AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
Farm, Garden, and Honseliold. 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST Hi: ALT1IFI L, MOST USEFUL, ANB MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN."-Wa>hi»oioh. 
ORANGE JIIDD * CO., ) 
PUBLISHERS AND PEOFKIETOES. >■ 
Office, 245 BROADWAY. ) 
ESTABLISHED LN" 1842. { $1 - 50 PEK annum, in advance. 
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Published also in Gern.au at $1.50 a Tfoar. (jCopiesfor $5; lOfor $ 1 2 ; 2<r« more, $leach. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in May, 1872, by Okanoe Judd & Co., at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXXI.— No. 6. 
NEW YORK, JUNE, 1872. 
NEW SERIES— So. 305. 
A SEA-SIDE 
Our many inland readers, -when they read the 
title to the engraving, will look around for the 
farm and the farmer. They are hoth in plain 
view, and as unlike the farm and farmer of any 
other part of the country as the sea-shore is 
unlike prairie or mountain-side. From their 
close proximity to the sea, most of these along- 
shore farms are, if not sterile, at least not over- 
fertile, and the sweeping storms and the salt 
atmosphere restrict the cultivator to a few 
crops, though it often happens that he can grow 
these few in great perfection. The farmer him- 
self is something of an amphibian, and is quite 
(COPYRIGHT 8ECTJBKD.1 
FARM . — DRAWN BY G. PERKINS. — Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
them with. Fertilizers for the fields are drawa 
from the ever-full storehouse of the sea. Fish, 
sea-weed, and marsh mud all go to the compost 
as handy at managing a boat as a mowing 
machine. Nets are quite as important to him 
as hay-rakes, and the oyster-dredge is as much 
a part of his outfit as the dairy utensils. We 
"j.n recall pleasant visits to more than one of 
these shore-farms, where, if there was not much 
systematic agriculture, there was a great deal of 
comfort. The sea which carries away so much 
of value from the land returns much to those 
who live by its side. Fish, oysters, clams, lob- 
sters, and other articles of food are abundant 
and easily obtained, and the sea which furnishes 
the provisions also sends drift-wood to cook 
heap, and bring abundant returns from the 
meadow lands at 1 fields. It often happens that 
the shore-farmer carries on a mechanical trade 
with his agriculture, and this is either boat-build- 
ing or net-making. Perhaps this kind of life 
does not tend to make the best sort of " scien- 
tific " farmers, but it does tend to make, what ia 
quite important, a useful and self-reliant people, 
among whom we have found more culture than 
their rough exterior would lead one to expect. 
