390 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



omitted. Much more agreeable is it to do good for evil ; while to professed moral- 

 ists, and mea of more leisure, must be left the task of shooting " folly as it flies." 

 And Heaven knows it flies thick enough, especially in the appropriation of what 

 little can be collected for improvement in Agriculture ! In this matter of doing 

 justice, or, if you will, praising and bringing out into the relief they would shun, 

 the friends of rural industry, there are those to be found in this world more nice 

 than either wise or honest, who can strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Hence 

 if a man of war have the good luck to imbrue his hands in the blood of his fellow 

 men, and by the prowess of his right arm succeed in adding largely to the list 

 of widows and orphans, no praise is too extravagant for hi?n. Medals and thanks 

 are voted by Congress, and none too rich or too exalted to do him reverence. The 

 * Sovereigns ' throw up their " greasy caps," and huzza as he passes, and Editors 

 with one voice join in the universal hosanna ! until every village is eager for the 

 honor of claiming, not its Confucius or Homer, its Franklin or its Clinton, but 

 some gallant knight 



" That never bowed his stubborn knee 

 To anything but chivalry." 



We do n't mean your real, old, thrice-tried heroes, such as have led m our 

 Army and Navy, whose humanity gives to their chivalry its highest lustre, and 

 whose love of peace and mercy has been known to subdue their military ambi- 

 tion, where opportunity presented redundant harvests of glory. No degree of 

 enthusiasm, no measure of praise is deemed extravagant, if excited by the smell 

 of powder, or the sight of blood ; but if one poor Editor lift his feeble voice in 

 eulogy of men who would by their industry, or their liberality, or their enter- 

 prise, or their learning, benefit the human race, by benefiting the most useful 

 and productive of all the industrial, though it may be " dull pursuits of civil 

 life," straightway some craven spirit, alike devoid of manliness and discern- 

 ment, imputes unworthy motives to the action, interpreting the feelings of others 

 according to the meanness of his own nature. Once again, then, and for all, we 

 mean, while we have the power, to leave on record, as far as our pen can go, 

 what we trust may prove testimony of some endurance, to the really virtuous, 

 because really useful actions and deportment of those who do good to American 

 Husbandry, whether by the pen or the plow! and for the rest, all we have to 

 say is, hojii soil (jui mal y pcjise. But let all such evil thinkers remember that 

 two, at least, of those whose living examples of skillful tillage and management 

 we have most particularly commended, and the portrait of one of w/i07n we 

 shall endeavor to preserve in this journal, are what are called " overseers," or 

 managers of large estates ; neither patrons of this work, nor dispensers. of patron- 

 age in any form, but distinguished for their unassuming manners, industry, 

 judgment, and firmness, tempered with humanity ; and therefore, at least in our 

 humble esteem, more worthy to be honored than your mere red-handed war- 

 riors, fighting for pay, without care for cause or consequence ! The reader will 

 bear with this digression when we express the hope that as this is the first, so 

 may it prove the last time that We shall turn aside to speak in this connection. 



Recurring to Mr. Phinney's interesting exposition of the views which prompt- 

 ed the Massachusetts Society to import cattle instead of off"ering the usual stereo- 

 type list of premiums, it will be seen that he expresses the opinion that the 

 cows of farmers who depend principally on that source for their income, " do not 

 generally yield an average daily produce of more than from tieo to four quarts 

 of milk throughout the year." Whereas, he adds, in another part of his state- 



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