1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMEB. 



405 



us to send aid and comfort to our sons and daugh- 

 ters who emigrate to the West. 



Passing a field this morning, where the hay- 

 makers were at work, belonging to Mr. ErHRAlM 

 Oecutt, M'ho for many years kept a public house 

 at the old "Lord Timothy Dexter" stand in this 

 town, I was attracted by the height and thickness 

 of the grass. The mower was rather a short man, 

 and many of the heads of herds grass were even 

 with his shoulders, and most of it was as high as 

 his arm-pits. The field contains an acre and three- 

 quarters, and Mr. O. stated that he should get as 

 much hay from it this season as many persons in 

 the town would cut on twelve acres ! and this same 

 statement was made to me by another gentleman 

 \rho probably knows every farm in the town. The 

 secret of this crop was manure, and proper cultiva- 

 tion. 



But I must close, the shadows are lengthening, 

 and the plaintive whip-poor-will and early cricket 

 are ready to lull me to repose. 



Very truly yours, SiMON Brown. 



Joel Novrse, Esq., Boston. 



For the New England farmer. 



PEEJUDICE AGAINST AGRICULTURAL 

 PERIODICALS. 



"The learned is happy nature to explore ; 

 The fool 13 happy that he knows no more." 



Strange as it may appear, there are yet a large 

 number of farmers in the country, who rely for any 

 further addition to their stock of professional infor- 

 mation upon their own experience, or mere acci- 

 dental hearsay. They are possessed with a spite 

 against agricultural newspapers ; or they cherish 

 an incorrigible prejudice against printed matter ! 

 And this feeling is only equalled by their credulity 

 towards the dicta of their neighbors. They seem 

 to believe that the publishers of such works only 

 wish to get their money and deceive them ; and if 

 some of them should happen to see some of their 

 own real or fancied discoveries in print, they might 

 be tempted to doubt their truth ! Agricultural 

 facts with them, it would appear, can be spoken, 

 but not written ! Really, many of them would 

 disbelieve the printed Bible, had not their parents 

 instilled its truth into them with religious awe ! 



Reading an agricultural paper in the cars a few 

 days since, one of the above class of farmers looked 

 over my shoulder, and very deliberately said, 



"Take a good deal of money to carry all them 

 notions out." 



"Yes," said I, "but we must use our judgment, 

 and consult our means and circumstances." 



"My wife could never make anything out of them 

 receipts," he added. 



"Ah, but suppose your wife's method of cooking 

 should get into the papers, what then ?" 



"Now, do you really believe all you read about 

 potato-rot, fancy manures, bug-killing, &c.?" in- 

 quired my friend, seemingly anticipating my reply. 



"No, perhaps not half; but it may be worthy of 

 consideration ; can you believe half what you hear, 

 and are you not sometimes deceived in your own 

 experiments?" 



Speaking also with a friend about the curculio, 

 he expressed the belief that the mischief was done 

 in the flower. 



"Why," said I, "that can't be so, for we can see 

 the puncture on the surface of the young fruit." 



"But did you ever see a curcuho ?" 



"Yes, I have, and suppose I might see more if I 

 should attempt to trap them ?" 



"Well, I never did, as much as I have examined 

 plum trees ; it's a newspaper story, I reckon." 



"No, friend," said I, "it's the story of the tree it- 

 self, and by further experience, you'll find it to be 

 so." 



"Well, when I see a curculio on the fruit I'll be- 

 lieve it," said he, with an air of confidence. 



Now here is an agricultural skeptic. He is dis- 

 posed to doubt everything until it is made evident 

 to his senses. Like a common animal, what he sees 

 he'll believe, and is rarely guilty of a simple deduc- 

 tion of logic. "Seeing is believing." 



If you go and lean over the pen of some veteran 

 porker, and disturb his "balmy sleep" by a poke with 

 a stick, he will get up and give you the grunt of re- 

 cognition. If you inform him that the "bears are 

 out," or some enemy in the field against him, 

 he remains perfectly indifierent to the information, 

 and can only believe it when he sees them. How 

 little removed are some men from "His most Im- 

 perfect Majesty," the porker ! 



That there is a vast deal of knowledge lost to 

 mankind from a want of a ready communication, 

 every reflecting mind must perceive. A fact in 

 science presented to a neighbor, will very probably 

 spread to a considerable extent; but uttered by the 

 press, it will never be lost to millions. And even 

 the promulgation of mere opinions, not well sup- 

 ported by facts, cannot do much harm, and may do 

 no little good ; for many ideas are fruitful of a bet- 

 ter progeny, as, by operating upon variously- consti- 

 tuted intelligent minds, something practical and 

 useful is the result. 



In regard to agricultural periodicals, like all oth- 

 er works of science, they do not always publish the 

 truth; in fact, they do not pretend to, because it 

 may not be known. But let the man without er- 

 ror "cast the first stone." Have we no traditonary 

 falsehoods among us — no old, hoary-headed delu- 

 sions which live upon ignorance, and which scien- 

 tific publications are endeavoring to exterminate ? 

 Agricultural periodicals aim to reflect or dissemi- 

 nate the most accurate and economical modes ex- 

 tant of producing food. And this they really do, 

 although that information is not always correct. 

 Those individuals, then, who are disposed to decry 

 such works, or the men who conduct them, should 

 vouchsafe to let some of their own light from under 

 a bushel shine upon them, for the sake of humanity 

 and their own vocation ; and if it is really light, 

 they will gain the proper credit, and the journals 

 will be more generally esteemed. D. w. L. 



West Medford, July, 1857. 



Progress. — It afibrds us pleasure to observe 

 that the venerable editor of the Massachnsetis 

 Ploughman reads the agricultural portion of the 

 Farmer with some care. This is as it should be ; 

 for, although he is greatly our senior in years, and 

 perhaps in experience, he has sufficient discern- 

 ment to see, that, in the great variety Mhich wecon- 



