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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
California is wide awake on the subject 
of agricultural improvement. Preparations 
are in progress for an extensive State show 
the coming autumn. The State Legislature 
has made a liberal appropriation to aid the 
funds of the State Agricultural Society. 
Large shipments of grain, flour, potatoes, 
&c., to the United States and Australia are 
constantly being made. The California Far¬ 
mer, of the 17th ult., notices among other 
ships loading, the “ Mercedes,” for Austra¬ 
lia, as having already engaged 5,000 bags of 
wheat and 700,000 lbs. (350 tuns) of flour. 
Sure Cure for the Curculio. —Mr. James 
Taylor, of St. Catharines, Canada West, 
having learned from the Tribune that a Mr. 
Joseph Mather, of Goshen, C. W.,had found 
a mixture of sulphur, lard and Scotch snuff, 
rubbed freely upon the body and branches of 
a plum tree, an effectual remedy against the 
curculio, writes to that paper that he (Mr. 
Taylor) tried it upon some of his choicest 
trees, and had a splendid crop of plums. 
But mark the result: Every tree so treated, 
except one or two young ones, is now dead! 
Sure remedy, that! 
Blanketing Cows. —A correspondent of 
the Rural Intelligencer, who has been trav¬ 
eling through Holland, says that “great care 
is there taken of their cows, both in winter 
and in summer. In a lowery, wet day you 
will see the cows in the field covered with 
blankets ; ay, even more commonly than a 
horse is blanketed here in the winter. This 
care is well repaid by a greater flow of milk 
and a less consumption ©f forage.” 
Westward. — A New-Hampshire paper 
says that at least one hundred farmers of the 
northern counties in that State have sold 
their farms this spring and gone westward ; 
and that the same western fever is also 
taking off many farmers of northern Ver¬ 
mont. _ 
The Cork Tree. —The Patent office has 
received a hogshead of the acorns of the 
cork tree from the south of Europe, to be 
distributed in the middle and southern States, 
to test their adaptation to the climate. 
ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS. 
The late news from Europe contains ac¬ 
counts of a new eruption of Mount Vesuvius 
upon a grand scale—the greatest that has 
occurred for centuries. The report of its 
sublime grandeur had attracted thousands 
from all parts of Europe to witness the 
scene, and the road from Naples to the vi¬ 
cinity of the spectacle was continually 
crowded with spectators going and returning. 
The discharges of the volcano are represented 
to have been terrific, and the lava poured 
over the lips of the crater in huge swelling 
waves, sweeping downward and onward 
over vineyards and villages that had flour¬ 
ished for centuries. The lava, like torrents 
of burning brass moved slowly but unresist¬ 
ingly forward, hissing and sparkling as it 
met with obstacles in the way, then accu¬ 
mulating and flowing over them, “ eating up 
every green thing.” Houses and stone wall 
fences, furnished no effectual resistance to 
its course, it flowed down a resistless sea of 
fire. The sides of the crater resembled 
those of a red hot boiler. It was feared that 
the towns of St. Sebastiano, Massa, di Som¬ 
me, and Pollena, would be destroyed. Cer- 
cola has already fallen, and it was thought 
that a destructive explosion, throwing huge 
rocks and piles of burning ashes far and near, 
and scattering death and ruin around, would 
conclude this grand eruption.— Scientific 
American. 
“A little humor now and then, 
Is relished by the best of men.” 
TAKE CARE OF THE EYES. 
Until one begins to fsel the effect of im¬ 
paired vision he can hardly estimate the 
value of eyesight, and, consequently, from 
ignorance or carelessness, he is apt to neg¬ 
lect a few simple precautions by the obser¬ 
vance of which his sight might be preserved. 
* * * * * First, never use a writing-desk or 
table with your face towards a window. In 
such cases the rays of light come directly 
upon the pupil of the eyes, and, causing an 
unnatural and forced contraction therof, soon 
permanently injure the sight. Next when 
your table or desk is near a window, sit so 
that your face turns from, not towards, the 
window while you are writing. If your face 
is towards the window the oblique rays 
strike the eye and injure it nearly as much 
as the direct rays when you sit in front of 
the window. It is best always to sit or stand 
while reading or writing with the window be¬ 
hind you; and next to that with the light 
coming over your left side ; then the light 
illumines the paper or book, and does not 
shine abrubtlyupon the eye-ball. The same 
remarks are applicable to artificial light. We 
are often asked which is the best light—gas, 
candles, oil or campliene ? Our answer is, 
it is immaterial which, provided the light of 
either be strong enough and do not flicker. 
A gas fish-tail burner should never be used 
for reading or writing, because there is a 
constant oscilation or flickering of the flame. 
Candles, unless they have self-consuming 
wicks, which do not require snuffing, should 
not be used. We need scarcely say that oil 
wicks, which crust over and thus diminish 
the light, are good for nothing; and the 
same is true of compounds of the nature of 
camphene, unless the wicks are properly 
trimmed of all their gummy deposit after 
standing twenty-four hours. But, whatever 
the artificial light used, let it strike the paper 
or book which you are using, whenever you 
can, from over the the left shoulder. This 
can always be done with gas, for that light 
is strong enough, and so is the light from 
camphene,oil, etc.,provided itcomes through 
a circular burner like the argand. But the 
light, whatever it is, should always be protect¬ 
ed from the air in the room by a glass chim¬ 
ney, so that the light may be steady.— Bos¬ 
ton Herald. 
BE GENTLE WITH THY WIFE. 
Be gentle—for you little know 
How many trials rise ; 
Although to thee they may be small, 
To her, of giant size, 
Be gentle ! tho’ perchance that lip 
May speak a murmuring tone, 
The heart may speak with kindness yet, 
And joy to be thine own. 
Be gentle ! weary hours of pain 
It’s woman’s lot to bear ; 
Then yield her what support thou canst, 
And all her sorrows share. 
Be gentle ! for the noblest hearts 
At times may have some grief, 
And even in a pettish word 
May seek to find relief. 
Be gentle! none are perfect here— 
Thou’rt dearer far than life, 
Then husband bear, and still forbear— 
Be gentle to thy wife. 
Drinking Like Men. —“ Now, gentlemen,” 
said a nobleman to his guests, as the ladies 
left the room, “ let us understand each other; 
are we to drink like men, or like bruies ?” 
The guests somewhat indignant,exclaimed, 
“Like men, of course.” 
“ Then,” replied he, “ we are going to get 
jolly drunk ; for brutes never drink more 
than they want!” 
Editing a newspaper is like making a fire. 
Everybody supposes he can do it “ a little 
better than anybody else.” We have seen 
people doubt their fitness for apple peddling, 
driving oxen, or counting lath, but in all our 
experience we never met with the individual 
who did not think he could “ double the cir¬ 
culation ” of any paper in two months.— Ex. 
“ I will not strike thee, thou bad man,” 
said a Quaker one day, “but will let this bil¬ 
let of wood fall on thee ;” and that precise 
moment the “ bad man ” was floored by the 
weight of a walking stick that the Quaker 
was known to carry. 
SUSTAIN THE RIGHT. 
We may not all, with powerful blow, 
Be champions for the right; 
But all with firm, undaunted brow, 
May stand unshaken ’mid the flow 
Of wrong’s sustained from might; 
One word may turn the wavering scale, 
One willing, honest hand 
Uphold the cause that else might fail, 
Although by genius planned. 
“ People may say what they will about 
the country air being good for ’em,” said 
Mrs. Partington, “and how they fat upon 
it; for my part, I shall always think it’s 
owin’ to the vittles.” 
Somebody Trod Upon it. —A child, when 
asked why a certain tree grew crooked, re¬ 
plied : “ Somebody trod upon it, I suppose, 
when it was a little fellow.” 
How painfully suggestive is that answer ! 
Shadding in the Delaware. —A shad fish¬ 
erman sends a line to the Philadelphia In¬ 
quirer complaining that “ the stembotes that 
traffic in the delawer spile the shaddin bis- 
nes, with there splashin and runin in shoar.” 
Our piscatory friend remonstrates against 
this, and takes the indisputable position that 
“shaddin were invented afore stembotes.” 
“ Don’t the clouds begin to break ?” in¬ 
quired Harriet, during a storm. She was im¬ 
patient to go out shopping. “ Guess so,” 
was the reply, and the speaker glanced out of 
the window. “ Guess they’re broke, they 
leak bad enough.” 
“ I wonder what makes my eyes so weak, 
said a loafer to a gentleman.” 
“ Why they are in a weak place," replied 
the latter. 
Economy in having a Small Wife. —A 
Paris writer on fashions says: “Small wo¬ 
men are alone to be admired and loved.” 
The reason he assigns is that a small woman 
can not possibly cover her little person with 
as many yards of silk, and other costly 
fabrics, as a large woman. As women 
display a luxury in toilet which daily increas¬ 
es in extravagance, we do not wonder that 
unfortunate bachelors seek q diminutive 
wife. 
