242 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



age, by alternating crops, by root cullure, and by 

 the substitution of fallow crops lor naked fallows. 



The edbrts ol" Judge Buel have irreatly tended 

 to make lionorable, as well as profiiable and im- 

 proving, the pursuits of agriculture. He clearly 

 perceived that to render the larming interest pros- 

 perous, it must stand high in the pul)lic estmia- 

 tion. So long as it was conceded to be an occupa- 

 tion tliat required little more than mere iiabil to Ibl- 

 Jow, and that it was inditf'erent to success, whe- 

 ther the man possessed great intellectual power, or 

 a mind on a level with the ox he drove, it could not 

 be expected that any would embark in it unless 

 necessity compelled them, or the very moderate 

 extent of their mental bestowment precluded any 

 reasonable chance oC success in any other. He 

 taught men that agricultural prosperitj- resulted 

 neither from habit nor chance ; that success was 

 subject to the same law in this, as in other depart- 

 menie of industry, and belbre it could be secured, 

 must be deserved ; that mind, intellectual power, 

 and moral purpose, constituted as essential parts in 

 the elements of agricultural j)rosperity, as in those 

 of any other ; and all these truths he enforced by 

 precept, and illustrated by practice. Uy these 

 means he has called into the field of agricultural 

 labor a higher order of mind ; has elevated the 

 standard oi"agricultural attainment ; and has tend- 

 ed to render this extensive department of industry 

 as intelligent, respected, and honorable, as it ever 

 has been conceded to be useful, healthy, and inde- 

 pendent. 



Thus gified, esteemed, beloved, distinguished, 

 and in the enjoyment of reputation co-extensive 

 with the agricultural interest in this country, it 

 would seem, that if lile were a boon worth pos- 

 eessing, he had almost earned a long and undis- 

 turbed enjoyment of it. But ths dispensations of 

 God to man are lull of mystery. Religion and rea- 

 Kon here teach the same lesson : to observe, adore 

 and submit. 



He had accepted invitations to deliver addresses 

 before the agricultural and horticultural societies 

 of Norwich and New Haven, Coimecticut, on the 

 25ih and 27th of September last. About the mid- 

 dle of that montii, he left this city for that pur- 

 pose, accompanied by his only daughter. On Sa- 

 turday night, the 22d of September, at Danbury, 

 Connecticut, he was seized with a bilious colic. 

 This was extremely distressing, but yielded, with- 

 in three days, to the force of medical treatment. — 

 A bdioue lever then supervened, unaccompanied, 

 however, by any alarming symptoms until Friday 

 the 4th of October. His disease then assumed a 

 serious aspect, and a change was obviously per- 

 ceptible, particularly in his voice. He had occa- 

 eionally, during his sickness, expressed doubts ol 

 his recovery, although his |)hysicians up to the 4th 

 of October, entertained no serious apprehensions 

 that his disease v/ould terminate liitally. He re- 

 tained throughout the full possession of his mental 

 faculties, and expressed his entire resignation to 

 the will of Heaven. He continued gradually to 

 decline from Friday until about three o'clock in the 

 forenoon of Sunday, when, after faintly uttering 

 the name of his absent cotnpanion, with whom he 

 had shared the toils, and troubles, and triumphs, of 

 almost iijrty years, he calmly, and without a groan 

 or a s'.ruirgle, cancelled the debt which his birth 

 had crca'ed, and "yielded i5p his spirit to God who 

 gave it," 



As a writer, the merits of Judge Buel have al- 

 ready been determined by a discerning public. Jl 

 is here worthy of remark, that he never had but six 

 months' schooling, having enjoyed fewer advan- 

 tages, in that respect, than most of our farmers 

 and mechanics' sons. He. however, had the good 

 fortune to possess a mind that could improve itself 

 by its own action. Although, therefore, he lacked 

 the advantages of that early education, which can 

 polish, point, and refine good sense where it hap- 

 pens to be fiaund, and endeavors to supply its ab- 

 sence by some imperfect substitute, where it is 

 wanting; yet by dint of study and practice, and of 

 strong original endowment, lie succeeded in the 

 attainment of a style excellently well adapted to 

 the nature of his communications. It consisted 

 simply in his telling, in plain language, just the 

 tiling he thought. The arts of rhetoric, the 

 advantages of skilful arrangement in language, 

 the abundant use of tropes and figures, he never 

 resorted to. He seemed neither to expect nor de- 

 sire, that his communications would possess with 

 other minds any more weight than the ideas con- 

 tained in ihern would justly entitle them to. With 

 him words meant things, and not simply their 

 shadows. He came to the common mind like an 

 old familiar acquaintance ; and although he 

 brought to it new ideas, yet they consisted in con- 

 ceptions clearly comprehensible in themselves, 

 and conveyed in the plainest and most intelligible 

 terms. 



His writings are principally to be found in the 

 many addresses he hac delivered ; in the six vo- 

 lumcs of his Cultivator, in the small volume (made 

 up, however, principally or entirely, firom materi- 

 als taken from the Cultivator,) published by the 

 Harpers of New York; and in the " Farmers' Com- 

 panion," the last and most perfect of his works, 

 containing within a small compass, the embodied 

 results of his agricultural experience, a rich legacy, 

 to which the great extent of our farming interest 

 cannot remain insensible. This work was written 

 expressly lor the Massachusetts Board of Educa- 

 tion, and constitutes one of the numbers of the se- 

 cond series of that truly invaluable district school 

 library, now issuing, under the sanction of that 

 board, from the press of Marsh, Capen, Lyon and 

 Webb of Boston ; which for the extent of the un- 

 dertaking ; the great caution exercised in selecting 

 the material; the talent enlisted in furnishing it; 

 and the durable manner in which the books are ex- 

 ecuted ; so richly deserves the patronage of the 

 whole American nation. I deem it really the most 

 fortunate circumstance in his life, that he should 

 have been permitted, so immediately previous to 

 his departure, to furnish just this volume, for just 

 this purpose: and 1 shall confidently expect that 

 the coming generation will be better farmers, better 

 citizens, and better men, from having had the (br- 

 mation of their young minds influenced to some ex- 

 tent, by the lessons of experience and practical 

 wisdom, derived from the last, best, most mature 

 production of this excellent man. The se- 

 veral district schools throughout our stale, will un- 

 doubtedly feel it due to the important trusts they 

 have in charge, to secure this among other valua- 

 ble publications, to aid in composing their respec- 

 tive district school libraries, from which so much 

 good is expected to be derived. 



