29G 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
said Mrs. Bunker, who by this time had laid aside 
the sewing to take the young folks’ case in hand. 
“ It don’t follow at all, that Sally wont have any 
use for her training in the milk room and the 
kitchen, because she has gone to live in a parson¬ 
age. A girl that has been brought up to keep 
every thing straight in the house, as well as to be 
a lady in the parlor makes a good wife in any 
calling. I am quite sartain, that her talents wont 
be buried in a napkin down in Shadtown. For 
the parsonage has ten acres of land with it, and 
Josiah is going to keep three cows and a horse, 
and grow stuff enough on the land to feed them 
and his family. His people say that he is not 
afraid of the plow tail, or the hoe handle; that 
he gets more stuff off of his ten acres, than many 
of them are able to get from their farms, that 
he is great on sermons, and just as great on cab- 
hage, and it is difficult to tell whether he is a bet¬ 
ter farmer or minister; and his wife and the 
young folks are pleased with each other, and as 
long as the parties most consarned are suited, I 
don’t see why other folks need to trouble them¬ 
selves about it.” 
Mrs. Bunker resumed her spectacles and sew¬ 
ing, after freeing her mind, and Uncle Jotham, 
found it convenient to leave on important busi¬ 
ness. Seth apologized handsomely, didn’t mean 
any harm, and after finishing his pipe retired. 
You see a great many people have got very 
narrow views about their neighbors in general, 
and ministers in particular. They think no man 
can be more than one thing at a time, because 
they themselves have never done but one thing, 
and have not done that very well. If a man is 
good with a lap stone and an awl, they think he 
must be a poor hand with a hoe and a scythe. 
But I have traveled enough in Massachusetts, to 
know, that some of the best farmers and garden¬ 
ers in that State are shoemakers, for a good part 
of the year. They have extra brains enough to 
plan farm work while they are driving the pegs, 
and keep two or three hands busy out doors while 
they have a shop full of hands. I have pretty 
much made up my mind, that that old saw about 
“ sticking to the last,” wants a new interpretation. 
If a man only sticks to the last, he may as well 
stick to two or three other things at the same 
time. The sticking to a thing is a matter of a 
good deal more importance than having only one 
thing to stick to. I take it, that brains are given 
to us in order to be used, and that if a man will 
only use them, he can do about as much as he 
wants to. 
Folks especially think that a bookish man can 
not know any thing about practical matters, and 
that a minister is as likely to ride a horse with 
his face toward the tail, as any way. I am afraid 
that such people do not go to meeting as much as 
they ought to, and that they do not know enough 
about how ministers live. If there is any class 
of people that are not in danger of rusting out, 
that have a plenty to do indoors and out, and 
know how to do it in the best way, I am sure 
they’ll be found among the clergy, in this State. 
And it has always been so in this region, from 
t.he first settlement of the country. In the coun¬ 
try parishes, they thought they had not done the 
clean thing by the minister, until they had pro¬ 
vided a small farm for him, and made it a part of 
the settlement. Shrewd men, those first settlers 
m Connecticut were. They knew that a man 
with his wits sharpened in college, would beat 
them all hollow at farming, if they gave them 
any thing like a fair chance. They put them on 
small farms, and small salaries, to keep them 
within bounds, and even then, they generally beat 
their parishoners, and raised the best crops, and 
brought up the likeliest families in their parishes. 
Only two per cent of their children turn out poor¬ 
ly, and if that don’t vindicate their claim to good 
management, and a fair share of common sense, 
then I am mistaken. 
And I guess they hav’nt degenerated much in 
the present day. There is no set of men in the 
State that take anv more interest in farming, and 
raising fruit than the ministers. They take hold 
of the societies, give addresses, and talk about as 
much to the point, as any orators we get on such 
occasions. And this is all orthodox doings out 
here, and I think they preach all the better for 
stirring around among folks, and knowing what 
they are thinking about. They were men before 
they begun to preach, and I take it, there is no 
particular sin in their being men afterwards. At 
any rate they do common mortals a great deal 
more good, for entering into their labors and sym¬ 
pathies. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hooker town, Sept. 4, 1858. 
[A little allowance might be made for Squire 
Bunker’s enthusiastic defense of the clergy, since 
his only daugter, Sally, has just been married to 
one of them, as detailed in our July issue (not seen 
by a multitude of our new readers), but with or 
without this allowance, we think the squire brings 
out about the truth of the matter.— Ed.] 
-**-«-— t*-® f - 
Agricultural Exhibitions should be 
Something More than mere Shows. 
It is a matter of great importance, that our 
agricultural exhibitions should not be mere gala- 
days, for sight-seeing and gossiping. The holiday, 
uses of the occasion are all well enough, but the 
managers of these fairs should bear in mind that 
they have a more sober aim. They will profit 
our husbandry just as they are made to dissemi¬ 
nate the correct principles that underlie our 
farming interests. There needs to be some re¬ 
form in our premium lists, that shall reward the 
principles rather than the facts of husbandry. 
A large crop of corn, one hundred bushels to 
the acre, or more, is a good sight, and worthy of 
reporting. But the statement which involves the 
principles by which such a crop was grown is 
worth much more to the world. That will teach 
other farmers how to raise maximum crops of 
corn, at the least expense. A fat ox is worth go¬ 
ing to see, but what we are most anxious to 
know, is, whether the flesh and fat has been laid 
upon the bones so as to pay expenses. The men 
who make a living by fattening cattle, cannot af¬ 
ford to make playthings of them. Tf our agricul¬ 
tural societies can show that beef can be made 
for eight cents a pound, when it is selling for nine 
and ten, farmers have a rational motive for pro¬ 
ducing beef. The whole details of the process 
will be read with the liveliest interest, and will 
be of direct pecuniary value to the community. 
But if, in the same state of the market, it costs 
eleven and twelve cents a pound to make fat 
beef, who is benefited by the exhibition! The pre¬ 
mium should be offered and paid to the man who 
will best illustrate the principles of producing 
beef economically. 
And so, in all departments of the exhibition, 
the chief attention should be given to the econo¬ 
my of production. We exhibit annually the best 
products of our farms and orchards, our meadows 
and pastures. The multitudes gather from the 
farms and the villages to behold the fine horses 
and cows, the splendid fruits and vegetables, and 
the irreproachable butter and cheese. They 
wonder and admire, and are, doubtless, stimu¬ 
lated to do something better in their husbandry 
but without receiving any detinue information, as 
to the best methods of realizing their wishes. 
They have set before them, in these fain, good 
examples of stock raising, fruit growing, and 
field cultivation, but they get few of the secrets 
of that skill which is everywhere visible. To 
multitudes, these fine fruits and products are as 
great a mystery as if they were the result of 
legerdemain. Neither themselves nor their 
neighbors ever secured such results, and they do 
not understand the philosophy of a hundred bush¬ 
els of corn to the acre, or of Duchesse pears 
weighing a pound and a-half a-piece. The fair 
does not give to them a single new principle, nor 
suggest to them a better method of cultivating a 
single crop. 
The time has come, we think, when agricultural 
societies, while they pay no less attention to things , 
should pay far more attention to principles. It 
should be a leading aim with the managers of 
these institutions, to instruct the communities in 
which they are located, in the principles of hus¬ 
bandry. 
The addresses, the reports, and the statements 
of exhibitors, where these are required, need to be 
more carefully prepared. Too often the address 
is from a gentleman, eminent only in political life, 
and as ignorant of farming, or any other indus¬ 
trial pursuit, as he is of Sanscrit. The best oc¬ 
casion in the whole year, with its audience of 
thousands, and its glowing inspiration, is abso¬ 
lutely thrown away. The reports are often made 
up by a fourth-rate lawyer, whose chief qualifi¬ 
cation for the office is, that he has little business 
ot his own to attend to. The statements, if 
made by practical men, are often defective in es¬ 
sential details, so that they are no guide to in¬ 
quirers after the principles of husbandry. 
We call for a reform in the management of 
societies, so that the whole exhibition shall be 
a contribution to the science of agriculture. We 
want to understand the experience and the prac¬ 
tical skill that has produced the crops, much more 
than to see the results of this skill. 
Trusting to a Single Crop. 
There is no crop that does not tail sometimes, 
though there are a few which are never wholly 
cut off in any one season. Grass, for example, 
always yields a partial crop, and a person may, 
if need be, depend wholly upon this product as a 
means of subsistence. The same thing, howev¬ 
er, can hardly be said of any other staple crop. 
Innumerable illustrations might be given of the 
danger of depending upon a single crop. The re¬ 
sult in Ireland of relying upon the potato crop is 
patent. The failure of the wheat crop, in many 
parts of this country, has involved thousands of 
farmers in debt, which it will take year’s of toil 
and economy to liquidate. A friend at the West 
had been so successful in raising peaches that 
he turned his whole attention to that crop. Last 
year he realized a large net profit, and looking for 
still greater results this year, he laid out his plans 
accordingly, and incurred considerable debts to be 
paid from the proceeds of his peaches. The re¬ 
sult is, that from five or six thousand trees he 
gathers scarcely two bushels of marketable 
fruit. 
A mixed cultivation is the safest, in the long 
run. If the potato crop fails, let there be corn, 
wheat, barley, or other grain to fall back upon. 
The chances of utter failure are diminished a 
thousand fold, where there are three or lour dif¬ 
ferent crops under culture. A season destruct¬ 
ive to one is likely to be just the thing for an¬ 
other. 
