Dear wife, on whose breast the dear babe hung so long, My sweet boy! I've been writing these verses for you, Little boy, 'tis your birth-day, you're just four years old! May the blessing of God in abundance poured down, LEGH RICHMOND. RURAL ECONOMY, GARDENING, &c. (Sent by a Correspondent.) Benefit derived to strong clayey Gardens by burning weeds and other rubbish.-In an article by Mr. F. H. Bailey, the collecting of all the weeds and refuse that can be found is recommended, and burning them. A space, as if for double digging or trenching, is got ready, the sub-spit (clay) is taken away, and replaced with the top spit, making good the deficiencies with the ashes produced from the weeds, &c. It is added, that any roots, as potatoes, turnips, and particularly radishes, will be superior in flavour, when grown in the vegetable ashes, to those in other soils.-See Horticultural Register for January 1834, p. 11. Preserving Bees in Winter.-An account is given of some hives buried in the ground in the fall of the year, being placed a sufficient depth to be out of reach of frost, and in such a manner that the air could by no means penetrate, being first covered about ten inches thick with straw before being covered with mould. They were taken up in April, and the bees were found to be in perfect health. They had used no honey, as there appeared as much when taken up in spring as when buried in the autumn.-From the same, p. 31.-The article is signed M. Saul, Albany, New York. Gravelly Soil.-An article, in reply to a former query, gives the following, signed "Innovator." To render it productive, cover it over a foot thick with marl and mud, 1834.] CABBAGES O! A HINT TO SERVANTS. 53 three parts of mud and one of marl, with a good coat of rotten dung, and spade it over afterwards three or four times before planting. This will last but a certain num ber of years, unless fresh soil be added with every coat of dung, when brisk earth and rotten horse litter in equal parts, and well mixed, are the best that can be used.Floricultural Cabinet for January, 1834, p. 22. To preserve Butter fresh for several months.-Make it up in rolls as usual, wrapping each separately in a clean napkin (washed quite free from soap, to avoid its giving any taste), and set the rolls upright in an open tub, filled with salt and water strong enough to float an egg, adding a little sugar to the brine. Cover the tub with a board having a few holes drilled through it. When the butter is wanted, take out a roll, remove the cloth, and wash the butter with a little fresh water. When a good many rolls are taken out, prop. the rest so as still to remain upright in the tub.-The brine should completely cover the rolls of butter in the tub. CABBAGES O! A HINT TO SERVANTS. A FRIEND gave us a little anecdote a few days ago, which may afford a hint to such servants as do not know when they are well off. "I hired a servant man; he seemed to suit me well; he did his work capitally, and I thought I should like to keep him. When he had been with me a month or two, I considered that it would be wise to have a still longer trial of him before I quite made up my mind that he would suit me: I therefore did not give him what I called his best livery; but gave him a sort of mixture coat, and black breeches, &c. and made him look very tidy, meaning, in a week or two, to smarten him up completely. One morning he came to me, looking out of humour, and said,Pray, Sir, when am I to have my clothes?' "Clothes! why you have got clothes.'- Yes, but I am ashamed of being seen in such as these.' "If I am not ashamed of seeing you in them, you need not be ashamed of wearing them.' "I shall leave you, Sir.' 66 6 Very well, when you please.' "The next morning, I paid him his wages, and he left me. A short time after this, I heard a man crying out in the streets, 'Cabbages, O! Carrots! Turnips!' I thought I knew the voice; and, sure enough, it was my late servant wheeling a barrow, and looking shabby enough. Why, James,' said I, is that you? Why yes, master, it is I, sure enough. That was a bad day's work when I took sulk, and left your house.' This may be a useful lesson to those servants who make war against themselves, by giving way to discontent and sullenness of disposition. My friend was a particularly kind and liberal man, and one who would have taken quite as much pleasure in seeing his servant well dressed, as the servant himself would have done, in wearing a smart livery; but he wisely took time to consider; and it would have been good for the servant, if he had exercised a little patience. A servant who has been tried, and proved to be good and faithful, will be always valued by a good master: and many masters really desire the good of their servants, and would be glad to be of use to them; but this confidence cannot be expected all at once; it requires time. If a servant would trust his master, and put confidence in him, and study his interest, he would always find the benefit of it, unless his master were of a very strange disposition indeed: and even then, he would find a satisfaction in his own mind from such conduct, and from the thoughts of having endeavoured to do his duty. There are more good masters and mistresses than some servants are willing to believe, but a servant must earn their good opinion, by trusting to them, and by steady perseverance in good conduct. There are more good servants too, than some masters are aware of; and when they are found to be such, they ought to have every token of kindness and regard. In these times, few persons are better off than servants. Rents have fallen, and the incomes of masters have been let down in many ways, but the wages of servants have not come down like the incomes of other people. Rates and taxes do not touch them; and they have board and lodging for nothing, which advantages are many times the value of their wages. Most poor people, and even those who are called gentle 1834.] SOMETHING TO DRINK. 55 men, find it very hard, with all their labour, to get food and to pay house-rent; but these the man-servant, or maid-servant have for nothing; and the men who have livery are better off still. In mentioning the employment of the servant in the above instance, it is not my attempt to throw ridicule on him for selling vegetables,-far from it. No employment should be considered disgraceful that is honestly carried on; but I am speaking of the folly of a man throwing himself out of a good situation, and then being obliged to seek a very uncertain maintenance in a new employment. V. SOMETHING TO DRINK. It is a common and a very bad practice, when you are giving a trifle to a person who has done any little service for you, to say, here is something for you to drink." This expression shows, (what we are afraid is the truth) that nine times out of ten, the sixpence or shilling given is spent in drink. The proper purpose of drinking is refreshment, when a person is thirsty; or it is intended to soften the food a little whilst a person is eating; though, for this last purpose, many physicians think that the food is all the worse for being mixed up with liquid. The habit, however, which many people have, of drinking at any time of the day, and as often as they can find the means, is very ruinous to the health, to the morals, and to the pocket. Many persons are always thirsty; they are ready to drink at any time: the palate is always dry; it is in a state of fever: this is brought on by drinking. If some persons are foolish enough to spend every extra sixpence they get in drinking, it is a pity that those who know better, should seem to encourage this bad practice, by saying that what they give them is for something to drink. They mean nothing by this, but it looks like winking at a dangerous and destructive habit. Many people are anxious to better the condition of the labouring poor. They will do but little good to a poor man, as long as the error continues, that drink is the thing most wanted. A poor man often spends more of his money in drinking than in eating, or in clothes; and then he wonders why he is poor. If a man in middle life, or even in high life, were to allow his cellar to take up as large a portion of his income as a poor man does, both of them would soon be reduced to the condition of poor men. We extract the following account from a country paper, as an additional caution against the vice of drunkenness. A correspondent of a country paper warns the donors of Christmas boxes and new year's gifts against the prac tice of giving liquor, even in single glasses, to the applicants for their bounty. He enforces his advice by the following anecdote:-"A letter-carrier in a village not far from Bury St. Edmund's called on the farmers at Christmas time. The letter-carrier was a very sober man, and the farmers were also sober and respectable men; but each of these sober farmers gave to this sober lettercarrier a glass of gin. The result was, that the lettercarrier became so intoxicated, that in returning home he was drowned in a puddle not four inches deep.' V. DRUNKENNESS AND SABBATH BREAKING. The following remarks are taken from Mr. Bulwer's work, "England and the English." THERE are two causes that favour intoxication on the Sunday; these we may endeavour to remedy, not only because they injure the holiness of the Sabbath, but be cause they taint the morality of the State. There are two causes: the first is the custom of paying wages on a Saturday night; a day of entire idleness following, the idler, and more dissipated mechanic, especially in London, goes at once to the gin-shop (or alehouse) on the Saturday night, returns there on the Sunday morning, forgets his wife, and his family, and spends, on his own vices, the week's earnings that should have supported his family. Now, if he were paid on Friday night, and went to work on Saturday morning, he would probably endeavour to keep himself fit for work: the money would probably come into the hands of his wife, and be properly spent in the maintenance of the family. This alteration would be attended, I am convinced, with |