NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



403 



gardener and horticulturist, — from whose exper- 

 iments have been derived many of the most im- 

 portant improvements in the arts of cultivation. 

 Witness the labors of those, both in Europe and 

 in this country, in the production by hybridization, 

 of new and valuable farm products, for the apple, 

 thepear and the peach. The beet, the turnip,the cau- 

 liflower, and even the strawberry and raspberry 

 are as much agricultural products when grown 

 wiihin, as when grown ivithoul the pale of the 

 garden fence. These are the men who have uni- 

 formly urged the necessit}' not of shallow plowing, 

 but deep and thorough tillage ; not guess work in 

 the adaptation of soils, crops and manures, but a 

 scientific knowledge of each; and should the far- 

 mer use the same precision in the adaptation of the 

 constituents he uses for his various crops, as the 

 gardener does for his various tribes of plants, it 

 would need no seer to predict the beneficial effects 

 resulting from it. 



A practical cultivator is not necessarily a man 

 who daily holds the plow, or drives a team, or 

 shovels manure, or digs ditches. He may or may 

 not put his own hands to such labors ; and if he 

 finds it more convenient to devote his time to the 

 general direction of his affairs, while a foreign la- 

 borer, who can do nothing else, is hired for such 

 work, he does not forfeit his title of Practical 

 Farmer, nor does the laborer merit that appella- 

 tion. 



If to be a practical farmer is merely to labor 



with the hands, tlien the farmer who has extend- 

 ed his practical operations on his farm so far that 

 his whole time is required to direct them merely, 

 is no practical farmer, although practical results 

 may have multipliea indefinitely around him — an 

 absurdity which can never be tolerated. 



CORRECTION. 



In our last issue we published a capital article on 

 the ''Value of Phosphoric Acid in Agriculture." 

 We found it in our exchanges, credited to the 

 Western Agriculturist, and gave it that credit. 

 The article was written by the celebrated chemist. 

 Dr. C. T. Jackson, of this city, for our neighbor, 

 the Journal of Agriculture ; and although the Jour- 

 nal can bear a filching from its columns as well as 

 any paper in our knowledge, we hasten to make 

 the correction. We are attentive readers of the 

 Journal, but had forgotten the article in question, 

 which was published in its first number in July 



last. 



It is our intention, not only to give credit, but to 



copy as extensively as our limits will permit from 

 our agricultural friends. It costs something to fill 

 the pages of an agricultural sheet with useful 

 thoughts as well as for the paper upon which its 

 articles are printed ; and we find much pleasure in 

 disseminating the views of those whose hearts are 

 in the cause, and who are contributing something 

 valuable to the common cause. 



It is delightful to see our offspring returning to 

 us from all parts of the land, dressed up in their 

 new suits, and with their smiling faces making 

 their best bow at the same home from whicli they 

 went forth. But when they return shorn of their 

 good name, with quailing eye and downcast coun- 

 tenance, there is strong reason to suspect that they 

 have been abroad and fallen into evil company ! 



li;g^Mr. John Bancroft, of West Salisbury, 

 suggests that if pork eaters wish for a thin delicate 

 rind to their pork, they must always keep the ani- 

 mals well supplied with a good soft bed. And he 

 is ri^ht. Let a man lie on his back on the soft 

 side of a hard plank for 18 months, and we will 

 guarantee that his pork will have a thick skin too. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



BY JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D. 



There are few things in a country landscape 

 which more forcibly arrest the attention, or more 

 agreeably impress the mind of a traveller than a 

 comely style of farm-houses, cottages, and other 

 edifices needed on a farm. And scarcely less im- 

 portant in rural scenery is the exhibition about 

 these buildings of substantial and tastefully con- 

 structed fences and gates. Such is not the fact 

 simply with the traveller who has a scientific 

 knowledge of the principles of architecture. It 

 is in a measure so with others ; for there is in all 

 well-balanced minds an apprehension of what is 

 comely or beautiful, altliough in thousands of ca- 

 ses the individuals may be unal)le to determine the 

 reasons for the emotion they experience. Well- 

 formed objects cause a pleasure in the mind of the 

 beholder, and ill-formed and uncouth ones cause a 

 painful sensation, although the individual may be 

 ignorant of the philosophy which occasions the 

 difference. No one can deny this. No one, it 

 might seem, is without experience in illustration 

 of this principle of our nature. All at times must 

 have felt the truth of it. A few instances will be 

 suflicient to render it incontrovertible. 



To wit, where are the persons to be found so 

 stupid and so destitute of taste and so insensible 

 to the perfection of Divine wisdom in the material 

 creation as not to gaze with delight on a beautiful 

 human face, a piercing black eye, or well-propor- 

 tioned limbs; or to turn away in disgust from 

 such as are of a contrary description? Who are 

 so obtuse in their perceptions, as not to be delight- 

 ed with the regular proportions and the graceful 

 movements of the race-horse, or with the rich 

 plumage of the peacock or the bird of paradise ; 

 and, on the other hand, as not to be shocked with 

 the filth of the vulture and the want of symmetry 

 in numerous other animals' The same impulsive 

 attribute of the human mind operates in relation to 

 architectural structures. It operates also in re- 

 gard to dress, in regard to furniture, in regard to 

 pleasure carriages, in regard to all kinds of ma- 

 chinery, and in regard to all kinds of implements 

 for the various manual operations of life. Why 

 not then in regard to architecture? It does so 

 operate in regard to it. Who would foil, howev- 

 er ignorant he might be of the principles of archi- 



