Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Work-and pure slumbers shall wait on the pillow,
Work-thou shalt ride over Care's coming billow;
Lie not down wearied 'neath Woe's weeping willow!
Work with a stout heart and resolute' will!

2. Labor is health! Lo the husbandman reaping,
How through his veins goes the life-current leaping;
How his strong arm, in its stalwart pride sweeping,
Free as a sunbeam the swift sickle guides.

Labor is wealth-in the sea the pearl growèth,
Rich the queen's robe from the frail cocoon' flowèth,
From the fine acorn the strong forest blowèth,.

Temple and statue the marble block hides.

3. Droop not, though shame, sin, and anguish are round thee Bravely fling off the gold chain that hath bound thee; Look to yon pure heaven smiling beyond thee,

Rest not content in thy darkness-a clod!'
Work-for some good, be it ever so slowly;
Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly;
Labor!-all labor is noble and holy;

[ocr errors]

Let thy great deeds be thy prayer to thy God.

4. Pause not to dream of the future before us;

Pause not to weep the wild cares that come ō'er us:
Hark how Creation's deep, musical chorus,

5

Unintermitting goes up into Heaven!

Never the ocean-wave falters in flowing;
Never the little seed stops in its growing;
More and more richly the rose-heart keeps glowing,
Till from its nourishing stem it is riven.

5. "Labor is worship!"-the robin is singing,
"Labor is worship!" the wild bee is ringing,
Listen! that eloquent whisper upspringing,

Speaks to thy soul from out nature's great heart.

1 Resolute, (rêz o lút), determined; firm to one's purpose.

posed of silk threads, which, being unwound, form the silk which is

2 Stalwart, (stol' wort). brave; manufactured. bold; strong.

3 Cocoon, (kō kon), the silken ball in which the silk-worm confines itself before its change. It is com

13

4 Clŏd, a lump of earth.

[ocr errors]

Un'in ter mit' ting, ceaseless; without stopping.

From the dark cloud flows the life-giving shower;
From the rough sod blows the soft breathing flower;
From the small insects, the rich coral' bower :

Only man in the plan ever shrinks from his part.
6. Labor is life!-'tis the still water faileth;
Idleness ever despairèth, bewailèth :

Keep the watch wound for the dark rust assaileth!
Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon.
Labor is glory!—the flying cloud lightens ;
Only the waving wing changes and brightens ;
Idle hearts only the dark future frightens ;

Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune!

FRANCES S. OSGOOD.

SECTION XXVII.

I.

124. AGRICULTURE.'

PART FIRST.

UT, sir, to come to more practical, and you will probably

that I am no enemy to new discoveries in agriculture3 or any thing else. So far from it, I am going to communicate to you a new discovery of my own, which, if I do not greatly overrate its importance, is as novèl, as brilliant, and as auspicious of great results, as the celebrated discovery of Dr. Franklin; not the identity of the electric fluid and lightning-I don't refer to

5

1 Coral, a hard substance like shell (carbonate of lime), which is made by very minute creatures, and forms their habitation. It is sometimes red, but more abundant in white. It appears to grow, or rather is formed, by the little creatures, in the shape of branches of trees, and when alive they appear like flowers on the branches. These little creatures sometimes commence a struc

ture in the ocean, which by degrees becomes an island. Their history is exceedingly interesting.

2 Extract of a speech delivered before the U. S. Agricultural Society, Boston, Oct. 1855.

"Ag`ri culture, the cultivation of land; farming.

* Auspicious, (âs pish' us), favora ble; giving fair promises of success. 'I don' ti ty, sameness.

that; but his other famous discovery; that the sun rises several hours before noon; that he begins to shine as soon as he rises; and that the solar ray is a cheaper light for the inhabitants of large cities, than the candles, and oil, and wax tapers, which they are in the habit of preferring to it.

2. I say, sir, my discovery is somewhat of the same kind; and I really think full as important. I have been upon the track of it for several years; ever since the glitter of a few metallic particles in the gravel washed out of Capt. Sutter's mill-race' first led to the discovery of the gold diggings of California; which for some time past has been pouring into the country fifty or sixty millions of dollars annually.

3. My discovery, sir, is nothing short of this-that we have no need to go or send to Californiä for gold, inasmuch as we have gold diggings on this side of the continent much more productive, and consequently much more valuable than theirs. I do not of course refer to the mines of North Carolina or Georgia, which have been worked with some success for several years, but which, compared with California, are of no great moment.

4. I refer to a much broader vein of auriferous' earth, which runs wholly through the States on this side of the Rocky Mountains, which we have been working unconsciously for many years, without recognizing its transcendent' importance; and which it is actually estimated will yield, the present year, ten or fifteen times as much as the California diggings, taking their produce at sixty millions of dollars.

5. Then, sir, this gold of ours not only exceeds the California in the annual yield of the diggings, but in several other respects. It certainly requires labor, but not nearly as much labor to get it out. Our diggings may be depended on with far greater confidence, for the average yield on a given superficies. A certain quantity of moisture is no doubt necessary with us, as with them, but you are not required, as you are in the placers' of California, to stand up to your middle in water all day, rocking a cradle

1 Mill'-rāce, the current of water which turns the wheel of a mill, or the canal in which it is conveyed.

2

Au rif er ous, producing gold. 3 Trans cend' ent, surpassing; very great,

5

* Superficies, (sü` per fish'ez), surface; outward part or face of a thing. Placer, (plå sår), a gravelly place where gold is found, especially by the side of a river, or in the bed of a mountain torrent.

filled with gravel and gold-dust. The cradles we rock are filled with something better.

6. Another signal advantage of our gold over the California gold is, that after being pulverized' and moistened, and subjected to the action of moderate heat, it becomes a grateful and nutritious article of food; whereas no man, not even the lõng-eared King of Phrygia' himself, who wished that every thing he touched might become gold-could masticate* a thimble-full of the California dust, cold or hot, to save him from starvation.

7. Then, sir, we get our Atlantic gold on a good deal mōre favorable terms than we get the California. It is probable, nay, it is certain, that, for every million dollars' worth of dust that we have received from San Francisco, we send out a full million's worth in produce, in manufactures, in notions generally, and in freight; but the gold which is raised from the diggings this side, yields, with good management, a vast increase on the outlay, some thirty fold, some sixty, some a hundred.

6

8. But, besides all this, there are two discriminating circumstances of a most peculiar character, in which our gold differs from that of California, greatly to the advantage of ours. The first is this: On the Sacramento and Feather rivers, throughout the placers, in all the wet diggings and the dry diggings, and in all the deposits of auriferous quartz, you can get but one solitary exhaustive crop from one locality; and, in getting that, you spoil it for any further use. The soil is dug over, worked over, washed over, ground over, sifted over-in short, turned into an abomination of desolation, which all the guano' of the Chincha Islands would not restore to fertility.

9. You can never get from it a second yield of gold, nor any thing else, unless, perhaps a crop of mullen or stramonium.®

1 1Půl' ver ized, converted into powder or fine dust.

2 Nutritious, (nu trish' us), nourishing, promoting growth.

Mi' das, who is represented as having the ears of an ass, and the power to change every thing that he touched into gold.

* Mǎs' ti cāte, to grind with the teeth and prepare for swallowing. 'Freight, (fråt), the lading of a

ship, wagon, etc.; the price of transporting goods.

6

Quartz, (kwartz), a kind of rock, or rather an ingredient of rocks. "Guano, (gwa' no), a rich manure; the dung of sea-fowls.

* Stra mō ni um, a plant having rank leaves, and large trumpet-shaped flowers. It has poisonous properties, and is used in medicine to relieve pain and produce sleep.

The Atlantic diggings, on the contrary, with good management, will yield a fresh crop of the gold every four years, and remain in the interval in condition for a succession of several other good things of nearly equal value.

10. The other discriminating circumstance is of still more astonishing nature. The grains of the California gold are dead, inorganic masses. How they got into the gravel; between what mountain mill-stones, whirled by elemental storm-winds on the bosom of ocean'ic' torrents, the auriferous ledges were ground to powder; by what Titanic' hands the coveted grains were sown broadcast in the placers, human science can but faintly conjecture. We only know that those grains have within them no principle of growth or reproduction, and that when that crop was put in, Chaos' must have broken up the soil.

11. How different the grains of our Atlantic gold, sown by the prudent hand of man, in the kindly alterna'tion of seedtime and harvest; each curiously, mysteriously organized; hard, horny, seeming lifelèss on the outside, but wrapping up in the interior a seminal germ," a living principle! Drop a grain of California gold into the ground, and there it will lie unchanged to the end of time, the clods on which it falls not more cold and lifeless. Drop a grain of our gold, of our blessed gold, into the ground, and lo! a mystery. In a few days it softens, it swells, it shoots upward, it is a living thing.

12. It is yellow itself, but it sends up a delicate spire, which comes peeping, emerald green, through the soil; it expands to a vigorous stalk; revels in the air and sunshine; arrays itself, more glorious than Solomon, in its broad, fluttering, leafy robes, whose sound, as the west winds whispers through them, falls as pleasantly on the husbandman's ear as the rustle of his sweet

'In`or găn' ic, having no organs; not found with the organs or instruments of life.

2 El`e měnt al, relating to the elements, here meaning earth, air, fire, and water.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Oceanic, (o she ån'ik), pertain- term is that confused mass of mating to the ocean.

* Ti tăn' ic, gigantic. The Titanes or Titans was a name applied by the ancients to the sons of Cœlus and

ter which existed before the creation of the world.

"Sěm' i nal germ, the germ or growing principle of the seed.

« ПретходнаНастави »