry, and may n’t it have been all 
OAvin to the Kat ? Wishin you improvement in 
the litteray Department of your paper, I remain 
Your obediant sarvint, (not) John fVumi. 
