1863 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
367 
of a clay pipe that lasted you five years. Then 
you only put in a pinch of tobacco, and you had 
to stop in about ten minutes, to take breath and 
charge anew. But with these big-bellied things, 
that hold half a paper of tobacco,-you smoke 
and smoke, and it seems as if you never would 
stop. You make every place blue, where you 
go. You go out to feed your pigs in the morn¬ 
ing, and it takes you twice as long to do that 
chore, as it used to. You go into the garden 
to hoe, and you pay more attention to your 
pipe, than you do to your hoe. You stop and 
squirt around every cabbage as if it was cover¬ 
ed with lice, and you don’t do an hour’s work in 
the whole morning. The weeds get a start of 
the cabbage, and your garden looks—well I 
can’t compare it to anything else hut Seth 
Twiggs in all the world— weedy. You go into 
the field to work on the tobacco, and the worms 
get the start of you, and what the worms don’t 
kill, the weeds smother, so that your tobacco 
fields look worse than your garden. I wouldn’t 
have a man on my farm that used tobacco, at 
half wages. Now maybe you can see that I 
don’t use tobacco, because you do.” 
“Yes I see,” said Seth, “and Parson Spooner 
couldn’t have said it better. This has been a 
dreadful season for weeds.” 
“Season!” I continued, “don’t lay it to the 
rainy season. This thing grows upon you, and 
laziness goes down into your bones, as smoke 
goes up into the heavens. You go about dream¬ 
ing you’re making a great stir, and when night 
comes you find next to nothing done. Tobacco, 
like wine, is a mocker, and if a man don’t want 
to be befooled, he better not touch it. That is 
my opinion on tobacco as illustrated in the life 
and services of Seth Twiggs, the smoker.” 
Then, to come to the question in the abstract, 
it is nasty; there is no other word that just ex¬ 
presses it. Don’t a man belong by nature to the 
clean beasts, and what right have I to make m} r - 
self a nuisance among my kind ? It is offensive 
to every sense. Look into the smoking room 
of a hotel, or a steamboat, and was there ever 
a stable fouler ?—splashes of juice, ejectedquids, 
cigar stumps, and a reek “ that smells to heav¬ 
en.” Won’t the world be foul enough without 
my joining the smokers and chewers ? 
Aud it is a very expensive habit. Your to¬ 
bacco would cost you thirty dollars a year if 
you did not raise it, and if you take into account 
your loss of time under the influence of the 
weed, it costs you four times that sum. You 
stop to talk with a neighbor, and it makes you 
long winded, for your brain is so befuddled that 
you never know when you have done. Many a 
man spends fifty dollars a year for cigars, and 
if one has a good deal of company, it is mighty 
easy to use up a hundred. Your friend, who 
smokes, never knows when he has enough. He 
always wants one more of the same sort, and 
the result is, that your box of Havanas is gone 
mighty quick, and you can’t tell how or where. 
This makes quite a hole in the income of a man 
who lives by his hands, or by His brains. I 
have brains enough to see that I can’t afford it. 
It is very bad for the health. The doctors are 
all agreed on this, even those who use it. It 
don’t help digestion. It don’t save the teeth. 
There are better ways of reducing the flesh- 
eating less for instance. Aud if the doctors 
were not all agreed, every man who has his eyes 
open, can see that no man has sound health 
who uses it in any shape. They call themselves 
well, but have headaches, indigestion, don’t 
sleep well, are nervous, have the fidgets, or some 
other complaints. Occasionally they break 
down under paralysis, Many make complete 
wrecks of their bodies. Always life is shortened. 
Now what right have I to make an invalid of 
myself, and go through life sighing and groan¬ 
ing, when I ought to he well ? It is worse for a 
man’s mind than it is for his body. It makes 
him forgetful. He loses the control of its pow¬ 
ers, and can’t think connectedly. He forgets the 
names of persons, and places, his own plans, 
and in short about everything except to smoke. 
There was our minister, the one we had before 
Mr. Spooner, smoked himself out of his pulpit. 
His health failed and his sermons failed worse 
than his health. They were so foggy that even 
Hookertown, that never dismissed a man before, 
could not stand it any longer. 
Then it is a bad tiling for morals. It begets a 
great craving for stimulating drinks, and very 
generally leads to their use, and wdien a man 
gets to drinking, he is in a fair way to do almost 
any thing else. What right have I to endanger 
the morals of my neighbor, even if I could 
smoke with entire safety ? 
Then I have got children and grandchildren, 
and I think the best inheritance I can leave 
them is a good example. John would smoke if 
I did, and I should have more fears of his pipe 
in the army, than from all the bullets of the 
enemy. If he dies now, I am certain he will die 
sober, and without one vicious habit. What 
right have I to pollute the faces of my grand¬ 
children with the stench of tobacco ? I want 
them to have pleasant memories of their grand¬ 
father’s home in Hookertowu, and I should 
not feel sure of it, if I scented myself, and my 
house with tobacco. 
Then I am the husband of Sally Bunker, and 
I think she has the right by marriage vows, to 
a decent companion in life, with a clean mouth 
and shirt bosom. What right have I to make a 
nuisance of myself in her home, to scent her 
bed with this unsavory perfume, and to befoul 
her spit-boxes with quids and stumps ? I am a 
little too proud to do that. 
And lastly, and to conclude, as Mr. Spooner 
would say, I expect to give an account of my¬ 
self hereafter, and if I were to be charged with 
the use of this weed, I should not know exactly 
what to say. That fifty dollars a year burnt up 
and wasted, I think would weigh against me. 
If I gave it for Sunday Schools, or for any good 
cause, I should not be troubled about an answer. 
Then as to raising this crop, it is a bad thing 
for the land, affecting other crops injuriously, so 
far as I have observed. But if this were not so, 
I could not tempt my neighbor to use what I 
would not use myself. When I look at Seth 
Twiggs’ farm and my own, I like the contrast. 
Hookertown, j Yours to command, 
Nov. 1th, 1863. j Timothy Bunker Esq. 
How Vegetation Influences Climate. 
That climate controls vegetation in a great 
degree, is quite evident, and it is equally true 
that vegetation itself has a marked effect upon 
the climate. In the first place, it exerts an influ¬ 
ence upon the wind. Where the land is bare of 
trees, the wind has an unobstructed sweep; aud 
where this prevails, and is violent, the climate 
is not only unpleasant to man and beast, but is 
unfavorable to vegetation. Western farmers 
know how this is, upon their broad, unsheltered 
prairies, and New-Englanders know how it is 
along their bleak sea-coasts. The only way 
to grow handsome and healthy trees in such 
localities, is first to surround one’s farm or gar¬ 
den with a belt of strong, coarse trees, like the 
willow, silver poplar, and evergreens. Outside 
of such verdant barriers, the trees and shrubs, 
if planted, grow lop-sided, lean, and stunted; 
inside, they stand erect, well developed, and 
vigorous. Without this protection there is the 
unpleasantness of having a gale forever blow 
ing about one’s ears, the ceaseless roar of the 
wind around the dwelling, the rattle of windows 
and doors, the increased consumption of fuel, 
and the discomfort of cattle at all seasons, but 
especially in Winter; put these and the like 
things together, and we find that whatever 
serves to break the violence of the wind, or to 
change its direction, is a thing of considerable 
importance. It should not be forgotten that air 
in motion produces more chilliness than the 
same air at rest. Wet your finger and hold it 
up in the still ail - , and you will hardly feel the 
cold; but swing it around, and the hand will 
be rapidly chilled. The difference between the 
climate of a windy region and one sheltered 
from driving currents of air, is equally great. 
Again, vegetation affects climate by limiting 
evaporation of moisture. Many years ago, 
Humboldt declared that men in all climates, by 
stripping the hills of trees, were preparing for 
themselves two calamities, viz.: the want of fuel 
and the want of water. The evaporation from 
trees produces a cool and moist local atmos¬ 
phere. The overhanging boughs prevent the 
too rapid evaporation of moisture from the 
ground, and its dissipation by the wind. The 
sources of nearly all brooks and creeks are to 
be found in springs among the hills; and by 
cutting off the trees which have always over¬ 
shadowed them, the moisture is rapidly evapor¬ 
ated, and the springs lowered, if not dried up. 
Experience is continually demonstrating this. 
Every old farmer will tell us that his springs are 
less copious now than they were thirty years 
ago ; and so of the various streams, large and 
small. The rains fall, perhaps, in nearly their 
former abundance, but they come oftener in 
torrents, which sweep down the hill-sides, un¬ 
obstructed by trees, brushwood, and low vege¬ 
tation, and pour themselves into the streams of 
the valley, producing freshets and hurtful inun¬ 
dations ; and so we go from freshets to drouths, 
from heavy rains to long periods of arid, parch¬ 
ing dryness. In some parts of Europe, so great 
harm has followed the destruction of forests, 
that legislation has been called in to stay their 
demolition and to promote the planting of new. 
Artificial Fertilization of Grain. 
Acting upon the supposition that all the 
flowers upon a head of grain do not produce 
kernels, a M. Hooibrenek, in France, has made 
some experiments with a view of helping the 
process of fertilization by artificial means. The 
method of doing this is very simple : a rope 20 
or 30 feet long, covered with woolen threads so 
as to form a fringe 8 or 10 inches deep, is drawn 
across the field, by two men, at the time the 
grain is in flower. The pollen sticks to the 
woollen threads, and is by them deposited upon 
the pistils, which are thus fertilized. These ex¬ 
periments have been examined by a commis¬ 
sion appointed by the Government, and the 
following are given as the results upon equal 
areas, the size of which is not given. The 
figures only represent the relative amount of 
the product: 
Rye not fertilized.16 IBarley not fertilized.16 
Rye fertilized.25.5|Barley fertilized.24 
Wheat not fertilized_21 Oats not fertilized.12 
Wheat fertilized .31 |Oats fertilized. 17 
These figures show an increase of about 50 
per cent, obtained by a very slight expenditure 
of labor. Let those curious in such matters 
repeat the experiment, and report the result 
