622- MONTHIiY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ITEMvS FOR COUNTRY READERS, 



IN RESPECT OF THE AGRTCULTURAL HABITS. PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES OF VARIOUS 

 COUNTRIES WITH WHICH THE UNITED STATES HAVE COMMERCIAL AND DIPLO- 

 MATIC RELATIONS; INTERSPERSED WITH REFLECTIONS ON DIVERS MATTERS 

 AND, THINGS. 



Mr. Editor : Though a practical farmer, I have no ambition to rank among 

 those who insult my profession by insinuating that we who follow it for a liveli- 

 hood have no business to turn over any leaves but leaves of cabbages or tobacco ; 

 nor with any sort of knowledge except the best distance to plant and the right 

 time to sow. In contempt of such disparaging suggestions, I shall send you oc- 

 casionally, if acceptable, notes of such things as may strike me when, at night 

 and at other times of comparative leisure, a book or my pen may take the place 

 of the hoe and the plow. • 



As, however, many things do not impress all minds in the same light, it will 

 doubtless happen that some of these items may be esteemed neither useful nor 

 entertaining. You remember the old nursery rhyme — 



" Many birds of many kind.s. 

 Many men of many minds."' 



My aim will be to occupy your pages with such facts and reHections only as may 

 appear calculated to convey useful information, or fitted to gratify that natural 

 curiosity which every gentleman farmer may be allowed to entertain in respect 

 of the productions of foreign countries, particularly as to the articles which form 

 the chief staples of his own. 



And first, as to the term " Gentleman Farmer,'''' at which it is so easy for 

 every conceited coxcomb of the city, or ill-bred country bird, that would foul his 

 own nest, to turn up his nose with an air of derision. Permit me to say, Mr. 

 Editor, that we agree perfectly in the wish, if not the hope, that the day is com- 

 ing when, however it may be among other classes, there shall be none other than 

 gentlemen among farmers ! And by that, what do we mean ? Men, whether 

 rich or poor, in velvet or linsey-woolsey, who, looking only to what is appro- 

 priate, regard industry as a duty, if only in the way of example ; and Avhether in 

 affluence or in rags, esteem personal honor, and cleanliness, and economy, as 

 among the practical virtues of life ; men seeking knowledge above all things, 

 with a nice sense of decorum and self-respect in all situations, however humble, 

 however exalted. In all this, Sir, is there anything incompatible with the con- 

 dition, or beyond the reach of the real, working, hard-fisted, practical man ? Yet, 

 such is the true gentleman farmer, who, m moments of leisure turns to his book 

 instead of his bottle, to enjoy in it, the fruit of the greatest of all human inven- 

 tions— <y/;es. Thus characterized will be American agriculturists generally, in rea- 

 sonable process of time, if you can only prevail with the gentlemen of the Pres&y 

 even your own numerous and able colleagues of the agricultural press, to unite 

 with you in perseveruigly demandmg the same proportionate expenditure for en- 

 lightening the husbandry of the country, that is now bestowed on other pursuits. 



But to my notes. , You may.judge whether there be, in what follows, for ex- 

 ample about ih.e Agriculture of Austria, avq more than a gentleman of natural 

 and proper desire for information would be apt to ask of a returning Minister 

 (11 4!:) 



