1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



239 



once, seeking not a stopping-place, but a perma- 

 nent home, in which, and around which, all that 

 is best in their natures may gather and centre. 



Would that we could whisper it convincingly 

 into the ears of nine-tenths of our restless, roving 

 fellow-citizens, Stay where you are ! — Life Illus- 

 trated. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HINTS FROM THE CLASSICS-No. 1, 



BY SA31UEL T. READ. 



It is an idea among the agriculturists of the 

 present day, and perhaps an idea which in a meas- 

 ure removes incentives to improvement, that their 

 profession is in a higher state of perfection than 

 ever before. This, however, is a decided mistake. 

 For considering the advantages derived from the 

 other arts, our skill in husbandry is rather upon 

 a retrograde. We have our elaborate treatises 

 upon tliis subject, (oftentimes too elaborate for 

 practical assistance.) We have implements, the 

 products of years of studious ingenuity; but, 

 still, Agriculture has not kept pace with the oth- 

 er arts, in the rapid strides of energetic progress. 

 If we turn back the pages of history 1900 years, 

 we find in the village of Mantua, a short distance 

 from Rome, a Mantuan shepherd vrriting the best 

 dissertation on husbandry ever produced — an es- 

 say replete with wisdom and apt maxims — a 

 work, which to-day stands forth, defying the 

 world for an equal. There is scarcely a principle 

 which is now applied to Agriculture, to which 

 this does not allude, and on the other hand there 

 are a great many, of paramount value comprised 

 in it, which now, are scarcely known and prac- 

 ticed at all. 



Some of its maxims, especially, are so apt, and 

 60 worthy of reflection, that I propose spending a 

 few contemplations upon them, as time will per- 

 mit. 



The shepherd was not slow to perceive an error 

 among the Roman husbandmen, which is ex- 

 erting a very detrimental influence upon our ag- 

 riculture at the present day. Many of his coun- 

 trymen possessed fields of so great extent, that 

 they were unable to bestow upon them a thorough 

 culture, and accordingly, like much of our land, 

 they were but partially cultivated, the thistle and 

 the sterile weed growing quite as luxuriantly as 

 the crops of the farmer, with which they were 

 mingled. The writer, perceiving this, cautioned 

 his countrymen in the following comprehensive 

 and laconic language — Laudato inr/entia rura, ex- 

 tguum colito. The import of the expression is, 

 that it is better to expend a thorough culture 

 upon a small field than a superficial culture upon 

 a large one. Many of our farmers boast more of 

 much land, than of good land. They seem to 

 think more of reaping a large field for a small 

 harvest, than of reaping a small field for a large 

 harvest. Sometimes we hear one say, "I've got 

 a good farm ; why, there's over one hundred 

 acres of tillage land." And then we hear anoth- 

 er- say, "I've got a good fixrm ; to be sure I've 

 only twenty-five acres of land under cultivation, 

 but it is tvell cultivated ; I spare no pains in sup- 

 plying it yearly with an abundant coat of fertil- 

 izing substances, and it pays me for it." 



The one-hundred-acre farmer goes out in the 

 spring, and scatters a few tons of manure over 



his extensive tillage land, so thinly, that those of 

 the poor plants from which he expects a crop, 

 will be quite fortunate who do not have to extend 

 their roots an almost incredible distance, in order 

 to obtain the designed aliment, and then having 

 reached a small clod of the fertilizer, are not 

 compelled to share it with several of their neigh- 

 bors. The foolish husbandman expends a vast 

 amount of time, labor and money in plowing and 

 planting his uuprofitable farm, and is so driven, 

 as to be obliged to hurry in his crops at the very 

 latest moment allowal)le. Hoeing time (if the 

 crop is corn) comes on apace, and then all is hur- 

 ry and confusion, early in the morning and late at 

 i night. He gets the first hoeing about three- 

 j fourths done, and it is time to hoe again, so that 

 lone-fourth is left to the domination of the weeds. 

 He hires more men and commences the second 

 hoeing. He hurries his laborers, until they but 

 half do their work, and gets through his field a 

 few days after the proper time. The portion 

 which remained after the first hoeing, is gone 

 over hastily, but the weeds have become so numer- 

 ous and large, that in their eradication, the dan- 

 ger attendant upon disregard of the caution in 

 the old parable, — "Lest ye root up the wheat al- 

 so," is greatly incurred. Now, look at his field ! 

 Behold the dwindling, spindling, dwarfish, slender 

 mockery of vegetation — a regular crop of Tom 

 Thumb corn. Harvest time is at hand. Hurry ! 

 hurry ! hurry ! again ; the poor farmer is a per- 

 fect slave. Work ! work ! work ! not so much 

 because there is an immense crop to be gar- 

 nered, as because he must go over one hun- 

 dred acres ("the good farm,") and he at last 

 gets his gi-ain into shocks, but it is almost a day's 

 travel between them, and a near-sighted person 

 would require a spy-glass to see from one to an- 

 other. Finally, after protracted and disagreea- 

 ble labor, the diminutive crop — the result of so 

 much toil and expense, is in the granary — a small 

 one, partly full. • 



So much for tlie hundred-acre- farmer. Reverse 

 the picture. The farmer with his twenty-five- 

 acre tillage lot, in the spring, first proceeds to co- 

 ; piously supply his ground with necessary fertili- 

 jzers. He plows and plants with no distressing 

 {"hurries" to distract his mind. He sits pensive- 

 ly reading his paper, or studying his profession, 

 I at many a twilight, when his hundred-acre neigh- 

 bor is hurrying and toiling as if his life w^ere de- 

 pending upon the exertions of that hour. Hoeing 

 is commenced and ended in its proper time. And 

 the wise and happy farmer has the pleasure of 

 beholding a luxuriant crop, stretching its rank, 

 I)rawny leaves to sun and shower. At Autumn, 

 his granaries are full. And, in short, order and 

 neatness make his life, what the former's life 

 should ever be — a life of quiet contentment and 

 honest pleasure. 



Remember it. It is Avorth as much now as it 

 was 1900 years ago, — Laudato ingentia rura ; exi- 

 guum colito. 



Duration of Vegetable Life. — Lord Lindsay 

 states, that in tiie course of his wanderings amid 

 the pyramids of Egypt, he stumbled on a mummy, 

 proved by its hieroglyphics to be at least 2000 

 years of age. On examining the mummy after it 

 was unwrapped, he found in one of its closed hands 

 a tuberous or bulbous root. He was interested 



