The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-20 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

North. America ; Its Agriculture and Climate. By
Robert Russell. Adam and Chides Black,
Edinburgh.
This is a very valuable and laborious work, dif-
fering in many respects from the numerous works
of travel that are constantly issuing from the press.
The record of the author's experiences is less de-
voted to the people and cities than to the soil on
which the cities are built, and the variations by which
the inhabitants are affected. It is partly of a scien-
tific nature, describing and exemplifying the aeri-
cultural and meteorological peculiarities of North
America. The qualities of the soil, its different
productions, the mode in which they are raised, and
the different necessaries for their cultivation are
treated of with care and ability. His researches
extended through Canada, the United States, and
the Island of Cuba. In the latter portion of the
volume he gives the substance of a course of lec-
tures he delivered in the Smithsonian Ins'itution,
on the climate of North America. It must not be
supposed, however, that the author confines
himself to agricultural statistics and meteoro-
logical tables ; on the contrary, though the
soil and its productions are his chief topic,
he interpolates various anecdotes, and incidents
which occurred to him in his journey, that serve to
lighten the volume, and prevent the more scientific
part from becoming tedious. On his firAt lauding
in America, he was struck with the small stature
and pale faces of the and women. This he
attributes to tie great extremes of temperature in
the United States. Of the progress of education in
the States he :Teaks most favourably.
"It is very difficult to draw Hues of d:atinetiun be-
tween ela.ses of gocirty in New England._ At the hotel

I had some conversation with a person who had all the
appearance and manners of a gentleman, but who was no
other than a working niechatiic. He had driven down his
wife and family from a village 13 miles iilsnd to have a
day's recreation at Nahant. This way of spending a
little spare money raises the moral and social condition
of those who labour with their hands, and maintains a
sense of self-respect. The general diffusion of education
among all classes in New England has had the effrct of
raising them in a great ineasere beyond the temptation
of indulging in drinking habits, which are more common
where ignorance prevail'', especially when combined
with a high rate of wares. A Sheffield manufacturer,
carrying on business both in England and the Urited
Stases, informed me that in the majority of cases the '
high wages which he paid to his workmen in Britain
did not improve their condition, as ro much was squan-
dered tor spirits, whereas the educated mechanics of
New England were iu general a sober and industrious
class of 'neat

"After travelling for some time in Massachusetts,
one is impressed with the thorough diffusion of educa-
tion among all classes, and with the universal politeness
mingled with independence which prevails. Although
American phrases are very cr.mmon in ordinary
conversation, yet in all the larger towns of this State
the English language is spoken with great purity.
The logitdature is making efforts to give a free educa
tion to every one who chooses to accept of it. Boston
and its environs contain a population of about 300,000,
and in 1853 they assessed themselves to the amount of
60,0001. tor educational purposes.
The Maine Liquor Law was still nominally in force
when he was in that state, though in many parts in
abeyance. In some towns it was necessary to go
into the cellar to obtain liquor, but in others people
partook of it at all hours, and the landlord laughed
openly at the legal prohibition. The informers,
having drawn much ill-will on themselves, have
ceased their labours, and the law remains
in a state of uncertainty which our author
considers injurious in. its tendency. But how, he
asks, could any other result be expected, when one-
fourth of the population were opposed to the law
and continually breaking it. Nevertheless, he des-
cribes the New Englanders as very temperate
people, wisely attributing their moderation to the
temperate habits of the educated classes, rather
than to an arbitrary law which provokes opposition.
The soil and climate of this state are pezuliagy
favourable to the growth of timber. Fire destroys
wide tracts of the forest almost every year yet the
soil is never bare. He was shown a spot which had
been destroyed by fire the previous year, which was
occupied with thriving birch saplings. Every little
crevice in the rocks affords hold for the roots of

some forest tree, and, however rocky bare
it is always densely covered with timber, nu-
less very precipiroui. The following desciiption of
oak-openings in Michigan is interesting. It will be
remembered these curious spots gave the name to..
one of Cooper's popular novels.
" After bidding adieu to Mr. Holmes, to whom I feel
myself under great obligations for his attention, I left
n, xt afternoon by railway for Chicago on Lokke Michigan,
a distance of 140 toilet,. The line rues through a long
stretch of "oak-openings," which were the finest speci-
mens of this peculiar kind of forest growth that I saw ;
and s hat made them more interestit,g was the circum-
. . . . .

stance of their being Ramat untouched by the axe of the
backwoodsman. Where oak-openings occur, the soil
is dry and gravelly, and the surface undulating—a
feature which seems common to most of the gravels in
Europe and America. The trees are thinly distributed
over the surface, and the distance at a Inch they grow
from each other seemed so regular, that one might nave
supposed a skilful forester had been employed to plant
them. The crooked trunks are usually about afo ,t and

a half in diatnetkr, and bare from 20 to 25 fee., from
the ground • after that they are forked, but, having no
great abundance of branches, have altogether a guarl-d
appearance. The soil seems to be too dry and
gravelly to support a denser growth ; for on the
ridges they were from 30 to 40 yards apart, while
in the hollows, where the land was moister,
the trees were more thickly planted. The contrast

very striking between the densely-wooded rands

and gravels of New England, which are the very types
of sterility, and the stunted growth of the trees on
the better soils of the oak-openiegs. The climate of

the Western States is not nearly so propitious to the
growth of tress as that of the Atlantic sea-board,
where the rains at certain seasons of the year are more
abundant.

" Oali-openingP, I believe, do not occur much farther
to the eastward than Paris in Upper Canada, where the
soil is very similar to that of the oak-openings of Michi-
gan. It is generally supposed that the prairies and oak-
openings are the result of the Indians formerly having
fired the country every year for hunting grounds. The
blackened mould of the prairies is no doubt partly owing

,o the charred vegetable matter from fires which EC)

frequently ran over them. But in the oak-openings
there is little evidence of fire being concerned in their

formation, for the colour of the vegetable mould is of
the same hazel tinge which prevails in the oak-forests
of Ohio."

A. chapter on rice culture gives some curious and
useful statistics. Rice, it appears, is considered an
article of luxury, and is far higher i❑ price than
Indian corn. The demand far exceeds the supply,
as the land capable of raising it with advantige is
comparatively limited. The slaves on rice and cot ton
plantations are supplied with Indian corn in its
stead. Large capitals are required for its cultiva-
tion on the tidal swamps, but the rice grounds are
more valuable than any other crop. One pecu-
liarity of the rice crop is the following :
" The rice plant adapts itself in a most wonderful
manner to the most opposite conditions in respect to
moisture. There is no cultivated plant that bears any
resemblance to it. The same variety which grows on the
upland cotton-soils and en the dry pine-barrens, grows
in the tide-swamps, where the land is laid under water

for weeks at a tine ; and even in the lower part of the
delta of the Mississippi, where the fields are under water

from the time of sowing to that of reaping.
In his accounts of the inhabitants and social state
of Cuba, the author gives some melancholy details
of the extent to which the slave trade is carried
on. " Some planters will tell you that the slave
trade is now abolished ; but when one visits the
sugar plantations he sees that the great maj,)rity of
the men have been dragged from Africa." The
subjoined extract gives some idea of the labour
which is exacted from them at the crushing season.
" The season for crushing sugar-cane in Cuba lasts for
six months at least ; and from all I heard and saw, I am
fully persuaded that the negroes are much over-tasked
at this time on almost all the sugar planta ions.
Until I visited the sugar fields and factories, I had no
conception that such severe and long-continued exer-
tion could possibly be endured by any race of men.
The common practice on all the estates which
I visited, was that the able-bodied negroes begin
the day's work at half-past four a.m., and at
ten o'clock have an hour for breakfast. Then re-
suming work go on till sunset, when they get dinner
and another hour's rest, alter which they work on in
unremitting toil till midnight, thus working 18 hours
out of the 24, and with only four hours for sleep. The
system is so thoroughly organised, that ne one can relax
his efforts without being liable to punishment. On the
majority of the estates there is one "driver," or under-
overseer, for every ten able-bodied slaves. The slaves
that take in the cane in waggons from the fields to the
sugar-house, usually do so in companies of ten, over
whom a Creole "driver" is set, mounted on horseback,
with a whip in his band and cutlass by his side. 1 was
told by one planter, who was working his negroes on the
Sunday, that a holiday was usnallyallowe once a week;
but I found others, well acquainted with the system,
who gave zee a very different account of matters. On
one large estate which I visited, the practice was that,
so long as the machinery held good, there was no
stopping, Sunday or Saturday, during the crashing
season.
"I well remember seeing twenty negro men pounding
sugar, with short hand mallets, in large wooden troughs
drawn out from below a shed. They had no other
clothing than short trousers, and their bare heads and
backs were exposed to the sun. There were two drivers
set over them, the ono a creole and the other a negro.
Both had whips in their hands, and the creole Cad a
cutlass by his aide. Tho negroes were not suffered to
relax their efforts for a moment, and, hard as they were
working, still I pitied the negro driver almost as much.
The poor wretch was constantly crying out to the others
to work harder ; but this was done as much apparently
for the purpose of koepiog up a certain amount of
excitement to prevent himself from falling asleep as to
keep the others at their task ; for he seemed to be
I completely tortured with sleep, as he leaned against

the trough. I found parallel Ecenes enacted in the
sugar-houses. In one an old negro, wbo was attending
to the boiling pans, was constantly calling out to the
negro who was throwing in the refuse of the cane or
begasse, 'no fire,' "no bra at all.' This was also done
in order to keep up a certain amount of excitement, and
to relieve the monotony of his work. I was assured br
a workicg engineer that fatal accidents, arising from the
negroes being overcome with sleep and falling into the
boiling juice, were not uncommon.
" Women, girls, and boys, are all tasked beyond
their strength. The gangs that are seen about the sugar-
houses are most emaciated creatures. At night they are
usually found chanting some song to beguile the weary
hours. The children do a little hers ; for all who seemed

able to run were sent out under the charge of an aged
matron to gather up the dried cans that bad been
crushed, and to put it into heaps, or some other descrip-
tion of light work is as!igred to them.
Little improvement can be hoped for in the phy-
sical condition of the negroes, says the author, until
the African slave trade is abolished, as, being un-
able to import fresh slimes, the planters arc forced
to devote more care to the condition of the resident
negroes and their families. As Spain has received
400,0001. as compensation for her loss in entering
on a treaty to suppress the slave trade, it is scaoely
too much to expect that some attention may be
directed to this matter. The meteorological
observaions at the end are very instructive, and
highly interesting to those familiar with the
study. Numerous diagrams illustrate the
course and different degrees of hurricanes,
trade winds, &c. Toe following obssrvat oils were
made by the author during the first thunderstorm
he witnessed :

"I❑ the 6r,t thundet-storm that I encountered in the
United States, I was rather struck with the phenomenon
of the clouds drifting in the upper current from the we4t
while the wied blew from the south. It occurred at
Saratoga on the 6th of September, 1854. At aunties
the temperature was 70 deg. with a dew point of 69
deg. ; the thermometer at 2 p.m. reached 96 deg.
Notwithstanding the great heat, the wind blew strongly
from south by west, but thunder-clouds floated in the
upper current from the north of west. Thunder with
much rain occurred at night, and next day the wind
changed to the north of west, and the sky became
beautifully transparent, with the thermometer at 82 deg.
at 2 p.m.

"The cause of this peculiar action of the thunder-
clouds floating at a higher elevation, at right angles to
the warm southerly wind, is easily explained. So long
as the wind is west or north-west in summer, the sky
retains its transparency ; but when it changes to a
southerly quarter, it does not blow more than a day or
two before clouds begin to form. The clouds do not
often float in the south wind, but almost always in that
upper current which prevails so constantly from the
west. This clearly shows that the upper current rubs
off a portion of the moist and hot wind from the Gulf
of Mexico, and forms clouds, for they only appear after
the southerly wind blOws for some time, and these
clouds reveal the existence of the upper current. This
action of the upper current robbing the lower is con-
stantly taking place both in summer and in winter, when
clouds form and drift in the upper current."

The reader will perceive that it is a work devoted
to the practical and scientific, containing much in-
formation, conveyed without pedantry, and likely
to be of great value to those engaged in the study
of the sciences of which it treats. All who are de-
sirous of comparing the qualities of different cli-
mates, and of ascertaining the manner in which the
laws of nature are affected by a change of hemis-
phere, should consult this able and carefully-written
volume.

A Month in the Forests of France. By the Hon .
Grantley F. Berkeley. Longman.
There have been numerous records of a sports-
man's adventures and experience* in his own* coun-
try, but this volume presents some novelty to the
reader in conducting him to the interior of France
and in substituting the wolf and the boar for the
less formidable objects of British sport. Those of
similar tastes will find much to interest them in this
work, while the general reader will probably find
some entertainment in its pages. The author ac-
companied by horse, hounds, and gun, went to en-
joy a month's sporting with a friend in his chateau
near Nevers. He met with the usual adventure of
travellers oa his route, winding up with a fracas
with a cabman and a constable at Havre on his re-
turn. The great difficulty he found in the prise-
cution of his sport was tue deficiency of hounds. He
represents them as ill-trained and improperly
managed, and it appears that when not required
for sport they are quite neglected, and the author
expresses his surprise, after czmidering the warmth
iof the 6ummer in France that men and dogs escaped
hydrophobia. Considering the harsh rules in
France respecting dogs in hot weather, it would be
at least more consistent if more care were taken to
prevent real danger. The author speaks highly of
the capab,lities of French sportsmen, and laments
they ould be so ill supplie i with the necessaries
of the chase. He tells us that he has prepared a
work for tueir instruction, which if they are as wil-
ling to learn as he is to teach will no doubt afford
much information.