262 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



track which the wheel makes on the soft frround, 

 induces the worm in its nocturnal wanderings to 

 follow on till it tumbles into the pit. It cannot 

 climb out, and the hot sun destroys it. — Farmer. 



CHEAP ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURAL PUB- 

 LICATIONS RECOMMENnED. AGRICULTU- 

 RAL BOOKS FOR SCHOOLS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Caroline County, Va. May 23J, 1838. 



From a communication which I made to you a 

 year or two past,* you will discover that I had 

 been for eighteen years endeavoring to improve 

 ray land — naturally poor — by pursuing Col. Tay- 

 lor's non-grazing and inclosing system, &c. I 

 was never convinced of the impracticability of 

 that system on such lands, until I was led to read 

 your •' Essay on Calcareous Manures.' From 

 your remarks upon my communication in the 

 Farmers' Register, your "five propositions" in the 

 ' Essay' opened my eyes ; and from that mo- 

 ment to this, I have never ceased to desire, that 

 every liarmer, both rich and poor, should become 

 acquainted with that work. I believe I have in- 

 duced several to purchase and read it, yet I do 

 not believe there are as many as two in a hun- 

 dred of our citizens, generally, who are acquaint- 

 ed with the first principles laid down and main- 

 tained in that work. I am fully convinced (were 

 they well understood,) that an effort would be 

 made by a great number of firmers, to improve 

 their lands upon a proper principle. I can truly 

 say, that my feelings, upon reading your ' Es- 

 say,' were indiscrihable; first, deep mortification 

 at having spent 18 or 20 years of my lile, with all 

 my youthful zeal in the cause of agriculture, to 

 but little better result, than to be prepared to re- 

 ceive as truths the five propositions laid down in 

 your 'Essay on Calcareous Manures;' and se- 

 condly to know how many thousands there were 

 in this, our poor old Virginia, who were going on 

 in the same or greater iirnorance than I had been, 

 and who probably would never, in your lifetime 

 or mine, be any wiser for what you had written. 

 As well as I can now remember, I think I had 

 heard of a work written by you on calcareous 

 manures — several years before I was induced to 

 read it; yet the title appeared foreign from any in- 

 terest I could have, and the work was left by me 

 to those whom I thought interested in calcareous 

 manures. This indiflference to the work, (as you 

 very well know) must have been owing to igno- 

 rance, when I tell you (had I then known its im- 

 portance to every farmer,) that I verily believe I 

 should have at once abandoned the idea of im- 

 proving my lands altogether, and thereby have 

 avoided heavy expenses, or have acted upon pro- 

 per principles, and consequently would have reap- 

 ed the reward of my labors and expenses, either 

 in immediate profits or subsequent permanent im- 

 provement. 



I have premised thus much by way of introdu- 

 cing a suggestion for your consideration, which 

 is, that you should prepare a small work, em- 

 bodying the principles contained in your ' Essay 



* Published at page 612, Vol. II.— Ed. 



on Calcareous Manures,' with such illustrations 

 as maybe plain and forcible, also some hints upon 

 the subject of making putrescent manures, and 

 such uses of quicklime as you may have publish- 

 ed in the Register, from the work of Mr. Puvis 

 and others, and whatever you may have gathered 

 upon the subject subsequently. Also such hints, 

 in a short but plain manner, as you may think 

 best upon the management of stock of all kinds, 

 &c. &c. Let the work be in a small pamphlet 

 Ibrm, in good plain type, and let the price be 25 

 cents, and have the title 'The Virginia Poor- 

 land Farmer's Friend,' or some such name. I 

 believe such a work, with proper arrangements for 

 distribution, might be sold almost as extensively as 

 a common almanac, or Dr. Franklin's 'Poor 

 Richard,' and other small, but important tracts, 

 containing first principles, from which arise results, 

 which never can be told until the final consumma- 

 tion of all things. Your Farmers' Register and 

 other works you have, and are about publishing, 

 will be more particularly adapted to the better 

 educated, and the benefits arising from them must 

 be extended to others through a tardy course of 

 precept and example; but the work I propose 

 commences at the root, and its healthy influence 

 must ascend, and as this is the course in our coun- 

 try, it must be soon felt in the topmost branches. 

 I have not made this suggestion upon the 

 spur of the moment. I have had it under con- 

 sideration for a year or two, and am fully con- 

 vinced of its great importance. The mind of 

 man seems constantly reaching forward and high- 

 er; and much of the usefulness of many to their 

 race, is lost by their setting too little vulue to the 

 inculcation of those things to which they have at- 

 tained; 'tis so in religion, 'tis so in politics, and is 

 it not so in agriculture? Some subjects require 

 technicalities and high sounding words, and can- 

 not be understood by the illiterate reader. Yet I 

 am convinced that more plainness of speech than 

 is frequently used, would be better upon most sub- 

 jects. In such a work as I have suggested, the sim- 

 plest and plainest language should be used, (I 

 think your style generally very plain,) so that the 

 common planter can understand ; and, by-the-by, 

 most of us are but grown boys, and none of us 

 can be injured by plainness of speech ; and a 

 work of this kind should be prized in proportion 

 to its simplicity. I think it was the celebrated 

 John Newton, of Olney, (England,) who said, 

 when he preached a sermon, he fixed his mind or 

 eye upon one of the most illiterate of his congre- 

 gation, and adapted his language to his under- 

 standing; knowing that if he were understood by 

 such a one, the better informed would surely un- 

 derstand him. 



I discover the managers of the Richmond, 

 Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company, 

 have with commendable liberality greatly reduced 

 " the freight on marl, lime, and gypsum, for the 

 promotion of agricultural improvement." Yet I 



have not observed it noticed in the ' ' 



which is more extensively circulated in the coun- 

 try than any other paper. * * # * 

 * " Like priest, like people." How can we ex- 

 pect that interest to be taken in the real improve- 

 ment of the state, so essential to her citizens, 

 when the substantial nourishments of bread and 

 meat are only set before us by yourself; while 

 papers thought a thousand times more important 



