The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1870-12-17
WHOLE MO- 311u
In,,,iorotton to MARYLAND.

To the Hon. the Delegates from the respective COun
ties, and others desiTouS 10 promote immigration
to Maryland.
GENTLEMEN-I learn from the public papers
that you are about to hold an immigration Con.
vention in Baltimore, with view to consider the
best mode of securing farm laborers-in other
words to obtain your fair share of the large
body of immigrants which are steadily seeking
homes and employ yment in this great country
The enormous grants Of land which Congress
has made to various railroads intersecting the
Western States and Territories, have induced
them to organize and maintain immigration and
| Land Agencies to such an extent that the claims
| of the several Western States have been unduly
thrust on the attention of immigrants, to the al
most entire exclusion of the interest and claims
of the older and Middle States, and as a result
the Western States have almost enjoyed monopo-
| ly of the great stream of immigration | do
not hesitate to say, from long and intimate ac-
quaintance with the subject, that there are thous-
ands of comparatively poor farmers in the moth
er country, and in Canada, able and willing TO
come to you, who would come if they but knew
| your wants, aud their own opportunities whilst
there are also tens of thousands of the very men
you want, patient, hard working, and poorly
paid farm laborers, receiving not above SlO0 to
Sl20 per annum without ratons, who would as
readily come to you if they were able to do SO.
| Having lived some forty years in Great Britain,
and being well acquainted with all parts of it,
but particularly with England and Scotland
am well acquainted with the condition of the
agricultural population throughout those coun-
tries, and am therefore able to say, that there is
a very large number of small tenant farmers in
the old country with 50, 900 to $50 capital,
who, on account of the high rental of land there,
ranging from So to $50 per acre per annum, be-
sides rates and taxes can but barely make liv-
ing i many of these coming to this country
all the time, and they should be encouraged by
timely and proper information TO go into your
employ.
Among those coming to our shores are valu-
able mechanics and hard-working farmers
These men are just adapted to supply the great
and growing need in this respect, of the Older
and Middle States, and with little management
you may easily obtain any reasonable number of
them for the State of Maryland
There is less difficulty about the subject than
may appear at first sight. What is needed on
the part Of your respective counties, and on the
part OF the immigrants, is, to make your wants
and their wishes known in plain and intelligi-
BILE manner, each TO the other and with a little
help in some cases, the present inequality between
your wants and their wishes will soon right it.
self, and you will obtain all you desire. There |
is, moreover, humane principle involved in this
thropists in support of the work. 1t is, in my |
view, little short of expatraton aud cruelty, to |
send so many thousands of ignorant and deluded |
Europeans, as they arrive in this country to our |
far off Western States and Territories, to which |
region, with its semi-barbarous surroundings so |
many of them totally unfitted by early habits,
knowledge, or experience.
lbelieveone month would be quite long enough |
both for Inc to inform myself whether | could |
fl h.-.,
prospect of success; and for you or your Com
mittee to judge OF my ability 10 carry it out suc
cessfully; and if both you and were not fully
satisfied within that time, | would cheerfully re-
tire from the effort, without involving your coun-
ties or the Stase in any expense on my account.
JAMES MACKENZIE,
No. 488 North Fifth ST., Philadelphia
How CERTAIN ANIMALS LIVE IN WINTER
Our readers know that there are two kinds
OF respiratory pparatus-lungs, which inhale
air, abstract oxygen from it and give, in return,
chiefly carbonic acid !; and gills, which absorb
the oxygen dissolved in the water, and also give
off chiefly carbonic acid, which is more readily
dissolved in water than the oxygen. The ap-
paratus is possessed by mammals, birds, etc.;
the latter by fishes and as lungs are incapa-
bic OF taking oxygen out of the water, and gills
cannot breathe air, animals with lungs are
air. A small number of amphibious animals,
however, possess both lungs and can therefore
breathe either air or water, and thus live IN
BOTH 1t has been, however, observed that
musk-rat and some other swimming mammals
with lungs could travel considerable distance
under ice without reaching any breathing hole
On the surface and it was for long time
problem how they succeeded in living so long
and travelling so far without access to the at
mosphere. This problem has been answered
bv S. Newhouse in work called the Trapper's
Guide, from which we extract the following:
Musk-rats have curious method OF travelling
long distances under the ice. In their winter
excnrsions to their feeding grounds, which are
frequently at great distances from their aoodes,
they take in breath at starting, and remain un-
der water as long as they can. Then rise 10 the
ice and breathe out the air in their lungs,
which remains in bubbles against the lower
surface of the ice. They wait till this air re-
covers oxygen from the water and ice, ana
then take It in again, and go on till the opera
tion has to be repeated. In this way they can
travel almost any distance, and live any length
of time under the ice.
The hunter sometimes takes the advantage
of this habit of the musk-rat in the following
manner
When the marshes and ponds where musk
rats abound are first frozen over, and the ice is
thin and clear, on striking into their houses
with his hatchet, for the purpose OF setting his
traps, he frequently sees whole family plunge
into the water and swim away under the ice.
Following one for some distance, he sees him
come up to renew his breath in the manner
above described.
After the animal has breathed against the ice,
and before he has time to take his bubbles IN
again. the hunter strikes with his hatchet d.
rectIy over him, and drives him away from his |
breath. In this case, he browns in swimming |
a few rods; and the hunter, cutting hole IN
the ice, takes him out. Mink, otter, and beaver
travel under the ice in the same way; and
hunters have frequently told me of taking OF
ter in the manner l have described, when these
animals visit the house of the musk rat for
Manufacturer and Builder.