VISIT TO THE FARMER Ol'' MARSIIFIELD. 257 



of the bull and three heifers imported by Governor Winslow, in the good ship 

 Charity, inl624. 



Speaking of big fish and of English Agriculture, our honest but rather crusty 

 old friend, John Bull, must begin to have a high notion of the agronomical tal- 

 ents and capabilities of his daughter, America, from the impressions which ap- 

 pear to have been made by her three successive Ministers. We, who notice such 

 things, used to admire how Mr. Evekktt made the old gentleman roar, at his 

 agricultural festivals, to which the American Minister seemed always a welcome 

 if not a favorite guest. And Mr. Stevenson, before him, was not slow in getting 

 into the old gentleman's good graces. But in easy and graceful, not to say some- 

 what self-confident manner, and in fresh appearance and manly bearing, Mr. S. 

 might well pass for one of John's own get ; and, as John Bull is well known not 

 to be deficient in the conservative virtue of self-esteem, Mr. S. got along fa- 

 mously with the great English farmers, titled and untitled, and brought away 

 with him, as we happen to know, not only the high esteem of the crack men, 

 but the best sheep of the crack flocks, of the kingdom — even of that great South- 

 Down prize breeder, Mr. Webb. Moreover, in hunting and shooting, over brook 

 and through briar, with his Virginia horsemanship and dexterity, Mr. S. could 

 not fail to shoot ahead in the regards of a people who pass so much of their time 

 m the noble exercises of the field and the luxurious enjoyments, both of sense 

 and intellect, for which such exercises furnish the keenest zest. And then last 

 we sent to them again Mr. McLane, a very zealous inquirer into the principles 

 of Agriculture, and being, too, like his immediate predecessor, a constant reader 

 of this journal, we are bound to suppose him to be a good practical farmer ! — 

 He had only to bind up, on this second visit, what he had before gathered of 

 John's partiality. We know he was on the most friendly footing with some of 

 the most opulent and best English agriculturists, and familiar with Ruflin's great 

 essay on " calcareous manures," with which he plied them, so that some of them 

 will no longer inquire, "What American has written a book?" But of him it 

 should be enough, if he had done nothing more, to say, " Blessed are the peace- 

 makers !" though, in our republican country, neither Franklin, nOr Godfrey, nor 

 Rittenhouse, nor Whitney, nor Fulton, nor Clinton, would stand any chance 

 against a man in regimentals, who could prove that he pointed a gun that killed 

 forty men at one discharge ! 



And now, in respect of the following letter, we confess to the weakness of a 

 pride in having our labors for the greatest and the most neglected interest of the 

 country well thought of by men of eminent usefulness and ability ; but, truth to 

 tell, we should not have so much valued the following voluntary offering of ap- 

 probation, coming from Mr. Webster the statesman, or the politician, (for with 

 politics we have nothing to do,) nor even from him as a dilettante farmer ; but we 

 do value, and venture to record it, as from a man of profound sense in all things 

 to which he gives his mind ; and we have long known it to be addicted, with 

 unfeigned predilection, to Agriculture. 



New-York, November 4, 1846. 

 Dear Sir : I have looked through the 4th and 5th numbers of the current volume of The 

 Farmers' Library, and I think I ought to take this occasion to express my sense of the 

 value of the whole work. Its plan is comprehensive and excellent, and the execution thus 

 far successfully caiTied out. lu my opinion, the work ought to be distributed by the various 

 Agricultunil Societies, to the end that practical knowledge may be diffused, and a spirit of 

 inquiry- and improvement awakened among young farmers. 



There are two things which you appear to bear in mmd, and wliich I think of great im- 

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