There seems to be no doubt that the plane-tree is the Armon of Scripture, since the Arabic, Greek, Syrian, and Vulgate versions all agree in so considering it. The Platanus orientalis was a very favourite tree among the ancients, as the classical reader well knows. The term Platanus, is from a Greek word signifying "broad," and applies to the diffusive shade of this delightful tree, which was in fact the quality that recommended it to the attachment of Eastern nations. The Hebrew appellation Armon comes from a root which signifies to be stripped, and agrees very well with the plane, when the bark spontaneously peels off, and leaves the trunk apparently bare. The chestnut has a wide spreading top, but its bark, though curiously cleft into oblong cells, does not peel off, as in the plane and birch. WOOD ENGRAVING. [Dunlap's Arts of Design.] great rapidity, and at an astonishingly cheap rate. Their method of printing is simple, and peculiar Much disputation has arisen as to the period when engraving was first practised in Europe. The earliest specimen of which there is any record is said to have been executed, on wood, at Ravenna, in 1285. In the next, or fourteenth century, the productions of the art were chiefly playing-cards and figures of saints. It was practised, first in the Venetian States, and afterward in Germany and the Low Countries, to a great extent. The impressions appear to have been taken by a hand-roller, the press not being known until the following century, in the early part of which larger subjects, of a devotional kind, with inscriptions, were engraved. Several of these curious prints are still extant; amongst them, in the possession of Earl Spencer, is the celebrated one of St. Christopher bearing the infant Jesus, reAs engraving and printing unquestionably had markable as being the earliest print to which is astheir origin in China, it will be proper to give a signed a certain date, viz. 1423. The success of sketch of the peculiar modes practised in that em- these gave rise to a more extensive application of pire. The design is made on a thin, transparent the art. Scriptural designs of many figures were paper, and pasted with the face downward on the cut with descriptive texts on each block; they were block; it is then engraved by cutting through the printed on one side only of the paper, and two of the paper into the wood, leaving standing only those prints were frequently pasted together to form one portions of the surface which appear black in the leaf, with a picture on each side: entire sets were drawing. Their tools are similar in many respects subsequently bound up, and thus were formed the to those of other block-cutters, ancient and modern, block books so well known to antiquaries. The consisting of a knife for outlining, with gouges, Apocalypse of St. John, probably the first of these chisels, &c, of various shapes, for clearing away the works, was published about the year 1420; one of wood. They use them with much celerity, espe- the identical blocks cut for it still exists in the library cially the knife, which they guide with both hands; of Earl Spencer. The latest and most noted of this facility enables them to furnish their blocks with, them, the "Speculum Humanæ Salvationis," apVOL. V.-27 peared in 1440, and being partly printed from move able wooden types, became the connecting medium that gradually introduced the invaluable art of typography, which, facilitating the production of books, was the means of greatly increasing the demand for wood-cuts, for primers, prayer-books, &c. In 1457, Faust produced his Psalter, printed with metal types, and initials in colours from blocks. Typography was introduced into England in 1474, but was executed in a ruder manner than on the continent; and till 1493, wood-cuts every where consisted of little more than outline. In that year, a great improvement was perceptible, and attempts were made at cross-hatching. This was carried to a much higher perfection by Albert Durer, an eminent painter, who published several large works of high talent, and who engraved on copper as well as wood. The sixteenth century produced Holbein, and many other able wood-engravers, in several parts of continental Europe. In the seventeenth century the art visibly declined, owing to the superiour cultivation of copper-engraving, and by the year 1700, it had sunk to a very depressed state. With the exception of the French family of Papillon, its annals afford no name of distinction, till 1768, when Bewick, who had the genius of a painter, appeared. His works are well known, and effected, by their excellence, the restoration of an almost lost art. Other artists have since introduced a richer and more varied style of workmanship, which has led to the adoption of the art to so wide an extent as must ever prevent its again sinking into neglect. The theory and practice of this art are in principle the reverse of engraving on copper; in the latter the lines to be printed are sunk or cut in the plate; these being filled with ink, are by means of a rolling-press transferred in effect to the paper. In wood-engraving, on the contrary, the parts that are to appear must be raised, or rather left untouched, and hence it is frequently termed relief-engraving. In printing, the surface is only charged with ink, and the impression is taken as from types. The copper-engraver rarely uses more than three tools of the kind called burins, or gravers. The artist on wood requires according to circumstances, from ten to fifteen or eighteen, called gravers, tools for tinting and sculptures, the latter are used for cutting out the -broader parts which are to be left white. The earlier artists cut on various kinds of wood, such as the apple, pear, &c.: these being termed soft woods, are now only in request for calico-printing, and other manufacturing purposes; for as the style of work improved, they were abandoned, and box was tried on account of its superiour texture and compactness, which have caused it to be the only kind used for every subject that can be properly termed a work of art. s The surface of the wood to be engraved is carefully planed, scraped, &c. so as to render it as smooth as possible, in order to receive the drawing which must be put on the block itself, previously to commencing the engraving. The artist in its execution, has to arrange the strength and direction of the lines required for the various parts and distances, so that the printed impression, though composed of different series of interlineations, may present the same character in effect as the original drawing. Much care is requisite, on the part of the engraver, to prevent a delicate design from being rubbed during the process of cutting; and it is usually covered with paper, which is removed by degrees as required. It will be apparent also, how much depends upon the skill of the engraver, when it is considered, that with every line cut by the tool, a portion of the effect of his original is removed, and his recollective powers and taste must be in constant exercise, to preserve the points of the design; and the block must be wholly engraved before any impression can be taken. The copper-engraver, on the contrary, is enabled to take progressive proofs of his work, and has his original drawing unimpaired, constantly before him. The latter has also another important advantage, in what is termed tinting; inasmuch as all his skies and flat back-grounds can be cut on the plate itself by mechanical means; and his various tints are thereby produced with every required delicacy. The wood-engraver can have no such facility; all depends upon the steadiness of the eye and hand, properly to effect the object, by cutting line after line individually, without any auxiliary assistance whatever. These brief explanations may show the principles on which all wood-engravings are effected. Thus, whether the design relate to landscape, the human figure, or any other subject, it must be composed of an infinite number and variety of projecting portions of wood, produced by those delineations which, in the judgement of the engraver, are best calculated to convey, when printed, the desired effect. The ancient mode of working was on the side of the grain, the wood being cut the longitudinal way of the tree; this method continued, for all wood-cuts, till about the year 1725, when the present method was commenced in England, of cutting the tree transversely, or across. This plan, presenting the end of the grain, admits, from its greater tenacity, of a finer kind of workmanship, and the application of the description of tools before named. The block-cutters for paper-hangings, &c. have their wood prepared in the same way as the old masters, and of course use similar tools; the chief of which: is a knife, shaped somewhat like a lancet, with which the line must be cut on both sides, and the superfluous wood must be removed by gouges, chisels, &c. of various shapes, as derived originally from the Chinese. When we consider that in this way all the finished works of the ancients were produced, it attaches a very great degree of merit to them; it being evidently a more tedious process than the modern; since, if a line be cut with a knife, it must be met by another line, before any wood can be taken out; whereas, in the present mode, the graver, as it cuts the incision, removes the wood at the instant of operation. The value of wood-engraving is becoming daily more and more apparent in both hemispheres, by the demands on the talents of those who practise it. Its prominent points and beauties will hereby, by degrees, become more universally understood; but for this a thorough reformation in printing is necessary. Considering the innumerable works continually issued, illustrated with wood-cuts, the publick have, with very few exceptions, but little chance of duly estimating its merits; since, in the greater number of these books, the engravings are printed in so heedless a manner, as scarcely to deserve, by their appearance, the name of embellishments. FARMERS' DEPARTMENT. THE GREATEST FARM IN ENGLAND. The which allows them this sweet free range, and which saves the poor beautiful creatures from all harm. Here are the woods too. As I rode through their long winding lanes to-day on horseback, the air was The correspondent of the Boston Transcript, filled with the perfume of forest flowers, and with furnishes the following interesting account of the the chirping and fluttering of birds. The yellowManor of Mr. Coke, in Norfolk-recently elevated hammer whirred away on his gay speckled wings, as to the Peerage by Queen Victoria. we trotted up to him; the shining blue-jay glanced HOLKAM HALL, Norfolk, June, 1837. This place" like a javelin by ;" and "the wood-pecker tapped is renowned throughout England at least, as the at the hollow beech-tree." seat, and especially as the farm, of old Mr. Coke, The remoter lawns are spotted with little flocks of the father of the farmers of Norfolk; and I am hap- sheep, of which over three thousand are kept on the py, therefore, to have enjoyed an excellent opportu- place, of the famous South Devon breed. One meets nity of seeing the estate. I shall not probably find also in the pastures these fine sleek, bright looking, in Great Britain a better specimen either of the style Devon cattle, browzing in herds. There are more of life or of 66 a good old country gentleman" of this than three hundred of them including an immense realm, and of the ancient school, or of the manage- dairy, besides Scotch cattle. Beyond the lawns, ment of a first rate practical proprietor's estate. Let one gets at once into the cultivation, and a ring of me begin by giving you some idea of the latter; this, skirted and sheltered here and there with avepremising that this is the same Mr. Coke who mov-nues and copses of trees, encircles the whole estate. ed, in the House of Commons, the discontinuance of I rode along the edge of a field of one hundred and the American war of '75, and who, having carried it thirty acres of barley in one place. In another were in that great and excited body by a majority of one, sixty acres of wheat; and there were two fields of was himself, at the suggestion of his friend Mr. Fox, peas, of twenty-five and twenty-seven acres. appointed at the head of a committee to take up an arable land is divided about equally between these address to His Majesty George III, in pursuance of grains, turnips, and grass, which four crops, somethe vote. This he did in his farmer's dress, with times having grass for two seasons, constitutes the his white topp'd boots and frock on, for that was the routine of the succession of tillage on the same costume. Every American must respect the old ground. There are in cultivation at present about man for this achievement, and they will not like four hundred and thirty acres of wheat and barley him less to know that every day at his table, during each, and in fine condition. The head farmer told that barbarous war, he was accustomed, as he often me that thirty bushels an acre is rather an indifferent declares now, to drink the health of Gen. Washing- crop, and that forty and fifty are more "the right ton, as the greatest man in existence. This liberal thing." It must be borne in mind, when I say this, spirit has always distinguished Mr. Coke, and he that Holkam has been completely made over by Mr. began his career in Parliament with the war itself, Coke. When he succeeded to the estate, it was but and remained in it near sixty years. Were he still a mere desert. There were no trees here even, and a member, which his age eighty-two now prevents, he it was hardly believed the land would let them grow. would by many years be the "Father of the House." Mr. Coke says the rabbits were the only creatures Well! Now for the estate; and first, merely as a who could live on it, and they were starving! Now farmer's. The land here is about three thousand five what a triumph is this! Go with me to-day into hundred acres ; nearly the whole of it is enclosed by this village of Holkam, which all belongs virtually a neat, high, brick wall extending about a circuit of to the estate, and lives by it in one way or another. ten miles. This comprises the plantations of wood, Here are five hundred persons, probably, besides and a beautiful "lake," as they call it, both of which those sent off, well provided for elsewhere. Their are wholly artificial. The latter is the finest artifi- cottages are a curiosity of rural neatness and comcial water that I ever saw, and quite deceived me. fort. Little gardens surround them, and flowers Nothing could appear more originally rural than its hang out of the windows and climb over the doorborders which are completely overshadowed with ways. Some one hundred and fifty persons are emforests, and as wild altogether as if I had discovered ployed on the farm alone. Then in the gardens, them and the lake itself in the depth of some solitude the light acres of which are surrounded with a wall of Michigan. All these woods have been planted. fourteen hundred yards long and fourteen feet high, The estate is plentifully sprinkled over with various are perhaps forty more; in the brickyard twenty; in species of trees, in copses, in acres of forest, and in the blacksmith's shop ten; and some wheel-wrights; avenues; and all is artificial work, and yet that art and game-keepers, I dare say; and a little army of so perfect that the warmest lover of nature cannot servants, of course, for in the mansion, when the desire more. Instead of a mere park, in one body, family are here, twenty females alone are employed. it is as one wants it-every where an ornament and The women do some work also on the farm; such a shelter-over hill and dale-but nowhere in ex- as weeding the grain, which, as well as the peas, cess, or yet in the way of the farmer. Immediately and in fact all the crops, is drilled. I saw twenty around the mansion, (of which hereafter,) indeed, women in one field, weeding. Beyond that, and are only gardens, walks, and a wide extent of velvet outside of the walls of the regular estate, we came lawns on every side; but even these latter are mark-to a "little bit" of a plantation, of only six hundred ed with their owner's scheme of the practical. It more. Here they were hard at work. In one field, is not only the pheasant I see shuffling about here in these cool shades. It is not alone the graceful deer that browze and bound along these soft lawns. These are a charm to the eye, and I like the taste where turnips were sowing, all the processes went on at once. There were twenty men and boys spreading manure, out of five or six carts, drawn by three horses each; (of which there are a hundred on can prepare the ground, plant, and cultivate five acres of beets in a season, and the product would doubtless yield many tons of saccharine matter.” A PRODUCTIVE PEACH FARM. the place,) five or six ploughs, drawn by two, who ploughed without a driver; then two cast iron round rolls, by two; three or four harrows, by one; two drill machines, self sowing, by two; and then the harrow again brought up the rear. I ought to speak of the almshouse for the old, and the schools for the young, and of the farming system more in detail, but Mr. Jacob Ridgeway has a farm near Delaware there is no room. I will only add that young farm-city, in this county, on which he commenced planters come here from all quarters to learn the science. ing a peach orchard in the year 1831. In the seven I saw four of them riding over the grounds this morn-years which have elapsed since he commenced the ing, who are under the care of the manager. The plantation, Mr. Ridgeway has planted one hundred whole place is considered a model of both the sci- and forty acres one hundred trees to the acre. The ence and the art of farming. SUGAR BEET. produce of the present year is estimated at one hundred baskets per acre, or fourteen thousand baskets of peaches. The peaches, of which he presented us some specimens, are of the finest kind, large and A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette furnish-of delicious flavour. Two schooners are constantly es the following interesting facts, collected by ob-employed in transporting the fruit to the Philadelphia servation in relation to the cultivation of Beet. and New York markets, where, we understand, it "When on a visit to the farm of our enterprising meets with ready sale at three, four, and five dollars citizen, Lot Pugh, thirty-two miles north of our per basket. It is estimated that his peach crop will city, I saw white Sugar Beets, raised from seed im-yield a profit during the present year of twenty thouported from France, which measured thirty inches in sand dollars. Delaware Paper. circumference, and weighed, after being removed from the ground and divested of foreign substances, twenty-two pounds. Although the specimen which TO PREVENT HORSES BEING TEASED WITH FLIES . was measured and weighed, was taken from a field Take two or three small handfuls of walnut leaves, of several acres, still it probably was not the largest upon which pour two or three quarts of cold soft for the greater part of the crop appeared to be of water, let it infuse one night, and pour the whole equal magnitude. A Mangel Wurtzel from the same the next morning into a kettle, and let it boil for a grounds and raised from imported seed also, meas-quarter of an hour, when cold it will be ready for ured twenty-five inches in circumference, and weigh-use. Nothing more is required than to moisten a ed sixteen pounds and a half. It must be observed sponge with the liquor, and before the horse goes that as these beets were removed from the earth on out of the stable let those parts which are most irrithe twenty-third of August, they had not attained table be smeared over with the liquor, viz., between their full growth. Indeed, it is probable that many and upon the ears, the neck, the flank, &c. Not of the former may measure three feet in circumfer-only the lady or gentleman who rides out for pleasence, and the latter two and a half, when they are fully grown. The manager of the farm, informed me that he raised fifty tons, actual weight, of beets to the acre, last year, and that his crop is much better the present season. He also said that it required but little more labour to raise fifty tons of beets than fifty bushels of corn, while the former was quite as good for horses, much better for cattle, and rather better for stock hogs. He also asserted that sucking calves preferred beets, when properly prepared, to milk. Indeed, I could almost select from among fifty-six head of fine Durham cattle, those that had been fed, during the last season on beets. They were not only fatter but smoother, and better grown than those that had been kept on other food. Although cattle and hogs will eat beets in a raw state, still they are much better when boiled. The apparatus and fixtures used by Mr. Pugh for boiling, or rather steaming food for three hundred hogs, and forty or fifty cows, with other stock, cost about one hundred and fifty dollars, and consumes a quarter of a cord of wood per day. Among the Durham cattle on the farm of Mr. Pugh, I observed some very fine young males, and among them, Lebanon, an animal of superiour growth and figure. Mr. P. has not attempted to make sugar from his beets, but if its manufacture is profitable any where from this article, it would certainly be so here, for no soil can produce a better growth. Two hands ure, will derive benefit from the walnut leaves thus prepared, but the coachman, the wagoner, and all others who use horses during the hot months. THE SILK BUSINESS. France is considered a silk growing country, yet she does not grow sufficient for her own manufactures and it is said annually imports raw silk to the amount of six millions of dollars. England, owing to the humidity of her climate, cannot raise the worms to advantage, and for her numerous manufactories is obliged annually to import the raw material from other countries to the amount of seventeen millions of dollars. It is stated that we import annually of raw silk to the amount of about ten millions of dollars, and of the manufactured over sixteen millions. Unless the United States pushes the culture of the mulberry and raising of cocoons beyond any thing now in operation, many long years must intervene before we can supply the demand of our own markets. Inhabiting, as we do, one of the best climates in the world for manufacturing silk of the best quality, instead of paying ten millions of dollars annually to other nations for the raw material, we ought to export two or three times that amount. It is said our import of silk stuffs exceeds our export of bread stuffs-why is this? Only because we do not appreciate and improve the means we have. Let our intelligent farmers be convinced that the silk business is profitable, and then we can hope that every exertion will be made to extend the culti-will be found, if any where, in his house, out-houses, The property, dignity, and comfort of a farmer vation of the mulberry and raising of cocoons. children. farm, garden, cattle, tools, and the education of his It is a matter of regret, that any one should view the subject as a wild project, and say, that although it may be a good business for a few years, if found lucrative, every body will engage in it, and glut the market. We wish the subject could be so represented to our fellow citizens, as to impress them with the importance of examining the subject on the broad scale of greater national importance than any agricultural subject ever yet pursued. But if doubts and fears shall remain, we only ask them to commence the culture of the mulberry on a POTATOES. Lime has been used by some of our farmers in raising potatoes. They find it beneficial, not only to the potato crop, but to the succeeding crops. Its effects are visible for several years. The manner of applying it is, to put a spoonful in a hill after the potatoes are dropped, and cover the lime and potatoes together. No only is the quantity of the crop increased, but the quality is improved by it. where a large portion of the children of farmers in First, Education. The common district schools, New England receive their education, are kept generally by men in the winter, and by women in the summer. The men's schools, in the town of Stockis probably about the average of other towns in New bridge, average about four months in the year, which England, and this is all the instruction that many farmer's sons get from male instructers, till they are the schools altogether, for the farm, for trades, or about sixteen years of age, when they generally leave business of some kind or other. In some parts of the country, private schools are now growing up, which being supported by subscription, are very su periour to the common district schools, and are attended by the children of the more intelligent class kept in small, cold, and inconvenient buildings, of farmers. The common schools are generally where thirty, forty and sometimes a much larger number, are huddled together, and taught by one master. The masters are often young men, many of them yet students in the colleges, not more than eighteen or twenty years of age. The average wadollars a month, besides board, &c., which is a little ges in these schools are about twelve or fourteen more than farmers' hired men get, and less than meand inexperienced to be qualified for their tasks; chanicks receive. These masters are too young and this, then, is one of the most melancholy marks of the poverty of large numbers of American farmers; that their children are wretchedly educated. Potatoes have become, to a considerable extent, an artice of export, and may be reckoned one of the Farmers' houses and out-houses.-The old houses most profitable crops on farms situated near naviga- of the northern states having generally been built of ble waters. The South will always depend on us wood are many of them greatly out of repair, and for their supply, if we send them a good article. comfortless. Even in the richer parts of the state Should the state do any thing to facilitate transporta- of New York, which have not been settled more than tion by canals and railroads, a general benefit will forty or fifty years, there are many houses and outbe felt among the farmers for the sale of this article. houses in a shameful state of decay, from mere negThey may be raised at a very cheap rate on stub-lect and want of economy. ble land. Å little lime to assist in decomposing the wives and daughters of the farmers, are running to While so many of the stubble, is all the manure that is necessary to ensure the stores for fashionable gewgaws and prefer fine a good crop, and by planting in straight drills, most ribbons, to fine farms, the principle of affection for, of the labour may be performed by a horse. Land and pride in the paternal estate, remains uncherishmay be prepared in this manner for a second crop of ed among us-and this is the reason why many wheat. The lime applied to the potatoes is suffi- farmers after having so long neglected their farms, cient for the wheat, without another application. and buildings are obliged finally to sell them for halt Maine Farmer. the price they ought to bring, and then move to the new states in a beggarly condition. In too many of the farmers' barns, stables and out-houses, there CAUSES OF POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES. are the same unhappy marks of the poverty of the [Sedgwick's Publick and Private Economy.] owner-few, or no contrivances by shelter and otherwise to save manure, or economize in any way, all of Poverty of farmers in the United States! The which cost money; and this is the farmer's excuse reader will smile at the very mention of the name of " that he is too poor to afford such labour-saving poverty among our farmers, after seeing how supe-improvements." It is the opinion of some farmers riour their condition is, to that of the cultivators of at the north, that the produce of their towns might the earth in any other portions of it. Let it be re- be doubled in ten years, by the proper use of plaster membered, than, that the inquiry here is, not about of Paris, and clover-seed; of many it might be great comparative poverty, but real poverty. And what ly increased; but they say that they are too poor to is meant by real poverty among the farmers? This is meant that many, and most of them, are destitute of solid comforts and enjoyments, which they might and ought to have. afford the first cost of plaster, which is here, if ground, ten or eleven dollars the ton. This shows the use of property, of capital, of having something on hand that can be laid out for the purpose of ma |