14 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



prize them very highly, often consulting thein 

 for the information desired. Turning over their 

 leaves, I cannot hut admire the untiring research of 

 the editor, and that he did not hesitate to draw 

 in contrihutions to its columns, in the farm of 

 timely and tasteful extracts, agricultural, scien- 

 tific and literary, from all sorts of books and 

 periodicals. Inquiring for the causes of the 

 wide-spread influence and usefulness of the old 

 journal, I am led to conclude that they are to he 

 found in the power with which it treated of practi- 

 cal agriculture, and in the point and aptness of its 

 scientific and literary extracts, — such extracts be- 

 ing of a character to interest the farmer, to proyoke 

 him to a further knowledge of the subjects to 

 which they alluded, thus tending to create a de- 

 sire for general reading and for mental culture. 



What should be the aim of the Editors and 

 Correspondents of the " New England Farmer" of 

 to-day, to make it a journal interesting, instructive 

 and highly useful to the farmer 1 



I will briefly submit a few propositions, which 

 appear to me to be, in part, an answer to this 

 question. 



1. The men now cultivate the soil of New 

 England, who are perfectly competent, if they 

 please, to sustain the columns of the New England 

 Farmer most ably. No one should hesitate 

 to communicate his experience in farming. No 

 one writer can give the best and most reliable 

 information upon all agricultural subjects. One 

 man can treat of some subjects "like a book," 

 and another of some other subjects ; hence a good- 

 ly number of correspondents, each giving in- 

 formation upon those topics which have most 

 deeply engaged his observations and thoughts, 

 will give freshness, variety, originality and ability 

 to the journal ; and upon the principle of the 

 motto, " Help one another," all will be enter- 

 tained and instructed. 



2. The Editors and Correspondents of the New 

 England Farmer should keep its columns well- 

 stored with articles inculcating good sound prac- 

 tical farming. By the expression " sound prac- 

 tical farming," I do not mean that the farmer 

 should be urged to hug old customs because of 

 their antiquity. Some of the old methods of cul- 

 ture are good to-day ; others were proper in ear- 

 lier times and circumstances, but are wholly im- 

 proper and out of place in these times ; and to 

 persist in the practice of them now, when new 

 and better modes have been discovered, is any- 

 thing else than sound practical farming. Without 

 hastily embracing theoretical speculations, .the 

 New England Farmer should yet be up even with 

 the spirit of progress now so generally moving the 

 great business interests of man, and keep pace 

 with the foremost in endeavors to give currency 

 to any and all improvements calculated to better 

 the condition of the soil and of its owner. Its 

 readers should be told how to increase and apply 

 manures for the speedy and profitable restoration 

 of fertility to exhausted soils, and since the capa- 

 city of mother earth for production is at present 

 almost ^indefinable, how the harvests of our most 

 prolific soils may be increased. They should be 

 advised as to what constitutes good tillage, in all 

 its manipulations, how their estates may be made 

 more valuable, their crops and their annual cash 

 income increased. 



3 . In addition to a full assortment of articles upon 

 the practical details of good husbandry, the pages 

 of the journal should be graced with occasional 

 papers considering agriculture in its relations to 

 man as a social being, and in its comprehensive 

 relations to society, to great National interests. 

 Articles of this sort may admit an elegant diction, 

 a high order of composition. The farmer has in- 

 terests besides those pertaining to mere dollars 

 and cents, and should occasionally contemplate 

 the native dignity, the pleasures and the compre- 

 hensive relations of agriculture. My eye this 

 moment rests upon an editorial article in the old 

 New England Farmer, written by Mr. Fessenden, 

 from which I am tempted to make a short extract, 

 illustrative of my meaning. He says : — "We are 

 highly gratified in observing that the interest which 

 attaches to the primitive and most important of the 

 arts is every year perceptibly increasing in zeal, 

 knowledge and perseverance. If we still continue 

 thus to press forward, We cannot fail in the com- 

 mon course of events to become not only prosper- 

 ous as individuals, but powerful, respectable and 

 respected as a nation. Improvements in agriculture 

 are pioneers, heralds and companions of all other 

 improvements. The accurate science and correct 

 practice of tillage alone can precede and introduce 

 the charms, the decorum, the dignity as well as 

 the substantial and indispensable requisites of civili- 

 zation. If Ceres did not sustain the Graces, as 

 well as support Minerva and her retinue, they 

 would disappear as the tints of the setting sun fade 

 in the sky when evening advances." This extract 

 is a good example of comprehensive, elegant writing. 

 The graceful and pointed illustration in the last 

 sentence, coupling an allusion to the ancient clas- 

 sics with a beautiful figure of the writer's own, 

 showing the dependence of all upon agriculture, is 

 fine. If the objection be raised that such writings 

 are unadapted to the tastes and wants of the tillers 

 of the soil, I reply that many of them do perceive 

 the merits of fine compositions, and that the num- 

 ber of such is rapidly increasing ; and if others can 

 only appreciate those articles directly addressed to 

 their cupidity, it is high time to begin an effort to 

 elevate their tastes. 



4. There should be articles in the paper from 

 time to time, reminding the farmer that " mind 

 makes the man," and that it is at once his interest, 

 his duty, and his high privilege, to expand, ennoble 

 and refine his mind by cultivation. It is his inter- 

 est to do so, because his calling brings him in daily 

 contact with the great and more or less intricate 

 laws of nature, which cultivated mind alone can 

 penetrate,, and an intelligent understaning of which 

 has a direct money bearing upon his business : it 

 is his duty, because a cultivated mind enables him 

 to take high rank and to wield a large and good in- 

 fluence in society, because he cannot properly dis- 

 charge his obligations as a citizen of the Republic 

 without intelligence, and because the proper regu- 

 lation <if the passions and cultivation of the intel- 

 lectual faculties is a sacred trust committed to him 

 which he is by every principle bound to respect and 

 improve : it is his privilege, because with a mind 

 expanded and refined by knowledge, he is in a con- 

 dition to perceive and pursue noble ends, to make 

 high attainments, and to enjoy pleasures of which 

 an ignorant man is incapable, and because so far 

 he is realizing the designs of the Creator, who en- 

 dued man with mind that he might here enter upon 



