They all did him honor, and evinced a sound, cultivated and rich mind.

The character of Dr. Monro was very strongly marked in a variety of respects. He had peculiar sensibility of temperament. In his friendships he was warm, constant and active; and although naturally irritable, he was, at the same time, easily appeased, and ever ready to do good to those who had offended him. The same warmth was carried into all his social relations. The attachments of few men have been more fervent; the benevolence of few more unwearied.

Dr. Monro was also remarkable for his great simplicity. It extended to every thing; his diet, his dress, his manners, all were as simple as possible. He drank nothing but water; and appeared reluctant to spend the smallest portion of property to gratify appetite, or the love of show, while he gave liberally and cheerfully to every benevolent object. Indeed so uncommonly large and frequent were his donations to pious and charitable objects, that he was generally supposed by his friends to be in the receipt of a large income; whereas it was barely sufficient, after these charities were deducted, to support his family with the most rigid economy.

Another remarkable trait in his character was perfect punctuallity to all his appointments. He always made his arrangements to be on the spot where he had promised to be, a few minutes before the specified time, and would wait but a few minutes afterwards, if others failed to attend. And on the Sabbath, he never failed to have all his regular visits despatched, and to be in his seat in church some minutes before the commencement of public worship.

But by nothing was this excellent man more distinguished than by the uniformity and fervor of his piety. He was not only punctual in his attendance in the house of God, and on every public religious ordinance; but in all of them he manifested a spirit of sincere and elevated devotion truly unusual. He appeared to drink in the truths of the gospel from the preacher's lips with the most marked avidity. Every pious, orthodox sermon, however plain, was to him a feast. Every one was good; but the last always seemed the best. Every thing approaching to levity or unseasonable criticism in speaking of sermons or preachers, appeared to give him pain, and to be an object of his abhorrence. He uniformly carried his religion with him, too, into the chambers of the sick and dying. He never failed to seek the eternal as well as the temporal salvation of his patients. For this purpose he took every opportunity to converse with them on spiritual subjects, to pray with them, and to distribute among them appropriate religious tracts. During the latter years of his life by far the largest portion of his time was spent in devotional exercises. In fact, all his time not necessarily expended on domestic and professional calls, was employed in preparing for eternity. His Bible was always open before him; and he seemed to relish no company, book, or employment but that which was spiritual and heavenly. He often prayed

in social meetings; and the prayers of few men were ever more remarkable for their humility, comprehensiveness, variety, and spirituality.

His last illness was short and only occasionally severe. The disease which terminated his life was an ossification of the heart. For some days before his death he expressed a full expectation of a speedy removal from the world; still, however, his friends were not alarmed; and even those members of his family with whom he frequently, and with the most interesting composure conversed on the subject of his anticipated speedy departure, could not admit the idea that his death was near. His anticipations, however, were realized. After a remarkably tender and pious conversation on the subject on Sabbath evening, and retiring to bed without assistance, his family was overwhelmed with grief to find in the morning that his spirit had gently taken its flight. He died on the 11th day of October, 1819, in the 60th year of his age.-Thatcher's Lives.

AGRICULTURE.

SELECTING SEED CORN.

One important method of improvement in agriculture is by the selection of good seed. This is not only essential for the purpose of preventing deterioration. Almost any seed may be improved by proper care, and if any farmer has a valuable kind and rests satisfied without improvement, he must not suppose that it will continue good without that pains which is usually practised to improve it.

We often hear farmers and gardeners speak of their having had a valuable kind of grain, peas, or something else of importance, and now, they say, they have run out, and they know not where to find any of the kind; so having managed in such a way as to allow an excellent kind of vegetable to degenerate, they have recourse to some other kind that has been improved under the judicious care of more skilful cultivators.

Corn is a very profitable crop to the farmer, as the fodder, with good management in curing, and in feeding, is usually worth as much as a good crop of grass on the same ground; the grain is cooked in many ways, and forms an excellent food for man, and it forms a good food alone or is a valuable ingredient in mixed food for stock. The importance of this crop, and the difficulties in raising it in cool seasons, should stimulate every farmer to learn what kind is the best, and induce those who have good kinds to select seed judiciously, that they may in a measure, overcome the

troubles that attend its cultivation. And here we would urge one very important consideration upon the farmer, which, we believe, will pass unnoticed by many to their very serious disadvantage; that is, this season has been unusually propitious to the corn crop, and the farmer should calculate to plant seed suited to the short, cool seasons for a number of years last past, rather than calculate on a succession of such seasons as the present.

The earliest ears that ripen, if they are well filled, of good form and large size, should be selected for seed, and marked by tying some husks together, or in some other way, that they may be distinguished at harvest; or if the corn be well ripened, it may be gathered at the time the selection is made. If a very valuable variety of corn be cultivated that is rather late for the climate, and it be desirable to acclimate it, the very earliest ears must be selected without so much regard to their size and beauty; but if the corn be sufficiently early, and it be necessary to improve in the size of the ears and in productiveness, then none should be selected but the large, handsome ears that are well filled, and that grow on stalks that have two good ears or more, the best of which only should be taken.

Though a kind of corn may be sufficiently early for the climate, the ears that first ripen, being otherwise as desired for the above purposes of improvement, should be selected, otherwise it will grow later and adapt itself to the climate where it is cultivated; and not only that, as corn originated in the southern climate, it is prone, when cultivated in the north, to grow later and adapt itself to the longer season in the climate of its origin. Therefore, care is necessary in order that early corn may continue to be early; and if the seed be not selected when the corn is ripening, so that the earliest ears can be distinguished, the large late ears will be likely to be selected, and thus the crop will be later and later every year.

Seed corn should be selected from those stalks that are large at bottom, and are not very high, but run up of a regular taper, and have the ears set low. If convenient, the corn should not be shelled from the cob long before it is planted, as that part where the chit starts is very tender and has a thin covering for its protection, but it is well protected by the cob before it is shelled. As that part of the corn that contains moisture, and seems to be the seat of life in the vegetable process is embedded in the cob, with a very tender skin over it, it is evident that on exposure, when taken from the cob, the moisture will gradually evaporate; and the vitality be destroyed. We have never made nor heard of experiments being made on this point, but from the examination of a kernel corn, and the manner in which the soft, moist part is protected in the cob, and by the compactness of the neighboring kernels, we have no doubt, that corn on the cob will retain its vitality much longer, probably as long again on the cob as it will off.-Yankee Farmer.

BEET SUGAR.

The following is an extract of a letter from D. L. Child, who travelled in France in order to obtain information on raising beets and the manufacture of beet sugar.-Yankee Farmer.

ARRAS, Jan. 9th, 1837.

DEAR FRIENDS:-I have now been one month an observer of labor in a sugar manufactory, and have made short visits to several others. The beet sugar business taken in all its branches and bearing, is interesting beyond my expectations; but to the mere manufacture I doubt whether it is as profitable as Pedder's report would lead one to suppose.

In the first place the beets do not yield on an average more than five per cent. of sugar. They may yield more when first dug and before they have begun to sprout, but I am satisfied that six per cent. is the uttermost that can be calculated upon under the most favorable circumstances. The beets after being gathered together in heaps and covered with earth to preserve them from frost, soon begin to sprout. By the middle of December this season, which had been warmer than usual, they had put forth considerably. Various expedients have been employed to prevent the heat, which is generated in the heaps, and gives rise to this, but none of them have as yet completely succeeded. This shows an importance of an early sowing and an early commencement of working up the crop. Here the seed is sown in the first days of May. In Illinois, I should suppose it might be sown as early. The working up of the crop ought to commence before it has attained its uttermost growth, say in the last of August or the first days of September at farthest. There will then be seven months for the manufacture, and most of those, months in which laborers have little employment, and may be hired for comparatively small wages.

The quality of the sugar earliest made is best, as well as the yield the greatest.

I have before me a specimen of the brown sugar of the beet, as full of sacharine and as free from any bad taste as any cane sugar I ever saw, and far more beautiful in its appearance. It is like a rich yellowish New Orleans brown, that I have occasionally seen in the American markets, only a shade whiter. I have also a specimen of clayed beet sugar of a pure whiteness, and free from all ill flavor. While therefore I state the general objection to the brown sugar of beets, I also say that in a well provided and well conducted sugar manufactory from beets just dug, or very well preserved, brown sugar can be made as good in every respect as any from the cane, and far more beautiful and attractive in appearance.

The most interesting aspect of the beet sugar business is its bearing upon agricultural and rural economy.

1. It enriches the land both as an excellent substitute for fallowing, and as producing an immense quantity of capital manure.

2. It has the latter effect in various ways, but principally by feeding a large number of cattle and sheep; the former are fattened in three to three and a half months in a manner really superb. So fine specimens of beef creatures are seldom seen in the United States, after six months of the best pasturing and stall feeding. The sheep are fatted in six weeks. At the manufactory where I have been, they pay on an average about six louis for cattle, and sell them for about eleven. A louis is about $4 37. I suppose that this branch of the business would be quite as lucrative in the United States, where stock animals may be bought somewhat cheaper. This you see is doubling capital three times a year, with the help however of the pulp or pumice of the beet. This can be kept good any desirable length of time. It is sold here at ten cents the cwt. 3. The profits of raising the beets are very great, according to estimates which I have from the most intelligent sources. I do not find them so high as Mr. Pedder did. My data make the nett gain in France, after paying rent, ploughing, weeding, hoeing, digging and preserving, 404 francs per hectar. This measure is a trifle over two English acres. Consequently, the profit of cultivating beets on an acre will be 202 francs, about $38. Can you wonder that land has risen from 50 to 105 per cent. in the districts of the sugar manufactories; the produce of a hectar amounts to $56 81 This would give for 100 acres $2849 nearly; and for 400, which would be the quantity required for the largest establishments, $11, 830, to say nothing of the profits of the proprietor or lease-holder, when he and the laborer are one and the same. In this case, bé. sides getting pay for his labor, and the rent or interest of his land, he would receive the $38 per acre.

The land must be ploughed eight inches deep at least, and this ought to be done in the month of August. Still fine crops of beets have been obtained by breaking up grass ground in the spring, immediately before the seeding. The land should be turned up handsomely, and all the grass and other vegetable matter fairly deposited underneath. Then it must be harrowed deep and fine, but the same way with the furrows. If the furrows be disturbed, it spoils or greatly injures the crop. The seed is to be sown in rows twenty inches apart, on the top of the furrows and the same way with them. No plough must enter after the sowing, but the land must be dressed two to four times, according to its tendency to weediness, with the hand or hoe. The vegetable matters decay and give wholesome nourishment to the beets. I suppose these remarks may be of less consequence to the proprietors of rich prairies of the west, than to those of the lands in France, and in the northern and middle States of America. There can be no doubt however, that the decomposition of fresh vegetable matter will afford a more active stimulus to vegetable life than old mould, however rich. The land. for beets must be good, but it may be too good. In this case, it