134 



Editorial Notices. 



VOL.V] 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



AM5RICAN HERD-BOOK. 

 Philadelphia, Eleventh Month, 1842. 



The season for reading, among our agricultural 

 friends, is now here. Well do we recollect the days 

 of our boyhood, when the long winter evenings were 

 anticipated with no small degree of satisfaction. 

 They were looked to, as the period, when, without 

 postponing out door duties, an indulgence in a love 

 for books, could be luxuriated in, to our heart's con- 

 tent. 



The season of spring is a delightful one to the 

 farmer. There is the bursting forth, almost of a new 

 nature, around him. Bird and beast, and flower, give 

 manifestation of newly awakened impulses. The first 

 starting of the plough, and the smell of the fresh earth, 

 throw elasticity into the step, and fill the bosom with 

 hope. The summer too, with its flowing pastures,— 

 its new made hay,— its waving grain, and its thunder; 

 ings and lightnings, yields its full share of enjoyment. 

 And autumn, from whose falling leaf we may read so 

 deep a moral, — the period for garnering the crops, and 

 consummating the hopes of the season, with the ever- 

 varying beauties of our native forests, which it has 

 been said, no pencil has yet been able to paint, will 

 nut yield in the amount of its calm and substantia] 

 pleasures, even to the exhilarating influences of spring. 

 Winter, with its storms, its leisure, and its long even- 

 ings, opens to the farmer opportunities for improve- 

 ment, which, when properly appreciated, are produc- 

 tive of important results. Books, whether to enlighten 

 him with particular reference to his calling, or on those 

 subjects of more general inquiry that present them- 

 selves to an intelligent mind, are now so cheap and 

 easy of access, that we have sometimes been induced 

 to conclude that the husbandman, in the quiet seclu- 

 sion of his fireside, had privileges which the citizen 

 might almost envy. On looking, a few days ago, over 

 '.he counter of Kimber & Sharpless, under our own 

 roof, attention was arrested by the handsome variety 

 of books, particularly adapted to the wants of our ag- 

 ricultural readers. Among them we noticed Down- 

 ing's Landscape Gardening, and Rural Architecture— 

 his Cottage Residences,— and the Theory of Horticul- 

 ture, by Professor Lindley, editor of the London Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle. The first two are American works, 

 and the latter, having been edited by A. J. Downing 

 and A. Gray, is also adapted to this country. These 

 three works, while they contain a great deal to inte- 

 rest and instruct the intelligent farmer, are yet more 

 particularly calculated to meet the wants of the man 

 of full means. The: wholesome principle is inculcated 

 throughout, that true taste is an excellent economist, 

 delighting to produce great effects from small means. 

 Loudon's Encyclopedia of Plants, and that of Garden- 

 ing,— two splendid works, lately imported, were also 

 among the number. The American Farmers' Instruc- 

 tor, by P. S. Wiggins, the originator of the Farmers' 

 Cabinet— Dr. Darlington's Flora Cestrica, containing 

 an enumeration and description of the plants of Ches- 

 ter county— Liebig and Johnson's late celebrated works 

 on Agricultural and Animal Chemistry— Mason's Far- 



rier— Boswell's little work on Bees, Pigeons, Rabbi 

 and tin' Canary bird, as well as his Poultry Yard, be 

 particularly adapted to interest our juvenile farme 

 helped to swell the list. 



While glancing over these volumes and many othi 

 on the counter, which our space will not allow us 

 name, the thoughts were carried back in a twinklii 

 to days long past, when hopes were indulged and p 

 vileges enjoyed, which made life delightful. The fai 

 yard— the books, and the long evenings of that peril 

 have brought up "sunny recollections," and we a 

 our readers to excuse us for having almost involuni 

 rily given them expression. 



"The Principles of Chemistry, prepared for the i 

 Of Schools, Academics and Colleges, by Daniel B. Sniiti 



This work has just been published by Uriah Hu; 

 and is for sale at his store, 101 Market street, and also 

 this ollice. Perhaps it would be sufficient to have ma 

 the above simple announcement. Yet, inasmuch 

 the attention of the farmer is now so frequently call 

 to the composition of the soils he cultivates, and t 

 food upon which his plants thrive, it has become apr 

 rently more necessary than formerly, that he shoi 

 look a little more closely into the chemical nature 

 the substances with which his business is continual 

 bringing him in contact. Although, as its title ii 

 ports, this book has been prepared more particulai 

 for the professed student ; yet, from the nature of t 

 subject, and the able manner in which it has be* 

 treated, we find much to interest the general readi 

 The style, as those who know the writer, would an 

 cipate, is as Dr. Mitchell has observed of it; "chasl 

 perspicuous, and concise." The arrangement appeo 

 to us judicious, and the investigations and conclusio 

 show the writer to be at home in his laboratory. 



The new Chemical Nomenclature, as framed and i 

 troduced by the illustrious Lavoisier and his coadj 

 tors, sixty years ago, has always claimed our admir 

 tion, as the most beautiful example of an approach 

 a universal and strictly "philosophical language whi 

 has ever been presented to the world." The langua 

 of algebra, it is true, is general, so far as it can be a 

 plied; but it has reference to quantities only, not 

 things— to ratios, not to the constituents of bodii 

 This language of Chemistry, has often reminded us 

 that alphabet of human thoughts— that universal, pi 

 losophical language, which Leibnitz and some othe 

 have dreamed of, as being likely, one day. to prove 

 powerful agent to assist the reason, the invention, ai 

 the memory. 



In another column will be found a list of the pren 

 urns awarded by our Agricultural Society, as well 

 the address delivered on the occasion, by its Presider 

 This is well worthy an attentive perusal. The soui 

 principle is forcibly inculcated, that in animal stoc 

 the best is the cheapest, and that the concentrate 

 of the farmer's means upon a comparatively sm: 

 number of acres, is greatly preferable to their diss 

 pation over broadly extended fields. We would pa 

 ticularly invite attention to the remark, in whii 

 there is doubtless too much truth, that in our count 

 there is a great deal of money invested in farn 

 and but very little \n farming. We are too apt to fc 

 get— indeed, it would seem as if we had never y 



