158 Good and Bad Farming Contrasted. 
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Not a tree greets your eye in all these premises; but broken 
carts, wagons, and old plows occupy the places where the pear 
and the peach should luxuriate: and the swill-tub has tumbled 
over in the last stages of decay, where the rose and the myrtle 
should bloom. 
Observe the gauntness and wan appearance of the animals. 
The cow, as you see, is approaching the dwelling, as if to hold 
sympathy with the sad mistress of misfortune's home. How fee- 
ble her gait, and how wan her countenance! And why should it 
be otherwise, when her only food is gathered among the brambles 
by the way-side, and her only drink from the filthy frog-pond in 
front of the dwellingi See that starving swine, just driven from 
the meadow. Its features have stronger resemblance to the wild 
boar of the East, than any thing of American origin. Yet it looks 
like an animal adapted to its circumstances; therefore it is per- 
fectly in place in its present locality. 
Go into Philip's dwelling, and examine among the scanty fur- 
niture for the library, and not a solitary work will meet the eye; 
or listen for the sweet sounds of music, and not a note, but those 
of discord, will <2;reet the ear. Ask him if he takes an asfricultural 
paper, and his reply, from a countenance exhibiting bewilderment 
beneath his old slouched hat, will be, " No; I reckons I knows as 
much about far mi n' as these 'ere chaps can tell; and as for them 
city fellers that, write, they don't know enny more about it than 
the old boss." Attempt to explain to him, if you have patience 
to parley with the mope, the benefits that agriculture is receiving 
from such papers, and the labors of scientific men Avho make them 
their organs of communication, and his wise reply will run some- 
thing in this wise: 
"I don't keer for your orgins nor your skientifics. I knows 
enough about farmin'; and, besides, I 's not a farmer: I trades 
and specerlates." 
Poor man! he is right once; he is not a farmer, and nature erred 
as widely when she planted him on a piece of land, to dress and 
keep, as she did in forming such a miserable clodpole in the like- 
ness of dignified, intelligent man. Urge him, for the sake of 
his rising family, to take an agricultural paper, and he will tell 
you,— 
"Humph! my family must take care of themselves," (we wish 
they had spirit enough to do so,) " and 1 take care of myself. My 
boys! they won't be dirty farmers, and work all day in the sun; 
they want'er to be merchants, and live like gentlemen in fine 
housen." 
"Have you ever tried any experiments with fruit?" 
" I doesn't try experiments; it don't do no good. There was 
some fruit trees here when I come, but they didn't do much, so I 
