ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 25 



cause we cannot do, at once, what it is only practicable to 

 do gradually. As fast as the public is able to bear it, we 

 shall be glad to reduce all cumbrous spelling to a consistent 

 simplicity. 



An acquaintance declares, that the derivation of AKER 

 from the Latin and Greek, is " without the least foundation 

 in. the words as used- in the Greek and Latin and in the Eng- 

 lish, and built entirely on the resemblance of sounds," etc. 

 The facts are the other way. In the Greek, and in the 

 Latin, it meant simply a field, an open, cultivated spot. 

 Now, this was the meaning of the word in English, until it 

 was by statutes limited to a particular quantity (31 Ed. III. ; 

 5 Ed. I., 24 ; Henry VIII., as quoted by Webster) and this 

 is the meaning yet, of the word in German (acker) Swedish 

 (acker) Dutch (akker). There is, therefore, ample founda- 

 tion in the use of the word ; and the sound our friend 

 gives up. 



In almost all the languages of the Teutonic family, of 

 which ours is one, the word is still spelled with k / and so it 

 is in the Asiatic languages, from which, probably, both the 

 Teutonic and the Greek, alike borrowed it. 



The spelling acre, as also centre, theatre we, probably, 

 derived from the French ; to which language we owe the 

 emasculation of many a noble Saxon word. 



In the N~ew England Farmer our orthographical sins are 

 thus set in order before us : 



"The Western Farmer and Gardener, is an excellent 

 journal very. It has only one feature that we dislike, 

 viz. it spells ACRE a-k-e-r ! We are somewhat surprised 

 at Bro. Beecher, who usually evinces such good taste, as 

 well as such good sense, should adopt such an ugly-looking 

 substitute for an old word of so much better appearance, 

 although supported in it by the prince of lexicogra- 

 phers. 



"A-k-e-r! Wheugh ! Bro. editors, hoot at it till it 



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