318 
REVIEW OF THE AUGUST NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
REVIEW OF THE AUGUST NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
To Postmasters and Others. — Among the " oth- 
ers," if you will include a certain set of dolts 
and demagogues who block the wheels of Un- 
cle Sam's mail wagon, with high rates of pos- 
tage, and dray loads of " free documents," until 
you lash them into a little show of common 
sense and honesty, so they will amend the law, 
into something of a common-sense form, and 
then there will be no occasion for "mistaken 
mortals" mistaking the rate which they should 
charge upon the Agriculturist ; for then, every 
periodical of every kind, will be rated at one cent 
for 1,900 square inches of printed matter, wheth- 
er on white paper or brown, and then we shall 
be able to get " our paper," with a cover, with- 
out being subjected to a ridiculous charge of 
four cents for a piece of cotton thread four 
inches long, " stitched" through the paper, mak- 
ing it a " pamphlet." Bah ! what nonsense. 
Capacity of Soils for Absorbing Fertilising Mat- 
ter. — If the capacity of the minds of those who 
own said soils were half as great to absorb 
that which is beneficial, they would be " deodor- 
ised" of a vast amount of offensive matter, and 
out of this very article absorb an amount of 
knowledge sufficient to pay for a dozen years' 
subscription to the Agriculturist, if judiciously 
applied to their business. 
Food of Calves. — I believe every word of this, 
except calling a cow a " dam," and I will be- 
lieve that, if Noah Webster says I must ; but 
this is the first time I ever heard dam applied to 
a cow in that way. But I can assure the writer 
that he would have made a much more popular 
article if he had insisted that "hay tea," "but- 
termilk porridge," or " sawdust broth," is deci- 
dedly better for feeding calves, than the milk 
of their own mothers. It will not do for an 
Englishman to talk to us butter-mouthed Yan- 
kees in this style, about keeping a portion of 
cows to make butter and cheese, and another 
portion to suckle calves. No sir. We will not 
only feed them on buttermilk and whey, but 
quarrel with you for disputing that such feed 
does not make the best calves. 
Everything Shoicld be Done Systematically. — 
Everybody knows that — everybody says that — 
nobody does it. Yes they do. Some folks are 
systematically wrong — always wrong — always 
too late at seeding, and too late at harvest. But 
is it " reprenensible to leave everything where 
it was last used?" I have a neighbor in my eye 
now, who, if he would leave that old black jug 
where he last used it, would leave one thing in 
the right place, and then he would be likely to 
have a better plow than ,ie works now; and if 
he stuck it deep into the soil, that would be in 
the right place. " That is the doctrine for farm- 
ers." Be temperate, frugal, industrious, plow 
deep, and be happy. 
Horse Breeding in Russia. — When will repub- 
lican America so far imitate despotic Russia, as 
to establish a national stable for the improve- 
ment of the breed of horses, or breed of any- 
thing else for the benefit of agriculture 1 When 
water ceases to run, wood to grow, and dema- 
gogues to talk. Shame on those who have the 
power to elevate the interests and character of 
the cultivators of the soil, and do it not. Let us 
look to Russia for a pattern. I wish all trans- 
lators of articles from foreign languages would 
translate the money terms into sums that we 
can understand. Although told in a note by the 
editor, the value of "rouble," and a" "kopeck," 
who will stop reading, to cipher out how many 
dollars and cents there are in " 88,625 silver 
roubles and 88f kopecks ?" Not one in a thou- 
sand. Such outlandish terms always spoil the 
interest of an article. Let them be translated. 
Proposed Remedy for Stealing Fruit. — Which, 
being also translated, means " a good plan to 
prevent everybody from stealing fruit." I 
would also suggest that every roadside be 
planted with fruit trees, instead of those merely 
useful for shade. The shade of an apple or 
a cherry tree is as good as the shade of an oak, 
and grows as soon. If the heathenish, hoggish, 
highway-robbery system of letting cattle and 
pigs run at large were abolished, how we might 
ornament the roadside, and gladden the hearts 
of travellers with free fruits and flowers. No 
one, then, would climb the fence to steal. What 
a blessed country we should have if we would. 
What a wicked waste of land we now have in 
our useless roadsides. 
In connection with this article, I pray the 
reader to notice the little item, the " Value of 
an Orchard." Perhaps you recollect an article 
published last fall of the profits of a four-acre 
peach orchard near Newburgh, exceeding that of 
any other cultivated land in the country, except 
some garden spot or nursery. Plant trees. If 
you cannot plant an orchard, plant a single 
tree; it will be doing good to somebody. It 
will help make all mankind better, if all plant 
trees. Who then will steal fruit 1 Let children 
be taught in school and around the hearth stone, 
that, as soon as the buds of spring give promise 
of early leaves and flowers, they shall each 
plant a tree, which shall stand as a memento to 
remind them that " this is my first lesson how 
to prevent boys from stealing fruit." 
The Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss. — A very 
sensible little item against the universal all- 
pervading disposition of American farmers to 
migrate — a disease that is often destructive to 
life, very often to health, more often to comfort 
and happiness, and still more often to a sys- 
tematic course of improvement, by which the 
"old homestead," that is abandoned on account 
of its unproductiveness, would become fertile 
again, and yield a greater profit than some of 
the rich lands of the west. 
There is none, or but little love of home among 
the American farmers. One of the reasons, is, 
because they change that home so often, there 
are but few " homes of taste," which, as you 
say truly,* are only to be found where the 
" Architect of nature" is employed to ornament 
them. With more abundant cheap materials to 
form such houses, we probably have fewer of 
them than any other country on earth, which 
contains as many intelligent minds as this does. 
But unfortunately, we have no schools to teach 
