Gardner's Farmer's Dictionary. 221 



next the plough, so that the second horse will draw at an angle of about 33 

 degrees ; otherwise, were the chains of the second horse hooked in front of 

 the back-chain, he would pull the whole weight of his draught, together 

 with that of the horses preceding him, on the back of the horse next the 

 plough ; and the strength of the horse would be lost in the draught, as his 

 whole powers would be exerted in his endeavors to prevent being brought 

 down upon his knees. By so arranging the chains, the power of three 

 horses would be equal to that of four." 



Such were the favorable results of this bold experiment. In many other 

 cases, however, the result has not been so successful ; and when the state 

 or character of the land is such as to retain the water, as (to use the expres- 

 sion of one highly intelligent farmer, who subsoiled his land without first 

 draining it,) " it sometimes does like a sponge," the subsoiling is as likely, 

 and perhaps more likely, to be injurious than beneficial. The Deanston 

 system, as it is here called, of subsoil-ploughing and furrow-draining, will 

 presently be fully stated to my readers. 



Art II. The Farmer's Dictioriary : a Vocabulary of the 

 Technical Terins recently introduced into Agriculture and 

 Horticulture from various sciences, and also a Compendium 

 of Practical Farnii?ig ; the latter chiefly from the ivorks of 

 the Rev. TV. L. Rham, Loudon, Low, and Youatt, and the 

 most eminent American authors. Edited by D. P. Gardner, 

 M. D., Honorary member of several Agricultural Societies, 

 with numerous Illustrations. 1 thick vol., 12mo., pp. 876. 

 New York. 1846. 



The title of this new work is sufficiently plain to express 

 its character ; we quote, however, from the preface, the design 

 of the editor in the preparation of the volume : 



The Farmer's Dictionary was undertaken originally for the purpose of 

 supplying a want long felt by the editor, in common with the agricultural 

 community, of a short explanation of the many technical terms introduced 

 into the works written on farming. Much opposition has arisen to the use 

 of technical words in these productions, and our journals are full of com- 

 plaints, from respectable men, against the innovation. If, however, words 

 having so precise a meaning, and, in many instances, conveying so much 

 information, be discarded, what shall be substituted in their j)]ace? It is 

 obviously impossible for every writer who has occasion to use the terms 

 hybrid, hydrogen, or eremacausis, to explain in detail what these mean ; 

 and if the attempt were made, our treatises would present the most tiresome 



