166 



Editorial Notices. 



Vol. XII. 



loads is on the second story. The bay is in 

 the centre. The teams on entering pass 

 along an avenue between the bay and the 

 wall — the loads are discharged, and the 

 teams go out at the same place thoy went 

 in. Twenty-five loads or wagons can be 

 taken in at one time. The bay will hold 

 400 tons of hay. The stalls for cattle and 

 horses are on the first floor, and are arranged 

 in a circle corresponding to the shape of the 

 building. The animals stand with their heads 

 towards the centre of the barn, and are hand- 

 ily fed from the bay. There are stalls for 

 75 head of cattle. The barn is substantial 

 and convenient, but not quite as convenient, 

 we think, as the Shaker barn at New Le- 

 banon. — Cultivator. 



Manure for Strawberries. — The best 

 top-dressing for strawberry beds is a little 

 leaf mould pointed in with a fork, early in 

 March. A good addition also is nitrate of 

 soda, three ounces to each square yard, 

 sprinkled over the surface at the same sea- 

 son. Bone dust and charred turf, pointed in 

 with a fork in October, have also been found 

 highly beneficial. 



THE FARMERS' CABIMET, 



AND 



Philadelphia, Twelfth Month, 1847. 



Wk have often thought that Dr. Johnson's definition 

 of the business of a schoolmaster, was particularly 

 applicable to that of the agricultural journalist: "To 

 recall vagrant inattention "and " to stimulate sluggish 

 indifference." Every movement of the farmer— every 

 step which he takes, is emphatically, under the broad 

 canopy of Heaven— it is in the midst of the forests, 

 and the fields, and over the luxuriant carpet, which 

 nature has so liberally spread abroad for his enjoy- 

 ment. He ploughs— he plants— he cultivates under a 

 full persuasion of the fidelity of nature's great "Fruc- 

 lificr." He throws his seed into her bosom, nothing 

 doubling the continued fulfilment of the ancient pro- 

 mise, that seed lime and harvest shall not cease while 

 the earth remaincth. 



It is an appropriate duty of the Periodicals which 

 the farmer reads and puts into the hands of his chil- 

 dren, not only to keep him informed of the improve- 

 ments that are continually bettering the condition of 

 liis "craft," and to suggest to him variations in bis 

 crops, as well as new modes of feeding them, and 

 everything else in fact, connected with his "Thrift " 

 — Ihe applianccs-of his farm and household, but also 

 to raise his views from his horses and his plough, to 

 the magnificence of nature that is around him; and 

 from nature, as the poet says, up to her Creator, and 

 Co remind him occasionally of the fact, which his cus- 



tomary round of duties may lead him to forget, that 

 his vocation, if properly followed, is among the noblest 

 and most ennobling, pursued by man. There is a pro- 

 gressiveness — an onward course, in the efforts of the 

 farmer that render them delightful; and why should 

 not this be continually accompanied by corresponding 

 improvement of the mind and enlargement of views, 

 Ihat would place his among the most intelligent and 

 respectable of the professions? 



The farmer, it seems to us, cannot behold, but with 

 great complacency, his horses — his cattle — his sheep — 

 his everything that is living around him, obviously 

 improving by liis atlenlion, from year to year — he per- 

 ceives the truth of the old saying, that "land is hon- 

 est," for he finds his fields always grateful for whatever 

 he bestows upon them; and there is an indescribable 

 feeling of consciousness, that he deserves far more of 

 his country than the man who has led armies to battle, 

 and slain his thousands; because, in the language of 

 old David Lawion, he has helped to multiply the com- 

 forts of his species. There is every inducement for 

 our farming population to believe, that the tendency of 

 everything connected with their vocation, is like every 

 thing else, in this great and wonderful Republic, up- 

 ward and onward. Let us then extend our views— let 

 us "look aloft,"— and who can doubt but every judi- 

 cious enterprise will be attended with a result corres- 

 pondent with the aim— as advantageous to the perma- 

 nent interests of the country, as it will be gratify- 

 ing and beneficial to ourselves. 



Before another number of our paper shall appear, a 

 new year will have begun its round, and new resolu- 

 tions and new plans may be formed by the indifferent 

 and careless of every vocation. Let him who neglects 

 his heart— his lands, his fences, his cattle, or his build- 

 ings, be up and doing, for it is the diligent hand that 

 makelh rich. 



The first No. of " The Iowa Farmer's advocate " edited 

 by FJ. Gates, and published by James Tizzard & Co., at 

 Burlington, Iowa, has been lately received at this 

 office. It is printed on 24 quarto pages, at one dollar 

 a year. The number before us contains a great deal 

 of valuable matter, and we should consider it well 

 worthy the support of our western farmers. 



The Address of Dr. Darlington at Oxford, in Chester 

 county, in the Ninth month last, we think, will be 

 read with no ordinary interest. The subjects glanced 

 at, will well bear to be gravely reflected upon; and 

 perhaps more particularly in neighbourhoods where 

 the land is so well improved, and the crops are so lux- 

 uriant, as they are in the vicinity of Hopewell Cotton 

 Works. 



In the last number of the Cultivator we find a com- 

 munication signed J.J. T., which contests the claim Or 

 " Newbould"— Charles Newbold, we apprehend, of 

 Burlington county, N. J., is meant,— to certain import- 

 ant improvements in the cast-iron Plough, made some 

 forty or fifty years ago, and awards them to Jethro 

 Wood, of New Yorl>. See New York Agricultural 

 Transactions for 1846; aud Farmers' Cabinet, p. 19. 

 current volume. 



