1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



75 



ing onJy about a bushel of marketable potatoes to 

 a row twenty rods in length. No rot. 



In all the above cases, large potatoes were used 

 for seed, cut, two to four eyes on each piece, and 

 planted in drills. Jonathan Doolittle. 



Massachusetts, Nov., 1867. 



Remarks. — Our friend Jonathan asks if we 

 ever have the "Blues ?" Yes, we reply, and every 

 sentient being has them in greater or less degree. 

 That frame or state of mind is a part of the imper- 

 fection of our mortal condition. 



But "the Blues" may be warded off in a great 

 measure by the exercise of a little philosophy. 

 Being "blue" did not add a single bushel to the 

 scanty crop of potatoes, nor in any way prepare 

 ■ the mind or body of Mr. Doolittle to avert such a 

 result in the future. We must be on our guard. 

 The "blues" are contagions. Do you not remem- 

 ber Zimmerman's story of the nuns, one of whom 

 began to mew like a cat ? Hour after hour, and 

 day after day, she traversed the gloomy aisles of 

 the nunnery, mewing like a cat in distress ; or if 

 she turned to the right or the left, where the 

 cheering sunlight found its way into the rooms, 

 still that dismal and distressing mewing went on, 

 until the whole sixty or seventy nuns were mewing 

 like so many cats. So it is with the "blues." Ex- 

 orcise the fiend at once, potatoes or no potatoes ! 



By the way, some persons say, — "anybody can 

 be a farmer." Let them solve your difficulties 

 about the potato crops, if they can. And ours, 

 too, for we are in the same category. Indeed, 

 who can solve them ? Who is so great as to do 

 these things ? 



But, friend, be of good cheer. Add to your 

 many virtues a firmer faith, a calm resignation, a 

 confiding trust that all is for the best, when we 

 have done our best. 



BOOKS OS SCIENTIFIC FARMING. 



Are there books on the sciences, as Geology, 

 Chemistry, &c., that a farmer can study and learn 

 more of the nature of the soil, manure and crops 

 with which he has to do ; or, in other words, which 

 will enable him to become more of a scientific 

 farmer? Now I think that farming generally is 

 not what it should be ; that it is looked upon by a 

 gi-eat many as a dirty, drudging, hard-working 

 life, instead of a healthful and most independent 

 business ; for, who but the farmer feeds the world ? 



If farmers were better educated, or I will say 

 more suitably educated for their work ; as well 

 and as suitably as are the lawyers, doctors, mer- 

 chants and other professions, perhaps farming 

 would be more of a pleasure, more successful. 

 Agricultural colleges may succeed in training 

 young men for farmers, but not every one is so 

 situated that he can go. 



Have you, or any of your readers ever tried the 

 American cow milker ? Does it draw the milk 

 clean ? How does it work in cold weather } 



Bridgewater, Mass., Nov. 30, 1867. Y. F. 



Remarks. — Books, why, yes, dear Young Farm- 

 er, (Y. F.), there are books on every subject and 

 on every branch of every subject. "And further, 

 by these, my son, be admonished : of making 

 many books there is no end ; and much study is 

 a weariness of the flesh." 



After the good Book, from which the above 

 thoughtful and suggestive sentence is quoted, we 

 will recommend Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 

 as "a work on geology, chemistry, &c."— especially 

 the "&c.,""that a farmer can study." Then we may 

 mention— well, we don't hardly know what to say, 

 as every year brings something new,— and better, of 

 course, than anything else,— in the form of elemen- 

 tary works and text liooks. Neither do we know 

 what progi-ess you have made— what books you have 

 read, or what are your habits of reading. Few 

 can ever hope to be accomplished geologists, chem- 

 ists, botanists, physiologists drnaturali.<ts. Either 

 requires a life-time. Men who have grown gray 

 in the study and practice of either one of these 

 sciences often feel like comparing themselves, at a 

 ripe old age, and when exciting the wonder of 

 their contemporaries that "one small head could 

 carry all they know," to the youth who has gath- 

 ered a few pebbles on the sea-shore, while the 

 great ocean of knowledge lies unexplored before 

 him. 



On the farm and off the farm dissatisfaction, un- 

 rest and murmuring are prominent characteristics 

 of our race. All ages and all sexes are seeking 

 and grasping for rights and positions, for knowl- 

 edge and wisdom which they do not possess. It 

 is not on the farm alone that our "waters cast up 

 mire and dirt." Farmers undoubtedly are not 

 educated as well or as "suitably" as they should 

 be. Neither are "lawyers, doctors, merchants and 

 those of other professions." Could you look into 

 the mind of j'our doctor or your lawyer, and see 

 what a Scotch reel Doubt and Irresolution, Igno- 

 rance and Uncertainty are sometimes dancing 

 there, while with a calm countenance and deliber- 

 ate, knowing words he proceeds to diagnosticate 

 your disease, or to unwind the intricacies of your 

 case, you might see reason to pity him and to con- 

 gratulate yourself. Verily, "all things are full of 

 labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied 

 with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing :" nor, 

 it may be added, is the mind content with know- 

 ing. 



Still it is a privilege and a duty to improve our 

 opportunities and faculties. We don't believe that 

 a little learning is a dangerous thing, or that be- 

 cause we cannot expect to be thoi'ough chemists, 

 geologists, or botanists, it is lost time to learn the 

 difference between an acid and an alkali, between 

 granite and slate, or between radicles and sta- 

 mens. The ordinary school-books on these sub- 

 jects will probably be as good as any that can be 

 procured. Don't read fast. Don't skip or slight 

 or be provoked by the hard words. Those not 

 familiar with the Greek and Latin from which 

 they are derived will need some patience to hunt 

 up their definitions in the dictionary, but Avhen 

 once fixed in the memory, and their expressive- 

 ness well understood, the Lepidopteras and the 

 Exogens will become as familiar as the Morus 

 Multicaulis of the days of the silk fever, and give 



