A REVIEW OF THE MARCH NO. OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
159 
A REVIEW OF THE MARCH NO. OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
Many writers in different agricultural papers 
Rave occasionally attempted the task of reviewers; 
but few have succeeded, except that excellent 
“ Commentator,'” the late Hon. James M. Garnett, 
of Virginia. I do not expect to equal him ; yet in 
the hopes of doing good when he can do no more, 
I am disposed to make one attempt. 
The March number, 1846, of the American 
Agriculturist is before me. Do the readers of this 
paper ever think how much there is in this name 
to be proud of? How much more than all the 
records of heraldry, should we feel proud of this 
name; and how our children should be taught to 
feel that they never can enjoy a more worthy and 
honorable name than that of an American Agri¬ 
culturist ? No other of all the “ Farmers,” “ Plant¬ 
ers,” “ Cultivators,” and numerous names of out¬ 
growing family of Agricultural papers, conveys to 
my mind such an extended meaning as does the 
name of this paper. It is a name that all the agri¬ 
culturists of our loved country should be proud of 
—may this paper be so conducted that we shall 
also be proud of it. Let us proceed now to re¬ 
view it, and if we find faults, and comment upon 
them, recollect such is the task of a reviewer. 
Vignette. —Before looking at the matter, let us 
dwell a moment over the vignette. It is a picture 
of such a home as every American Agriculturist 
ought to enjoy. It is a lovely view in harvest 
time. Yet the plow continues to run. It might be 
said by some that so productive a farm should 
nave larger barns, if not so tasty, so as that there 
should be no necessity of “ stacking out.” I doubt 
this. See Vol. 1, page 335, of the Agriculturist 
for illustrations, and an admirable article upon 
stacking. I doubt the economy of building barns 
to house grain. It will keep better in stacks if 
well put up on such foundations as are laid for 
stack bottoms in England, on stone or cast iron pil¬ 
lars. But the threshing-floor should be in the 
barn, or what would be much better, a building 
built solely for a threshing-floor, around which the 
stacks could be built. Grain can be stacked more 
green than it can be housed.That distant 
windmill reminds me of a motive power very ap¬ 
plicable to the prairie of the West, but very much 
neglected.The cattle and horses in the 
American park are no scrubs. But their breeding 
tells a tale that should teach us the folly of further 
importation of stock into a country so capable as 
this is of raising our own from those we now 
have, and as fine as can be done in England, if we 
try—we now have the seed—the blood. 
Those geese in the view may be very picturesque, 
but deliver me from the filthy brutes around the 
house and yards. Besides, I am no advocate of 
feather-beds. Hair, wool, cotton, moss, shucks or 
husks of corn, or even straw, are far better and 
healthier, in my opinion, than feathers. And cer¬ 
tainly cheaper. Nothing but habit could ever 
enable a field-laborer to endure the enervating influ¬ 
ence of a feather-bed in August. 
The Motto. —Next comes a motto from the pen 
of an American nobleman. It always makes our 
blood tingle to read it, and we are proud to rank 
ourselves in a class headed by the name of George 
Washington — the father of American Agri¬ 
culturists. 
The Place of Publication. —This is worthy of a 
passing note. As New York has become the great 
centre of commercial transactions, so it is for many 
reasons the most fit place for concentrating useful 
information ; and certainly it possesses more faci¬ 
lities for an editor to make up a paper worthy the 
name of this one'—national in its character—than 
any other point in the United States; and like the 
city, the paper should continue so purely the na¬ 
tional paper of the American Agriculturist as to be 
without a rival. 
To Agricultural Societies. —After this long pre¬ 
face, we at length reach the first article. A most 
liberal offer on the part of the editor and very 
gentlemanly publishers of this paper. Fifty cents 
only a year ! Who could believe it, for such a useful, 
entertaining, and handsomely illustrated periodical ? 
I hope many societies throughout the Union will 
avail themselves of your generous offer. Let me 
recommend them in all cases to take the bound 
volumes. They are beautifully bound in black 
cloth, and gold lettered, and only 75 cents to 
members of Agricultural Societies. Why, it is 
the very cheapest work ever issued from the press. 
Another suggestion. Let the publishers have a 
certificate printed to bind or paste in each volume, 
intended as a prize, something in this form—“ This 
volume is awarded to A. B., of Brooklyn, by the 
Kings County Agricultural Society, as a premium 
and certificate that he exhibited the third best 
milch cow, at the show held at Flatbush, for the 
year 1846,” &c., &c.Speaking of lectures 
reminds me, that agricultural societies could 
not make a better appropriation of money than de¬ 
voting a small annual sum to pay the expense of 
lectures. You can get men to hear who cannot or 
will not read. And you must get them to read or 
hear before they will think. If a man does not 
think, how can he act and improve ? How else 
can their minds be “ opened to conviction,” so that 
they can see “ what is for their best interests ?” 
Early Plowing. —Good advice, which being 
interpreted, means, do all your plowing in the fall; 
and do it well and deep, with a good plow, and not 
with that old rattle-trap which you have been plow¬ 
ing with for five years past. Is it possible that 
any man in possession of sense enough to read 
your paper, Mr. Editor, needs to be told that it is 
very poor economy to work his team, or land, or 
self, or hands, in rainy weather ? If he is a good 
farmer, he will always have “ a job for a rainy 
day’’kept in reserve.For spring grain 
upon “ a stiff clay,” I had rather have one acre fall- 
plowed, than two acres “ mud-hauled” over in the 
spring. And generally speaking, the one acre will 
produce the most wheat or oats, and it does not 
cost so much to plow two acres in the fall as one 
in the spring. This difference, a merchant would 
think was a tolerably fair profit. 
Parsnips. —This article is not like the alma¬ 
nacs, that are calculated to suit all parts of the 
United States. It would hardly suit the meridian 
of the Miami or Wabash Valleys, to quit corn and 
take to parsnips However valuable the root crop 
