AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
121 
wells, and information respecting the cost 
of such wells. 
Spring Wheat. —It is not too late still to 
sow spring wheat. Mr. George Sheffer, of 
Scottsville, in the Rural New-Yorker, says 
he has sowed as late as the 15th of May and 
obtained first-rate crops. Great care should 
be taken to cover it well. One and a half 
bushels of seed per acre will do for the best 
soil, but for any other, two bushels are re¬ 
quisite. 
Stock for Sale. —We call attention to Mr. 
Morris’s sale of stock advertised in this num¬ 
ber of our paper; also to his catalogue, which 
can be had by addressing him on the subject. 
This catalogue comprises 97 pages, and is 
beautifully got up, and illustrated with por¬ 
traits of his Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and 
Swine, together with a brief history and 
pedigrees of the same. It is well worthy 
the attention of breeders. 
BOOK NOTICES. 
PRACTICAL LANDSCAPE GARDENING, with re¬ 
ference to the improvement of Rural Residences, &c. 
By G. M. Kem, Cincinnati. For sale by C. M. Sax¬ 
ton & Co., New-York. 
Here is a handsome book, beautifully 
printed, on good paper, containing 328 pages 
—illustrated with designs and engravings. 
Originating at Cincinnati; in the midst of a 
territory no where excelled east of the Rocky 
mountains by the grandeur and variety of its 
vegetation, and with an amenity of surface 
giving the fullest play to art and skill in 
adorning it with the happiest illustrations of 
luxuriant landscape; this work is a welcome 
contribution to the growing taste and study 
of our people in that delightful department 
of rural life. America has been sadly defi¬ 
cient in national treatises of the kind.— 
Downing gave us an elaborate work some 
years ago of much value. He was perhaps 
too refined and ornate for the mass of im¬ 
provers, and studied chiefly the ambitious 
and expensive styles of decoration. Two 
years since, appeared a reprint of an excel¬ 
lent work on “ Landscape Gardening,” by a 
Scotchman, named Smith—the most direct 
and sensible thing of the kind we have seen 
—published by C. M Saxton, of this city, 
with notes and additions adapting it to Amer¬ 
ican use, by Lewis F. Allen ; a much cheap¬ 
er work than Downing’s, and better calcu¬ 
lated for the mass of men who desire to fit 
up their places in a not expensive yet agree¬ 
able way, than the other. This book of Mr. 
Kern’s is the third of the kind introduced to 
our notice. 
Mr. Kern, if not a foreigner himself, is a 
student of foreign authors and professors, 
and gives us, in his piquant quotations and 
allusions, parts of their principles and prac¬ 
tice. But he has, sensibly, avoided many of 
their absurdities in making the “art” of 
landscape gardening so “ artistic ” as to 
drive the honest improver out of all heart in 
his comparatively humble efforts to beautify 
and adorn his grounds, by the intricacy and 
experience which their practice would have 
involved in it. With a true love to nature, 
and an experience in an American climate, 
the suggestions which may be derived from 
this book, can not but be important to the 
mass of improvers: 
Every man of elevated mind who dwells 
in the country, whether he be born and has 
spent his life there or has but newly retired 
into country life, wishes to beautify his resi¬ 
dence by drawing about him the most desir¬ 
able natural productions which his position, 
soil and climate will admit. If he possess 
good natural taste, the study of nature itself 
will suggest the main points for his proce¬ 
dure, in which a study of appropriate au¬ 
thors will greatly assist him. Without some 
natural taste, or, in the absence of acquired 
taste in the right line, he is open to the char¬ 
latanry of sundry “ professors ” of landscape 
gardening; who clean out his purse and 
leave but a tissue of absurdities behind them, 
over which he can mourn at his leisure, 
while those who really know better can but 
commiserate his folly. Hence, it is of the 
highest consequence that our teachers, in 
whatever appertains to rural embellishment, 
should not only be well versed in their sub¬ 
jects, but honest in their application. 
In the brief perusal which we have been 
able to give of the work before us, although 
we see nothing strikingly original , good 
sense and truthful feeling predominates. As 
our author has diversified his work with 
landscape gardening, orchards, the cultiva¬ 
tion of pleasure-grounds in flowers, the 
farm, the vegetable garden, &c., each one of 
his subjects is necessarily condensed into 
brief compass, suggestive rather than de¬ 
scriptive, yet sufficiently so to induct the 
learner into a sound direction of his most 
important labors. 
After all, nature must be the chief author 
which they who aspire to the full knowledge 
of landscape gardening should study. The 
hand of the Almighty, in the various parts 
of our broad country, had planted its trees, 
spread out its plains, opened its prairies, and 
lighted up its waters ; erected its mountains, 
molded its hills, and depressed its vallies, 
with a grace, a beauty, a grandeur, and a 
softness, which only to see and properly 
appreciate, is to admire, and to love. None 
but one who sees them in the spirit of then- 
perfection can induct another into the art of 
applying their treasures to his own immedi¬ 
ate use. To do this rightly is an art achieved 
by but few, and to every one who contributes 
in even the humblest way to such a result, is 
a benefactor. Such, beyond doubt, is the 
aim of Mr. Kern in the work which he has so 
attractively put forth, and we welcome his 
book in the liberal spirit that we meet those 
who make the beautifying of the earth, and 
the happiness of mankind, the object of their 
labors and regard. 
Decidedly a Fact. —One of our New-York 
exchanges has the following : 
“ It is a singular fact that it takes more 
time to write a letter of one page than an 
epistle of three or four ; but it is neverthe¬ 
less true. It is no paradox, but an established 
fact, that it is easier to write an article half 
a column in length, than a well digested par¬ 
agraph of a dozen lines. The reason some 
ministers are so long-winded is because they 
lack concentrativeness, and are compelled 
to make verbosity atone for the paucity of 
idea. The same rule applies to books. It 
is more labor to condense one book than to 
write a dozen. Any one disposed to doubt 
this may satisfy himself by a very little ob¬ 
servation.” 
Correspondence of the American Agriculturist. 
LETTERS FROM MR. PAGE-No. II. 
Columbus, Ohio, April, 1855. 
The Society of Believers commonly called 
Shakers, at Union Village, have in their 
estate about 3,000 acres of choice land, well 
calculated either for grain or stock. They 
are divided, for convenience, into four fam¬ 
ilies. I called first upon Peter Boyd, at the 
Village, and withhimlooked overtheir stock. 
The Society last season imported five or six 
cows and heifers and four bulls. I was 
much pleased with a three-year old heifer, 
white, named Marchioness ; and also a roan, 
whose name I do not remember. Two of 
these cows have produced calves, got in 
England, which are very promising. One 
of these—a white bull got by Capt. Balco, a 
son of Balco (9918)—was very even in his 
points generally, with an extra flank. 1 also 
saw fifteen or twenty calves of their own 
breeding which look well—not fat—but in 
first-rate growing condition. They have a 
good flock of coarse-wool sheep ; no swine ; 
but all the different varieties of Asiatic fowls, 
good specimens of their sort, all with legs 
long enough and big enough to support—all 
their weight. I never knew but one Shang¬ 
hai man that took the right ground as to the 
merits of this breed—he brags on a cock that 
stands seventeen inches from the floor to his 
body. 
At the north family I saw some choice 
specimens of what the Ohio breeders term 
“ full bloods ” ; that is, thoroughbred cattle 
of which no record has been kept. Here I 
saw a very fine, large imported cow, Marga¬ 
ret, much too fat to breed well. She was 
the first breeding cow on which I ever put 
my hand, that had lost her ribs—they were 
not to be found. 
So far as I could see or learn, the Society 
are genuine democrats ; every man has his 
calling—every one waits on himself. They 
are carrying on many kinds of manufactures 
in addition to farming ; also, raise seeds, 
herbs, &c. Indeed they are a world by 
themselves. They raise calves—eat their 
heef—tan their hides, and then wear out the 
boots made from the leather. Sheep also, 
on their farm, go through all the processes 
to which they and their produce are liable. 
Somewhat particular are these folks in 
many things—as, for instance, they don’t 
allow “ outsiders ” to come to their common 
table ; so Mr. Corwin and the writer dined 
by ourselves. This is a great country for 
good dinners, yet it is not often that you will 
have better opportunities for comforting the 
inner man, than in the hall of the United So¬ 
ciety of Believers. 
The south family had their cow-stables 
burned last winter. They lost their entire 
herd, save the imported bull Crusader, owned 
in partnership with Mr. R. G. Corwin. This 
is a very stylish bull, white, good size, car¬ 
ries his head high, and is a good walker; 
