342 
HELPS IN READING AGRICULTURAL WORKS. 
next A i, in the same manner, and when the five 
vowels in A are exhausted, repeat the process 
with B—B a, B e, then C a, C e, and so on to the 
end of the alphabet, which will take just the one 
hundred and fifty pages, and six pages to each let¬ 
ter ; a page for each vowel. The book can be pre¬ 
pared in an hour easily, and when it is so ruled 
and lettered, it is always ready for the record. 
Now for its use. When reading, and you come 
to any subject which you wish to examine again, 
any directions which you wish to recollect, make 
a minute of it in your blank book, as follows. 
Write the prominent word, or subject, in the mar¬ 
gin at the left hand, and on that page which has 
the first vowel in the word ; thus if it is about 
apples, on the page A e ; if about cattle, on the 
page C a , and so on. At the right hand of the 
word state what you wish about the subject, and 
where it is found. I can not give the idea so well 
as to quote at random a few pages from my own 
book, which I think your printers can imitate with 
common types, spaces, dashes, &c., without any 
engraving, and which shows the form of the book 
and the manner of its use, at a glance. 
A 
a 
Asparagus. 
how cultivated : Am. Ag. vol. ii. p. 6, vol. iii. 
a 
u u p. 70. Farm. Mo. Vis. vol. iii. p. 
a 
125. 
tt 
11 11 New Gen. Farm. vol. ii. p. 
tt 
106, vol. iii. p. 123. 
A 
e New page. 
Apples. 
good kinds : West. Farm, vol.ii.pp. 10,175, 
a 
196, 206. 
ti¬ 
u u New Gen. Farm. vol. i. pp. S2, 
ll 
103, ISO, vol. ii. pp. 51, 17S. 
“ 
u 11 Am. Agricul. vol. i. p. 324, 
it 
vol. iii. p. 120. 
a 
value for stock: N. Gen. Farm. vol. i. p. 18. 
tt 
vol. v. p. 35. 
it 
winter keep : Am. Agricul. vol. ii. p. 193. 
Apple 
how made : New Gen. Farmer, vol. 2. 
Molasses. 
p. 27. 
Ashes. 
value for manure : Monthly Vis. vol. iv. pp. 
it 
79, 173, 187. 
it 
u 11 N. Gen. Farm. vol. ii. p. 
tt 
93, vol. iii. pp. 158,164. 
tt 
“ cc Am. Ag. vol. i, p. 324. 
C e New page. 
Charcoal. 
nutritive: Am. Ag. vol. i. p. 181, vol. iii. 
tt 
pp. 108, 125. 
tt 
11 N. Gen. Farm. vol. v. pp. 33, 41. 
Cattle. 
diseases of: Complete Farm. pp. 66—71. 
a 
u “ West. Farm. vol. ii. p. 248. 
it 
11 u N. Gen. Farm. vol. i. pp. 68, 
tt 
85, vol. iii. pp. 49, 84. 
tt 
native, value of: N. Gen. Farm. vol. iii. pp. 
tt 
2, 18. Am. Ag. vol. i. p. 
tt 
328. 
tt 
short horns : Am. Ag. (too many to quote.) 
tt 
Devons : Am. Agricul. vol. iii. p. 10. 
it 
Hereford : “ “ vol. ii. p. 106. 
Calves. 
treatment of: Am. Ag. vol. i. pp. 84, 362. 
a 
vol. iii. p. 40. 
a 
“ Complete Farmer, pp. 54—61. 
a 
11 N. Gen. Farm. vol. i.pp. 68,85, 
tt 
“ 99. vol. iii. p. 49. 
Cranberries. 
how raised: N. Gen. Farm. vol. iii. p. 45. 
tt 
u u Am. Ag. vol. i. p. 28, vol. iii. 
a 
pp. 54, 79. 
Carrots, 
white, for cattle : Am. Ag. vol. i. p. 343. 
tt 
“ u “ N. Gen. Farm. vol. iii. p. 
tt 
77. 
Thus I have quoted a part of three pages, from 
which the plan can be seen. Thus if you want 
to make a minute of corn, cows, clover, cooking 
food, crops, &c., use page Co; if of flax, fallow, 
farm buildings, the page F a; if of horses, hoof 
ail, horn ail, hot beds, hops, horse power, &c., the 
page H o. Thus it will be seen, that you have 
only to turn to the page of the book where the 
subject is noted, and you can refer at once, and 
without loss of time, to any volume of any work 
you have read on the subject, and thus save a 
great deal of time in looking over the contents 
and through the pages of each volume. I made 
my book from the necessity of the case, it took so 
much time to look up the information I wanted. 
I have no doubt lost a valuable cow, from not 
being able at once to turn to the treatment of 
diseases. Now I can find any one I have read 
in two minutes. And so of all other subjects. 
Five minutes is amply supply sufficient to note 
down the contents of each number of any agricul¬ 
tural paper, and then you have the same facilities 
to refer to your whole agricultural reading, that 
you have for any single volume, when your editor 
sends you, at the end, a complete index. Of 
course it is assumed in this, that your different 
volumes are preserved, bound or stitched, and 
kept with your reference book where they can 
easily be taken up. Of course, also, it is supposed 
a farmer must have a pen and ink handy. If he 
has to send to the barn-yard to pull a quill from 
the wing of a goose, and pour some vinegar into 
an old ink bottle, to make something that will 
mark, and use his razor to make a pen, (all of 
which I saw recently, at the house of a large 
farmer, or of a man with a large farm), it may not 
be a time-saving operation. This caution,.how¬ 
ever, is needless without doubt; for a man who does 
this never takes an agricultural paper, probably, 
and has no need of reference, and nothing to refer 
to if he had. But for a man who wants to save 
time and money, a mere trifle of cost, and a few 
minutes spent as soon as the paper or book is 
ready it will be found very valuable. The more 
one reads, the more valuable it will be. It brings 
the whole under the eye at once, just as a mer¬ 
chant, who keeps his books well posted up, can 
tell in a moment how each man’s account stands. 
But if you do not have anything ready and make 
the entries at once, your reading will leave you 
like the merchant who should have to look through 
his day book (keeping no ledger) to find any 
man’s account. It would be a time-wasting, and 
not a time-saving operation. H. 
Ohio , August 5, 1844. 
The plan of the above work suggested by our 
correspondent, is.like Todd’s Index jRerum, which 
we have made use of for several years. It is ruled 
and bound with the alphabetical letters printed on 
the top of each page. We can attest to its great 
value as an index for general reference, and are 
highly obliged to our correspondent for bringing 
the subject before the public for the benefit of the 
farmer. Such an index is as valuable to him as 
to the student of general literature, and perhaps 
even more so, as he has not like him large and well- 
selected libraries, at hand for constant reference. 
