426 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



BOOK KNOWLEDGE IN FARMING. 



We have elsewhere expressed our belief that the habit of reading and reflect- 

 ing on the principles of Agriculture is nowhere in our country more general than 

 in the Middle and Southern and Atlantic States. In an Address conceived and 

 couched in the finest tone of morals and philosophy, lately delivered at Columbia, 

 S. C, before the State Agricultural Society, by R. F. W. Allston, and pub- 

 lished by order of the Society, he says 



" But with regard to the use of books I must affirm that if, in this State, the present gen- 

 eration, and those preceding it for a century past, had been denied, in tanning, the lights 

 which have been derived from the Press, we should now be ncarlij a century behind the 

 age in which we live, instead of occupying, as we do, a creditable jilace in rear of those 

 who ai'e foremost in Agricultural Science — in the use of labor-saving machinery — in the 

 knowledge and use of the various powers by which necessary results may be produced in 

 the best manner aud the shortest time." 



He recommends every farmer to take an agricultural paper, and adds, as to 

 the 



Ltfe and Character of the American Farmer — " I feel bound to suggest that th9 

 practical Fanner, the successful and thnving Planter, genersiUy reads too little — far too 

 little — considering his leisure. Next to the contemplation of the infinite perfection of Deity, 

 nothing tends more to enlarge and Uberalize the uiind of Man than intimate communion 

 with the wise aud good of his kind, either personally or by means of their writings. Few- 

 causes will serve so well to divert the anxious soul from the fretting cares and ve.xatioua 

 incidents of a busy life, as a fiimiliai' acquaintance with the virtuous traits of men of oldeu 

 time, a relish lor the history of by-gone days, or the occasional tracing of those developments 

 in Nature, and of Science, which so admirably serve to demonstrate the moral progi-ess of 

 Man, to illustrate the power and excellence of his genius, and so materially to aid in con- 

 summating the great conquest of mind over matter. 



" A taste for reading comes by teaching and example. If the mother of a family possess 

 such a taste, (she may cultivate it without at all interfering with her domestic duties,) the 

 daughter, in all probability, will imbibe it. Should the father happily be in the habit of 

 occupying with books his leisure time, the son will seldom fail to be instructed, and ulti- 

 mately to be led. by the example. Thus, in geometrical progression, how many sons, how 

 many daughters, may not be ti-ained by the joint precept and example of a considerate and- 

 virtuous couple, to an iimocent and most usefiil habit — a habit which will prove a whole- 

 some refuge in times of temptation and danger — an invaluable resource in seasons of trouble 

 and disappointment, and in the dull evening of life. 



" A plain elementary education at school will accomplish much that is necessary ; it is the 

 only kind likely to be universally diffiised. In this view, how important becomes the suc- 

 cessful administration of our system of Free Schools! a system which, however little good is 

 effected by it, under present auspices, does infinite credit to the hearts of the wise states- 

 men by whom it was conceived and founded. Here the child of the most indigent may 

 learn to read to his unlettered iiither a rule of [)ractice in Farming or Mechcmics, which may 

 save him a world of doubt, perplexity and labor. And here another may be taught to min- 

 ister to the care-woni, heart-stricken mother a solace for her untold griefs, to point to a. 

 home of refuge from her son'ows, by opening the Book of Life and tracing on its pages the- 

 unfailing promises of God." 



India-Rubber. — It is well known that India-rubber has been substituted for steel springs- 

 in railcars and carnages. It is now found that railroad wheels, even for freight-cars, are 

 greatly improved if cast double, so as to admit a layer of India-rubber between the twO' 

 parts, one being within the other, which gready lessens the heavy jarring occasioned by 

 concussion on the rail. 



Whey for Cows. — The Herkimer dairymen give their whey to the cows, finding it more- 

 profitable thaji to feed it to theii' hogs. Most cows eat it greedily. 

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