It has already been suggested, that a cheap and effectual a chine for raising water, and irrigating land, would be an acquisition of the first importance to the agriculturist. The following plan and description of a machine for raising water is copied from the Domestic Encyclopedia. It is not expensive, and is given partly with a view to engage American genius in the invention of some plan still cheaper, for cheapness is particularly material to the farmer.

"In the year 1801, the society for the encouragement of arts, &c. adjudged their silver medal to Mr. H. Sargeant, of Whitehaven, Cumberland, for a machine for raising water, of which we give an engraving.

"This engine was erected at Irton-Hall, which is situated on an ascent of sixty or sixty-one feet perpendicular height. At the foot of this elevation, about one hundred and forty yards distant from the offices, there runs a small stream of water: and, in order to procure a constant supply of that necessary fluid, the object was to raise such stream to the house, for culinary and domestic usesWith this view, a dam was formed, at a short distance above the current, so as to cause a fall of about four feet; the water was then conducted through a wooden trough, into which a piece of leaden pipe, two inches in diameter, was inserted, and part of which is delineated at A.

"The stream of this pipe is directed in such a manner as to run into the bucket B, when the latter is elevated; but as soon as it begins to descend, the stream passes over it, and flows progressively to supply the wooden trough or well, at the foot of which stands the forcing-pump C, being three inches in diameter.

"D, is an iron cylinder, attached to the pump-rod, which passes through it; such cylinder is filled with lead, and weighs about two hundred and forty pounds. This power works the pump, and forces the water to ascend to the house, through a pipe, one inch in diameter, and which is four hundred and twenty feet in length.

"At E, is fixed a cord, which, when the bucket approaches to within four or five inches of its lowest projection, extends, and opens a valve in the bottom of the vessel, through which the water is discharged.

"The machine here described had, at the time of Mr. Sargeant's communication to the society above mentioned, been six

The farmer, who looks more to real use than to neatness of execution, may make the cylinder of wood, and fill it with stones, bricks, or other convenient matter.

months in use, and fully answered the purpose for which it was designed. The artisans employed were a plumber, blacksmith, and carpenter; the whole expense, exclusive of the pump and pipes, did not exceed five pounds," ($22 23.)

The following, written by Mr. Thomas Purdy, of Castle Acre, in the county of Norfolk, (England) is extracted from the cominunications of the Board of Agriculture, and strongly elucidates the great advantage of irrigation, and the vast expense which the resulting advantage will justify.

"As I am now watering at least twenty acres, in a most com. plete manner, by forming them into beds of from ten to twelve yards breadth, and introducing the water upon the crown of the beds, to be carried off by parallel drains, I desire to state, that the meadows I am irrigating are situated in a neighborhood which consists almost entirely of arable land, let generally for not more than from ten to eighteen shillings per acre per annum.

"That meadow and pasture land do not bear a greater proportion than of one acre to fifty of arable land, and that notwithstanding this great want of feeding land, yet the meadows which I am irrigating were not in their old previous state, worth more than seven shillings per acre to let, being two thirds of it boggy, and the remainder full of sedges, and all sorts of aquatic rubbish.

In the present state, and with the prospect of future advantages to be gained by this irrigation, a neighboring farmer has already offered me to hire the whole of these meadows for any length of time, and to give me for such hire, five guineas per acre per annum, not doubting but they will produce in the first crop of hay next summer, at least two tons and a half per acre.

"The method I have taken to irrigate the above meadows is, by taking water out of its natural cause, at the distance of at least thirteen chains above my first meadow, by a ditch, upon the average twenty feet wide, seven feet perpendicularly deep, and six feet wide at the bottom. The water thus introduced, divides itself into two feeders, one of which conveys water to my first meadow, and then runs off to water my last meadow, and the other, to the other intermediate meadows. All the meadows are formed into beds, as I have stated above, which are raised so as to have a fall on each side from two to three feet, and so well formed, as to be watered in every part. The work is all done by laborers with spades, and will cost altogether about thirty pounds ($133 33) per acre. This expense, however, I think by no means considerable, when I take into consideration the circumstances of value above stated, and when I consider, what perhaps may not occur in those countries where irrigation is more practised, viz. that the turnip crop, as food in winter, is becoming more expensive, and (what is of great consequence) more precarious; to supply which deficiency, I expect the hay of these water meadows to be such a resource as is almost inestimable."

Agricultural societies, composed of active intelligent persons, would tend much to the general promotion of agriculture. A

number of local societies might be established, and each of these be represented by one of its members, so as to form one board of agriculture to meet in a central or convenient place in each state. Through this board, might be communicated to the public the progress of agriculture in each part or county, and also all improvements and experiments; and such measures generally adopted as, while they would prevent the farmer from the prosecution of visionary projects, would lay before him a candid display of every thing useful. The following copy of a letter from General Washington to Sir John Sinclair, on the establishment of a board of agriculture in Great Britain, shall finish the present number.

"I have read, with peculiar pleasure and approbation, the work* you patronize, so much to your own honor and the utility of the public. Such a general view of the agriculture of several counties of Great Britain, is extremely interesting, and cannot fail of being very beneficial to the agricultural concerns of your country, and to those of every other wherein they are read; and must entitle you to their warmest thanks, for having set such a plan on foot, and for prosecuting it with the zeal and intelligence you do.

"I am so much pleased with the plan and execution myself, as to pray you to have the goodness to direct your bookseller to continue to forward them to me, accompanied with the cost, which shall be paid to his orders, or remitted as soon as the amount is made known to me; when the whole are received, I will promote, as far as in me lies, the reprinting of them here.

“I know of no pursuit in which more real and important service can be rendered to any country, than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman's cares; nor can I conceive any plan more conducive to this end, than the one you have introduced, by bringing to view the actual state of them in all parts of the kingdom, by which good

The "work" alluded to is a periodical publication, to comprise the following heads.

1. A corrected report of the present state, and local agricultural practices of every county in the United Kingdom.

2. Distinct dissertations, or collections of papers, on each of the most important subjects connected with agricultural improvements; as Farm-buildings, Cottages, Roads, Inclosing, Draining, &c.

3. A General Report, the result of the whole inquiry.

and bad habits are exhibited in a manner too plain to be miscopceived. For the accounts given to the British Board of Agriculture, appear in general to be drawn up in a masterly manner, so as fully to answer the expectations formed in the excellent plan which produced them, affording at the same time a fund of information, useful in political economy, and serviceable in all Countries."

FOR THE LUMINARY.

PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS.

Whatever motives may have influenced the decisions of legisla tors, certainly the results, most generally wished and expected from the punishment of criminals, are a reform of the culprit, and the deterring of those yet innocent from indulging in vicious inclinations. In apportioning the duration and determining the mode of punishment, these two salutary objects should be equally provided for. Without a reform of the culprit, it would be better that his imprisonment should be for life, as, otherwise, his return to society would endanger the general state of morals; yet humanity recoils at the suggestion of a sentence so afflictive, and even stern justice seldom demands it. The discretionary power vested in judges, by which two persons may be differently punished for crimes of equal magnitude, is an admission that the object of the law is not merely to punish in proportion to the crime, but also to reform by apportioning durability of confinement or degree of severity to the apparent ease or difficulty with which reform may be accomplished, and this principle is extended to imprisonment for life against those who, after repeated trials and convictions, have proved themselves incorrigible. Reform then is certainly one great motive of the treatment of criminals, and this leads into some inquiry as to the best mode of effecting so desirable an end.

After the number of discussions which the subject has already undergone, it may be expected that little of importance can be added, and it is but fair to apprize the reader that he shall proba bly, in this essay, find but repetitions of what he did or might already have read elsewhere; but the subject is of such prime and general importance to society, that every effort to produce a salutary system, although the suggestion should not be new, will be