302 



Ignorance and Prejudice. 



Vol. VI. 



to — say half-a-dozen shots each — else they 

 might choose to keep the seconds all day on 

 the ground, and serious injury might arise 

 from taking cold. 



HCMANITAS. 



4th mo. 15. 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Ignorance and Prejudice. 



Ignorance and prejudice are twin brothers. 

 Ignorance is often stimiilatod to a desire for 

 knowledge, but prejudice takes him by the 

 hand, and if his physical constitution should 

 happen to be the stronger (which is often the 

 case) he leads his companion from his pur- 

 pose. If he desires to become acquainted 

 with the physical laws that govern the ani- 

 mal and vegetable world, prejudice tells him 

 that this is searching into the works of Provi- 

 dence, and "his ways are past finding out." 

 If he lift his eyes to the starry firmament, and 

 feel an emotion within himself, a desire for 

 an acquaintance with astronomy — prejudice 

 comes forward and gravely asserts, that the 

 study of the stars, and the pretended calcula- 

 tions of their distances, is all presumption, 

 and a perplexing of the mind with things that 

 it has pleased Providence to exclude from 

 man's understanding ; that we are not bene- 

 fited by these researches of visionary men ; 

 they neither feed or clothe us, nor do they 

 dispense comforts to the poor; and therefore, 

 it is not our proper business. If ignorance 

 takes up history, and is in a fair way of ex- 

 tracting a moral from its pages, prejudice 

 tells him it is folly to record the deeds of men, 

 for " they are prone to evil as the sparks fly 

 upward." 



It is the same Ignorance governed by pre- 

 judice, that checks the afrricultural advance- 

 ment of our coimtry ; he is horror-stricken at 

 scientific pursuits; and looks upon "book 

 farming" as the bane of practical knowledge, 

 because he essayed to cultivate his corn ac- 

 cording to certain rules laid down in the 

 Farmers' Cabinet, but failed for the want of 

 a little scientific knowledge; therefore he de- 

 nounces the whole system of recorded expe- 

 rience, when he would not hesitate to ask of 

 his neighbour the cause of the superior growth 

 of his fruit-tree and vine. Thus we find pre- 

 judice besetting the ignorant man on every 

 Bide, and he resolves to grope in the shade of 

 his own limited experience, spurning to be 

 guided by the liglit of the agricultural science 

 of the day. 



The light of science to the mind, is like the 

 light of the sun to our visual organ, the eye ; 

 by the aid of the latter, we are enabled, 

 through analogy, to judge of the form and 

 properties of distant objects, without bringing j 

 them to the test of all our senses. So with I 



the light of science, we are enabled to judge, 

 through analogy, of the properties of untried 

 things, or things viewed only in the distance. 



Now, from the advantage that herd's-grasa 

 possesses over many others, it should be 

 brought into more general use ; but prejudice 

 has arisen against it, on account of a reputed 

 inferiority as hay for stock. This must have 

 arisen wholly from its use, when mown from 

 its native bottom or sedimentary deposit, 

 where it is generally left to ripen its seed 

 before cut; but who thinks of making use of 

 clover or timothy hay under the same cir- 

 cumstances'? It is generally thrown into 

 the barn-yard as useless. Herd's-grass, when 

 grown on a high, dry soil, under culture of 

 the plough, and cut in the proper season, or 

 just after the pollen has fallen from the head, 

 makes a sweet and nutritious hay, not in the 

 least inferior to the best clover or timothy. 

 I have known horses, with moderate work- 

 ing, to be kept in good plight through the 

 winter on herd's-grass alone: when properly 

 cured (and few of the grasses are so readily 

 preserved), it makes a cleaner and softer hay 

 than either timothy or clover. It has a de- 

 cided advantage in sustaining close cropping 

 and pasturing. Mowing in dry weather is 

 almost certain death to a timothy sward, but 

 herd's-grass is tenacious of the soil, producing 

 a thick after-math, highly beneficial in pro- 

 tecting the soil through the winter; and in 

 the spring, turns in to great advantage for 

 the growth of corn. I am acquainted with a 

 district where it has got into general use on 

 upland sown to clover simply, or clover and 

 timothy ; on heavy lands, the dry weather and 

 frosts will have destroyed nearly all but the 

 herd's-grass the second year, but it has got 

 firm hold, and will produce an excellent crop. 

 One of the first persons to make use of it in 

 this way, was in the habit of raising an extra 

 crop of corn to the accustomed routine, with- 

 out any additional dressing with manure: his 

 npighbours long eyed him, with the prospect 

 of an impoverished soil; but from his con- 

 tinued success, they were led to inquire into 

 the cause, and attributed it to the heavy 

 herd's-grass sward, which protected and de- 

 composed in his soil, and from this convince-: 

 ment fell into the practice, i 



I have refjretted to see our native produc-, 

 tions, those furnishing our home markets, give 

 way to foreign importations. Silk has lat-: 

 torly almost wholly taken place of the dura-: 

 ble fiir hat reconlly worn, and chiefly manu- 

 factured from the muskrat. This is to be 

 lamented for two reasons — first, it makes a 

 demand for an article which we largely im-' 

 port at a heavy cost; and secondly, it taxes 

 our farmers with the continuance of a nui- 

 sance, particularly destructive to dikes anc 

 embanked meadows. The skins of these ani 



