312 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



and drives the liawk from its enclosure, thus pre- 

 venting greater mischief than that of which he 

 himself is guilty. It is chiefly during seed time 

 and harvest that the depredations of the crow are 

 committed ; during the remainder of the year, we 

 witness OJily his services, and so highly are these 

 services appreciated by those who have written of 

 birds, that I cannot name an ornithologist who 

 does not plead in his behalf." 



INCBEASIISrQ IIJTERE3T IN AGRICUL- 

 TUKE. 



Agricultural revival — Circulation of Ag- 

 ricuUi'.ral papers — Matters forty years 

 ago contrasted with the present — I3ooks 

 — Let the boys ami pirls po who seem 

 tlctermined to leave the farm — Contact 

 with the rough world will send them 

 back 



FEW weeks since, we alluded to 

 some of the evidences or re- 

 sults of an increased interest in 

 agricultural pursuits which Ave 

 had noticed in our recent visits 

 to several towns in our Com- 

 monwealth. The agricultural 

 revival, as we then called this 

 new interest in the cultivation 

 of the soil, is by no means confined to our own 

 State. It pervades the whole country. Perhaps 

 there is no more satisfactory indications of its ex- 

 tent and intensity, than that furnished by the Ex- 

 changes which lie upon our editorial table. With- 

 in our recollection there were, we believe, but two 

 papers devoted to agriculture published in the 

 United States : the old New England Fanner in 

 Boston, and the American Farmer in Baltimore. 

 And even these worthy pioneers, these able her- 

 alds of a better time coming, were coolly received 

 and poorly sustained. With the genius and wit 

 of a Fessenden, and the earnest common sense 

 and wise foresight of a Skinner, the combined 

 circulation of these two journals never reached 

 as many hundreds as that of several of the agricul- 

 tural papers before us now counts in thousands — 

 and we are not sure that we might not add another 

 cipher, and say that some farmers' papers of 1860 

 publish more tens of thousands of copies than these 

 pioneer papers ever did hundreds. But we cannot 

 stop to hunt up statistics. Forty years ago, then, 

 it is very near the truth to say, there were no ag- 

 ricultural papers, no agricultural books, and con- 

 sequently no agricultural reading. The man who 

 settled upon a piece of land wrought out, as far 

 as he could, his own idea of a farm. His modes 

 and his practice and his implements were such as 

 were common to the neighborhood, varied slight- 

 ly by his own taste, skill and judgment. Virtuallj' 

 he stood alone. His labor was solitary — his busi- 

 ness lonesome. He worked and experimented by 

 and for himself. 



But now. with more agricultural papers than 



we have States in the Union, the humblest tiller 

 of the soil feels the happy influence of compan- 

 ionship Avith a host of peers and fellows in the 

 common Avork of progress and improvement. 

 Thousands may be waiting for the results of his 

 experiments in the most solitary corner of his 

 out-of-the-way farm. A noble band of brothers, 

 these readers and contributors of agricultural pa- 

 pers. Social, sympathetic, united ! Well may 

 we congratulate ourselves on such an interesting 

 revival of agricultural interest among the people 

 of our Avhole country — East, West, North and 

 South. 



But if the number of the papers devoted to the 

 interest of the farmer, which are now read and 

 supported by farmers, may be cited with hopeful- 

 ness and exultation, surely the talent and ability 

 Avhich are displayed in their management may be 

 regarded with the highest degree of satisfaction. 



We might also refer to books on agriculture, 

 which are swelling our libraries to a size that 

 is fast assuming the solid proportions of the li- 

 braries of the professions — the great secret of their 

 respectability and attractions — and to the labor- 

 saving implements, which do the work of menials 

 and slaves, greatly relieving the severity of our 

 toil, but we do not propose to do so at the pre- 

 sent time. 



We have already run on with these remarks till 

 we have hardly space left for the announcement of 

 the object, or idea, of this article. 



In view of this increasing interest in agricultu- 

 ral pursuits, we wish to suggest that, in our opin- 

 ion, greater fi-eedom may be extended to farmers' 

 sons and daughters in the choice of a profession. 

 For ourselves, we are ready to sign a proclama- 

 tion that, henceforth, every one Avho desires to do 

 so may leave the farm and the farm-house, forth- 

 with ! ». 



As the business of agriculture now stands, there 

 is little hope of success by any of those sick of 

 home, victims of fate plodders, who believe they 

 were made for mechanics, merchants, peddlers, 

 preachers, politicians or fiddlers. All these class- 

 es are wanted, but not on the farm. In the late 

 discussion of the question, "What will tend to 

 make farming pleasant and profitable as a pur- 

 suit ?" by the Legislative Agricj^ltural Society, it 

 was well suggested that a love of the business is 

 essential. People must take hold of it from choice, 

 and voluntarily devote to it the best energies of 

 their minds and bodies, or the business Avill not 

 be either pleasant or profitable. 



Who has not often remarked, that, among the 

 strange whims of our common humanity, there is 

 a disposition to do those things which it has been 

 forbidden to do, and to leave undone those things 

 which it has been most persistently advised and 

 exhorted to do. Recoq-nizing this as a well- 



