L^(gi^^lM][3) 



DEVOTED TO AGKIGUIiTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, AUGUST, 1861. 



NO. 8. 



NOURSE, EATOM & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office 34 Merchants' Row. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) Associatb 

 HEXRY F. FRENCH, \ Editors. 



FOR A WET DAY IN AUGUST. 



Whether we look or whether we listen, 



We hear Life murmur, or see it glisten ; 



Every clod feels a stir of might. 



An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 



And grasping blindly above it for light, 



Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. Lowell. 



HE farmer's 

 life is neces- 

 sarily one of 

 active indus- 

 try ; it should 

 also be one 

 of happiness. 

 No occupa- 

 tion affords 

 such various 

 resources, 

 both of emol- 

 ument and 

 pleasure, as 

 farming, when 

 judiciously and intelligently pursued. The New 

 England farmer should, in the first place, settle 

 his mind to the necessity of vigorous individual 

 action, and of active inquiry into the various 

 modes of enlarging the sphere of his professional 

 efforts, and their emoluments. He should not 

 repose with a humble and contented ambition 

 upon the platform of past ages, or upon the ob- 

 solete usages of those who, in the primal days of 

 American agriculture, were compelled to open 

 pathways for the sun into the bosom of dense 

 and trackless forests, and to extort the means of 

 subsistence from a soil which was yet incum- 

 bered with almost insuperable impediments. 



There is no reason why the union of intelli- 

 gence, capital, and power, should not be as pro- 

 ductive of happy results, in agriculture, as in oth- 

 er pursuits. Within the last twenty years the 

 hand of science has accomplished wonders in the 

 way of improvements, and even within the last ten 

 years the changes which have been introduced in- 



to the manipulatory processes of the art, have so- 

 far lessened its toils, and augmented its results,, 

 as to render the pursuit of farming one of the- 

 most agreeable and profitable of human avoca- 

 tions. 



The farmer — if a true man — now strives to ex- 

 cel in intelligence, as well as in wealth. He fre- 

 quently has his library, and his cabinet of miner- 

 als, and is emulous of understanding the "why 

 and wherefore" of the various theories and pro- 

 cesses he adopts and practices in the cultivation 

 of his crops, the management of his stock, and 

 the general routine of his domestic and personal 

 affairs. It is a common saying in politics, that 

 "revolutions never go backward ;" and it is 

 equally true, perhaps, in the generality of cases, 

 that the human mind once stimulated to an inter- 

 ested pursuit of knowledge will neither retro- 

 grade nor pause, but press onward towards the 

 goal with constantly increasing ardor and success 

 to the attainment of objects presented to its grasp. 



What a contrast is presented, in this particular 

 between the freeborn American farmer, and the 

 English peasant. Speaking of the latter, a late 

 writer, himself an Englishman, observes : — "He 

 feels that he is a mere serf, among the great and 

 free ; a mere machine in the hands of the mighty, 

 who use him as such. He sees the sunshine of 

 grandeur, but does not feel its warmth. He hears 

 that the great folks are wise ; but all he knows is 

 that their wisdom does not trouble itself about 

 his ignorance. He asks, with the "Farmer's 

 Boy,"— 



"Whence comes this change, ungracious, irksome, cold .' 



Whence this new grandeur that mine cjes behold? 



The widening distance that I daily see .' 



Has wealth done this ? Then wealth's a, foe to me ! 



Foe to my rights, that leaves a powerful few 



The paths of emulation to pursue." 



But even this rough block from the quarry of 

 ignorance, is capable of being chiselled and pol- 

 ished, and sent forth into the great thorough- 



