1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAmiER. 



15 



each. Working oxen, from $169 to 213. 

 Yearling steers, at $42.50 per head. Fifty- 

 eight feeding steers, at $75.25 each ; and 

 standing corn in the field, from $9 to $17.25 

 per acre. 



AGBICULTUHAL TEACHERS. 



I don't tliink anybody takes more interest in an 

 agriciilniral paper than I do. I am about sick of 

 political newspapers, although they may be well 

 enough in their place. But a paper which tells us 

 how to get out of the earth (the great store house 

 of wealth), the abundance that lies hidden therein, 

 should always find constant readers. Your "Ex- 

 tracts and Replies" 1 consider the best part of your 

 paper and I always turn to those columns tirst. 

 They contain the practical wisdom of individual 

 experience. I hope you will urge liberal com- 

 munications from the farmers for those columns, 

 and will not lie timid about giving the "replies." 

 Whenever any one has obtained any information 

 from his own observation, kt him jot it down 

 whether in season or out, but perhaps better out 

 of season, and then the reader can ponder on it 

 and lay out his plans for another year. No cidti- 

 vator of the land can learn everything as he goes 

 along, liut must tirst make many of his plans and 

 then be ready to carry them out as the proper sea- 

 son comes. It is a good time iu the winter to give 

 the experiences of the past year, and then the cul- 

 tivator of the soil can gather his inforuiatioii and 

 lay out his plans for another summer therefrom. 

 If he does not get his new ideas till the proper sea- 

 son tor applying them arrives, ten chances to one 

 that the season does not escape him before he is 

 ready to act on them. I don't know that I shall 

 borlier you much more, although I have many 

 things I should like to say. If your correspon- 

 dents will adopt the suggestions hereof, I shall 

 continue to lie their constant reader, and shall 

 without doubt profit much thereby. Inquirer. 



Sometime since, one of our contemporaries 

 saw fit to criticise good-naturedly, but pretty 

 sharply, a remark we incidently made in the 

 course of a brief article, to the effect that we 

 regarded it as a mistake for agricultural editors 

 to assume to teach farmers their business. 

 The rebuke of our worthy friend was pointed 

 by an enumeration of the number of columns 

 of editorial teaching that he found in the very 

 paper in which we expressed the aforesaid 

 opinion. Feeling that our critical friend 

 "rather had us there," we deferred an expla- 

 nation and defence of our remark to a more 

 convenient season. The foregoing sensible 

 remarks of "Inquirer," remind us of our long 

 deferred purpose, and seem to afford an op- 

 portunity to define our position. 



The thought that underlaid our remark is 

 the same as that which prompted the article of 

 our correspondent, which is adopted as the 

 text of our present discourse. "I hope you 

 will urge liberal contributions from the far- 

 mers," says he, because "they contain the 

 practical wisdom of individual experience." 



"Whenever any one has obtained any infoi^ 

 mation from his own observation let him jot it 

 down, whether in season or out ; but perhaps 

 better out of season," &c. These are ww fed a 

 fitly spoken, and we commend them tSi'JIe 

 careful consideration of every thoughtful tiller 

 of the soil. Has any practical farmer passed 

 through the year now drawing to a close with- 

 out thoughts suggested either by what he has 

 read or seen, which, if "jotted down, whether 

 in season or out," would have proved benefi- 

 cial to some other farmer ? If he has been in- 

 structed or pleased by the thoughts and hints 

 that others have jotted down, is he not in strict 

 justice under the same obligations to pay there- 

 for as he is to pay the subscription price of 

 his paper ? 



With these thoughts in our mind we ex- 

 pressed the opinion which was criticised by our 

 contemporary, that the editor who assumed to 

 teach farmers their business mistook his vocar 

 tion. We believe that his object and aim 

 should rather be to induce them to teach each 

 other. Instead of assuming for himself the 

 position of teacher or professor, and of look- 

 ing upon his "patrons" or readers as his pu- 

 pils or scholars, he may regard himself as 

 chairman, pro tern., of a preternaturally ex- 

 tended debating club, and his subscribers as par- 

 ticipators in the grand harangue ; each one and 

 all being entitled to the floor on the observance 

 of well known parliamentary rules. 



In addition to our duties as presiding officers 

 of the great assembly of over seventeen thou- 

 sand weekly, and a rapidly increasing class of 

 monthly attendants, we claim as practical fai^ 

 mers all the rights and privileges of membei^ 

 ship. In consequence of the extreme modesty 

 of the great majority of our brother debaters, 

 we find it necessary to "speak in meeting" 

 oftener and more at length than we should oth- 

 erwise be glad to do. 



Brother farmers, we are not your teachers. 

 We are willing to act as your engineers in run- 

 ning the machine for our mutual benefit ; but, in 

 the words of Brother Boardman, conductor of 

 the Maine Farmer, we must remind you that 

 "the severe labor of the season is drawing to 

 a close, and the long evenings, the golden op- 

 portunity for working men to improve their 

 minds and also to aid in improving the minds 

 of others, is at hand. We desire at this junc- 

 ture to call the attention of our readers to the 



