82 
EMPLOYMENT.-A CHEAP PORTABLE FENCE. 
EMPLOYMENT. 
“ I say, sir, it is employment that makes people happy.” 
Never was there uttered a truer sentiment than 
the above. Indeed, it is employment that makes 
people happy, and without it they must be wretched. 
Yet, how common it is to hear the laborer complain 
of his destiny, and long for the apparent ease and 
quiet of the man of affluence. 'Tis true most of 
us are looking forward to an imaginary time—a 
sort of Utopian existence—when the cravings of 
our nature shall he satisfied, and when we may lay 
aside the cares and anxieties that now cluster around 
us, and enjoy our otium cum dignitate. But should 
it ever be my misfortune to be so situated that I 
should have no occasion, and feel no desire, for 
further exertion—with no responsibili¬ 
ties resting upon me, and nothing to 
excite my aspiration—I should find 
myself more miserable than my worst 
enemies could wish me ; and I would 
turn with melancholy retrospect to 
those by-gone days when existence 
was sweetened by employment. 
There is no happiness in idleness. 
It was the decree of Omnipotence, 
when our first parents were expelled 
from Eden, that all their progeny 
should obtain their u bread by the 
sweat of their brow,’' and, as some 
one has observed, a milder curse could 
not have been imposed. But despond¬ 
ency is not the only evil result of in¬ 
dolence, for mind and body sympa¬ 
thize with one, and act and react up¬ 
on each other. When existing in 
this unnatural state the energies stag¬ 
nate, the wheels of thought move as 
though they were clogged ; the affec¬ 
tions become dormant; the vital fluids 
circulate with less vigor; and lassi¬ 
tude or debility seem to take posses¬ 
sion of the whole system, mental and 
physical. 
Let not the robust farmer, then, who feels 
the necessity of toiling for his support, bemoan 
his lot, nor suppose that his wealthy neigh¬ 
bor, who has surrounded himself with more 
splendor, and who reposes on a couch of down, 
is more happy than himself. More happy do I 
say ? The laboring man enjoys more genuine hap¬ 
piness in one day than the wealthy lounger does in 
a month, and he should learn to regard the wretched 
man with pity rather than with envy. 
J. McK. 
Greenport , N. Y, January , 1848. 
A CHEAP PORTABLE FENCE. 
Herewith I send you a plan of a portable fence, 
which is considered of much value in this part of 
the country, where it is commonly used for subdi¬ 
viding pastures and fields; but it will answer well 
for outside fence, by increasing the height and base 
each one foot. Its chief value, however, consists 
in its portability. For pasturage or feeding stand¬ 
ing crops to cattle, sheep, or swine, when the field 
is large, it is of much importance to confine these 
animals to a small part at a time, until it is exhaust¬ 
ed ; and, in succession, to feed over the whole 
ground. In this way, a field covered with red 
clover may be fed to cattle several times over in the 
course of the season, at a trifling expense. 
Experiment with Asparagus. —The London 
Gardeners 1 Chronicle gives the following method of 
f rowing asparagus at Nice. Take a quart wine 
ottle, invert it over an asparagus root just rising 
from the ground, and secure it to its place by three 
sticks. The asparagus will grow up into the in¬ 
terior of the bottle, and being stimulated by unu¬ 
sual heat and moisture, will speedily fill it. As 
soon as this lias taken place, the bottle must be 
broken, when the asparagus will be found to have 
formed a thick head of tender, delicate shoots, all 
eatable, and as compact as a cauliflower. 
A Portable Fence.—Fig. 19. 
Description. —Separate pannels are formed of five 
rails c, c, c, c, c (fig. 19), sixteen and a half feet 
long, five inches wide, and one inch thick, made 
of good sound, tough timber, securely nailed, with 
wrought-iron nails, and clenched upon three bat¬ 
tens a, a, those at the ends being six inches wide, 
one and a quarter inches thick, and three feet, 
ten inches long. The single battens are of the 
same material as the rails, four feet long, and joined 
as in the annexed drawing, which is a perspective 
representation of the fence, with one pannel in the 
act of being raised. Each pannel rests upon sills, 
/, /, four feet long, six inches wide, and two inches 
thick, having an angular mortice at each end to re¬ 
ceive the foot of the braces, 6, b , b. These braces are 
thirty-three inches long between the shoulders, and 
of the same thickness and width as the rails. The 
tenons of the braces may be one and a half inches 
wide and from one to two inches long, with a 
semi-circular notch in the upper end, designed to 
rest against the binding pin, e, e , which is twelve 
inches long, three quarters of an inch thick, and one 
and a quarter wide, at the wide end, tapered down 
to three fourths of ah inch. It will be seen that the 
