MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



VOL. Ill AUGUST, 1847. 



REMARKS ON THENGS IN GENERAL No I. 



BY A RAMBLER IN THE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA, 



Wuh Notes by the Editor of The Farmers' Library, to ichom they were addressed. 



Had your Journal been restricted in its plan to the mere suggestion of experi- 

 ments and of rotations in practical Agriculture, infinitely varied as these may be, 

 according to the whim or theory of the husbandman, and to the naked statement 

 of actual results as they turn up in the field, it would not have been practi- 

 cable to maintain for it that novelty by which attention must be kept alive, or 

 to give that value to its contents which fresh and useful facts and information 

 only can impart, in the minds of discriminating and sensible readers. But by 

 opening, as you have done, the wider field of agricultural economy and statistics, 

 and inviting your readers and correspondents to explore and illustrate the great 

 volume of Nature itself, as it is connected with the labors and wants of the agri- 

 culturist, an inexhaustible store of matter for speculation and improvement has 

 been secured, suited to the taste and wants of all classes and conditions. With a 

 choice of subjects, from that variety which every phase of the country presents, 

 is it not easy for every one to contribute something to its pages ? and is there not 

 a sort of moral obligation resting on all, to reciprocate the favors of those who 

 submit for common benefit the results of their reflections and experience? Pre- 

 ferring always to illustrate my meaning by analogies drawn from rural life, let 

 me ask, what would be thought of the churl who would borrow his neighbor's 

 hammer, and yet refuse to lend him his saw? In acknowledgment, then, of this 

 duty, as one of your constant readers, I shall send you notes and observations con- 

 nected with the agricultural condition and prospects of the regions over which 

 my summer rambles may lead me ; interspersed v/ith appropriate extracts from, 

 books as companions, with which experience has taught me never to fail in pro- 

 vining myself on such occasions ; and now. Sir, having introduced myself and my 

 design, allons — as they say in France — let us proceed. And first, as we are speak- 

 ing of books, though it may not seem to be very germain to the matter of Agri« 

 culture, let us say a word about 



BOOKSELLERS AND PRINTING OFFICES IN NEW-YORK AND ELSEWHERE. 



A full exhibit of printing statistics in that great Emporium, would show that in 

 no department of human industry has modern progress been more wonderful than 

 in this. Nothing basin fact more engaged the inventive faculties of our country- 

 men than improvements in the printing press — as the great instrument for genera- 

 ting and diffusing knowledge : the very passion of our age, and one that while it 

 feeds itself grows more insatiate and vigorous by indulgence. The most ingenious 

 mechanical contrivances, propelled by the vehement power of steam itself, have 

 been put in requisition to multiply its energies, and to enable it to supply fresh 

 materials to satisfy the voracity of the public demand for intellectual excitement ; 



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