176 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June; 
filled with an unlimited supply of all such vegetables, 
as you desired, and barrels of beef and pork of your 
own slaughtering. Your granary had always, as 
much of corn and rye, and perhaps of wheat, as you 
chose to use. Your cows gave you milk and butter in 
abundance at all times, and your garden and orchard, 
fruits for yourself and the children, and the neighbors, 
without stint. Now, (I give actual market prices in 
Washington) you buy one peck of potatoes for “ three 
levies,” or thirty-seven and a half cents, beef at six¬ 
teen cents a pounds turkeys at from one dollar and a 
quarter to two dollars each, chickens, with the shells 
scarcely off their heads, not larger than robins, at 
twenty-five cents each, butter at thirty-one cents a 
pound, and milk at eight cents a quart, and so on to 
the end of"the chapter. Instead of enjoying the abun¬ 
dance of the earth, as you have been accustomed to do, 
you begin to associate the idea of dollars and cents, 
with the food on your table; you are compelled to vex 
yourself with economizing in the details of living, in¬ 
stead of by system, and to feel your soul gradually 
narrowing in, to a conformity with narrow circum¬ 
stances. You find yourself a poorer man than while 
upon your hard northern farm, poorer in your animal 
means of living, poorer in comparison with those around 
you, poorer in independence, in prospects for the fu¬ 
ture for yourself and family, poorer in everything. 
We might follow this train of thought into further 
details, did time allow it, but enough it is hoped, has 
been said, to induce an independent Northern farmer 
to hesitate long, and consider well, before he exchanges 
his position for any place, where any master comes 
between him and his Maker. 
The beautiful lines of Mrs. Sigourney give a truth¬ 
ful, though poetical picture of Farm Life :— 
Saw ye the farmer at his plow 
As you were riding by ? 
Or wearied ’neath the noon-day toil, 
When the summer-suns were high! 
And thought you that his lot was hard ? 
And did you thank your God, 
That you and yours were not condemned, 
Thus like a slave to plod ? 
Come, see him at his harvest home, 
When garden, field, and tree, 
Conspire with flowing stores to fill 
His barn and granary. 
His healthful children gaily sport 
Amid the new-mown hay. 
Or proudly aid with vigorous arm, 
His tasks, as best they may. 
The Harvest Giver is his friend, 
The Maker of the soil, 
And Earth, the Mother, gives them bread 
And cheers their patient toil. 
Come join them round their wintry hearth, 
The heartfelt pleasures see, 
And you can better judge how blest 
The farmer’s life may be. Exeter, N. H. 
Monument to Mr. Downing. —The committee ap¬ 
pointed at the last session of the American Pomologi- 
cal Congress to obtain funds to erect a monument to 
the memory of the late A. J.DowNiNG,have received for 
this purpose about one thousand dollars. The Horticul- 
rist states that it is proposed to place it in some of the 
public grounds at Washington, and that the design is 
a vase of pure white marble elaborately carved, on a 
pedestal bearing a. suitable inscription. The whole to 
be nine feet high. 
Home Manufacture of Poudrette. 
Inquiries like the following have often been made, 
and many have desired to know how they eould avail 
themselves of a valuable manure, and at the same time 
render the apartments alluded to entirely free from any 
odor. Information on the subject of economy and 
cleanliness combined, which could not be obtained in 
any other way, we have no doubt will be acceptable 
to many of our readers :— 
s ‘ Will you please inform me the best and most con¬ 
venient inode of manufacturing night soil into pou¬ 
drette, so that it .may be drawn on land and spread 
without any odor, or inconvenience—my inquiry re¬ 
fers only to home use, of this powerful manure. B. G. 
Oneida Co., N. Y.” 
The contents of privies, commonly known under the 
name of night soil, furnish an exceedingly powerful 
manure when properly manufactured, and under right 
management, the piocess will destroy all the effluvia 
arising from those deposits, and render the closets en¬ 
tirely inoffensive. 
When a resevoir or small stream of water is at com¬ 
mand, so that a current may be made to sweep through 
several times a day and carry off the contents into the 
manure yard, or into a covered bed of peat or a com¬ 
post heap, this forms perhaps the most perfect mode 
of removal. An essential requisite however, is free¬ 
dom from the influence of frost, and the closet should 
therefore be connected with the dwelling where the 
reservoir of water may be kept from freezing; and 
from which there should be an underground channel of 
considerable size and slope We have known all this 
to be perfectly accomplished by means of a lead cis¬ 
tern in the upper story, which was kept supplied with 
rain water at all times from the broad roof of the 
house, and which was sufficient besides for baths, 
washing, and all other domestic purposes. 
When a current of water cannot be used, the next best 
contrivance, is to form a strong tight box, of matched 
pine plank, and give it two or three coats of coal tar, 
so as to render it durable, and proof against moisture 
and warping. It- is to be placed on two runners like 
those of a sled, made of plank or scantling, to the for¬ 
ward end of which a chain and iron hook are attached, 
so that it may readily be drawn off by a horse. This 
box must be of such a size as to fit a cavity made on 
purpose under the building. 
The next thing is to provide a supply of some effi¬ 
cient deodorizing substance. Dry sawdust or thorough¬ 
ly dried peat does tolerably well, with the occasional 
addition of ashes and powdered charcoal. Charcoal 
dust alone, is much better, and if daily applied in 
small quantities will nearly destroy all smell; but it 
is absolutely essential to success that a full supply of 
this material be kept near at hand in a large box or 
hogshead in a shed or out-house, where it shall be al¬ 
ways dry and in a condition to apply every day, sum¬ 
mer and winter. Animal charcoal is still more effi¬ 
cient than common charcoal, and may be made to form 
a portion of a material made as,_fbllows :—Make a pile 
of peat, turf, old straw and brush, mixed with tanner’s 
