The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-09-07 00:00:00

every possible variety, which influence the quality of the
wine to a greater extent than is generally supposed. We
may, therefore expect to produce wines of equally various
qualities. Some may have the roughness of port, some the
aroma 'of Burgundy,. others the lusciousness of Cyprus or
Syracuse, others may partake of the dryness of Amontillado,
or the endurance and flavour of Hock, or the sweetness of
Lacryma Christi: in short, we may produce every possible
variety resembling the wines of Europe, from the weak nor-
thern products of the Rhine, to the rich generous wines of
the south. The demoralising influence and the disorganising
tendency of spirits, as a beverage, are eves before us, both by
precept and example; and no town in the world exhibits
more vivid living examples of the dire consequences of its
use, than the streets of Sydney. A check has been proposed,
however, to the progress of this ruinous vice, by some tempe-
rate and philanthropic men, who have mutually agreed to
abandon the common use of the product of the still for that
of the press; and associations exist here, as in many other
countries, of which the members meet periodically for the
purpose of drinking wine as a solemn religious duty. Books
on the culture of the vine are already in the hands of the
colonists, whereby that, and the process of making wine
(from the use of which such evils are less apt to flow,) are
shown to be exceedingly simple; and grape vines imported
by Mr. Bushbv, from which the most esteemed wines of
France are produced, are now growing in the colony, and
cuttings of them may be had gratis at the Government Gar-
dens. Under these circumstances, it is wonderful how very
little the culture of that useful plant, with a view to its vinous
product, has hitherto been attended to in this country. Per-.
haps the inferior quality of the product of the vineyards at
the Cape of Good Hope deters many from attempting the
culture of the grapes here ; but that ought to be no reason,
when it is known that the greater part of the wines already
grown in the colony, are far superior to the generality of
those of the Cape.
THE RED MooN.—lt is believed generally, especially in
the neighbourhood of Paris, that, in certain months of the
year, the moon exerts a great influence upon the phenomena
of vegetation. Gardeners give the name of the " red moon"
to that moon which is full between the middle of April and
the close of May. According to them, the light of the moon
at that season exercises an injurious influence upon the
young shoots of plants. They say that when the sky is
clear, the leaves and buds exposed in the atmosphere stands
at many degrees above the freezing point. They say, also,
that if a clouded sky intercept the tnoonn's light, it prevents
these injurious circumstances to the plants, although the
circumstances of temperature are the same in both cases.
Any person who is acquainted with the beautiful theory of
dew; which we owe, to Dr. Wells, .will find no difficulty in
accounting for these effects, erroneously imputed •to the
moon. If the heavens be clear and unclouded; all substances
on the surface of the 'earth which are strong and powerful
radiators of beat, lose temperature by radiation, while the
unclouded sky returns no heat to them to restore what they
have lost. Such bodies, therefore, under these circumstances,
become colder than the surrounding air, and may even, if
they be liquid,. be frozeu. Ice, in fact, is produced. in warm
elimites, by similar means. But if the firmaMent be enve-
loped in clouds, these clouds, having the quality of radiating
heat, will restore by their radiation to substances upon the
surface of the earth, as much heat as such substances them-
selves lose by radiation : the temperature, therefore, of such
bodies will be maintained at a point equal to that of the air
surrounding them. Now the leaves and flowers of plants are
strong and powerful radiators of heat ; when the sky is clear,
they therefore lose temperature, and may be frozen; if, on
the other hand, the sky be clouded, their temperature is
maintained, for the reasons above stated. The moon, there-
fore, has no connection whatever with this effect; and it is
certain that plants would suffer under the same circumstances,
whether the moon is above or below the horizon. It equally
is quite true that, if the moon is above the horizon, the plants
cannot suffer unless it be visible; because a clear sky is in-
dispensable, as much to the production of the injury to the
plants as to the visibility of the moon; and, on the other
hand, the same clouds which veil the moon, and intercept
her light, give back to the plants that warmth which prevents
the injury here adverted to. The popular opinion, therefore,
is right as to the eject, but wrong as to the cause; and its
error will be at once discovered, by showing that, on a clear
night, when the moon is new, and, therefore, not visible, the
plants may nevertheless suffer.—ilionthly Chronicle. -
PARAGUAY.—A LANDSCAPE WITH ANIAIALS.—The open
Pampa was exchanged for the shady grove; the pastures,
protected by the trees, and irrigated by abundant streams,
were in most places beautifully green ; the palm-tree was a
frequent occupant of the plain • hills, and more gently sloping
eminences, contrasted beautifully with the valley and the
lake. Wooded from the base to the top, those hills and
slopes exhibited now the stately forest tree, and anon the less
aspiring shrub, the lime, and the orange, each bearing, at
the same time, both blossom add fruit. The fig-tree spread
its broad dark leaf, and offered its delicious fruit to the tra-
veller without money and without price; while the parasite
plant lend all its variety of leaf and flower to adorn the
scene. Pendent from the boughs of many of the trees was
to be seen, and yet more distinctly known by its fragrance,
the air plant. Squirrels leaped, and monkeys chattered
among the branches; the parrot and parroquet, the phea-
sant, the moigtit, the toocan, the humming-bird, the guaca-
mayo or cockatoo, and innumerable others described by
Azara, inhabited, in all their gaudy variety of plumage, the
woods through which I rode. There is one noble bird which
tenants them, that I never elsewhere saw, except on the lake
or on its banks. That bird is the pato real, or royal duck,
nearly the size of a duck, but of plumage rich and varied.
The lakes are covered with wild fowl, the marches with wa-
ter-hens and snipes. On the pasture-grounds you have the
large partridge; and on the cultivated enclosures, in great
abundance, the small one or quail.—Robertson's Letters.
An organist, not without some celebrity in his day, (Je-
remiah Clark was his name,) being hopelessly in love with a
very beautiful lady, far above his station in life, 'determined
upon suicide, and walked into the fields to accomplish his
purpose. Coining to a retired spot, where there was a con-
venient pond, surrounded with equally convenient trees, he
hesitated which to prefer—whether to choose a dry death or
a watery one ;—perhaps he had never heard of the old riddle
concerning "Elia Lselia Crispis, which no CEdipus has yet
solved. But that he might not continue like the ass between
two bundles of hay in the sophism, or ;11ithomet's coffin in
the fable, he tossed a halfpenny in the air to decide whether
he should hang or drown himself,—and the halfpenny stuck
edgeways in the dirt. The most determined infidel would at
such a moment have felt that this was snore than accident.
Clark, as may well be supposed, went home again; but the
salutary impression did not long remain upon his poor dis-
ordered mind, and he shot. himself soon afterwards.— The
Doctor.
COVERING OR HOODING SHEAF.—In the rich corn dis-
tricts of the southern and midland counties, it is customary
to place the sheaves in shocks of six, eight, or ten each;
there they remain, their heads exposed to the pelting of
every storm, with occasional turnings, perhaps, during the
whole of a showery season, till, as we have too often seen,
the ears mat together into a green mass of roots emitted by
the grains. Is this the case in Warwickshire, Staffordshire,
and Lancashire ? In those counties the farmer places only a
few sheaves together,—say four,—their heads fixed close to-
gether, so as to occupy a small compass, and over these he
invents a fifth sheaf, the ears of the lower extremity act as a
thatch, covering and protecting the grain of the four standing
sheaves. It must be manifest to every person of reflection,
that, if a shock be set up thus in a perfectly dry time, and be
so hooded, the rain will be shot off, and the whole will re-
main dry as a bee-hive under a hackle.—Gardener's Gazette.
MARLBOROUGH AND HIS WIFE.—The Duchess was, in
many respects, the faithful counterpart of the duke; she had
all his ambition, and all his avarice; but she wanted both his
cold temperament and high genius. Marlborough was never
vindictive; his wife, on the contrary, never _forgave. The
hard, polished, calculating Marlborough had in his nature
neither love nor hate ; but the duchess, with all her vices,
had a heart—she was avaricious, but she could be generous
—selfish, yet not void of compassion—with all the petty vani-
ties, but with much of the earnest devotion, which form the
traditional character of the sex. When she could no longer
rule a nation, she entered with undiminished ardour into a
squabble for the right of driving through the park. But on
the other hand, she did not forsake a friend with the smiling
ease of her husband; and her ambition almost loses its cha-
in the old age of this extraordinary pair there was a notable
erfinofd hheorwgiWeu,cl he
oint s'ovrats.
craecntterredo of
nodd i
co
ouns
sogiriodsastneedsiu wthheencawree
contrast. Marlborough exhibited the mournful and piteous
ve philosopher, and her intellect
seems to have brightened as her years increased.—London
srpipeecntaecdleinotof
a mentalcon decay;templation the contrary,
his duchess,
and Westminster Review, August, 1838.