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kind, and are pursuing a course that leads to the point, which, when attained, will require an adoption of similar means for support, as those resorted to in the overgrown population of Europe. Why not, then, improve by their experience in season?

Domestic manufactures. On this subject we wish to say a word or two. Old fashioned doctrines in this respect, have been elbowed out of sight, by new fangled notions. We are decidedly friendly to domestic manufactures, strictly speaking. That is to say, that our honest farmers' sons, should sow flax and shear wool, and prepare it for the wheel, and their innocent daughters make it fit for the loom; when the homespun fabric is brought from the weavers, let the whole family be clad with so honourable a badge of their own industry. We should rejoice to witness this in every farm-house in the union. But alas! what is the modern meaning of "domestic manufactures?" In a few plain words it is thissome half a dozen disinterested gentlemen lay their heads and their purses together, and get up a great scheme for making cloth, and for making money. In their own conceit,-and they would fain have every body believe it-they are the only real patriots in the nation, they have set about making the union completely independent. In consideration, however, of all this kindness, they call upon the government to "protect them," by assessing such duties upon foreign fabrics, as will enable them to pocket a huge profit, at the expense of the community. But this is an atom only of the evil inflicted on society, when compared with the moral and physical mischiefs which manufacturing systems are calculated to visit upon the country. We shall not attempt to draw the picture*-look at the manufactures of Birmingham and Manchester-behold her Leeds and Spitalfields! You will witness there the cemeteries of virtue and manly vigor. They are the depots of ignorance, and the hot-beds of rebellion.

To the husbandmen of this happy land, we would affectionately address the scriptural exhortation-" Come out from among them and be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing.”

Method of preserving wood from the effects of the weather. Take three parts of air slacked lime, two parts of wood ashes, and one part of fine sand; sift the whole, and add as much linseed oil as is necessary to form a mass that can be laid on with a paint

* See Espriella's Letters. Lett. xxxiii.

brush. To make this mixture perfect and more durable, it will be well to grind it on a marble. Two coats of it are all that are necessary; the first should be rather light, but the second must be put on as thick as the brush will permit. This composition well prepared is impenetrable to water; resists both the influence of the weather, and the action of the sun, which hardens it and makes it more durable. The government of France has ordered that all gun carriages should be washed with this composition.

Annales des Arts, St.

Wine prospects. It is with much satisfaction that we communicate to our distant readers, that the vineyards in the vicinity have never offered brighter prospects of rewarding the labourers of the vine dressers than they do at this time, while the crops of corn are uncommonly promising. The vineyards offer to the view such profusion of fruit, as to nourish in us the hope of a most exuberant vintage this fall, which will handsomely compensate the vine dressers for the partial failure of that of the last year. Upon reflecting on the immense advantages that would result to society, as well as to the individuals who would engage in it, should this branch of agriculture become general on the banks and hillocks of the Ohio; we are astonished that the example set by the Swiss settlers in this neighbourhood, is not generally followed by the inhabitants of the borders of this beautiful river. The valley through which the Ohio runs, is capable of being made to produce as much wine as would suffice for the consumption of the United States. What a happy effect on the morals of society would not be produced, if wine could be substituted for the poisonous beverages which impair the health of, besot, and demoralise the American people? What immense numbers of families might, like these few sons of Helvetia who have planted the vine here, find "health and peace, and sweet content," on the shores of the great Ohio, if they would make it their business to cultivate the vine.

Vevay Register. Experiments in irrigation, by the help of a cotton or woollen

sufhon.

Some years ago, during a dry summer in Virginia, I was led, from observations on the parching effect of the usual mode of watering plants with a watering pot, to consider the principle of its operation upon the earth and plants relatively in a vegeta

tive state. I observed that, when this method was used about sunset, it had generally (but not always) a good effect in most kinds of soil, and produced a pleasant dew upon the leaves on the following morning; but, if the watering pot was too freely used during the mid-day heat, or even in the morning, it caused the earth to parch, and checked the progress of vegetation, until an annihilation of the vital principle was effected.

From an extension of this remark upon the larger scale of agriculture which is afforded in the process of cultivating maize, or Indian corn, I am persuaded that, after plants in general have attained to a permanent radification, it is best to work the ground frequently, whether the weather be wet or dry; and (except in the case of tobacco, and such other plants as we epxect profit from through the curable condition of the leaf) I think a continual working of the ground will be found a better assurance for the corps than watering.

I was satisfied, however, that the best modes of supplying a deficiency of rain were not yet discovered. The difficulty is, how we may best be enabled to supply the regular demands of vegetative succession through a drougthy season, with a justly proportioned substitute for the evaporated moisture of the earth by which it would otherwise have been succoured.

Hence (water being the natural element assigned to this purpose in its simple state) I had recourse to the experiment of a symphon, as described in Fig. 1. of the plates annexed.

Fig. 1.

I selected two water melon vines near each other, in soil of the same appearance; one of them being considerably more flourishing than the other. I made my experiment upon the declining vine, by twisting gently a cotton syphon made of candlewick, proportioned to the stem of the plant; I then elevated a pot of water above the surface of the ground, covering it from the vehement heat of the sun with a piece of plank. Having then wetted my cotton syphon in order to communicate motion to the fluid

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upon the fountain principle, I tied a small stone to one end, as a weight to sink it when immersed in the water; and dropping this

into the pot, I passed the other end down into the earth, by scratching the mould gently away from the root, and giving the syphon a spiral direction round it covered lightly with the replaced mould.

In a short time the earth became moderately moistened a few inches round the root of the plant, in which condition it continued through the heat of the day without parching, or scalding; the syphon supplied the demand of the plant (and no more), a cool succession took place through the effects of evaporation; and in a few days the vine became flourishing, and outgrew its neighbour.

I have repeatedly tried this experiment with good effect; and think it at least capable of extension in a garden or nursery, by placing troughs the whole length of a bed, as represented in Fig 2.

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EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

Fig. 1. An earthen jar containing water, placed on a bench for the purpose of elevating the water, above the ground containing the plant, so as to obtain a fountain head. A twisted rope, made of wool or cotton, acts as a syphon conveying water to the plant in proportion to its demand Fig. 2 differs only from the above in the substitution of a trough proportioned to the length of the bed, in lieu of the jar used for a single syphon.

Having by this means persuaded myself that I am right in respect to the philosophical principle, it comes to be considered whether there are any, and by what means the best plans may be adopted for rendering this experiment more general, and obtaining a greater number and variety of results from divers soils and climates; and it seems to be an interesting piont of inquiry (beyond a mere horticultural application) whether this auxiliary principle may not be extended, in some shape or other, to an ag

ricultural benefit in the modification of harsh and thirsty lands on the more extensive scale of husbandry?

The scheme which has presented itself to my imagination, but which I have never had an opportunity of reducing to practice, is, to obtain, in the first place, a command of water upon the best elevated level which the ground presents; and, pursuing this level as far as possible with what may, perhaps, properly be termed a head-land ditch, which should be as nearly stagnant as the circulation of fluid will permit. I think one end of a straw rope, proportioned to the design, might be immersed in the water after the manner of my experiment, and the other be spun out to the length of the respective lands which they were intended to irrigate, being conducted along the ridge, or highest part thereof, by means of a ploughed trench, so that the moisture might spread itself each way by descent into the furrows, and without the risk of forming gullies, which frequently happens in red lands, as is too generally proved in America, where the lands are but partly coated with grass, and where they are subject to sudden heavy showers and washing torrents.

This method can, in any event, do no mischief; but it is sure to answer one good end in the quality of manure: for, when a straw rope is once intrenched for the purposes of irrigation, it cannot possibly be converted to a better use than to let it rot in the earth for a manure.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.—THE AMERICAN LOUNGER.

BY SAMUEL SAUNTER, ESQ.

"Fancy enervates, while it soothes the heart,
And while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight:
To joy each heightening charm it can impart,
But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night.
And often where no real ills affright,

Its visionary fiends, an endless train,

Assail with equal or superior might,

And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain,

And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain."

Beattie,

ONE of the most delightful moments, perhaps, that we are permitted to enjoy, is that in which we find ourselves, after an arduous pursuit, on the eve of possessing the object of our wish

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