104 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



The idea of book farming, seems to be lawfully repugnant to 

 some men j but book farming is only the filling up of the very 

 practices which every man has followed, who ever drove a plough 

 through the soil, or carted a load of manure upon it. That it does 

 reprobate, and most deservedly, the murderous practices which 

 have alriiost made deserts of some of the finest and most produc- 

 tive parts of our country, is most true. But it teaches also the 

 methods to be pursued in order to renovate the exhausted land 

 and make it once more a garden. 



We have escaped from our subject — but let us go on a little 

 farther. What has been the cause of this ruinous system 1 We 

 believe in many cases it is the fear of expense. Many men will 

 not take the trouble to estimate the additional gain which would 

 accrue to them from restoring to their soil, a portion at least, of 

 what they have taken away. The prospect of a small gain, quite 

 hides the view of a great gain, preceded by a trifling outlay, and 

 so they content themselves, looking upon their farms growing 

 poorer every year, but we venture to say, no faster than they are. 



Another class is really ignorant of what ought to be done. We 

 cannot easily forget the surprise of a farmer, who calls upon us 

 very often, when, in talking to him about the use of urine, as a 

 manure, a few" days since, we told him its value and how he might 

 save it by the use of charcoal ; and he burns charcoal on his own 

 farm. He opened his eyes upon a new fact, and went away 

 exclaiming : " I'll try it ! I'll try it !" 



Now to return, for we do not wish to speak of that class of 

 farmers who are too lazy to till their land properly. In these 

 agricultural meetings, a thousand facts would be circulated ; what 

 one man reads will be told to those who do not and will not, and 

 in this way, before they know it, they will be as much book 

 farmers as any. We are all creatures of imitation, and one man 

 will do what he has seen his neighbor do with success. And 

 knowledge is catching, when there is any in circulation, even by 

 the most indifferent. Let our friends in the country try the expe- 

 riment, and see if it does not succeed. 



