10 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



great pursuit in this country ; there needs now 

 to be more said otits philosophy — of the^mtei- 

 ples which control and explain its results. 

 " Hang up Pliilosophy, 

 Unless Philosophy ciin make a Juliet." 



Well, if Agricultural Philosophy can't make 

 a Juliet, it can make a much more useful per- 

 sonage — for it can instruct the thrifty house-wife 

 how to manage her Dairy, in such manner as to 

 obtain the greatest quantity of butter, and so 

 to prepare it that it will keep the longest time. 

 All this we hope to show her, if she will keep, 

 on her own bunch, the key of her hu.sband's 

 " Farmers' Library." That same Philosophy, 

 which is but another word for knowledge, will 

 teach her too — with the aid of Mr. Wilder 

 and Mr. Teschemaker, of Boston — how best 

 to manage her choicest fruiis and flowers. And 

 after all, no man, no huslandman, can prosper 

 against the will of the house-w^ife — for as old 

 father Tasser quaintly saj'S : 



*• Take weapon away, of what force is a man ! 

 Take husnil'e fi-om husband, and what is he than ? 

 As lovers tiesireth together to dwell, 

 So husbandry lovcth good huswil'ery well ; 

 Though hu.'^bandry eeemeth to bring in the gains, 

 Yet hu.swUtry labors seem equal in pains. 

 Some respite to husbands the weather may send, 

 But huswives' afl'airs have never an, end I " 



Heaven bless them, who would not turn aside 

 to do them a good turn ? But 



It is this rationale of the Fanner's pursuit, 

 the uhy it is thus and so, that will reveal to him 

 how he may best circumvent the certainly ex- 

 hausting effects of contiimed demands upon his 

 land, operating in fearful comcidence with dear 

 labor and low prices, and it is in a great meas- 

 ure from foreign publications that we hope to 

 supply bun with these necessary' lights. Why. 

 even in England, one of the very last writers on 

 the utilitj- of a more extended application of 

 chemical analysis to Agriculture, says that this 

 art has there of late years assumed an entirely 

 new character ! Most chemists, he adds, " have 

 turned their attention to it, and now farmers are 

 content to listen to the suggestions of scientific 

 men, in explaining that which before was thought 

 a mystery." 



It is not, by any means, that we have not 

 among us the men of learning prepared to in- 

 struct the young fanner in all the natural science 

 connected with his occupation, but who has a 

 right to expect such men to come before they 

 are called? In England, says the writer already 

 referred to, the Royal Agricultural Society, pa- 

 tronised by the Government, have been the chief 

 instruments in effecting the wonderful reforma- 

 tion which agriculture is undergoing. That So- 

 ciety have " authorized the delivery of lectures 

 hymen of great talent (Doctor Daubeny, Profes- 

 sor Playfair, &c.,) which lectures have been at- 

 tended by great bodies of formers ; rewards 

 have been given, and are still held out by this 



Society, for original papers on manures and 

 other subjects, requiring a knowledge of Chem- 

 istry on the part of the writer," — and these are 

 the papers, among others, that will be transferred 

 from foreign journals to the pages of this, the 

 American "Farmers' Library." Who doubts 

 that with e(}ual, or with any moderate encour- 

 agement we might have lectures and papers 

 equally valuable, from our " Agricultural 

 Association " in New- York ; the " Virginia 

 State Agricultural Society," and others 

 existing and that would come into existence un- 

 der genial influences, as naturally as 

 " The snow drop marks the Spring's approach." 

 Let but the demand for agricultural science 

 be created and the supply will follow^ to meet 

 it as surely in this as in mechanical and other 

 pursuits. But the other day, in execution of 

 an act of Congress, some Post-Office letter .scales 

 were demanded, and in a few weeks more than 

 80 competitors presented themselves, each with 

 his own cunning contrivance, to show how un- 

 paralleled in the world, is the uutrammeled in- 

 genuity of our countrymen when stimulated by 

 the hope of adequate recompense. But when 

 will our government imitate the example of 

 what is good even in despotisms, and offer high 

 rewards for agricultural improvement ? Is it 

 for the agricultural refonncr that our Republi- 

 can government provides the glittering badge 

 of power and distinction — the high pay, and 

 the life salary ? Is it for the plodding discover- 

 er in the peaceful arts, men who beggar their 

 families and destroy their health in civil service, 

 that it provides magnificent quarters for the ro- 

 bust, and ho.spitals for the sick ? In the absence 

 Uien of all government encouragement let coun- 

 tenance be given to individual exertions, and 

 societies be formed to spread light on the field 

 of Husbandry. It demands delights and flour- 

 ishes in the light of science as much as in the 

 light of the sun ; and we are not altogether de- 

 ficient in men capable of reflecting it. It is the 

 taste — the conviction of the necessity, that is 

 needed. Only advertise the plaj-, fiU the house, 

 and lift the curtain, and our lives upon it we 

 shall not be long before we have the actors com- 

 ing on the stage. Here we have our Mercan- 

 tile and Mechanical, our Medical and Law Insti- 

 tutes, with their immense Librarie.s, stored with 

 appropriate instniction on every imaginable 

 branch or problem connected with mechanical 

 philosophy, with commercial pursuits and the 

 sciences of medicine and la^v, and why should 

 the Farmer alone be without his Library and 

 his Literature? The Fanner, whose occupa- 

 tion, when understood and follovs'ed as any 

 man should wish his son to understand and fol- 

 low^ it, demands some acquaintance with Bota- 

 nj' — the culture of trees, with mineralogy — with 

 chemi.stry, with entomology or the knowledge 



