178 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 



The Farmer's Library, and Journal of Ag- 

 riculture. 



We have received from ihe publishers, Messrs. 

 Greely & McElkath, New York, tlie first vol- 

 umes, hnndsomely bound, of this valuable work. 



The first volume of the "Farmer's Library" 

 contains .551 closely printed octavo pages, on 

 good paper, clear and new type, which can be 

 read with ease. The matter of this \olume is a 

 re-print, for tlie first time in this country, of 

 Petzholdt's Agricultural Chemistry, and Von 

 Thaer's elaborate and able work entitled "Prin- 

 ciples of Agriculture." It embraces a full and 

 most satisfactory account of the practise and sci- 

 agriculture, at the time it was written, and is 

 still regarded as a standard work, not only on 

 the continent, but in Great Britain. Petzholdt's 

 Chemistry is given in a series of Lectures, not so 

 diffuse as those of Johnston, very plainly writ- 

 ten, and easily to be understood. It is a valua- 

 ble and interesting work, and can be read with 

 profit by every one interested in any rural pursuit. 



The " Monthly Journal of Agriculture" is ed- 

 ited by John S. Skinner, distinguished as the 

 founder of the first agricultural periodical in 

 America, and as an able and indefatigable friend 

 to the advancement of agriculture, both as an 

 Art and a Science. Tlie first volume, (which 

 closed with the June number,) contains 612 oc- 

 tavo pages, with double columns, is profusely 

 illustrated and embellished with engravings on 

 wood and steel in the best style of the arts. It 

 is made up of selections from foreign and Amer- 

 ican agricultural journals, from the writings of 

 correspondents, and those of its veteran editor. 



There are, we believe, between nine and ten 

 thousand Common School Libraries in this State, 

 three-fourths of which are designed for the peru- 

 sal of persons whose lives are to be spent in the 

 practice of some branch or branches of rural in- 

 dustry. Among the million of volumes already 

 deposited in these public libraries, not one in an 

 hundred has the least information on any subject 

 relating to the cultivation of the earth, whether 

 of the field or garden. This should not be ; and 

 we are happy to know that many intelligent citi- 

 zens concur with us in wishing to see good 

 standard woiks on rural affairs, and the natural 

 sciences connected therewith, placed in these 

 nurseries of popular learning. We cheerfully 

 commend the "Farmer's Library and Journal of 

 Agriculture," as a work worthy of a place in all 

 school and town libraries. It is also admirably 

 adapted to be offered as a five dollar premium 

 instead of money, by all Agricultural Societies. 

 We are decidedly in favor of paying premiums 

 in valuable books relating to rural subjects rather 

 than degrading a high and honorable competition 

 into a mercenary affair of dollars and cents. 



Messrs. (trkei.v and McElrath deserve pub- 

 lic thanks for incurring the great expense, on 

 not very flattering prospects, of getting into print. 



in a form so neat, inviting, and cheap, the most 

 valuable European works on agriculture, not be- 

 fore published in this country. Their liberality 

 and confidence have been great, and their enter- 

 prize should be amjjly sustained — not certainly 

 to save them from loss, but to confer enduringly 

 incalculable benefits on the community at large. 

 The coming volume will contain a reprint of 

 "Stephens' Book of the Farm." at one-fourth of 

 its cost in England. 



Tlic Library and Journal are issued together 

 monthly at the Tribune Buildings, New York, 

 at 'f .5 per annum. 



European Agriculture and Rural Economy 



We have received from the Author, the sixth 

 number of this work. It treats of Paring and 

 Burning ; Burning land without Paring; Admix- 

 ture of Soils ; Improvement of Peat Lands ; and 

 Drainage, as extensively practised in England, 

 Ireland, and Scotland. 



This number is decidedly more valuable than 

 any of its predecessors. Mr. Colman has en- 

 joyed abundant opportunity to learn from per- 

 sonal observation all that is known in this impor- 

 tant branch of rural labor ; and his descriptions 

 are clear and satisfactory. If we speak of the 

 work generally, we must say that it is well writ- 

 ten as a literary performance, designed for the 

 perusal of persons of taste, and most admirably 

 printed ; but it abounds in blemishes and defects, 

 in point of matter, which injure its character, and 

 will impair its usefulness. It is a serious blem- 

 ish on tills ambitious treatise on " European Ag- 

 riculture and Rural Economy," that its Author 

 so often takes occasion to depreciate, and ridicule 

 what he calls "the pride of Science," as applied 

 to Agriculture. 



That some ardent votaries have over estimated 

 the advantages of science, at present, to the com- 

 mon farmer, we are free to admit. But that fact 

 by no means justifies a friend to rural and intel- 

 lectual improvement, in systematically deprecia- 

 ting the service of those that investigate with all 

 the light and means at their command, the Nat- 

 ural Laws, which change for the husbandman, 

 earth, air, and water, into cultivated plants, milk, 

 meat, and wool ; and i-esolve these organized 

 products back again into their original elements. 

 This course is unworthy of a man like Mr. Col- 

 man, whose education and knowledge of men 

 and things give us a right to expect fair treatment, 

 if not a friend to scientific investigations. 



The reader is informed on page 51, of the 

 number before us, that Dr. Playfair had favored 

 the Author with the perusal of a manuscript lec- 

 ture, in which, speaking of salt as a fertilizer, 

 the lecturer says : " Liebig ascribs its action to 

 a decomposition of the sulphate of lime in the 

 soil, by which the sulphate of soda entei-s the 

 plant. Without hazarding an opinion as to the 

 truth of this view, I would simply remark that, if 



