548 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



NEX/Sr PUBLICATIONS. 



The Tim Bunkek Papers, or Vankee Fanning. By 

 Timolhy Bunker, Ei=q , of Hookertown.Conn. With 

 Illustraiiong, by noppin. New York: Oranee Judd 

 &Co. 1868. Bo6ton: A. WilllAm8& Co., 100 Wash- 

 ington titrcet. 



This volume is a reprint of a series of articles 

 that originally appeared in a monthly magazine 

 entitled the American Agriculturist. As occasional 

 articles in that miscellaneous journal they were 

 suflaciently offensive ; as a whole bookful they are 

 more than we can swallow. We are sorry to see 

 the Tim Bunker papers in book form. We regard 

 the volume as a slander on farmers, and an in- 

 sult to every one engaged in agriculture. The 

 style, the language, the characters and the illus- 

 trations are those of ignoramuses and clowns. 

 And yet the writer says these papers "are a hum- 

 ble attempt to represent the average wisdom of the 

 Connecticut farmer," and as we suppose the farm- 

 ers of Connecticut are as intelligent as those of 

 other States, we conclude he has given us his idea of 

 the average wisdom of the farmers of our countiy 

 generally. Two examples are all we care to copy 

 to show what that idea really is : — 



"Irritation of the land 1" exclaimed Kier Frink, as he 

 looked out of his coal cart, where he had stopped to 

 hear what was said by the company. "What does he 

 moaa by (hat? I never heernof that even in the White- 

 oaks, where th^y irritate almost every thing from cats 

 up to old bosses " 



'He is gwine to turn a brook on here and git six tun 

 of hay to the acre," answered Tucker, 



"If he can," added Jones. 



"And b;am> him, he'll du it neow, ye see, for he's a 

 master hand to ca^ry his pint," said Seth Twiggs. 



"Neow du tell," responded Kier, hitting his horse a 

 smart lick, "Tim Bunker waterin a swamp I git up old 

 boss, this aint a safe place for yew." — pp. 142-3. 

 ******* 



"Hain't you got most tired on't. Squire ?" asked Ben 

 Jones, as I carted along my twentieth load of muck last 

 night. 



"Guess not. Why?" IrepHed. 



"It's a mighty deal of hard work for nothing. I'd just 

 08 leeves have so many loads of snow banks in a barn- 

 yard." 



"It's all moonshine about there being any vartu in 

 mu'k. I'd jfst as soon dung a field with icicles,'- chimed 

 in George Washington Tucker, who gets his ideas and 

 his drinks from Jones. 



"Them's my sentiments, exactly," said Jake Frink, 

 as he met u* in the roa 1 with a load of oats in bage, go- 

 ing down to Sh idtown to market. — pp. 182-3. 



Is this a fair representation of the "average wis- 

 dom" or the average intelligence of Yankee farm- 

 ers ? Are they as utterly ignorant of irrigation, of 

 the value of muck, or of the use of language as 

 these extracts indicate ? We were bom, brought 

 np, and have worked a good part of our lives 

 among farmers,— they are our neighbors, friends 

 and rektives,— and we regard such s-lang as a cal- 

 umny on them and on ourselves, alike false and 

 injurious. We ask that this style of "book farm- 

 ing" be abandoned, and that our agricultural 

 teachers shall recognize the common sense, if not 

 the intelligence of.farmers. We believe that farm- 

 ers know more, and learned men less, than they 

 have credit for ; and that there is less difference 

 between the "average wisdom" of the workers 

 upon the farm everj-where, and the actual knowl- 

 edee of scientific men, than is generally supposed. 



Prof. S. W. Johnson, a thoroughly scientific man, 

 and for many years a teacher of chemistry, &c., in 

 Yale College, recognizes this fact in his new work 

 on "How Crops Grow," by the broad assertion, 

 among many similar recognition's, that ^'Every 

 successful farmer is to some extent a scientific man.'' 



It is therefore with sincere rcgrtt that we ac- 

 knowledge the receipt from the publishers of such 

 books as Darwin's "Animals and Plants under 

 Domestication," of Johnson's "How Crops Grow," 

 &c., a volume of such twaddle as the "Tim Bun- 

 ker Papers," and that they should illustr.itc it by 

 caricatures of farmers more oflFensive, if ijossible, 

 than the text itself. 



We do not deny — we wish we could — that such 

 vulgarisms as we object to in this volume are used 

 by some farmers ; neither can we deny that pro- 

 fanity and obscenity are sometimes heard upon 

 the farm. But we do protest earnestly against 

 their repetition in well-printed books. 



Side Shows at Fairs. — "The more we 

 see of these exhibitions," eays the Chicago 

 Prairie Farmer, and we perfectly agree with 

 the writer, ' 'the more thoroughl}'^ we are con- 

 vinced that they are unmitigated nuisances, 

 every one of them, and ought not to be toler- 

 ated, and with this conviction we are deter- 

 mined, if possible, to create a public senti- 

 ment that shall neither recognize nor patron- 

 ize them. It is certainly mistaken policy on 

 the part of our agricultural societies, for a 

 comparatively paltry fee, to permit these trav- 

 elling humbugs to attend their exhibitions, and 

 reap and carry away, without leaving a consid- 

 eration, thousands of dollars, which remaining 

 with the people, would contribute to the suc- 

 cess of future exhibitions. The sooner this 

 truth is recognized, and side shows at our Fairs 

 numbered with horse-racing and gambling, 

 the better it will be both for the societies and 

 the people." 



HUSH MOSS. 

 Chondrus Crispus — Cairageen Moss. 



Quite a business has spriuig up within a few 

 years past, in the collection of this article 

 on the eastern coast of Massachusetts, espe- 

 cially at Scituate, in Plymouth Co., in the 

 neighborhood of Minot's Ledge. Some 6000 

 barrels, it is said, are annually gathered. It 

 was formerly brought to this country from the 

 coast of Ireland ; hence its name, Irish moss. 



It is collected during the summer months, 

 from May to September. A rake with flat iron 

 teeth, some half hogshead tubs, ba&kets, a 



