868 



IS^EW E^GLAXD FARMER. 



Aug. 



■with the views expressed by the Prairie Farmer, 

 and also shows by an extract of a letter from a 

 Mrs. Weir, published Jan. 28, 18G.5, in the Rural 

 New Yorker, detailing her success in capturing the 

 insects under boards laid on the ground for that 

 purpose, that the invention is not a nevr one. 



TSTE-W PUEIiICATIONa. 



Memorial of Benjamin P, Jebneon, read before tho 

 Kew Vor'K Ptute Agricultural Society at the Annu il 

 Meeting, Feb. 10, 1870, by Maref.na K. Patrick, Ex- 

 Pre8:di-nt of the Society, 



Throughout the country there is a general com- 

 plaint of the want of hearty co-operation by the 

 tillers of the soil with the leaders of agricultural 

 progress. Books printed at great public expense 

 for the benefit of farmers gravitate to the rag-bag 

 and junk store. State Boards of Agriculture hold 

 sessions in rural districts, but even there they do 

 not reach the rural people. State Societies hold 

 shows and fairs, but the attendance of the "intel- 

 ligent yeomanry" is secured by almost any device 

 that will "draw." "Great names" are placed on 

 the agricultural stump, but they fail to attract the 

 masses. "Why should these eloquent speakers, 

 these attractive exhibitions, these learned discus 

 sions, these elaborate Transactions be so poorly 

 appreciated ? 



One reason for all this is suggested to our mind 

 by the perusal of this Memorial, and that is the 

 want of sympathy between these men and those 

 whom they wish to reach and influence. Though 

 written in the ordinary eulogistic style of such 

 compositions, this Memorial sketch of Mr. John- 

 son's liie, presents the following facts. "Until fif- 

 ty-three years of ago, he was a lawyer, politician 

 and ofQce holder. In the langu?gc of his eulogist, 

 he was "so generous in his feelings" that "it is not 

 to be wondered at that he was never a successful 

 financier, or manager of his own money matters, 

 or that he became gradually, and almost insensi- 

 bly embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs, until he 

 suddenly found himself wholly unable to meet his 

 engagements." In May, 1846, he departed ab- 

 ruptly for Europe, and left his "financial unpleas- 

 antness" to the care of his friends, by whom, we 

 are informed, it was "satisfactorily arranged," and 

 Mr. Johnson returned to his native land, in No- 

 vember of the same year, when the same good 

 friends secured for him the snug little position of 

 Secretary of the New York State Agricultural So- 

 ciety. Once in this office, he was retained twenty- 

 two years, — though later in life a "lethargy was 

 stealing over him" that incapacitated him for the 

 discharge of its duties, — because, and we again 

 quote both the sentiment and the language of the 

 Memorial, "To have dropped him from the rolls 

 of the Society, as its Secretary, would have been 

 to pronounce his sentence of death." 



"VX'e can honor these charitable feelings for a 

 needy incumbent, though we may not approve of 

 the form in which they were expressed in this 

 case by the m mngers of the Society. We believe 



that the State has sufiered greatly from the ineffi- 

 cient manner in which the Transactions of its Ag- 

 ricultural Society have been edited for many years 

 past, and that in this way something has been done 

 to foster that indifference on the part of farmers 

 so generally deplored. 



Thansactions of the "Vermont Dairyman's Aseocia- 

 tion, 1869-70, wilh Addresses and Essays Oricioal 

 and S^iec'ed. Publl'^hed by the fieoretaiy, O. Bliss, 

 Keq . Georgia, "Vc. 1870. 



This pamphlet of 120 pages give us the addresses 

 of Hon. E. D. Mason, President of the Associa- 

 tion ; of Hon. Henry Lane, on the cultivation of 

 Beets; of Hon. X. A. Willard, on Dairying; of 

 Dr. M. Goldsmith, on Experiments in Dairying ; of 

 Hon. T. G. Alvcrd, on Salt ; of Hon. R. Goodman, 

 on Grasses; of Prof. G. C. Caldwell, on Fermen- 

 tation and Putrefaction ; of Prof. A. N. Prentiss on 

 Ergot; of O. S. Bliss, Esq., on Butter Making; 

 together with List of Officers, &c. These are val- 

 uable papers, and will be read with interest and 

 pr®9t by farmers. In his introductory remarks, 

 the Secretary says, that the afternoon of the sec- 

 ond day's session "was devoted wholly to discus- 

 sions." And from our experience with similar 

 meetings we can readily credit his subsequent re- 

 mark that "the time was fully occupied, affjrding 

 new evidence that one of the most valuable fea- 

 tures of such meetings is the extemporaneous dis- 

 cussions among the members themselves." Yet 

 we find no trace of this "most valuable feature" in 

 the printed transactions of the society. 



On the same page, the Secretary says : — "It is a 

 source of r grct that no more of the practical dai- 

 rymen of the State were in attendance upon the 

 meeting." 



But why was there not a more general attend- 

 ance of the practical dairymen of the State at the 

 St. Albans meeting ? There can be no question of 

 the fact that a large number of the farmers of "Ver- 

 mont are deeply interested in dairying. They buy 

 liberally and read carefully books and papers that 

 relate to this and other branches of farming. They 

 are always ready and glad of an opportunity to 

 talk upon these subjects. But when a meeting is 

 called at which men of note and distinction are 

 invited to discourse upon these same topics, they 

 somehow seem indifferent about attending, or if 

 they are preseiit they take a back seat, and act for 

 all the world as though the meeting belonged to 

 somebody else, and as though they were not at 

 home there. 



This is as true of the farmers of other States as 

 of those of Vermont. The Convention in St Al- 

 bans is not the only one that has had cause to 

 complain of empty seats. But what shall be done 

 to fill them in the future ? is a question that we do 

 not propose to answer aflirmatively here; though 

 we cannot refrain from suggesting, negatively, 

 that, whenever the extemporaneous discussions of 

 the practical men present at any of these meetings 

 prove the most valuable feature of the ixerciscs, 

 their entire omission from the printed journal of 



