158 AGRICULTURE IN NORTH CAROLINA. TO DESTROY THE BEE MOTH. I would suggest to our farmers the folly of planting potatoes in any soil in which water cannot freely percolate, as stagnant water will inevitably ruin the product. New York, April, 1846. WM. PARTRIDGE. nure, or more than two-thirds of its fertilizing virtue the first thing that he does? Why, to hire an will be lost to the farmer. For, as bone decom- overseer, that is, a white man to live on his plantaposes, it gives out a large quantity of ammonia, an tion, manage his negroes, and "make a crop." alkali so volatile as to be lost by evaporation, un- Whom does he select for such a purpose? Why, less combined with some material that will retain generally speaking, some young man in the neighit, and charcoal will hold of this gas four hundred borhood, who is too indolent himself to work for a times its own bulk, giving it out to the plant as support, but is ready to make others work for itrequired. perfectly and thoroughly ignorant of everything relating to agriculture, or anything else, with the exception that he has occasionally taken hold of a thing called a plow, drawn by one horse, and which he skims over the surface of the ground, or mayhap scratches it to the depth of one or two inches has probably dropped corn here and there, AGRICULTURE IN NORTH CAROLINA. over this surface, and covered it sometimes with a I PROMISED to furnish your paper with an article clod and sometimes not at all; and then afterwards treating of the system of agriculture pursued in the gone through his corn rows or whatever they may eastern section of North Carolina generally; and be, three or four times each with the plow and boe you have been pleased to ask me for one in relation and this he calls planting and " tending the to my own method of farming, particularly. Had I crop." He may have" farmed" it this way in an not promised to furnish something on the subject, I effort to "raise" corn, wheat, cotton, tobacco, &c., would now shrink from the task; for I know full either on his own account or that of one of his well that I cannot impart any instruction or valu- neighbors, who were short-handed, and hired him able information in the description I should give of for the purpose at different periods of the youth's agriculture as it exists at present in our section of “ growing up." He probably may have been to the country. I use the term exist in a passive sense, school long enough to have learned how to read, and in contradistinction to that in which I would and, with prodigious effort, to write, and go through use it were I residing in a country whose agricul- a simple sum of addition, multiplication, and subtracture was in a flourishing or even progressive con- tion; but even without these accomplishments he dition. But I grieve to say, that here, with some considers himself properly qualified to manage your very few exceptions, our farmers are content to farm, or, as it is called, carry on your business." plod along the same slipshod, slovenly, wasteful He receives, as a salary, from $150 to $350 per course of impoverishing their lands, and themselves, annum; his provisions are found him by his emwhich reduced those who formerly owned the ployer, that is, a sufficiency of pork, or bacon and lands either to beggary or emigration. So univer-meal, the use of a cow, a horse to ride over the sal has been the bad management in the eastern plantation, a house to live in, and a woman to cook section of North Carolina (and I may with truth in- and wash for him, &c. Generally speaking, thereclude the same sections in Virginia, South Carolina, fore, excepting a small deduction for their clothes, and Georgia) on the part of planters, that an estate they spend very little of their salary. is now seldom owned by two generations of the Now it is scarcely worth my while to say any same name or family. Nor is this the least melan-thing in relation to the system of farming carried on choly reflection arising from a view of this picture; under such auspices! Would not any mercantile for with the extinction of ownership to the land by establishment in New York or London, however children of its former proprietor, there soon follows vast its resources, soon explode, if the management the extinction of his family or name; poverty, of its affairs were entrusted to one so little versed death, or emigration, to distant lands; in a few in his business, as this overseer palpably must be in years effacing well-nigh from the memory of those who are left behind, that such persons ever dwelt in their neighborhood. You will naturally ask, is there not some special cause at work to produce such melancholy results, and if so, is there not a remedy to check its further progress? 86 that which he presides over? Can any one wonder now at the picture I have presented, when the first object the eye rests upon is this odious deformity? Should you desire it I will finish the landscape at a subsequent period. Excuse this hastily written scrawl-the truth is I take no pleasure in the reT. POLLOK BURGUYN. cital. My own decided belief is, that the primary cause is attributable to the gross ignorance and neglect of those to whom the proprietors have hitherto confided the management of their estates. I mean our TO DESTROY THE BEE MOTH.-A correspondent overseers or managers; and that our remedy con- from Winchester, Ohio, asks as to the best method sists in an entire remodelling of the old system. of destroying the bee moth. There are various This you will readily understand when I state the articles on this subject in the back volumes of the following case, as a fair sample of the management Agriculturist; but if any of our readers can furnish of a Southern plantation. Mr. A. becomes pos-us additional succinct information on the prevensessed of a tract of very fair land, say 1,250 acres, tion of the moth, we shall be glad to hear from valued at $15,000, of which from 800 to 900 acres them-as prevention is the great desideratum. There are cleared; he also owns some 25 working hands are various authors on the Bee, such as Bevan, (old and young inclusive), which, with his stock, Townley, &c., whose works may be had from 25 farming tools, &c., &c., cost him some $15,000 to 50 cents each. These all treat fully of the more. Here, then, is a capital of some $30,000, bee moth, and it would be scarcely fair for us to invested in a plantation, as it is termed. What is copy much from these authors. A REVIEW OF THE MARCH NO. OF THE AGRICULTURIST. A REVIEW OF THE MARCH NO. OF THE MANY writers in different agricultural papers have occasionally attempted the task of reviewers; but few have succeeded, except that excellent "Commentator," the late Hon. James M. Garnett, of Virginia. I do not expect to equal him; yet in the hopes of doing good when he can do no more, I am disposed to make one attempt. The March number, 1846, of the American Agriculturist is before me. Do the readers of this paper ever think how much there is in this name to be proud of? How much more than all the records of heraldry, should we feel proud of this name; and how our children should be taught to feel that they never can enjoy a more worthy and honorable name than that of an American Agriculturist? No other of all the " Farmers," "Planters," "Cultivators," and numerous names of our growing family of Agricultural papers, conveys to my mind such an extended meaning as does the name of this paper. It is a name that all the agriculturists of our loved country should be proud of -may this paper be so conducted that we shall also be proud of it. Let us proceed now to review it, and if we find faults, and comment upon them, recollect such is the task of a reviewer. 159 The Place of Publication.-This is worthy of a passing note. As New York has become the great centre of commercial transactions, so it is for many reasons the most fit place for concentrating useful information; and certainly it possesses more facilities for an editor to make up a paper worthy the name of this one-national in its character-than any other point in the United States; and like the city, the paper should continue so purely the national paper of the American Agriculturist as to be without a rival. To Agricultural Societies. After this long preface, we at length reach the first article. A most liberal offer on the part of the editor and very gentlemanly publishers of this paper. Fifty cents only a year! Who could believe it, for such a useful, entertaining, and handsomely illustrated periodical? I hope many societies throughout the Union will avail themselves of your generous offer. Let me recommend them in all cases to take the bound volumes. They are beautifully bound in black cloth, and gold lettered, and only 75 cents to members of Agricultural Societies. Why, it is the very cheapest work ever issued from the press. Vignette. Before looking at the matter, let us Another suggestion. Let the publishers have a dwell a moment over the vignette. It is a picture certificate printed to bind or paste in each volume, of such a home as every American Agriculturist intended as a prize, something in this form-"This ought to enjoy. It is a lovely view in harvest volume is awarded to A. B., of Brooklyn, by the time. Yet the plow continues to run. It might be Kings County Agricultural Society, as a premium said by some that so productive a farm should and certificate that he exhibited the third best have larger barns, if not so tasty, so as that there milch cow, at the show held at Flatbush, for the should be no necessity of "stacking out." I doubt year 1846," &c., &c. . . . . Speaking of lectures this. See Vol. 1, page 335, of the Agriculturist reminds me, that agricultural societies could for illustrations, and an admirable article upon not make a better appropriation of money than destacking. I doubt the economy of building barns voting a small annual sum to pay the expense of to house grain. It will keep better in stacks if lectures. You can get men to hear who cannot or well put up on such foundations as are laid for will not read. And you must get them to read or stack bottoms in England, on stone or cast iron pil- hear before they will think. If a man does not lars. But the threshing-floor should be in the think, how can he act and improve? How else barn, or what would be much better, a building can their minds be "opened to conviction," so that built solely for a threshing-floor, around which the they can see "what is for their best interests?" stacks could be built. Grain can be stacked more green than it can be housed. . . . . . That distant windmill reminds me of a motive power very applicable to the prairie of the West, but very much neglected. . . . . The cattle and horses in the American park are no scrubs. But their breeding tells a tale that should teach us the folly of further importation of stock into a country so capable as this is of raising our own from those we now have, and as fine as can be done in England, if we try-we now have the seed-the blood. Those geese in the view may be very picturesque, but deliver me from the filthy brutes around the house and yards. Besides, I am no advocate of feather-beds. Hair, wool, cotton, moss, shucks or husks of corn, or even straw, are far better and healthier, in my opinion, than feathers. And certainly cheaper. Nothing but habit could ever enable a field-laborer to endure the enervating influence of a feather-bed in August. The Motto.-Next comes a motto from the pen of an American nobleman. It always makes our blood tingle to read it, and we are proud to rank Early Plowing.-Good advice, which being interpreted, means, do all your plowing in the fall; and do it well and deep, with a good plow, and not with that old rattle-trap which you have been plowing with for five years past. Is it possible that any man in possession of sense enough to read your paper, Mr. Editor, needs to be told that it is very poor economy to work his team, or land, or self, or hands, in rainy weather? If he is a good farmer, he will always have "a job for a rainy day kept in reserve. . . . For spring grain upon "a stiff clay," I had rather have one acre fallplowed, than two acres "mud-hauled" over in the spring. And generally speaking, the one acre wi. produce the most wheat or oats, and it does not cost so much to plow two acres in the fall as one in the spring. This difference, a merchant would think was a tolerably fair profit. دو Parsnips.-This article is not like the almanacs, that are calculated to suit all parts of the United States. It would hardly suit the meridian of the Miami or Wabash Valleys, to quit corn and take to parsnips However valuable the root crop 160 TO KEEP MEAT FRESH IN SUMMER. may be in some of the Eastern States, I could Alpacas. This is a Peruvian product, which I never recommend farmers to try it for feeding certainly shall not object to see imported in any stock, where they raise corn for ten or twelve cents quantity; and I have not the least doubt but the a bushel, as is the case upon millions of acres contemplated importation will prove one of the west of the Alleganies. Where roots must be most valuable for this country that ever took place; grown, I have no doubt that parsnips would be and I most sincerely hope it will turn out as profound a valuable crop. But the soil must be very fitable as it is honorable to the gentlemen engaged rich, and very deep and mellow. For a field crop, in the enterprise. I should like to be personally one of my neighbor Ruggles & Co.'s biggest sub- engaged in the voyage, where I could see and note soil plows should be used. .. There is one the habits of the animals upon their own native more valuable property of this root which you have hills. . . . . But let me inquire, is it the best route not mentioned. A field of them is worth all the to bring them around Cape Horn? Cannot they recipes in creation to keep the rabbits away from be shipped to Panama, in smaller and cheaper the young fruit trees. Let them have plenty of vessels, with much less fitting for the boisterous parsnips to eat, and they won't gnaw the trees.... passage of the Cape? From Panama to Porto Has any one ever attempted to make sugar Bello it is 60 miles; and formerly there used to be from parsnips? They certainly contain much an immense trade carried on between the two saccharine matter, and in that consists their great cities, and I suppose there is still a passable mule fattening qualities. With the "potato cholera" road across the mountains, over which the Alpaspreading through the country to an alarming ex- cas could be driven, and at Porto Bello take a tent, it is full time for us to look for a substitute, first class vessel, and short run to New York. both for man and beast. For the latter it may be As this would so greatly shorten the passage, found in the parsnip, probably better than either of which is usually the greatest difficulty with anithe other esculents. If we could at the North mals on ship-board, and if feasible would also be adopt that universal dish of the South, it would less expensive, it is perhaps worthy of considerasuit our money-saving propensities to eat hommo- tion. I feel very anxious that the first experiment ny, while Irish potatoes (what a bull to call them should be successful, and that it will prove that Irish) were selling at a dollar a bushel. But habit | these valuable animals can be introduced into this and fashion are both tyrants. But let us quit the field, and go to The Stable, No. 8.-The first thing that catches the attention of nearly all readers of taste is, the picture. Pray, Mr. Editor, what is that bird-cage looking thing, up in one corner of the stall, high over the trough? Is it intended to put hay in? If so, it is well called "a rack,” defined in my dictionary as an engine of torture.” If your horse is a very bad kicker, and can kick high enough to reach that "engine of torture," for mercy's sake turn him around and let him expend his "excess of nervous energy," till he kicks that abomination of the horse stable out of fashion. 66 country at a moderate price, and thereupon thousands will follow; and I fully believe that they will be found among the most valuable of our domestic animals. I love them, too, because they are Americans. American Agricultural Association.-" What's in a name?" Why, much in this to make us hope that it is not like that whilom got up at Washington city, a mere" sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." Verily nothing so good as a " National Agricultural Society" could flourish in so sterile a soil as that of Washington. I hope the "American Agricultural Association" will grow, if nothing else, at least a cargo of Alpacas. REVIEWER. We think the above review in part of our March No. a racy and agreeable article, and we regret that it came to hand so late that we cannot give the whole of it. Reviewer promises, if our readers like him, to continue the subject. Will they let him hear from them anent this matter? He is welcome to criticise any articles which we write to his heart's content-we promise, for one, to take no exception to them. Our readers will understand that the matter interpolated in brackets is ours. .. Whenever I discover that it is natural for a horse while feeding in the pasture, to constantly stretch his neck giraffe-like, into the top of the trees to look for grass, then, and not till then, will I insist that my noble friend shall pursue the same course in the stable. Until then he shall be allowed the privilege of stretching his neck down instead of up for his hay. . . . . There is one other method to prevent kicking. It is the Indian mode; and can be adopted in situations where there are none of the appliances of the stall which you describe-that is, on the road, or in the camp, where the malicious kicker will often injure his fellows. TO KEEP MEAT FRESH IN SUMMER.-A cheap and This method is the hobble, or fetters. They need simple refrigerator, for keeping perishable articles not be so short as to impede the movement of the sweet during hot weather, may be thus constructed. horse around his feed; but if he attempt to kick, Take plank (hemlock is best to resist rats), plane he finds there is a limit to his heels, and he will one side, and form a hollow trunk about 30 inches soon desist, and perhaps be cured in time of the in diameter, open at the ends, and as long as your Your recommendation" to shoe the ice-house, and fill in the ice around the hollow ice-house is deep. Place it erect in the centre of all kickers with flat shoes, without corks," is cal-trunk. Into this ice-well meat may be let down by culated for a "Southern latitude." And, generally, cords and hooks. Or, what is a better plan, a box there they are not shod at all. In fact, all the re habit. commendations of the article are better suited to the may be suspended from a little windlass fixed to reoperations of a large stable than to the wants of volve at the top, and meats, butter, &c., se. "American Agriculturists." curely kept; and, if desired, they may be lowered deep enough to freeze them. Q. E. D Ladies' Department. TO THE GIRLS. until 8 in the evening, when the birds went to roost for the night-the mother on the nest, the father on a branch close by. On counting the pencil strokes, I find, to my amazement, that they averaged a worm For a long time I have wished to have some com- every three minutes during this long day; for I took munication with my young friends, the country care to be certain that they were as diligent before girls, and bespeak their aid in the protection of our I took my seat by them as they were afterwards. mutual pets, the birds, that are inviting our atten- The day has been sixteen hours long, my pets have tion and kindness by their sweet songs, and gentle consequently destroyed 320 worms in one day! In and coquettish ways. They flock around our one week this single family will have killed 2,240, dwellings, and, if properly invited and noticed, ac-and in one month nearly 10,000, unless some cat cept our hospitality and repay us a thousand fold should discover the nest. Surely I need have no for all that we bestow upon them. When we take further anxiety about my grape vine, whose wormy the trouble to provide a few houses for them, how appearance troubled me so yesterday, when I found readily are they taken possession of, and how the worms so far out of my reach, and the boys too fiercely guarded, should an intruder dare to rob busy to attend to it. I will trust to my little sparthem of their home; showing how dear to them is rows, and take care that nothing shall molest them. their possession, and giving us the assurance that 13th.-To-day I have spent both painfully and nothing is required but shelter and protection to pleasurably in the garden, looking after my fruit, have flocks around us, and they sufficiently tame to flowers, and birds. The fruit I find sadly injured by be our household friends and companions. But the insects, and must be closely watched, and all especial care should then be taken to guard against that is infested by the worm carefully gathered and the thousand dangers that beset them in the shape destroyed, or I shall have little or none next year. of boys and cats, their mortal enemies; and worse Some fine flowers and rare strawberries are killed than useless will have been all our trouble, if these by the cut worm, whose history I must inquire into ; deadly foes are suffered to molest them. In addi- and, saddest of all, I find that fifteen birds' nests tion to all you already feel on the subject, I will have been destroyed by the cats, since last I counted offer a few extracts from the invaluable journal of them. At any time this would have grieved me, the Old Lady, which, for some time, has been my but, since yesterday's investigation, I feel that it is constant study. The following notes were taken a loss too serious to be borne with impunity; for, if in June; but I offer them to you now, that you may one family of birds requires 2,240 worms in one be in time to prepare the houses, get rid of the cats, week, fifteen families would take 33,600! Had and persuade the boys by kind entreaty and gentle my birds' nests remained, would my fruit and flow. remonstrance to suspend their hostility, for their ers have suffered as they have done? Alas, no! own interest as well as your gratification. and all this from my ungrateful cats-so the cats, petted and beloved as they have been, must die, all but Tabby, who shall be taught better things if possible. I will try what can be done. June 12th.-This day has been one of peculiar interest. As usual I rose at 4 o'clock, and while standing at my window to watch the gradual advance of day, and inhale the fragrant air, and listen In another part of the Journal I find this memoto the rich melody that poured from every bush, randum: I am now satisfied that I have been able like hymns of praise from the good spirits that had to teach Tabby the laws of kindness and forbearprotected us during the night, my attention was at-ance, for she has been in the bird cage to eat the tracted to a tree close by my window, where a little bread and milk, while the bird remained unmolested song sparrow had built her nest. The male bird on the perch; the doves, squirrel, and cat, shared was seated on a far-off branch, singing his sweet their meal out of the same dish, and at night my and merry strains over and over again, as if in love little white rabbit shared her box with pussy. with his own melody, while the mother-bird was This has been brought about by caressing puss attending to her duties in the nest; presently she while I fed and handled the other pets, and by flew to have some communication with her mate, showing displeasure without severity when she atwhen his song ceased, and off they went in different tempted to injure them. directions, but in a few minutes one of them re- Now, my dear girls, can any of you read this exturned with a worm which he gave to the rest, and tract and not feel grateful, not only to the Old Lady, instantly departed; after a short interval the other but the sweet birds who are rendering you so much came in, and like her mate lost no time. The serious service whether you do anything for them or not? business of the day appeared to have set in, and not A little study of their history will teach you their a moment was to be lost; so I took the hint and immense value on the farm as well as in the gar. went about my morning task, but determined to den, and you will feel that if you successfully protake my sewing as soon as possible with my seat tect and cultivate them, you will be of more real close to the window, and make myself more inti- service to your country than many a general whose mately acquainted with the family arrangements of name is written in history. The wrens, sparrows, my sweet neighbors. They had for a long time blue birds and swallows, you will find most willing been so familiar with my appearance, that they to accept your hospitality; but most of all the took no other heed of me than a bright cheerful sparrow, who soon learns that she may not only chirrup as they rested for a moment on a branch hop into the room, but share the crumbs on the close by, and then off to their task again. At tea-table. 8 o'clock, A. M., I began to note down their arri- I had a little family so tame that they gratified val, by making a stroke with a pencil each time me by sharing my meal whenever I left the door they entered the nest, and never quitted the window open, and invited them by throwing a few crumbs o attract their attention. The wrens and sparrows | KNITTING. vie with each other in the destruction of worms THOUGH at present, Mr. Editor, a lonely and and other insects, while the blue bird will eat more comfortless old bachelor, I still live in hopes one weed seeds in a day than, if suffered to grow, a gar- of these days of getting married; and if I do, I dener could pull up in a week. The swallow trust it will be to a woman who is a great knitter. makes war upon flies of all kinds, and will be Of all the many accomplishments which adorn the found most useful in ridding us of the common gentler sex, I do assure them, from the very bottom house fly (Musca domestica), those nasty pests that of my heart, that I esteem knitting among the destroy our cleanliness and comfort during the sum- greatest. mer months. The natural food of the larva or young of the house fly is horse manure, in which the eggs are deposited early in the spring. The maggot soon hatches out, and feeds voraciously for a few weeks, when they pass into the chrysalis state, and in a few days swarm out in countless numbers to feast on our greatest delicacies, and become our household pests. Swallow boxes should therefore be on every stable in the country, and the chimney birds never molested, though they do make a sad dirt on our nicely painted hearths, unless we are careful to put a board up to catch the litter. This subject has been forcibly brought to my mind by the reception, a moment ago, of a pair of the most comfortable kind of woollen socks, from a good old aunt of mine, famous for knitting. The yarn is of the very best kind, hard twisted, and the stitches drawn so tight on the needles during the progress of the work, that the socks are as compact as a piece of buckskin; and then the heels are so substantially run, that although famous for kicking half a dozen holes per day through such hose as I purchase at the stores, I am sure these will wear me weeks without needing to be touched by the darning needle of my complaining washerwoman. I must confess, Mr. Editor, I was so overjoyed at the sight of these socks, that the tears absolutely came into my eyes on beholding them; and I could not resist the pleasure of immediately trying them on, and when on, they felt so comfortable that they at once revived all my youthful feelings, and before I was aware of it, I began incontinently taking the almost forgotten steps of the double-shuffle, greatly to the annoyance of my sedate landlady in the lower story of the house. Ah, yes! commend me to a knitter-that is comfortable. The cat-birds will be our familiar friends, if the boys will only be persuaded not to throw stones at them or rob their nests; and, as they live a great many years, the same bird will return and build in the same bush while she feels you are kind to her. The foolish story that cat-birds bring snakes, arises from the fact that snakes are fond of cat-birds' eggs, which they are constantly on the look out for; therefore, when a boy hears the screaming of a cat-bird, he may be sure she is in distress, and, instead of killing the poor bird, had better look for the snake and kill that, which will be a real service; as all the cat-birds which can be persuaded to live with us are wanted to eat the cut worms, vine When I get married, I intend my wife, with worms, and other insects which do our gardens and knitting needles in hand, shall be seated in her farms so much injury. If they do eat a few ripe easy chair by my side, every evening that she is cherries now and then, surely we may well afford not otherwise engaged; I will then take up some to spare a little fruit in consideration of the good book for her edification, and read aloud. Thus they do us-besides, if it were only for their sweet work and instruction will go hand in hand. Ah, song, I would be willing to share my ripest cherries how the anticipation of the thing delights me! with them. My cat-bird is so tame that one day I Would that I were to be married to an accomplished found her in the kitchen quietly feeding on a loaf knitter to-morrow! of bread. She has her nest in a grape vine under The German ladies carry their knitting-work to my window, and comes to be fed when I call her. all places of amusement, whether public or priThere are a few directions I wish to be observed vate, and why should not ours do the same? În a in putting up the bird boxes-those for the wrens time of great pecuniary national trouble, an emishould have very small holes, or the blue and cat-nent writer on political economy made the calculabirds will be apt to get in and tear up the nests; tion, that if our women would knit as much stockwhile those for the blue birds should be at a re-ing yarn as they foolishly misspend in street yarn, spectful distance from the wrens, perhaps on the the national and private debt of the United States other side of the house, or they will watch their would be paid off within a twelvemonth. How opportunity and return the compliment, as they true this may be I cannot say, as I care little for pohave a great dislike to each other. The wren litical economy-but much, very much for knitboxes should not be very close, and if possible out ting. hope the ladies will not think me enthusiof sight of each other, as they object to too many astic, as it is in their behalf I am pleading; for I near neighbors; but you may place them as near verily know that knitting is not only a highly useyour own window as you wish, and provided you do not trouble the young the day they leave the nest, they will care little about you. ful, but a most agreeable occupation. Else why should some of our ladies have recently carried their knitting-work to the Senate chamber, to pass the whole day, to listen to the burning eloquence TO PREVENT BRASS VESSELS FROM CONTRACTING of Mr. Webster; and why else do we find them VERDIGRIS, AFTER BEING USED.--Instead of wiping knitting on board steamboats, and canal boats, them dry, it has been found, that by constantly on railroads, and even in stage-coaches, except as immersing them in water, they are kept perfectly innoxious, and will remain for years fully as clean and nearly as bright as when they first came out of the hands of the workmen. an amusement to pass away the heavy time. Commend me, then, to a knitting wife-a gentle being whom I hope it will yet be my happiness to pos sess! |