1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



183 



lish literature, illustrating not only the fancies that 

 poets are supposed to find in the most common 

 themes, but the real and practical workings of coun- 

 try life. The farm-yard and the garden, the field 

 and the forest, the various duties and employments 

 which the changing seasons bring with them in 

 their course, the out-door labors of seed-time and 

 harvest, and the fireside amusements of the winter 

 months, are each made the subject of the poets' 

 praises, and receive from them due tributes to their 

 importance and their worth. And not only are the 

 beauties which a refined mind sees in every one of 

 nature's operations, enlarged upon and exhibited, 

 in the pen-pictures of the masters of English song, 

 but any one who examines this volume, will find mi- 

 nutely described many of the common labors of the 

 farm, which those who perform them are too often 

 led to imagine of anything but a poetic association. 

 We are well aware that there are many who will 

 disdain the idea of gathering around our country 

 life any such results of the inspirations of nature as 

 mark the poetry of our language. But we think 

 there is no surer way of elevating the taste of our 

 rural population, and of making them capable of 

 appreciating the value of their condition in life and 

 the superior advantages they possess, than by mul- 

 tiplying the evidences that the wise and refined of 

 all ages have held their position in the highest es- 

 teem, and have given to it the fruits of their stud- 

 ies and the best thoughts of their minds. Nor do 

 we think that any farmer who examines and takes 

 pains to store his mind with the works of the poets, 

 will be any the less practical in his operations in the 

 farm-yard and in the field. He will not draw his 

 furrow less straight, or handle his "Double Mould- 

 board" or "Centre Draught" plow any the less dex- 

 terously, for remembering the instructions which 

 Virgil gives for the making of that implement, 

 which is to him far from being a "mean subject." 



"Of eight feet long, a fastened beam prepare, 



On either side the head produce an ear, 



And sink a socket for the sliining share. 



Of beech the plough-tail and the bending yoke, 



Or softer linden hardened in the smoke. 



I could be long in precepts, but I fear 



So mean a subject might offend your ear." 



The thoughtful farmer will be apt to rejoice that 

 his avocation has received the benefit of mechani- 

 cal skill, and that his tools are prepared in a man- 

 ner rather more suited to his wants than the prim- 

 itive one above described. The advice in regard to 

 soils, given by a poet of more than a century ago, 

 he will find yet worthy of his consideration. To 

 improve a sandy soil, 



"Let stiff, cohesive clay 

 Give the loose glebe consistence and firm strength. 

 So shall thy laboring steers, when harvest calls, 

 Bending their patient shoulders to the yoke. 

 Drag home in copious loads the yellow grain." 



Where stubborn clay is to be made fruitful of 

 good crops, 



"Give the plough 

 No rest. Break, pound the clods, and with warm dungs 

 Relieve the sterile coldness of the ground, 

 Chilled with obstructed water. Add to these 

 The sharpest sand, to open and unbind 

 The close coliering mass : so shall new pores 

 Admit the solar beams' enlivening heat. 

 The nitrous particles of air receive. 

 And yield a passage to the soaking rain. 

 So shall the strong iield to the reaper's hand 

 Produce a plenteous crop of waving wheat." 



In the care of trees, their culture for fruit or 

 shade, their beauty in the landscape, and their va- 

 rious uses, the poets have not discarded the practi- 

 cal, in their love of the beautiful. We turn again 

 to Virgil, and find him as careful in his rules of 

 management, as the proprietor of a modern nur- 

 sery who raises his trees for market. We copy 

 his advice for transplanting. 



"Some peasants, not t'omit the nicest care, 

 Of the same soil their nursery prepare 

 With that of their plantation ; lest the tree. 

 Translated, should not with the soil agree. 

 Besides, to plant it as it was, they mark 

 The heaven's four quarters on the tender bark. 

 And to the north or south restore the side 

 Which at their birth did heat or cold abide." 



We make our quotations practical, purposely, 

 but these are by far the least important passages. 

 It is not the manner of farm management, or rules 

 for practice in individual cases, that give value to 

 such a work as the one before us. It is to invest 

 the necessary duties of our daily life, and the una- 

 voidable anxieties which wait upon toil, with the 

 charms that a true appreciation of nature is capable 

 of throwing around them. It is to have means of rest 

 and relaxation of the best kind always at hand, 

 and, when the body is worn out with the ftUigues 

 of the day, let the gentle exercise of the mind 

 bring it back to a condition of ease and comfort, 

 more welcome than any to be derived from a dull 

 and lazy yielding to idle dreams. It is to show 

 that around the drudgery and hard work which must 

 be done on every farm, as they cannot be escaped 

 by any condition in active life, nature and art and 

 literature have aided to place the means for a suc- 

 cession of the most lasting and satisfying enjoy- 

 ments. 



With the volume before us we are pleased, be- 

 cause we hope it is a step towards an awakening 

 interest in the pursuits of agriculture, not as a 

 fashion or a caprice, but as a source of true happi- 

 ness, and as the nearest approach the condition of 

 society affords to a state of virtuous and innocent 

 enjoyment. 



The work was undertaken by Prof. Jenks from 

 a pure love of nature, and with a desire to increase 

 the popular appreciation of all the associations 

 which give life to rural scenes. We find the vol- 

 ume not without faults, and there are some omis- 

 sions which seem to us too important t . pass 

 without comment. Not one line of Wordswor!h 



