MR. stone's address. 25 



books, aftbrds little hope for an improved public sentiment 

 while they continue in popular use. I was induced, not long 

 ago, to examine a reading book for the upper class in schools — 

 read daily by tens of thousands of youth — 'With a view to as- 

 certain how far its pages contributed to win the young heart 

 to your honorable calling. I found eloquent thoughts on 

 the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and a humorous account of 

 The fat Actor and the Rustic. There were mirth stirring 

 pieces, and pieces of sober devotion. There were the Battle 

 of Hohenlinden, and Voices in the Church Yard — Lochiel's 

 Warning, and a Soliloquy on the immortality of the soul — the 

 Battle of Flodden Field, and Dr. Slop meeting Obadiah — the 

 Pleasures of a cultivated imagination, and A new mode of fish- 

 ing — all excellent in their way ; but the only piece I discover- 

 ed that could be properly placed in the category of Agricul- 

 ture, was Irving' s burlesque on a Yankee Farmer, who builds 

 a palace of pine boards large enough for a parish church, which 

 he never finishes, — "soon grows tired of a spot where there is 

 no longer room for improvement, sells his farm, his air cas- 

 tle, petticoat windows and all, re-loads his cart, shoulders his 

 axe, puts himself at the head of his family, and wanders away 

 in search of new lands, again to fell trees, again to clear corn- 

 fields, again to build shingle palaces, and again to sell ofi" and 

 wander." 



This description may doubtless aftbrd amusement to the 

 young tyro, when his self-invented resources fail. It may form 

 an agreeable relief to the puzzles of the black-board, or the 

 conjugations of Lindley Murray, but that it will inspire a far- 

 mer's son with respect for farming, or create in him a prefer- 

 ence for his father's business, I do not believe. To counter- 

 act, then, the unfavorable influences of the school room, in this 

 particular, our school books should contain a reasonable propor- 

 tion of reading on agricultural and kindred topics. FiVery farm- 

 er should take an agricultural newspaper, that his sons, as well 

 as himself, may become familiar with the most improved meth- 

 ods of husbandry in every part of the world. And books, in 

 poetry and in prose, descriptive of rural scenes, of the advan- 

 tages, the moral influences, and the social pleasures of agricul- 

 4 



