Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-03-11
0he Minus @Irnuer.
Notes and Comments.

of his Siberian rigors than the two days thaW
occurring on the last day of the old, and the
first of the new year, is about to yield a domin'
ion which has this season been marked by an
aggressive remove of a thousand miles south
ward of his prescribed limits. o, who does not
this year feeliDgly join with the charming poet
of the seasons in his beautiful invocation p
" Come, gentle Spring ethereal mildness come,
And from the bosom of yon dropping cloud,
While music wakes around, veil'd in a shower
OF ghadowing roses, on our plains descend"
SUGAR MAKrNG.-Two years ago,-as we
learn from an interesting communication in the
Brattleboro' EGgle,-the agricultural club of
Westminster appointed a committee to ascertain
by a thorough course of experiments, the best
mode of tapping maple trees with a view OF OBJ
tanning the most sap with the least injury to the
mittee tried their experiments, independent Of
each other, and at the close of the sugar season
met, and compared their notes, which were found
to agree exactly in the following result: That
the quantity of sap obtained does not depend on
> the size, but the depth of'the bore,-that the
bore of a halflnch auger give, at the same
depth, just as much sap as one of an inch or
two inch bore-and that a bore Of two inches
gives double the sap of a bore Of one inch, and
so on to the depth of three and a half inches,
which was as deep as it was deemed advisable
to make the i~ncisiop.
This corresponds with our own observation
and we deem it really a very important discove-
ry, saving, as it does, perhaps fifty per cent Of
the injury done to the tree by the common meth
cd of using inch augers. And if, in addition to
using the halfinch bit, the holes were well
plugged up at the end of the season, trees might
be tapped a hundred successive years without In
the least impuiring their growth and vigor.-
Why, then, should not our farmers, instead of
running their sugar places in a few years, as too
many Of them have done, at once adopt this
method, and leave this valuable portion of their
estates unimpaired to their descendants !? At
the least, they should make the trial, and satisfy
themselves for the matter is too important to
be passed ulheeded.
SPIRITUAL RAPlrRs, AGAIN.-We were mis-
taken, in one of our reCent comments, in laying
the scene of the convoked spiritual convention
in New York. 1t was called at Cleaveland, and
came off last week, and rather lamely too, &C.
cording to to the cleveland papers, there being
too much of a crowd, probably, to admit of q
successful imposition. By the way, WE lately
fell in with a very intelligent and shrewd Cler
man of Massachus etts, who related to US th'
following instructive incident: The rappers, h
said, had come into his village, and having con
founded everybody by their marvellous manifest
atoms, they and their proselytes must need hav,
him 90 to witness their triumph. He went, and
tsking a favorable seat for inspection, narrowly
watched the proceedings in silence through tn,
whole performance aud the result was, that ht
made up his mind that he could play at the same
game as well as the best Of them. Accordingly
he collected a private audience, convoked the
required spirits, put the questions, received the
correct answers, and was pronounced a good
and successful medium! And though he ex.
planned to them how four times out of five the
sought answers would be framed correctly from
the shaping of the questions, and the failures all
p~lausibly accounted for, and though he showed
them also how the rappings and moving Of the
table were produced by means of the toe and
knee, and with no more aid from spiritual agency
than it requires 10 turn a grindstone, yet they
would not believe him, but persisted, and, to THU
day still persist, in looking upon him as a chosen
and reliable medium of spiritual revelation !!
KINNEY's STATUE OF ETHAN ALIEN
While in Burlington, a few days ago, we calle
at Mr.. Kinney's exhibition room for a look at hi
statue of Ethan Allen, which, after nearly
years labor he has completed IN plaster, an
brought out for exhibition. The figure is of he
roic size, as it is termed, being about eight fee
high, and accordingly proportioned, and were
of living flesh and bones, must weigh nearly fy
hundred. AS a specimen of art, the work is re
ceiving, from competent judges, and we thin
deservedly, high concentrations. The onl
question is, how far the real features, form an
general appearance of the rough old hero hi
been attained. The statue is quite plump ar
full in outline, giving it almost a stocky appea
ance. How far this rounding off Of rough ar
bony forms and features to impart a more emboi
point comeliness, may be required by the ruiz
of art, we know not. But this statue, we comics
hardly realizes our idea of the real Ethan ALE
as he was seen mounting, four steps at a lea
up the stone stairway to the room of the cor
mandant at old Ticonderoga or stridiug ov
logs and gullies in the trial tramp he once h,
with his brother Ira, through a forty mile fore
in a day, in which the latter, though called Il
best woodsman in the settlement, confessed
should have been beaten, bad he not resorted
stratagem to exhaust the old lion. No, we car
quite make out this statue to be the rough, ra,
ny, bone and muscle, long-limbed Ethan All,
who did that and we regret that Mr.. Kim,
had not followed nature more closely, however
might have detracted from the beauty of his tr
ly imposing production. We formerly, viii
gathering materials for literary purposes, to,
much pains to obtain personal descriptions of 6
the noted old Vermonters and in looking ov
our papers, we find the following in the han
writing of the late Daniel Chapman, who, in
youth, was often 10 Aliens company, and vi
penned down the description at our request -
personal appearance of Ethan .AHen.-
Height, say 6 feet 2 inches high cheek bon
had a German f%rame-large bones-not flesh
/ am not certain, but think he had light ev,
dlferingifrom the rest of the family"
AS this description corresponds with that
three or four other contemporaries of Allen who
we consulted, we have relied upon it as CORE,
The chin, mouth, forehead, and perhaps the MOI