^2 NECESSITY OF CONSULTING BOOKS. 



hook-farming. That gentlemen farmers .^ who know noth* 

 ing about farming but what they get out of the libra- 

 ries, spend a great deal, but never make any profit by 

 their agricultural projects, and schemes of domestio 

 economy. It is, however, obvious to every person ca- 

 pable of reflection, that written documents must neces- 

 sarily surpass in every respect those of the most reten- 

 tive memor}^, the experience of no simple individual 

 being capable of comprising all that is or ought to be 

 known. 



That knowledge, which gives man his supremacy o- 

 Tcr the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and 

 which bestows on individuals among mankind a pre-em- 

 inence much more substantial and less invidious than 

 birth, wealth, title, or popular applause, can be acquired 

 only by three modes, viz : observation^ conversation and 

 ■yeadincr. Observation and conversation are very impor- 

 lant inlets to ideas, and reading furnishes perhaps, as 

 great a quantity of useful materials for the mind to op- 

 orate upon as either of them. Book.hiozi:leclge then is 

 'power^ and other things being equal, the farmer who 

 obtains information from books, or other printed works, 

 and has strength of mind, and good sense sufficient to 

 make a proper use of it, has the advantage over his 

 iinlettered neighbour, who despises book-f\irming. Be- 

 5-ldes what is this book-knowledge, which some honest 

 cultivators think is so much to be dreaded ? It is noth- 

 ing more than the result of observation, or experience, 

 Vv'hich after having passed through the channel of con- 

 versation, is at length reduced to writing, sent to the 

 press, and the moment it is printed, becomes, accord- 

 ins: to ^^lifi objectors to whom we allude, hook fanning ; 

 imd therefore is to be considered as something very ru- 

 inous to the practical husbandman ! Thus, we will sup- 

 pose that A has found out a safe and easy cure for the 



