EDITOR'S TABLE. 



LATE PUBLICATIONS 



ON AGRICULTURE AND KINDRED SUBJECTS. 



We have already intimated, that if we had 

 time to enter into a thorough examination of 

 tliem, we might yet not deem it expedient to 

 remark verj- critically on the contents and prac- 

 tical value of the books vi'hich it may be the 

 pleasure of publishers, from time to time, to 

 place on our table — That duty is left with more 

 propriety, and in better hands, as it seems to us, 

 w^ith the regular reviewers of the Literature of 

 tlie Coaiitry — of which it is no longer a ques- 

 tion, Agricultural Literature is to form an inter- 

 esting department. 



We are prepared furthermore to say. that so 

 limited are yet the offerings of our Booksellers, 

 in works on Agriculture aud Nafcral Histoi-y, 

 that Farmers might well buy them all at a veti- 

 ture, and even then their Libraries would not 

 hegia to compare with that of the Lawyer, the 

 Doctor, or the well-bred, educated Merchant. 



Except the American Institute and the New- 

 York State Agricultural Society, we know of 

 no association of Farmers possessing a Library, 

 though we doubt not that in Boston, deservedly 

 called the Athens of America, there must be 

 SQch a collection of Agricultural works. While 

 this is the reproachful truth, as to the follower 

 of the pursuit from which all others draw their 

 life's blood, how many volume's does the Far- 

 mer suppose there are in the hall of the Mercan- 

 tile Library Association of New- York? — an- 

 swer — 21,312! with every necessary appoint- 

 ment and facility to enjoy the treasures they 

 contain. When will Agriculturists awaken to 

 a full sense of the dignity and the wants of 

 their profes.siou, and to what is yet to be done 

 to secure for it that predominance of intellec- 

 tual and political power, which ought to flow 

 from and correspond with their superior num- 

 bers and their productive labors, preponder- 

 ating as they do over tliat of all other classes 

 tinited ? 



Johnson's Agricultubai, CiiE.MisTRy— Republisli- 

 ed by Wiley & Putnam in 2 vols. 4 parts, pp. 619, 

 with an Appendix of 90 pages. 



This is a work which professes to be written 



for " practical Farmers," and all who are of 



that category ought to have it, for it must be 



valuable if it correspond with the well-founded 



fame and the avowed purposes of the author ; 



whose numerous ritlea affixed to his name indi- 



I cate close associations with the sciences that 

 serve to elucidate the principles of agriculture. 

 The author is more modest than some men we 

 wot of, wise in tlieir own conceit, for he admits 

 that he does not know qu'tte every thing. There 

 are, says he, " many mysteries connected with 

 die Nature and Phenomena of vegetable life, 

 which we have been unable as yet to induce 

 Nature to reveal to us/' But, he eloquently 

 adds, "the morning light is already kindling on 

 the tops of the mountains, and we may hope 

 the deepest valleys will not forever remain ob- 

 scure." Truly, dame Nature must be vei-y in- 

 exorable if, at the rate she is now being inter- 

 rogated by the votaries of science, she does 

 not reveal her most hidden secrets. To his 

 remark, quoted above, Mr. Johnson appends 

 this curious note, — "The roots of trees will 

 travel to comparatively great distances and in 

 various directions in search of water : the roots 

 of Saii-foin (Esparette) will penetrate 10 or 12 

 feet tlirough the calcareous rubbly soil, or down 

 the fissures of limestone rocks in which they 

 delight to grow." — Is this, he asks, the result of 

 some perceptive power in the plant, or is it 

 merely by accident that the roots display these 

 tendencies. 



Those who are in any degree acquainted with 

 the speculations of the German Physiologists of 

 the greatest name, in regard to the soul, and 

 even the immortality of plants, will not ac- 

 cuse me of going yery far in alluding to the pos- 

 ble existence of some such perceptive power. 

 Von Martins gets rid of objectors by speaking of 

 them as " scientific men to whom the power of 

 comprehending the transccntal has bten impart- 

 ed in a lower degree .'" 



The Botanical Tkxt Book, for Colleges and pri- 

 vate Student.s. 



This is an American Work, by Asa Gray, 

 M. D. "Fisher, Professor of Natural History in 

 Harvard University." The author has rendered 

 an important service if he lias given us a Book in 

 fulfilment of its title, and this we have a right 

 to presume he has done, seeing that he occupies 

 a most honorable Chair in the most renowned 

 University of our country. 



There are few in the United States, who have 

 done more, and that in a manner so dismterested, 

 to promote the 8tu<ly of Botany than DocT. Dar- 

 lington of West-Chester, Pa. On some future 

 occasion we may use his arguments to en- 



