ALLEN'S AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



283 



or German systems of draining, subsoiling, 

 and irrigating, that the best authors of the 

 other side of the Atlantic have yet produced. 



It is idle to lay before farmers, in a coun- 

 try like ours, where capital is rarely or ne- 

 ver employed in farming — where land is 

 plentiful, but labor scarce and dear— sys- 

 tems of farming, based on just the contrary 

 state of things — where farming is carried 

 on with abundant capital, and where the 

 price of labor and the means of tillage are 

 such that it will pay a good interest upon 

 the capital employed. It is very much like 

 discoursing to the keeper of a " country 

 store," upon the large principles of com- 

 merce which govern the transactions of such 

 houses as the Barings, or Brown, Brothers, 

 and Co. 



We think, therefore, that Mr. Allen's 

 volume, the basis of which is good practi- 

 cal farming, as practised by the best culti- 

 vators in the United States — with an intel- 

 ligent reference to those principles of sci- 

 ence which lie at the root of all successful 

 practice, is likely to be of as much or more 

 real service to us, than any work on agri- 

 culture yet issued from the press, and we 

 gladly commend it to the perusal of every 

 one of our readers engaged in the cultiva- 

 tion of land. 



Its character, indeed, is essentially that 

 of a manual, or handbook. " It is intended," 

 says the preface, " as one of the first in the 

 series of lessons for the American farmer. 

 Its size precludes its embracing any thing 

 beyond the shortest summary of the princi- 

 ples and practice by which he should be 

 guided in the honorable career he has se- 

 lected. As a primary work, it is not desi- 

 rable that it should comprise so much as to 

 alarm the tyro in agriculture with the mag- 

 nitude of his subject. A concise and popu- 

 lar exposition of the principal topics to which 

 his attention will necessarily be directed, 



will, it is believed, in connection with his 

 own observation and practice, give him a 

 taste for further research, which will lead 

 him to the fullest attainment in agricultural 

 knowledge, that could be expected from his 

 capacity and opportunities." 



This is a very modest introduction to a 

 work, which, if only " a brief compend," 

 contains less speculation, and more pith and 

 sense, than one in a hundred of the volumes 

 now being offered on the cultivation of the 

 soil. 



The work is by no means local in its cha- 

 racter, as it is quite copious and instructive 

 on the subject of southern agriculture, and 

 we. cannot doubt will be very acceptable 

 south of the Potomac. 



We would gladly give space for some ex- 

 tracts from the body of the volume, but our 

 limits will not permit. We cannot, however, 

 but quote from the introduction, Mr. Allen's 

 excellent remarks on the propriety of the 

 exercise, by the State Legislature, of a fos- 

 tering care of the interests of Agriculture. 

 The people, Mr. Allen urges with force, 

 should oblige the state legislatures to effect 

 something more tangible for the education 

 and advancement of farmers as a class — 

 we may add, the great respectable class of 

 America. 



<« Education, in all its branches, is under their 

 exclusive control; and to endow and foster every 

 institution which has a tendency to raise and im- 

 prove the intellectual, the moral, and the social 

 condition of the people, has ever been their che- 

 rished policy. Yet up to this time, no institution 

 expressly designed for the j)rofessional education 

 of farmers, has ever been established in this coun- 

 try. That far-seeing wisdom which characterizes 

 the consummate statesman, which regards the fu- 

 ture equally with the present and past, has halted 

 upon the threshold of the great temple of agricul- 

 tural science, whose ample and enduring founda- 

 tions have been commenced by the united efforts 

 of the men of genius throughout both hemispheres. 

 To aid with every means in their power, in laying 

 these foundations broad and deep, to elevate its su- 

 perstructure, to rear its mighty columns, and adorn 

 its graceful capitals, would seem most properly to 

 come within the province of the representatives of 



