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DEVOTED TO AGRIOULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XV. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1863. 



NO. 2. 



NOURSE, EATOX & TOLIUX, Proprietors. 

 Office.... 102 WASnciGTON Street. 



SIMON BROWN, Editoe. 



FEBRUARY. 



"And all this uniform, uncolored scene, 



Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load, 



And flush into variety again. 



From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, 



In nature's progress, when she lectures man 



In heavenly truth ; evincing, as she makes 



The grand transaction, that there lives and works 



A Soul in all things, and that soul is God. 



NEXAMPLED im- 

 provements in ag- 

 riculture have been 

 made in the last 

 ten years. The 

 change from the 

 gloom of winter to 

 the brightness and 

 promise of spring, 

 is, indeed, not 

 more marked and 

 obvious than the 

 transition which 

 has taken place in 

 the mind and char- 

 acter of the farmer. 

 During this period. 

 there has been a mental quickening among the 

 masses — old and inveterate prejudices haA'e re- 

 laxed and given way to enlightened views, igno- 

 rance has been charmed from its stupor, and su- 

 perstition made to relinquish its hold upon the 

 reasoning faculties, by the light of truth. What 

 has wrought this change ? The agricultural press, 

 perhaps, more than any other single instrumental- 

 ity, yet not exclusively, for while we concede that 

 the influences of this mighty engine of improve- 

 ment have had an important share in effecting the 

 great work, we should, by no means, be unmind- 

 ful of the other means which have been enlisted 

 and brought to bear upon the result. 



Our agricultural clubs and societies have had 

 an important share in the work, and so have the 

 numerous, well digested and well written works 



of our native authors. The various arts and sci- 

 ences connected with farming have been elucidat- 

 ed, and their relations to it more clearly shown. 

 Knowledge is contagious. A fact published to- 

 day in the columns of a paper, will bring out oth- 

 er facts, perhaps, of equal, if not of greater impor- 

 tance, from some other locality ; and so on until 

 the radiance diffused from that one solitary star- 

 point illuminates a mass of mind which before 

 had been involved in great doubt, or utter dark- 

 ness. An improvement — a conjecture — a simple 

 thought, or shadow of thought, born or developed 

 in one man's mind, by this law of contagion, or 

 sympathy, begets forms of beauty and utility in 

 another. An innovation or improvement an- 

 nounced in the columns of a journal, is at once 

 tested throughout the length and breadth of the 

 land ; it becomes adopted and popularized from 

 the shores of the St. John's to the remotest West. 

 The agricultural press is the conductor of intelli- 

 gence, carrying it from mind to mind — from vil- 

 lage to village, and from State to State — rousing 

 inquiry, and inducing effort. Says a late writer : 



•'The man who asserts that he can learn noth- 

 ing from the columns of the ])ress, is supremely 

 wise, or transcendently arrogant. Grant that we 

 who write, in knowledge and attainment*, are a 

 little behind those who do not — but then we ])ub- 

 lish the best things we know or hear of, and 

 (though immensely modest) we claim that no one 

 can lose by leaving off the worst of his doings to 

 adopt the best of our suggestions. * * * When 

 the great ajjostle to the Gentiles said — "Woe is 

 unto me if I preach not the Gospel," he assorted 

 a general principle, rather than an individual fact. 

 Whoever can deliver a message of utility is bound 

 to do it, no matter to what i)art of the wide circle 

 of human interests it relates." 



The farmer, whose labors have secured to him 

 the possession of ample means, — who cultivates 

 fields unencumbered by bonds or mortgages, and 

 who is wise enough to discover the true nature 

 and means of happiness, enjoys more, or may en- 



