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dreds of other similar machines were probably in his mind. Travelers 

 inform us that in many countries of Asia, precisely in those now im- 

 povished and feeble, the same costume and customs, and methods of 

 industry, described in the Bible as preyalent three thousand years ago, 

 now prevail ; but it is the unvarying characteristic of a prosperous peo- 

 ple that the habits of industry are not traditional and fossilized, but alive 

 and variable, charged with the energy of intellect and controlled by the 

 activity of the human soul. 



But if this is so evident as not to admit of a denial, why do any in- 

 dulge a prejudice against scientific farming ? It is, first, because many 

 " book farmers," as they are properly styled, have entered upon their 

 labors without that indispensable science only to be acquired by a prac- 

 tical acquaintance with the art, and have thus by their ignorance, coup- 

 led with great pretensions, brought a reproach upon true science. This 

 spurious science has been superficial, and wholly unregulated by expe- 

 rience. Unfortunately, it is a common opinion that almost any one, 

 without an apprenticeship, can cultivate the soil. And many a lily-fin- 

 gered man, smitten with the sudden desire to imitate the Father of his 

 country, in the latter part of his life, having acquired a property in some 

 other avocation, has purchased a farm, and with book and newspaper in 

 hand, enters upon his acres, and straightway proceeds to astonish the 

 natives by a method of agriculture exclusively scientific, without con- 

 descending to derive any information from his neighbors who have been 

 practical farmers from their boyhood. It is not strange that he makes 

 many mistakes. His novel method of fertilizing the soil seems to be 

 of no value and costs more than the soil is worth. His barns are built 

 on a new plan, his outhouses are full of strange implements, and stocked 

 with spurious guano ; he has a new way of planting and hoeing and 

 reaping; there is not a suggestion made in a newspaj)er which he does 

 not proceed to carry out early the next morning. But alas, he is 

 doomed to disappointment. His strange exotics die. His wonderful 

 plans fail. Blasting, mildew, and destructive insects had not entered 

 into his plans, but do enter his fields. He was intending to make his 

 farm an El Dorado, a perfect mine of wealth and garden of beauty; 

 but alas, it is a slough into which he has cast more cash than it is 

 worth besides the original price, and now is worth less than when he 

 bought it ; and finally, disgusted with the whole business, he sells his 



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