AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
119 
J^jrartnuiti 
JOURNAL OR A FARMER’S WIFE. 
Thursday, Oct. 20 tli. —The weather still 
warm and delightful, and the forest trees now 
in their glory. To gratify Cousin Clara, we 
hastily despatched our morning’s duties, and 
got ready for a ride on horseback. She pre¬ 
ferred Willie’s galloping gray pony, and so I 
took my own little ambling bay—as she said she 
wanted more of a jolting than he could give 
her. • 
We first took a turn over the farm, as I 
wished to see how the men were getting along 
with their work, during my husband’s absence. 
Found them well employed gathering the last 
of our apples for cider. We then turned into 
an open forest, so as to take a short cut to a 
wild road that ran along the foot of the high, 
bold hills, west of us, to which I have before 
alluded. No sooner were we out of sight of 
every one, then Clara commenced displaying 
her horsemanship, by putting her pony to a 
half-racing gallop, and leaping e very fallen tree 
and deep rivulet in our path; and then turning, 
checked her horse, and laughed at my cautious 
timidity in going round the former, and seeking 
an easy fording place over the latter. It was 
in vain that I called to her to be more careful; 
she replied, that the little gray liked the sport, 
and that there was no danger on such a sure¬ 
footed beast; and away they went again, the 
horse seeming to enjoy the excitement quite as 
much as my fair cousin. I was glad at length 
when we got into a road again, and she drew 
up along side of me and gave vent to her feel¬ 
ings in descanting with enthusiasm on the 
beauty of the scenery, changing like a moving 
panorama before us. The trees were now in 
their autumnal glory, uniting the deep verdure 
of the evergreens, with the orange, scarlet, 
brown, crimson, purple, deep blue, gray, and 
light green of the deciduous trees. Pigeons, 
robins, sparrows, and several other kinds 
of birds, still thick in the fields and forests; 
cattle and sheep grazing in the pastures; the 
recently sown wheat and rye peeping out like 
fresh grass, with their delicate, glistening green 
spears; the golden corn studding the ground 
where it grew, cut up and stacked in large 
sheaves, with great, yellow pumpkins, thickly 
dotting the intermediate space; mingling beauty 
and abundance so closely together, that while 
the eye was charmed and delighted, the heart 
was filled with gratitude to the benificent Being 
who had created all for our use. 
We had a delightful ride of it, and got home 
in good time for dinner. Before I finish, how¬ 
ever, let me give a word of advice to my sex in 
choosing a saddle-horse. Never select one over 
fourteen hands high, if you get a fall then, it 
cannot hurt you much. Tall horses are unfit 
for ladies, for they are not only more dangerous, 
but their riders do not look so well on them. 
A lady always appears best on rather a small 
horse. 
Friday , 21st.—It commenced raining last 
night, and is gusty this morning. I fear here 
is the end of our Indian Summer. Towardg 
noon it cleared up, and was cloudy and fair 
during the rest of the day. Pared apples for 
drying in a neat little machine. I wish some 
contrivance could be got up for drying them in 
s ome -other way than in the tedious, uncertain 
sunshine. All schemes I have yet heard of, 
thus far, prove a failure. 
Saturday, 22 d. —Rain again'this morning. I 
declare I feel like scolding. All I can say or do, 
Biddy will keep up twice as much fire in the 
cooking-stove as is requisite; and now after 
making it red hot, she must needs upset some 
water upon it and crack the top through and 
through. If a stove lasts us a year it does 
pretty well. And then she consumes twice the 
coal that is necessary, burning out the back and 
injuring the sides. It is strange I cannot teach 
her judgment in such matters. Another thing 
she could never learn, and that is to properly 
trim a lamp or screw on the top. But I’ll stop 
now, for here comes my husband and Willie— 
the latter quite elated. He got the second pre¬ 
mium at the Cattle Show on some of his chickens, 
and came very near, he says, obtaining the first. 
The balance of his broods were highly com¬ 
mended. As for my husband, he says, most of 
the imported stock was too strong for him, he 
only got a third premium on his sheep. But he 
solaces himself by being informed that part of 
the committee on cattle considered one of his 
heifers as deserving the first prize, though he 
got nothing at all. However, as I have said 
before, his want of success does not trouble him 
much; he only exhibits to help make up a 
good show, and with a view of comparison; 
he wants to see from year to year how his stock 
stands in reality along side of his neighbors. 
He has made up his mind another year he will 
stand a fair chance for some prizes, if the com¬ 
mittees decide justly. I hope he won’t be dis¬ 
appointed, for I begin to think onr animals now 
are about as good as other folks—especially 
since crossed with some of the best late importa¬ 
tions. My husband says he saw his brother 
Charles in the city, who without waiting for 
an invitation, told him he would be up to see us 
next week or the following one, to shoot squir¬ 
rels with Willie. That is just as I wanted it. 
Now we shall see whether his obdurate bach- 
lor’s heart will soften a little before the charms 
of Clara. 
Monday 24 th .—Cold rain and high wind all 
day—about the only severe storm we have had 
this fall. Strange it should come on so sud¬ 
denly, when yesterday was so mild and fair. All 
engaged in grinding apples and making cider. 
We have one of the best presses in the country, 
and take particular pains with our cider, which 
by the way we never drink, but let all turn to 
vinegar, for which we get a high price. There 
is some excitement in cider making, and we 
usually have a merry time of it. I like to hear 
the creak of the heavy rollers as they turn round 
and round, and watch the apples as they are 
shovelled down a trap-door in the floor into a 
large-mouthed hopper below. How rapidly they 
disappear between the huge jaws of the mill, seiz¬ 
ing and crushing' them without mercy and throw¬ 
ing- the pummace out into the huge vat beneath, 
and the cider gurgling along the grooves of the 
press and falling over like a bold cataract into the 
great tub below. 
Tuesday 25th. —Fair this morning, but the 
storm has made sad havoc with the leaves of 
forest trees, and I find the black-walnut and 
two or three other kinds almost entirely stripped 
of their foliage. 
Wednesday 26 th. —Fair again, though rather 
windy and cool. As the ground was now dry, we 
all went out nutting, except my husband, who 
is still busy with his cider making. How¬ 
ever, he sent a smart lad of nineteen with us, 
who carried an axe and long folding ladder. By 
means of the latter he ascended such trees as 
he could not easily climb, and striking the limbs 
hard near the trunk with the head of the axe, 
nearly all the nuts that the storm of Monday 
had not rattled down, now came to the ground, 
and we found an abundant harvest of chestnuts 
and hickory nuts—gathering in the course of 
the forenoon more than a dozen bushels. The 
boys were greatly elated with their success. 
We were assisted considerably by stores, which 
with tho aid of our little terriers, we found laid 
up by the squirrels along and inside .of stone 
walls, and in the hollows of trees. These 
Willie and our young man seized upon with 
avidity. I remonstrated at their robbing the 
poor squirrels; but they replied there was enough 
still left for them on the trees, and around to 
winter on, and besides they had been plundering 
our corn fields all the season, and if some were 
not killed or got starved, we should be com¬ 
pletely overrun by them, and half our crops des¬ 
troyed. This was a poser, and I said no more, 
Willie only regretting he had not brought his 
new gun with him to show us what an accurate 
marksman he was. 
I wonder hickory nuts are not more cultivated. 
My grandfather, in Massachusetts, had a large 
orchard of them, and the best variety I ever 
tasted. The shells were nearly as soft as those 
of almonds; they cracked easily, and burst open 
full of the finest and most delicious meat. Most 
of these on our farm are large, but the shells 
are thick, and the meat small in proportion, and 
of an inferior quality. A few of our young trees, 
I planted here the autumn after I was married, 
having brought them from my grandfather’s. 
They are just beginning to bear now, and the 
nuts are far superior to any in this vicinity. 
My husband says it is profitable cultivating them 
for their fruit alone, on a poor rocky soil, to say 
nothing of the timber, which is valuable. When 
the young trees I planted come into full bearing, 
I intend to give some further accounts of their 
products. The fruit of the chestnut, black-wal¬ 
nut and butternut does not pay so well, and we 
let the two former grow mostly for timber—the 
latter has little value any way. I recollect when 
a girl, country dyers used its bark for dying 
home-made cloth, but it makes a very common 
and rather dull color. 
-*-«-•- 
Abuse of Medicine. —The celebrated Doctor 
James Johnson, editor of the London Medico- 
Chirurgical Remew, thus unbosoms himself: 
I declare as my conscientious opinion, founded 
on long experience and reflection, that if there 
was not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary, 
midwife, chemist, druggist, or drug, on the face 
of the earth, there would be less sickness and 
less mortality than now prevail. 
The Wife’s Consent. —The Missouri Legis¬ 
lature has a bill before it, in accordance with a 
■Suggestion in the Governor’s message, to provide 
that.no man be allowed to endorse a note with¬ 
out the consent of his wife, and that no endorse¬ 
ment shall be valid without sueh consent. 
TnE Rev. F. F. Statham related a curious ex¬ 
ample of instinct of bifids. The young of two 
blackbirds were removed from a tree into a room, 
and access was given to the parents. After a 
little time the young were found dead in the nest 
intentionally poisoned by their parents; a sin¬ 
gular instinct this. They preferred immediate 
death for their offspring to a long captivity ! 
Marking Ink.— Lunar caustic, two drachms; 
gum Arabic, half drachm ; water, two drachms. 
