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PRACTICAL FARMER 



BOOK FARMING. 



We have been told of the following facts, and 

 have only to regret that the like to them are not of 

 more frequent occurrence, A number of intelligent 

 farme rs residing in a neighborhood, somewhere, we 

 believe, in Dutchess county, concluded to form a 

 farmer's association — to make a common stock of 

 their knowledge and observation — believing that 

 knowledge, like money would be productive in pro- 

 portion to the capital. It was known that A. raised 

 the best horses, and got the best price for them : that 

 E. was far more successful in his wheat and corn 

 crops than his neighbors ; that C. reared the finest 

 neat cattle, and kept the best cows and oxen ; that 

 D. excelled in sheep husbandry ; and, in short, that 

 some individual excelled the rest in a particular 

 branch of husbandry. Each possessed not only 

 some excellence, but some glaring defect in his 

 management. Thus the farm stock of one were 

 sickly, and many died, because the owner did not 

 know how to manage them ; another's farm had be 

 come dreadfully; impoverished, from neglecting the 

 manure, and from close cropping, while the farm 

 of a third was neither fit for plough land, or for 

 sweet grass, on account of the water which every- 

 where saturated the soil, and rendered it poachy, 

 cold and sour. Unlike too many now-a-days, each 

 of these men was conscious he could learn from 

 his neighbor's practice, which would enable him to 

 manage his farm with more profit — and that he 

 could teach his neighbors something in return. 

 These expectations were amply realized ; but as 

 the members lived somewhat remote, it struck them 

 that it would save much time, and be a more sure 

 way of rendering the improvements of all available 

 to each, if they were to write down their practice 

 in the partictilar branch in which they respectively 

 excelled, and the ]>rinciples, or science, upon which 

 that practice was based. This was accordingly 

 done: and for their mutual convenience, as well as 

 for the benefit of others, the whole was printed and 

 these men were afterwards denominated, by some 

 of their envious neighbors, hook farmers, because 

 they took their instructions from a printed book. 

 This did not disturb them ; for they got from their 

 book the secrets by which the others had excelled 

 in their particular department, and each profited by 

 the good management of his neighbors. The con- 

 sequence was, that all gained by the interchange. 

 The defects of all were speedily remedied, and in a 

 few years prosperity crowned their labors ; and 

 they now exhibit, we are told, the best models of 

 profitable farming anywhere to be found in the 

 land ; and they enjoy the felicity of reflecting, that 



while they have gready benefited themselves and 

 their families, they have by their example and in- 

 struction, done much good to others. They have 

 afforded a fair illustration of the advantages of book 

 farming, when combined with intelligent practice. 



Weie this example extended to the farming com- 

 munity of our country, how greatly the work of im- 

 provement would advance, and the comforts of the 

 human family be multiplied : were each to con- 

 tribute his mite of practical knowledge in the branch 

 in which he most excels, what a treasure of infor- 

 mation would be collected, to guide us in our prac- 

 tice, and to stimulate us to habits of industry. And 

 do we not already possess, in a considerable degree, 

 these precious advantages ? What are our agricul- 

 tural journals, but a record of instructions, by the 

 best farmers of our own and every other country — 

 a detail of the methods by which they have suc- 

 ceeded — have excelled — in the various departments 

 of husbandry ? There is not a man in the com- 

 munity who may not profit, in some degree, by the 

 teachings of these journals. The self-wise are ever 

 the most profoundly ignorant ; for as we advance 

 in knowledge, we become more and more humbled 

 by the consciousness of our comparative ignorance. 



We beg that the readers of the Cultivator will 

 take this matter into serious consideration, and re- 

 member, that an obligation rests upon them individ- 

 ually, to requite the favors which they are monthly 

 receiving from others, by communicating whatever 

 of their practice that maj' promise to be beneficial 

 to their brother farmers, — Cultivator. 



PRIJ]VI2VG ORCHARDS. 



In a conversation the other day with our friend 

 Paine Wingate, who has much experience in or- 

 charding, he observed that much damage was an- 

 nually done to the orchards in Maine by the bar- 

 barous manner in which they are too often pruned, 

 by hacking them with an axe and leaving a man- 

 gled stub projecting above the limb. The conse- 

 quence is, that the wound never heals — water gets 

 in, the wood decays — and a cavity is made v/hich 

 finally destroys the branch entirely, or brings it into 

 an unhealthy state and makes an unsightly appear- 

 ance. A fine saw should always be used, and even 

 then the bark about the stump should be pared 

 away in H bevel form, for the friction of the saw 

 will start the bark a little way down and unless it 

 be cut off, the water will get in and prevent its 

 healing so fast as it will, if the started bark should 

 be cut off'. There is also not sufficient attention 

 paid to the thinning out the central portions or 

 branches of the tree so as to let the sun and air 

 in among the apples, which will otherwise be less 

 likely to have the true flavor that arises from 



