AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
247 
of ripe fruit, stewed in a porcelain kettle for five 
minutes, add 1 lb. light brown sugar, and mash the 
contents fine with a strong iron or wooden spoon 
while still upon the Are. When well mixed and 
boiled 15 minutes longer, stirring - it well in the 
mean time, fill the jars or glasses, and set away. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The Farmer’s Lot. 
What joy the farmer finds ! 
He views green acres around him lie 
Broadly beneath the open sky, 
And not a fetter binds 
His free and stalwart frame. 
No blush or tinge of shame 
E’er rested on that cheek of thine, 
Or any angry flush of wine, 
That sets the blood oh flame', 
Strong reaper of the grain ! 
Thy limbs are free from pain, 
Apd thine are sinews stout as steel, 
Which, while they keenly feel, 
All their young strength retain, 
Because thou art a man, 
Created on God’s plan; 
And, like a denizen of air 
Living, that chainless joy to share, 
Which in those days began, 
When Adam trod the ground,— 
That sacred soil he found, 
So beautiful from God’s own hand, 
That lovely, green, unwounded land,— 
By full fruition crowned. 
Blest is the farmer’s toil! 
He cultivates the soil, 
And lives contented with his lot, 
Cast in one dear, delightful spot, 
Far from the world’s turmoil— 
And him no avarice binds. 
Such joy the farmer finds ; 
And he will find it to the last, 
Till life and all its cares be past, 
Its healthful labor done, 
And rest immortal won. 
Fort Washington, July 7, 1862. Paiik Benjamin. 
The Editor with his Young 1 Readers. 
A LETTER FROM MR. JUDD, NOW IN ENGLAND. 
London, England, July 1862. 
Dear Young Readers :—When I left home the 
last of May, I did not intend to write anything for 
the Agriculturist. All my friends thought that I had 
worked steadily so long that I must lay down the 
pen and rest my brain a little while. I also wanted 
to devote sometime entirely to gathering informa¬ 
tion that might be useful in furnishing matter for 
the paper hereafter. But it seems so long since I 
addressed you that I shall venture to break over 
the “ rules ” and have a little chat with you.... I 
have seen so much to talk about that I know not 
where to begin.—Perhaps a few items, gathered here 
and there, may interest you.—The passage across 
the Atlantic, in the Great Eastern, was very pleas¬ 
ant. The great ship was itself a constant wonder. 
In length it will more than reach across a square 
field of 10 acres. We very frequently took a walk 
of over a mile-by going only four times around the 
deck. The ship is so wide that three harns or 
houses each 40 feet long can be set end to end across 
[•its middle. With our small load of about 1000 
persons, 3000 tuns of wheat, 2000 tuns of butter, 
cheese, etc., and 4000 tuns of coal, the vessel sunk 
into the water about 26 feet, leaving 28 feet of her 
hight still above the water. She would float with 
the weight of more than 250,000 men on hoard. Yet, 
great as is this vessel, with all the weight of the 
iron of which she is built, of her mammoth engines 
and other apparatus, she moved along through 
the water at the rate of 350 to 400 miles a day, (al- 
Enost.as fast as a railway ear), and yet as easily and 
gracefully as a swimming duck or swan. The pad¬ 
dle wheels on the sides, and the screw propeller un¬ 
derneath, never stopped an instant in 9)4 days, 
from Sandy Hook bar New-York, to “Bell Buoy,” 
off Liverpool, When the wind blew hardest 
against the sails, we could scarcely feel any motion. 
When there was little wind, the great ocean waves 
coming across our path would gently roll the ship 
from side to side. Standing on the side then was 
like being on- the end of a see-saw plank, a-going 
gently up and down once in 10 to 12 seconds. We 
did not enjoy . e supposed good medicinal effects 
of sea-sickness_’’’he first three days nothing but 
water and fog could be seen. Then we crossed the 
south point of the “ Newfoundland Banks.” These 
do not come very near the surface, so that vessels 
go right on them. At one place we saw nearly 50 
vessels catching codfish with long lines let down 
to the deep banks.—The first day we went directly 
east from New-York or Sandy Hook; the second 
and third a little north of east, and the next a little 
more northward, to latitude 45°, and longitude 45°, 
after which we steered straight to the south point 
of Ireland (Cape Clear), which was the first land 
seen in 8)4 days. It took another day to go up the 
Irish Sea or Channel, between Ireland and the West 
Coast of Wales and North England. It may inter¬ 
est you to take down your maps and trace out ; a 
ship’s course across the ocean. Most steamships go 
a little further north, crossing over the northern 
part of the great Newfoundland Banks, and passing 
near Cape Race. We kept a little further south, 
because in early Summer icebergs, that is, great 
mountains of ice, come floating down from the 
North, and ships sometimes strike against these in 
a.thick fog. This is about the only danger in cros¬ 
sing the Atlantic in a good ship during Summer. 
You will see that when in latitude and longitude 
45°, we were only 15 degrees south of Greenland. 
Even in June the winds came down from the north 
as cold as a January blast in New-York. We had 
to put on two sets of flannel, as well as overcoats 
and shawls to keep warm when walking on deck. 
During the passage we had meetings, singing con¬ 
certs, discussions, mock trials, etc., and the time 
passed rapidly and pleasantly away. There was 
something very grand in looking out upon the 
ocean, that seemed to meet the sky all around; and 
to reflect that the expanse of water was so great 
that, though moving over nearly 400 miles of it 
daily, no land was in sight for more than a whole 
week. What must be the great Pacific ocean! 
Nearly a thousand ships ply between New-York and 
Great Britain, yet there was so much room for each 
that we saw only five or six- of them in our whole 
trip! As we went up the Mersey River to Liver¬ 
pool, there was a fine spectacle. Thousands of peo¬ 
ple came out in steamboats, With flags flying and 
bands playing, to welcomethe Leviathan ship, while 
for many miles both banks of the river were crowd¬ 
ed with tens of thousands of people waving their 
hats and handkerchiefs, and cheering as we passed; 
The ships in the river “ manned their yards,” that 
is, all the sailors climbed up the ropes, and on to 
the masts and yards, or cross beams—looking at a 
little distance like flocks of huge birds in the rig¬ 
ging. Such was our welcome to the Old World. 
Liverpool is a pretty large city, containing near¬ 
ly 400,000 inhabitants. It is 206 miles, by railroad, 
northwest from London. It is a great seaport, re¬ 
ceiving and sending out more than $300,000,000 
worth of merchandise every year. It is more close¬ 
ly connected with America than any other city of 
Europe, over one-third of all its trade being with 
New-York City. The “Docks” of Liverpool are 
noted. The tide rises and falls 20 to 30 feet in the 
river. The chief docks resemble Canal Locks ; that 
is, they are great stone basins or channels, into which 
ships are floated at high water, and then the gates 
are shut so that when the tide falls the ships re¬ 
main floating in the water retained by the gates. 
At a little distance, the long rows of ships look as 
if bedded in the soil. When unloaded, and loaded 
again, the gates are opened at high water, and the 
vessels are floated out into the river. When they 
wish to examine or repair the bottom of a vessel, 
they have only to let the water off through trap 
doors, as the tide falls, and the vessel is left high 
and dry. The gates and traps being then closed, the 
water does not flow in at the next rise of the tide. 
I shall not have room to tell you more about this 
city, and can give only a few notes about other cit¬ 
ies. I went southwest from Liverpool about 100 
miles, to Holyhead, passing through the north part 
of Wales, and on cars through the great Brittania 
Tubular Bridge. This Bridge is an iron tube 1513 
feet long, over the Menai Straits, from Wales to 
the Island of Anglesey. It is made of wrought iron 
plates riveted together, and is so strong that a long- 
train of cars passes rapidly through it, 100 feet 
above the water. Wales is a hilly country; we 
passed right under several high hills through tun¬ 
nels, some of them a few rods and some nearly a 
mile long. The houses are mostly stone, and few 
of .them are more than one story high. I could 
hardly understand the people at the. railway sta¬ 
tions, though they talk'the English language. They 
pronounce words differently from us. The fields 
are all divided by hedges and ditches, with an ocea- 
1 sional stone wall. I never before saw so many 
crows aS abounded all along this route. (Mem. All 
through Great Britain, route is pronounced rule. 
They never say railroad depot, but rail way sta¬ 
tion. They say coaches or carriages, and not cars. 
The cars, or coaches,- are divided into rooms, with 
two seats for three persons each, facing each other, 
so that half must ride backward. A “ guard ” in uni¬ 
form, not called a conductor, rides in a forward 
office or car. Your tickets are shown as you enter a 
car, you are then locked in, and near the end of the 
journey .the train stops and a station agent comes 
along, unlocks the car, takes your ticket, and the 
train runs into the station. There are 1st, 2nd, and 
3d class coaches, the 3d class having no cushions, 
and but poor ones, if any, in the 2nd class. The3d 
class fare is about 2 cents a mile; the 2d class 3 to 
4 cents, and the 1st class 4c. to 6c. a mile. They 
have but few 1st class coaches, and these are main¬ 
ly designed for “Lords” and “ Nobles.” Ameri¬ 
cans being all nobleman, and accustomed to good 
car,g at home, generally get in among the “ Lords ” 
and “ Ladies” of this country.) 
Passing by water 60 miles from Holyhead in An¬ 
glesey, over to Dublin, Ireland, I spent some time 
in driving all round the city, but can not stop to 
describe it. It appears more like New-York than 
any other town I have seen, except Liverpool, per¬ 
haps, though the buildings are mostly built of stone, 
and the streets narrower, and more broken up and 
crooked than in New-York. 
A ride of about 60 miles through the country 
from Dublin to Belfast, on the Northeast coast of 
Ireland, was interesting. The land is mostly owned 
in large tracts by “ nobles” or “lords,” and rented 
out to tenants. The fields are small, and divided 
by hedges. The country houses are mostly but one 
low story high, the walls of dried mud, or stone, 
and covered with thatch, that is a thick layer of 
straight straw, for a roof. The people appeared 
contented, but exhibited none of that activity and 
enterprise manifested iu America, where most farm¬ 
ers own the land they till. There is considerable 
hilly and waste, or very poor land. I first saw, 
here, the digging of turf for fuel. Many women 
and children (few men) were out cutting up the 
turf into nice blocks of small size, and piling them 
up to dry, for burning in the houses. The turf is 
like the black earth of our swamps, but much more 
compact or solid. On a single acre there were 
sometimes 20 to 30 families piling up their heaps. 
Approaching Belfast, the great linen town or city, 
we saw hundreds of acres of grass covered with 
linen cloth bleaching in the sun. Our finest white 
linen is woven in the brown state, and bleached af¬ 
terwards. Flax is largely grown in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Belfast. The manufacturers send it out 
many miles into the surrounding country to be 
spun, and much is spun and woven by machinery 
in the city. I visited one mill where 1,600 men, 
women, and children were preparing and spinning 
and weaving flax—people enough fora large village 
all in one establishment. Much of the linen used 
in our country comes from Belfast. The great Lin¬ 
en Hall, and the celebrated Ardoyne Mills, where 
are woven our finest damask table covers, were ex¬ 
ceedingly interesting, but it would require too much 
room to describe them here. 
In my next letter I purpose to tell something 
about Scotland, and the great City of London. 
