264 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
American Agriculturist. 
New-York Wednesday, January 4,1854. 
THE NEW YEAR. 
No exercise of the mind is productive of so 
beneficial results, as a habit of reflection, a call¬ 
ing up in review, our past actions, words, 
thoughts, motives, and resolves. This can best 
be done at seasons of rest when all is quiet 
around us, when the mind undiverted by any 
external exciting scenes, can sink back into it¬ 
self, and read the record marks upon the tablets 
of memory. The evening hour is well adapted 
for this. The transactions and thoughts of the 
day are then freshly written down and can easily 
be recalled. To examine the result of a day’s 
effort, to study its errings, its failures and suc- 
• cesses, is to prepai’e better plans and attain bet¬ 
ter results on another day. This is to the char¬ 
acter, what pruning is to the tree; the dead, use¬ 
less limbs are cut off, the hurtful excresences 
are removed, and the crooked branches are 
trained to better growth. A wise writer has 
said that, 
“A soul without reflection, 
Like a pile without inhabitant, to ruin runs.” 
But while these daily seasons of reflection 
are useful, nay, necessary, there are other times 
when we should extend our thoughts over a 
wider field, and take in at one view the whole 
range of our past lives, and sum up the great 
leading principles by which we are guided, and 
the results which have been produced and are 
likely to be produced in the future. The re¬ 
currence of a New Year is one of the appropri¬ 
ate seasons for such an exercise. 
Reader, we have already entered upon the la¬ 
bors of the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty- 
four. Some of us have seen the thirtieth, some 
the fortieth, and some the fiftieth return of the 
annual round of the seasons. Many of us have 
more than half completed all the work we can 
ever expect to accomplish. What have we 
already done that has been worth doing ? What 
have we lived for, and what are we now living 
for ? Are the great leading motives that gov¬ 
ern our actions so pure and elevated, that we 
give them our own approval, and are we willing 
that they should guide us in the future ? Have 
we higher aims than our animals, who instinct¬ 
ively seek only to secure food and shelter and 
the propagation of their species ? 
Each act, however small, each little word ut¬ 
tered, is a constituent drop in the great sea of 
human life. Are they, like the rain-drops from 
the clouds, pure and refreshing, or are they like 
the impure streams from a muddy fount ? 
It is a trite remark, that “ he is a benefactor 
to his race who causes two spires of grass to 
spring up, where only one grew before.” Are 
we seeking to accomplish this literally or figura¬ 
tively ? Have we done all we could, and are we 
now doing all we can to add to the comforts and 
conveniences of our fellow men ; or are we only 
laboring to appropriate to our own selfish pur¬ 
poses, as much of the products of other’s labor as 
it is in our power to do ? 
What is to be said of us when we quit this 
stage of action ? Will the world be any better 
because wo have had an existence? Will it be 
worse? Have we kept our shoulders to the car 
of human progress, or have we lain sluggishly, as 
blocks before its wheels ? 
This is a lit season to carefully examine our¬ 
selves, to study our past errors, that they may 
be avoided in the future; to examine our motives 
and adopt higher ones, when they are unworthy 
of us; to learn where we most readily yield to 
temptation, and to place there a double guard; 
to sum up the work planned out for life, and see 
how small a part is yet accomplished; to make 
new resolves for the future; to lay out definite, 
fixed plans of action, and set ourselves systema¬ 
tically and vigorously about the work before us. 
If we now take this course, the New Year upon 
which we have entered will pass on usefully, and 
be a Happy one. 
- • O®— - 
REMEMBER THAT FRIEND AT A DISTANCE. 
Make him fifty-two presents in the form of a 
weekly periodical, and each week he will be 
reminded of you as he receives his paper. You 
can do this by sending his name to this office 
with the same amount as you have paid for 
your own paper. If you are the member of a 
club, you can add other names to the club, and 
the paper will be sent to any office you may 
direct upon the same terms. 
ORDER SPECIMEN COPIES. 
Any person who may wish to send a speci¬ 
men paper to a friend, can do so without losing 
his own paper, by forwarding the name to us, and 
we will send any one number indicated without 
expense. We wish every farmer in the country 
to see a copy of our paper, and will be obliged 
to those who will send us in lists of names of 
those to whom we can forward specimen copies. 
-o « « - 
SWEET POTATO VINES. 
We have seen it stated that the vines of the 
Sweet Potato may be preserved during winter, 
and used in the spring for propagating the new 
crop. Have any of our readers tried this pro¬ 
cess, and found it practicable and valuable ? If 
so, will they please communicate their experi¬ 
ence in the matter. We should like to learn 
definitely, first, whether this method is gener¬ 
ally successful, and second, whether it is better 
than the usual method of planting the tubers. 
We have our suspicions that the “ item” recom¬ 
mending this method, which is extensively 
“going the rounds,” and is endorsed by, several 
respectable papers, was first started to “ fill out 
a column.” 
-•-© •- 
Sulphur eor Pigs. —An exchange recommends 
sulphur for swine, when they are troubled with 
the kidney worm, or when they are mangy or 
lousy. The sulphur to be given in doses of a 
table-spoonful a day mixed with their food and 
continued for a week. We cannot endorse this 
remedy, but it may be good, and can do little 
harm, we think. 
The Scientific American gives the following 
Recipe for Out-door Whitewash. —Make a 
barrel of whitewash in the ordinary manner, and 
while hot dissolve ten pounds of salt and ten 
pounds of sugar, or an equivalent quantity of 
molasses, and stir it with your whitewash—some 
add also an equal quantity of glue. This can 
be colored by ochre, umber, &c., to any desira¬ 
ble tint; it is better if applied hot. 
We do not see any good reason for adding the 
sugar, molasses, or glue to an “out-door white¬ 
wash.” It strikes us that the addition of these 
substances would render the coating more solu¬ 
ble in rain, to which it is necessarily subjected. 
For an in-door wash, they would doubtless be 
an improvement when the walls are not too 
much exposed to washing, or wet and damp¬ 
ness from other causes. A mixture of glue and 
molasses, in proper proportions, will act as a 
cement to fix the lime-wash. We think, how¬ 
ever, that glue alone is better. A quarter of a 
pound dissolved, and added to a bucket of 
whitewash will materially add to the firmness 
of the coating, and prevent it from rubbing off, 
when dry. When a pure white is desired, the. 
glue should be as clear and free from color as 
possible. 
When salt is mixed with whitewash, which 
is exposed to cattle, they are quite apt to lick 
it off. 
The following remedy is extensively copied 
by our exchanges. Will some one of our med¬ 
ical friends give us an opinion as to its merits. 
It is as much our province, to combat error, and 
to question doubtful statements, as it is to spread 
new truths. We give this recipe as we find it, 
but caution our readers to avoid using it for real 
or supposed bone-felons, till it receives further 
endorsement. 
Cure for Bone-felon. —A correspondent of 
the Baltimore Clipper, says, that a thimble-full 
of soft soap and quick silver, mixed and bound 
tightly over the felon, will draw it to a head in 
the course of ten or twelve hours. The curative 
can then be removed, and by the application of 
the usual poultices, the sore will soon be healed. 
This remedy is said to be a very severe one, but 
altogether preferable to the disease. 
Agricultural Education —We would direct 
attention to the announcements in our adver¬ 
tising columns, of the educational facilities afford¬ 
ed at the Agricultural Schools of Yale College, 
Albany University, and of Amherst College. 
These schools, though connected with colleges, 
and enjoying the advantages oflibraries, cabinets, 
laboratories, &c., are separate and distinct from 
the usual collegiate course of study, being more 
especially designed for giving information on the 
subject of scientific and practical agriculture. 
We are glad to see such schools multiplying, and 
we believe the day is not distant when farmers 
will deem it quite as important to give a profes¬ 
sional education to such of their sons as are de¬ 
signed for farmers, as to those who are destined 
to engage in other pursuits or professions. 
TnE Genesee Farmer. —The present number 
of this popular monthly journal is the com¬ 
mencement of its fifteenth volume. Daniel Lee, 
its editor, announces that hereafter he will devote 
his time chiefly to conducting its agricultural 
pages. In the present number he gives a brief 
review of the past, and states that the Genesee 
Farmer has been the progenitor or rather the 
stepping-stone to such later papers as the Al¬ 
bany Cultivator, Ohio Cultivator, Rural New- 
Yorker, and Horticulturist. With such an off¬ 
spring the Farmer may certainly be allowed in 
a little self-complaisant boasting. We well re¬ 
member when the American Agriculturist, the 
Genesee Farmer, the American Farmer, and two 
or three others were the only agricultural papers 
