OR, WITH BRAINS, SIR. 301 



besides taking the " Cultivator and Country Gentleman," 

 the " New England Farmer," and other rural papers. In 

 these we found a vast fund of valuable information. We 

 could not understand it all at first, but after a while we 

 learned the meaning of the technical terms, and then it was 

 easy enough. The only thing that troubled us seriously in 

 our reading was the immense number of details and 

 minute directions for doing things, and, what is more, 

 every writer seemed to have a pet method of his own, and 

 gravely informed the reader that his way was the only one to 

 be followed. As we oftentimes found a dozen articles upon 

 a given subject, and all proposing a different style of doing 

 a thing, it was somewhat embarrassing. 



"What shall we do, Robert? One man says, do it my 

 way ; another says, no, my way is the best ; and a third 

 offers still another plan. They all say they have each tried 

 their own method, and succeeded also. How can that be?" 



" They are all more or less right. There may be several 

 ways of performing some agricultural operation, and each 

 having some one point of advantage over the other. All 

 we can do is to select the method which seems the most 

 simple and the nearest to common sense." 



Here is a list of a few of the books we read : 



" The Field and Garden Vegetables of America," by Fear- 

 ing Burr; a useful and valuable book. 



