68 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



to the individuals who effected them : they are her- 

 alded in the agricultural journals ; become known all 

 over the country ; and every new and successful effort 

 at improvement soon has its fifty, its hundred, and 

 its thousand imitators. Suppose, for instance, what 

 we hope will yet prove tme, that an individual should 

 discover an effectual preventive of the ravages of 

 the Hessian fly or grain-worm instead of only ben- 

 efiting him and a few neighbours, or becoming grad- 

 ually known, as in olden times, the knowledge of it 

 would now be spread in a few days, by the agricultu- 

 ral periodicals, into every comer of the land, and the 

 advantages of the discovery would thus amount to 

 millions in a single year. So with every other im- 

 provement in husbandry. It is not the province, nor 

 is it the study of news journals and literary editors 

 to deal extensively in agricultural concerns. They 

 seldom publish even the incidental notices which 

 are designed to subserve the interests of husbandry 

 without a special request, and a fee in the bargain, 

 as though they had no personal interest in the prog- 

 ress of agricultural improvement. We must infer 

 from these premises, that every man will promote 

 his own interest, and benefit the public, by patroni- 

 sing and endeavouring to extend the circulation of our 

 agricultural papers. They tend to no possible evil, 

 while they are certainly calculated to do much good. 

 Another means of facilitating agricultural improve- 

 ment is to introduce class-books into our common 

 schools for the senior boys, which shall teach those 

 elementary principles of science which are indispen- 

 sable to the successful practice of agriculture. A 

 boy may be almost as easily taught to analyze soils, 

 and to comprehend the leading principles of animal 

 and vegetable physiology, as he can to commit to 

 memory pages of matter, the knowledge of which 

 seldom serves him any useful purpose in manhood. 

 We must begin in youth if we would bring about any 

 material improvement in the habits of society. The 



