THE CULTIVATOR. 
123 
288. Hence, if buds, that are very excitable are placed in a diffused 
light, their excitability will be checked. 
289. And if buds that arc very torpid are exposed to direct light, they 
will be stimulated into action. 
290. So that what parts of a tree shall first begin to grow in the spring 
may be determined at the will of the cultivator. 
291. This is the key to some important practices in forcing. 
292. This should also cause attention to be paid to shading buds from 
the direct rays of the sun in particular cases: as in that of cuttings, whose 
buds, if too rapidly excited, might exhaust their only reservoir of sap, the 
stem, before new roots were formed to repair such loss. 
298. As plants derive an essential part of their food from the air (280.) 
by the action of light, it follows that in glass-houses those which admit 
the greatest portion of light are the best adapted for purposes of cultiva¬ 
tion. 
294. The proportion of opaque matter in the roof of a glass-house con¬ 
structed of wood varies irom £ to 1-7—that of an iron house does not ex¬ 
ceed 1-23. 
295. Therefore iron-roofed houses are in this respect better suited for 
cultivation than wooden-roofed houses. 
296. And it has been found by experiment, that light passes more free¬ 
ly through a curvilinear than through a plain roof, and through glass form¬ 
ing an acute angle with the horizon than through perpendicular glass, it 
follows that a curvilinear roof is best, and a plain roof with glass perpen¬ 
dicular sides the worst adapted to the purposes of the cultivator. 
297. For the same reason common green glass is less fitted for glazing 
forcing-houses than white crown glass. 
298. Poisonous gases in very minute quantities act upon vegetation 
with great energy. A ten-thousandth part of sulphurous acid gas is quick¬ 
ly fatal to the life of plants; and hence the danger of flues heated by coal 
fires, and the impossibility of making many species grow in the vicinity 
of houses heated by coal fires, or in large towns .—(To be continued.) 
[From the Newark Daily Advertiser .] 
FACTS WORTH REMEMBERING. 
We place below, in parallel columns, the amount received for public 
lands, and the annual expenditures of the government from 1821 to 1836 
inclusive: 
Received on account of the Public 
Lands. 
Expenditures exclusive of the Pub¬ 
lic Debt. 
1821,., 
. 1,212,966 
1821, . 
1822,. 
. 1,803,581 
1822. 
. 9,827,643 51 
1823,. 
. 916,525 
1823. 
1824,.. 
.. 984,418 
1S24. 
1825 . 
. 1,216,090 
1825, . 
1826.. 
. 1,393,785 
1826, . 
. 13,062,316 27 
1827,.. 
1827,. 
. 12,653,095 65 
1828,.. 
.. 1,018,308 
1828, ...... 
1829. 
. 1,517,175 
1829,. 
1830. 
.. 2,329,356 
1830. 
1831.... 
. 3,210,815 
1831. 
1832,. 
1832. 
. 16,516,388 77 
1833,. 
. 3,069,682 
1833, . 
]834,..... 
. 4,887,620 
1834, . 
1835,. 
. 14,751,600 
1835, ...... 
1836. 
1836, . 
As it may be satisfactory to know something of the character of the 
writer, I beg leave to refer to you Charles H. Castle, Esq. Cashier of 
the City Bank, Montreal. Yours, with respect, 
—Canada paper. GUY RICHARDS. 
Department of Health. 
HYDROPHOBIA. 
St. Andrews, L C. Feb. 26, 1836. 
Messrs Editors— In your paper of the 20th instant, I find a notice 
copied from the Journal of Commerce, that one of your most respectable 
merchants had been bitten by a mad dog; and being in possession of a 
certain remedy far that dreadful disease,hydrophobia, I beg leave to com¬ 
municate it to you, in the hope that it may be received and applied in the 
case referred to, before it may be too late. The remedy can in no case 
do any harm—and I have known it tried in many cases, always with suc¬ 
cess. I have resided here more than 25 years, and although canine mad¬ 
ness is more common here than in any other country, I have never known 
a fatal case of hydrophobia, when this kas been applied. It is universally 
known and used among Canadians. I am acquainted with six persons 
who were bitten from eight to fifteen years ago, by dogs that were abun¬ 
dantly proved to be mad, from the fact that animals bitten immediately 
thereafter, died with every symptom of hydrophobia; but by the use of 
this remedy are in perfect health. I am aware that a remedy coming 
Irom such a distance, and from a stranger, will not be very likely to meet 
with a very cordial reception: but I am induced to give it. in the hope 
that its evident harmlessness will ensure a trial. It as follows: 
Take three spoons full of oystershell lime, powder it and sift it through 
a piece of book muslin. To this add a sufficiency of egg to give it a con¬ 
sistency something like soft dough—fry it in a little fresh butter or olive 
oil. Let the patient eat this cake in the morning, and abstain from food 
or drink, at least six hours. This dose, repeated for three mornings in 
succession, is, in all cases, sufficient. 
HINTS TO PARENTS AND THE SCHOOL MASTER. 
[Extracts from the Economy of health.'] 
SECOND SEPTENNIAD— (7 to 14 ) 
Schools .—It is in this septenniad, which may be styled, par excellence , 
(he scholastic, that the seeds of much bodily ill, and moral evil are sown. 
In this, and often in the latter part of the first septenniad, the powers of 
the mind are forced, and those of the body are crippled. The progiess 
of civilization, literature, science and refinement has rendered this state 
of things unavoidable. It may be mitigated, but it cannot be prevented. 
Knowledge is power. Bodily strength is now of little use in the struggle 
for power, riches and fame:—mental acquirements and endowments are 
now all in all. 
Those who are likely to mix much with their fellow-creatures during 
their sojourn in this world, had better begin to do so in a public school. 
Knives are sharpened by being rubbed against each other; so are intel¬ 
lects. The flint and the steel will not emit sparks unless they come into 
collision: neither will brains. The coldest marble and the basest metal 
w ill glow with heat by friction; and the solid oak will burst into flame 
by the same operation. The emulation of a public school will call en¬ 
ergies into action that would otherwise lie forever dormant in the human 
mind. 
Whether the scholastic institutions be large or small, public or private 
one radical evil is sure to pervade the system of education pursued there¬ 
in—namely, (and I cannot repeat it too often,) the disproportion between 
exercise of the mind and exercise of the body—not merely as respects 
the sum total of each species of exercise, but the mode of its distribu¬ 
tion. The grasp at learning is preternatural, overreaching and exhausting 
The lessons imposed on youth are too long; and so, of course, are the pe 
riods of study. The consequence is, that the lesson is not got well, be¬ 
cause it is learned amid languor and fatigue of the intellect. The grand 
principle of education is, or rather ought to be, the rapid and the per¬ 
fect acquisition of small portions of learning at a time, the punctual pre¬ 
mium being the interval of play In this way, the idea of knowledge 
would be constantly associated with that of pleasure; and each impression 
on the juvenile mind being vivid and distinct, would consequently be 
lasting. 
But if the periods of study in the first years of the second septenniad, 
waere reduced in length, as well as in the whole daily amount, I am far 
from thinking that the sum total of elementary learning acquired during 
the scholastic septenniad would be thereby diminished What is lost in 
letters will be gained in health; and this profitable exchange may enable 
the yoiith to sustain those increased exertions of the intellect which de¬ 
volve on ulterior stages of scholastic and coliegiate discipline. It is to be 
remembered, also, that the great majority of pupils are designed for other 
than the learned professions, and to them a modicum of health is often 
of more value than a magnum of literature. 
No public school should be without a play-ground; and no play-ground 
without gymnasium of some kind, for the lighter modes of athletic exer¬ 
cise. The swinging apparatus at the military asylum in Chelsea, seems 
well calculated for effecting that combination of active and passive exer¬ 
cise, so peculiarly adapted to the human frame in the present state of ci¬ 
vilization and refinement. We have more mind and less muscle than the 
Lacedcemonians; and, therefore, art must accomplish what strength fails 
to do. It is in a more advanced period of life, that passive exercise is to 
be preferred to active; in the second septenniad, the latter should have 
the preponderance. In all gymnastic exercises, however, great regard 
should be paid to the constitutions of individuals. There are some 
youths, where a disposition to affections of the heart and great vessels 
prevails; and to these, all strong exercise is injurious. Those, also, who 
are predisposed to pulmonary complaints must be cautious of athletic ex¬ 
ercises. 
| Food .—This should be simple and substantial, rather than abstemious, 
j The fabric that is daily building up, should have an ample supply of sound 
j materials. 
| Beverage.—A great error has been committed by modern mothers, in 
substituting for the salutary prescription of Pindar, (“ water is best,”) the 
I daily glass of wine, with cake or condiment, for the smiling progeny 
I round the table after dinner. The juvenile heart dances joyously enough 
■ to the music of the animal spirits—and the rosy current of circulation 
runs its many rounds as rapidly as need be, without impetus from wine. 
The practice in question is reprehensible on more accounts than one. It 
early establishes the habit of pampering the appetite—a habit that leads 
* The author of this work, James Johnson, is one of the most eminen 
physicians of the age. 
