must have cost many thousands of pounds. "The woods abound with wild fowl, and other game, and the rivers are well stored with fish, and oysters are in great abundance. "The land on the west coast of Africa is extremely fertile, producing all the necessaries, and even the luxuries of life in great abundance, which appear to grow spontaneously, with very little attention to cultivation. The land is heavily timbered, and well calculated for shipbuilding, and for general uses. tion. The natives of Africa, do not trouble themselves with the cares of to-morrow, the great God of nature, supplying all their wants by the spontaneous productions of the earth. The lofty trees which surround their dwellings are inhabited by monkeys, parrots, and birds of every other kind natural to a tropical climate. "Many parts of the country are stocked with fine cattle, good horses, sheep, swine, and goats in great abundance." COMMUNICATION. There is perhaps no book more needed, and more difficult to write, than a small compendium of geogra phy, suitable in price and size for schools and common families. Among the many attempts, none in our language have succeeded so well as Mr. Ewing, of Scotland; but even that work is not free from defects, and its extreme brevity and some errors res "The most high and mountainous parts of the country abound with tigers, leopards, panthers, hyena, elephants, and a great variety of other wild beasts. The mode of taking these animals, I could not learn, owing, I presume, in a great measure, to the natives who inhabit the sea-board having been so busily engaged in catching their fellow men, that they could not turn their attention to any other business. Could this barba-pecting America, render it peculiarly *ous traffic in human blood be entirely objectionable on this side the Atlan olished, and the present colony be 'll established, no doubt can exist bi a trade might be opened with this of the world, so as to enrich the ers, and prove a great source of nue to the parent country. A few straggling huts, with as much eared land about them as is necessay to produce their yearly supply of fice, or Indian corn, is what is generally termed a Town in Africa. Each town is governed by a person who is talled a Head-man; to whom however, no great respect is shown by the people. All the difference observable between the houses of the head-man, er king, is in their dimensions. The houses are built more for convenience than ornament; and the meanest subjects in that country are owners of loases and lands. Near the door of tach house is seen the yam, the plantain, the cocoanut, and a variety of ether fruits and nuts, which all grow with little or no attention to cultiva tic. But the writer of this feels happy to state, that he conceives all these diffi culties surmounted, by an edition of the above work just from the press of Mr. Charles N. Baldwin, revised and adapted to this country, by the masterly pen of William Darby, esquire. The part respecting America, Mr. D. has written anew, and accompanied it with interesting and useful tables. It is doubtful whether so much geographical information was ever before condensed within the compass of 328 pages. In this book, which costs but one dollar, the public have a text book for schools, and families a book of reference, containing a sufficiency of the subject for all the ordinary concerns of life; and which will be more easily committed to memory, as it is totally unincumbered with any tedious prolixity of style. Indeed it may with truth be said that no scientific book of the size, surpasses it in value, and that no family ought to be without it. HISTORICAL. IRISH ANTIQUITIES. A history of Ireland, under the title of Chronicles of Ulla'd, by the celebrated Roger O'Conner, has been announced for publication. It commences from the earliest point of time which is recorded by the invention of letters, with a traditionary portion, which was the work of Eolus, Prince of the Gael of Sciot of Ib-er, who ruled in Gael-ag 1400 years before Christ. It is asserted in the prospectus, that from the time of Eolus, the Chronicles were written by the ArdOlam of the Irish nation, till the days Ete-Er-Ial, chief king in Er-i, 678 years before Christ: and that, from the reign of Ete-Er-Ial, they have been compiled by every Árd-Ólam of Ulla'd, and submitted to the kings, princes, nobles, and chiefs of the Olam, or heads of the people assembled on the Mount of Ulla'd once every third year, to transact the business of the kingdom. It is therefore asserted, that in these Chronicles is to be found the authentic history of Ireland from the year 1806, before the Christian æra, to the birth of Christ; and that the writings hitherto imposed on the world as histories of Ireland, are compilations from the rhapsodies of bards, full of anochronisms and misrepresentations of facts-the contemptible poetry of history pieced together by ignorant men. These Chronicles (says the Editor) describe the mode of keeping time by our forefathers, and their luni-solar system. They correct errors respecting the language and religion of the Irish, and clearly show the former to be Phoenician, the latter not Druidic. They correspond exactly with the traditions of the Hebrews concerning the overthrow of the Scythian dominion in Asia, and the establishment of Eis oir (the Assyrian) on their ruin; and they record the building of Babylon and Nineveh. They represent Noah, Japheth, and Gog, in new characters, and explain the passage of Genesis, which says, "that the beginning of the kingdom was Babel, &c. in the land of Shenar; out of that land went forth Asher, and builded Nineveh." The Chronicles strip the events of the figurative dress in which the Hebrew has decked them; whilst they give the true original names of the Ganges, Tygris, Euphrates, Euxine, Caspian, Caucasus, Armenia, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Phoenicia, Egypt, and Spain; and of all places in Galicia. They also describe the commerce of the Phoenicians with the southern parts of Britain, and mark the period when the isles of Sicily were separated from the main land. They confirm the accuracy of the traditions of the Hebrews as to the colonization of the isles of the Gentiles by the posterity of Japheth; and they set at rest other important and curious matters, too numerous for brief anticipation. The Editor states that he relies with confidence on the fidelity of his mate rials; and deeming them authen records, he has not stepped out of way into the paths of controver but that, when this curious piec antiquity is attacked, he will not cline the combat with all who are ir clined to enter the lists of literary warfare. The work will be illustrated with maps and other engravings. Freeman's Journal. SKETCHES OF HISTORY. The following anecdote of Colonel Wm. Washington, is extracted from the Life of General Greene, lately published by Dr. Caldwell. "Having learnt, during the scouring excursion, that a large party of Royalists, commanded by Colonel Rudgley, was posted at Rudgley's mills, twelve miles from Campden (S. C.) he determined on attacking Schenck. Obs. When Antipater had written long letters of complaint to Alexander the Great against his mother Olympias, Alexander said, "The duty of a son is not to be cancelled by the testy humour of a mother: nor does Antipater know, that one tear falling from my mother's eye, is able to deface six hundred of his best composed epistles." them. Approaching the enemy, he strangled by it before any help could found them so secured, in a large logbe had to draw it out. barn, surrounded by abbattis, as to be perfectly safe from the operations of cavalry. Forbidden, thus, to attempt his object by direct attack, his usual and favourite mode of warfare, he determined for once, to have recourse to policy. Shaping, therefore a pine log, in imitation of a field piece, mounting it on wheels, and staining it with mud, to make it look like iron, he brought it up in military style, and affected to make arrangements to bat- || ter down the barn. Not prepared to resist artillery, Colonel Rudgley obeyed the summons; and with a garrison of one hundred and three, rank and file, surrendered at discretion." Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, being slandered with a report of an unchaste familiarity with Alwyn, Bishop of Winchester, her son giving credit to it, dispossessed her of all her goods, and, for her purgation, ordered she should pass the fire-ordeal, which was to be performed in this manner. Nine plowshares, red fire hot, were laid in unequal distances, over which she must pass barefoot and blindfold, and if she passed over them anhurt, then she was pronounced innocent, if otherwise, guilty. This trial she underwent, and came off untouched, to the great astonishment of all the spectators; in rememberance whereof, she gave nine manors to the minister at Winchester; and king Edward, to commute for the injury he had done her, gave to the same cathedral church the island of Portland and Dorsetshire.-Hist. Eng. Terpander, the famous harper of Sparta, as he was singing to that instrument, opened his mouth so wide in straining his voice to the pitch of the harp, that an unhappy wag standing by, threw a fig into his mouth, in pure jest and merriment, which, contrary to the intention of him that threw it, stuck so fast in his throat that he was AGRICULTURAL. The following extract is from an address delivered before the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, at a recent cattle show in Brighton, by the honourable JOSIAH QUINCY, an experienced and scientific farmer. It contains many valuable hints, besides much good humoured satire, intended more particularly to lash the foibles of the farmers of Massachusetts; but may with propriety be applied to those of any other part of the United States. Our agricultural readers will undoubtedly peruse it with much sat isfaction. "Our purpose, this day, is to seek what is true and what is useful in relation to the interests of our agricul ture. "In executing this purpose, I shall address myself chiefly to that great body of our countrymen who are emphatically called-farmers; by which I mean the great body of Massachusetts yeomanry; men who stand upon the soil, and are identified with it; for there rest their own hopes, and there the hopes of their children. Men who have, for the most part, great farms and small pecuniary resources; men, who are esteemed more for their land than for their money; more for their good sense than for their land; and more for their virtue than for either; men, who are the chief strength, sup port, and column of our political society, and who stand to the other orders of the state, in the same relation which the shaft bears to the pillar; in respect of whom, all other arts, trades and professions, are but ornamental work; the cornice, the frieze, and the Corinthian capital. "I am thus distinct in declaring my sentiments concerning the importance and value of this class of men, from no purpose of temporal excitement, or of personal conciliation; but because I think it just, and their due, and because, being about to hint concerning errors and defects in our agriculture, I am anxious that such a course of remark should not be attributed to any want of honour or respect for the farming interest. On the contrary, it is only from a deep sense of the importance of an art, that a strong desire for its improvement can proceed. Whatever tends to stimulate and direct the industry of our farmers; whatever spreads prosperity over our fields; whatever carries happiness to the homes, and content to the bosoms of our yeomanry, tends more than every thing else to lay the foundation of our republic deep and strong, and to give the assurance of immortality to our liberties. "The errors and deficiencies of our practical agriculture may be referred, in a general survey, with sufficient accuracy' to two sources; the want of scope of view among our farmers, and the want of system in their plans. "Concerning another want, (of which farmers are most sensible, and most generally complain, is the want of cash in their pockets,) I shall say nothing, because it is not a want peculiar to the farmer, it is a general want, and belongs to all other classes and professions. Besides, there is no encouragement to speak of this want, because it is one that increases by its very supply. All of us must have observed, that it has almost ever happened, with however, a few splendid exceptions, that the more a man has of this article the more he always wants. "The errors and deficiencies to which I shall allude, will not be such as require any extent of capital to rectify. All that will be requisite is a little more of that industry, a little differently directed. It is not by great and splendid particular improvements, that the interests of agriculture are best subserved, but by a general and gradual amelioration. Most is done for agriculture, when every farmer is excited to small attentions, and incidental improvements; such as proceed, for instance, from the constant application of a few plain and common principles. Such are-that, in farming, nothing should be lost, and nothing should be neglected; that every thing should be done in its proper time; every thing put in its proper place; every thing executed by its proper instrument. These attentions, when viewed in their individual effect, seem small, but they are immense in the aggregate. When they become general, taken in connection with the disposition which precede, and the consequences which inevitably follow such a state of improvement, they in clude, in fact, every thing. "Scope of view, in a general sense, has relation to the wise adoption of means to their final ends. When ap plied to a farmer, it implies the adaptation of all the buildings and parts of a farm to their appropriate purposes, so that whatever is fixed and permanent in its character, may be so arranged as best to facilitate the labour of the farm, and best to subserve the comfort, convenience, and success of the proprietor. "Our ideas upon this subject may be best collected from inspection. If our fellow farmers please, we will, therefore, in imagination adjourn for a few moments, and take our stand, first, at the door of the farm-house. "at the door." Far be it from me to criticise the department of the other sex, or to suggest that any thing, I say peculiarly subject to their management, can be either ameliorated or amended. Nor is it necessary, for I believe it is a fact almost universally true, that where the good man of the family is extremely precise, and regular, and orderly in his arrangements without doors, he never fails to be seconded, and even surpassed, by the order, the regularity, and neatness of the good woman within. "Let us cast our eyes, then, about us, from the door of the farm-house, What do we see? Is the gate whole, and on its hinges? Are the domestic animals excluded from immediate connection with the dwelling house, or at least from the front yard? Is there a grass-plot adjoining, well protected from pigs and poultry, so that the excellent housewife may advantageously spread and bleach the linen and yarn of the family? Is the wood pile well located, so as not to interfere with the passenger; or is it located with especial eye to the benefit of the neighbouring surgeon? Is it covered, so that its work may be done in stormy weather? Is the well convenient, and is it sheltered, so that the females of the family may obtain water without exposure, at all times and at all seasons? Do the subsidiary arrangements indicate such contrivance and management, as that nothing useful should be lost, and nothing useless offend? To this end, are there drains, determining what is liquid in filth, and offal to the barn yard or the pens ? Are there receptacles for what is solid, so that bones and broken utensils may be carried away and buried. If all this be done, it is well; and if, in addition to this, a general air of order and care be observable, little more is to be desired. The first proper object of a farmer's attention, his own and his family's comfort and accommodation, is attained. Every thing about him indicates that self-respect which lies at the foundation of good husbandry, as well as of good morals. But if any of us on our return home, should find our door bar ricaded by a mingled mass of chips and dirt; if the pathway to it be an unlaid pavement of bones and broken bottles, the relics of departed earthen ware, or the fragments of abandoned domestic utensils; if the deposits of the sink settle and stagnate under the windows, and it is neither determined to the barn yard, nor has any thing provided to absorb its riches, and to neutralize its effluvia: if the nettle, the thistle, the milkweed, the elder, the barberry bush, the Roman wormwood, the bur-dock, and the devil's apple, contend for mastery along the fences, or flower up in every corner; if the domestic animals have fair play round the mansion, and the poultry are roosting on the window stools, the geese strutting sentry at the front door, and the pigs playing puppy in the entry; the proprietor of such an abode may call himself a farmer, but, practically speaking, he is ignorant of the A B C of his art; for the first letters of a farmer's alphabet, are neatness, comfort, order. THE ART OF MAKING AND BOTTLING CIDER. From the American Farmer. I Mr. Skinner, a glass of good cider, now sparkling before me, brings to my mind your request, to be informed of the best method to bottle cider. have had the satisfaction to fuuish my table for eighteen years with that article, without any material interruption, having some always of two years bottling on hand. It would be needless to detail all the experiments I made to save my || bottles; however, I will relate two that were very promising, which will show that nothing less than raising the proof of the cider will answer. Experiment 1. I bottled cider of fine quality in February, with the best of corks, and removed it to the cellar; after the bottles were filled, they were placed in tubs of warm water, and raised to full summer heat, and then corked. |