ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 37 



will recollect how widely the agricultural papers copied the 

 glowing accounts brought from over the seas ; and 

 nobody was afraid of anything except of not believing 

 enough. 



Well, the lightning has been too smart for them ; and the 

 whole pack which opened loud on the scent, are now heard 

 just as loud on the back track. It usually takes two fool- 

 ings to satisfy the public. They first swing to an extreme 

 folly of injudicious admiration, and them vibrate to the op- 

 posite extreme of disgust. Everybody was fever-hot with 

 morus multicaulis ; and then they went into chills about it. 

 Durham stock brought almost their weight in silver at one 

 time, and then could hardly be sold at butchers' prices. 

 Berkshire hogs were all the rage, and now are in great and 

 unmerited contempt. The guano fever sent hundreds of 

 ships a-dung-hunting all over the earth : and lucky were 

 they who espied a precious heap of excrement. How little 

 did the penguins and sea gulls of the Pacific imagine, that 

 their unconscious observance of the laws of nature 

 was one day to figure so largely on the British Ex- 

 change, and to raise such a bustle in chemical labor- 

 atories ! 



We believed but few of these accounts of electricity, 

 because we perceived nothing which could be regarded as 

 settled. And now, we are far from sympathizing with the 

 recantations and apostasies from the electric faith. Like 

 all other things driven to extremes, we shall by and by see 

 it settle upon a middle point. 



Editors are not without blame for these actions and re- 

 actions. Many of our best agricultural papers are con- 

 nected with agricultural warehouses which deal largely in 

 all articles for which there is an agricultural demand. 

 Without the slightest intention of deception, nay, with a 

 desire to act cautiously, such pecuniary inU'ivst may sen 

 fcdbly affect the judgment of sanguine editors. But the 

 wish to issue a spicy paper, full of life and surprise, inclines 



