■August, 1859 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
249 
The Editor with his Young; Readers. 
A LESSON IN GEOGRAPHY. 
“ First Class in Geography may stand up before the Map." 
(This class includes every boy ancl girl that reads the 
Agriculturist). Well,. scholars, you have doubtless all 
got your lessons to-day, and now if you will all stand 
where you can see the map hanging, on the side of the 
room, theie and keep your eyes on it, we’ll excuse 
you from reciting to-day, and give you a lecture. We 
have been at a great deal, of expense to get up this 
large map, after a little different pattern from any you 
may have seen. It is a bird's-eye view of a large section 
of country in the northern part of Italy. 
“ What do we mean by a ‘ bird’s-eye view V" 
Why just what the word says. It’s such a view' of 
the country as you would have if you were birds flying, 
or were in a balloon, very high in the air, up over the 
Mediterranean Sea, a little south of Genoa. We want 
you all to go now and get your own geographies, and 
open to the map of Italy or to the map of Europe.... 
Now each of you keep one eye closely on your own map, 
and the other on this bird’s-eye map before you, and 
imagine one eye to be the bird’s. On your map you see, 
in the south of Europe, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the 
Kingdom of Lombardy and Venice. On the south or 
southwest, you see the Gulf of Genoa, which is a part of 
the Mediterranean Sea. On the east or southeast is the 
northern end of the Gulf of Venice, or Adriatic Sea. You 
also notice on the north and West of Lombardy and Sar¬ 
dinia, the great chain of high mountains called the Alps. 
On the south you see the Apennine mountains, which 
run around above Genoa, and down into Italy. 
Now use your bird’s-eye, and you will see the same 
things on our map. You observe Sardinia on the west or 
left, and Lombardy and Venice on the right or east. You 
see the Alps in the top or north, running away up by 
Switzerland on the northwest and Austria on the north¬ 
east. You see in the centre of the map a broad plain, 
with many smaller elevations of ground, and valleys; 
also, rivers running here and there (keep your eyes on 
both maps—yours and eurs). You see the Ticino river, 
which comes down between Sardinia and Lombardy. 
The Ticino river starts from Lake Maggiore, near the 
Alps, and empties into the noted river Po, which runs 
from Sardinia away eastward, along the southern bound¬ 
ary of Lombardy, and empties into the Gulf of Venice. 
There are other rivers running from the north into the 
Po, (we had not room to put their names on the map, and 
moreover, a bird’s-eye could not take in so large a coun¬ 
try at once, and see all its points distinctly.) You must 
look out some of these rivers carefully. 
East of Lake Maggiore you see Lake Como, from 
which the river Adda runs down on the east side of 
Milan, and passing by Lodi, empties into the Po. (Do 
. you remember reading of the great battle of Napoleon I. 
at the bridge of Lodi ?) 
About 75 miles southeast of Lake Como, you see the 
Lake Garda (the engraver of our map has wrongly made 
it read Carda). From the foot of this lake, beginning at 
the town of Peschiera, the river Mincio runs nearly south, 
passing the town of Castiglione, and also empties into 
the Po. (On this river was fought that great battle on the 
24th of June last—the most terrible battle since any of us 
were born. It was named from the little town of Solferi- 
no, which is four or five miles east of Castiglione.) 
But let us look at our bird's-eye map as a whole. We 
see the names of many towns and countries. These 
countries resemble the counties in our own States. 
The Kingdom of Sardinia is not quite as large as the 
State of Maine. Sardinia has 28,830 square miles, and 
Maine 30,000. 
Lombarby and Venice, together, cover 17,511 square 
miles, which is a little less than the surface of Massachu¬ 
setts and Vermont taken together. 
Sardinia has 4,916,000 inhabitants, Lombardy and 
Venice have 5,007,472. 
The whole country shown by our map, that is, Sardinia, 
Lombardy and Venice, covers about 46,000 square miles, 
(just the size of New-York State,), and has a total popu¬ 
lation of nearly ten millions, or more than one-third as 
many as the whole United States. 
Now we will leave this map hanging before you a whole 
month, and we want you to study it carefully along with 
your own maps. Look at its mountains and rivers, its 
cities, towns, railroads, etc. Find on this and your own 
maps, Turin, Genoa, Milan, Venice, Verona, Mt. Cenis 
Pass through the Alps, Novarra, Magenta, Buffalora, 
Castiglione, Mantua, Peschiera, Vincenza, Padua, etc., 
etc., together with the different rivers on your own maps. 
All these places will help you to a knowledge of this im¬ 
portant county, which, is now the scene of a great war. 
You will read in your other papers much about this war, 
and we are very anxious that all our boys and. girls 
should learn something definite about it how while it is 
going on, and for this reason we have introduced the sub¬ 
let here, to the exclusion of other matter which might 
I please playful children more, and perhaps suit the notions 
of some older people better. But, children, by and bv, you 
will grow up, and as you grow, and afterwards, you will 
read in school books and histories long accounts of the 
transactions now going on in Europe—just as we read of 
the wars of.the old Napoleon, who was finally conquered 
and taken to St. Helena. We read with great interest— 
with terror, even—of the bloody battles of Waterloo, of 
Moscow-, of Lodi, of Marengo, of Prague, etc. These 
seem like something that could only happen way back in 
the past, and not in our day. But just such events are 
now transpiring—yes, this very Summer, while we are 
quietly tilling our fields, a new series of great battles are 
being fought. Men are now making history which will be 
read with the greatest interest when the youngest of our 
readers shall have grown gray-headed. 
These events—these battles—are terrible to think of, 
even. There are more than half a million of men, who 
have wives and children, and other friends, far away at 
home, but they are here on the ground shown by this 
map, one-half arrayed against the other half, each trying 
to kill the other with cannon balls, rifle balls, bayonets, 
swords, and evety possible instrument with which they 
can cut and tear each other’s bodies. A friend of ours, 
who has gone to Italy to look on, writes that on the 
day of the recent great battle of Solferino, he saw a 
steady stream of wagons and mules, from early in 
the morning, all day and all night, coming into one single 
town, loaded with men, still alive, but torn by balls and 
bayonets, and cut by swords and sabres, in every conceiv¬ 
able manner. And-these were only a part of the wounded 
of one of the contending armies,to say nothing of those 
killed outright at first. Such is the war going on while 
we are reading this page—such will be future wars. We 
hope none of our young readers will grow up with a war 
spirit, and be found among those who will be ready on 
the slightest pretext to involve our own country in war. 
How many of us, as we have read of the wars of the past, 
have thought that such great battles could henceforth be 
known only in past history ; but here they are occurring 
in our day, and we can scarcely hope for their cessation 
until that time shall come when the principles of the 
Christian religion shall rule in every heart—until men 
shall love, as well as learn, to obey the Golden rule. 
Then the nations will beat their swords into plow-shares, 
and their spears into pruning hooks, and learn war no 
more. 
But we must not leave this subject until we give you a 
few more general hints about the present war, and who 
are engaged in it. Please turn to your maps of Europe. 
You see France on the West, and Austria on the East, 
and you see that Sardinia, and Lombardy and Venice 
lie between them. France and Austria have been at war 
frequently before, as they now are, and their armies have 
usually met on this middle ground, the country represent¬ 
ed on our bird’s-eye map. You will find here the names 
of towns where have been fought very many of the 
bloodiest battles recorded in history. The plains and 
valleys you see, are among the most beautiful agricul¬ 
tural regions in the world—almost like gardens. But 
how many millions of men have fallen to fertilize the 
earth with their flesh and blood. 
NOTES ON THE PRESENT WAR. 
Sardinia is a kingdom of itself. Its present King is 
Victor Emanuel. Lombardy and Venice are not entirely 
independent kingdoms, but are partially under the rule 
of Austria. The present war happened in this wise. 
(We cannot go into full particulars). The great king¬ 
doms of Europe—England, France, Austria, Russia, and 
Prussia, are jealous of each other; each is afraid that 
the others may get too much power, influence, and ter¬ 
ritory. At the same time, each one is trying to get all 
the power it can for itself. The smaller kingdoms they 
try to acquire for themselves or to keep the others from 
gaining them. Not long since England and France 
were fighting for Turkey, against Russia, because they 
thought Russia was getting too much power in Turkey. 
Austria has been gaining increasing power and influ¬ 
ence in the different States of Italy. France could not 
endure this, and the Emperor Napoleon II[., (Louis Na¬ 
poleon,) warned Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, 
that if certain demands made upon Sardinia were pressed, 
France would take sides with Sardinia, and try to drive 
Austria out from Italy altogether. France tried to get 
England and Russia to join her, but either from jealousy 
of France, or because they did not consider Austria so 
great a trespasser, or from some other motives of policy, 
they refused to join with France. 
Austria continued to press her demands upon Sardinia, 
(we will not stop to discuss the justice or injustice of 
these demands,) and a large Austrian army was sent as 
far as the Ticino .river—the eastern boundary of Sardinia 
—and here, it was met by the united armies of France 
and Sardinia, who are called “ Allies,” in the accounts 
of the war. The Allied army (French and Sardinian,) 
ha3 been successful against the Austrians so fai, beating 
them in several successive great batties, of which wo 
have read this Summer. 
The Austrians are now driven a hundred and fifty 
miles east of the river Ticino, to the river Mincio. As 
referred to above, the last great battle was on the Mincio, 
June 24. The Allied army was then victorious over the 
Austrians, and at last accounts the Austrians w ere pre¬ 
paring to defend the great fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua 
and Verona. What will be the next news we know not. 
You may get further reports in the daily or weeklyjour- 
nals by the time this reaches you. Keep this map before 
you with your own school geography, and we think you 
can follow the future course of the war, after what w'e 
have told you. It is not our design to publish further war 
news—we only desire to give you a little aid in trying to 
read of the events now transpiring. You will understand 
that the hostile armies are now northwest of the Gulf of 
Venice, in the vicinity of Verona. You will need also to 
keep watch of the movements of the large French fleet 
which is reported to be in the Gulf of Venice, apparently 
with the design of landing soldiers behind, or east of the 
Austrian army. 
You will also bear in mind that Prussia and other Ger¬ 
man States naturally sympathize somewhat with their sis¬ 
ter Austria, and have some sore remembrance's treasured 
up against France, and reports are frequent that Prussia 
especially, will come to the aid of Austria ere long. But 
England and Russia are also watching the course of 
events, and they, too, are jealous of the success of France, 
but they wish to avoid war, and are rather dfesirous that 
it should be confined to France and Austria. If the in¬ 
fluence of England and Russia keeps Prussia from joining 
Austria, the war may soon close. Louis Napoleon has 
declared that he is only fighting in behalf of Sardinia. If 
he keeps his promises, and does not try to increase the 
power and influence of France in Italy, the result of the 
war may be beneficial, on the whole, to Italv. The 
latest reports are, that England, Russia, and Prussia, are 
offering their mediation between France and Austria, and 
hope to bring about a speedy peace. But they are all in¬ 
creasing their armies and navies, and we may soon see 
all the great Powers in conflict, involving the smaller 
States and Kingdoms. The wisest heads are puzzled to 
conjecture what course the impending struggle will take, 
and what will be the result. 
With this outline, we now leave you to follow not 
only the track of the contending armies, but also the 
course of the leading nations of Europe, hoping you will 
study carefully the present as well as the past history of 
both our own and other countries, and that when you 
grow up to become acting men and women on the stage 
of the world’s history, you may be intelligent observers 
as well as actors. 
PRONOUNCING THE WAR NAMES. • 
Many of our young friends who read the war news from 
Europe, are probably bothered, as we have been to 
pronounce the names of the different places and persons 
mentioned. To help them and ourselves in this matter, 
we have prepared the following table of some of the more 
common names. The figures, (I), (2),’(j), or (4)," show 
whether, the' first, second, third or fourth syllable in the 
word is to be accented : 
.Written. , Pronounced. 
Occimiuno. .Ot-che‘-me-ali-no,-t 
Pallanza...Pal-lan-za.2 
Written. Pronounced. 
Alessandria.. .A-les-san-drea,3 
Baltea.Bal-tay-a',2 
Bereguardo_Ba ra-gwar-do,3 
Buffalora.Boof-fa-lo-ra,3 
Canrobert. Caun-ro bair,3 
Casale.Ca-sah-la.2 
Cas’iglione_Cas-t.eel-yo-'na,3 
Cenis.; .Seli-nee,2 
Comal e.Cor-nah-la ,2 
Frassinetto... .Fras-se-iiet-to.3 
Genoa.Gen-o-a,l 
Gyulai.Joo-li.l 
Lago.Lah-go,I 
Legnago.Layn-yah-go ,2 
Lodi.Lo-de,l 
Magenta.Mah-gen-ta ,2 
Maggiore.Mad-jo-ra,2 
Malegnano. .Mah-len-yah-no.3 
Milan.t.Me-lan,2 
Mincio.Min-c)ie-o,l 
Mortara_,.Mor-tali-ra,2 
Novara.. .No-vali-ra,2 
Novi...:.No-vee,2 
Pavia..Pa-vee-a,2 
Peschiera .......Pa-skela-rah,3 
Ponte Curone, : . .Pon-ta.l 
Coo-ro-ria.2 
Robbio’:.....Rob-be-o,l 
Romagnano.. .Ro-man yah-no.3 
San Giorgo.San .Tor-jo.2 
Santhia.San-te-a.l 
Sesia.Se-Se a.l 
Solferino..‘.Sol-fa-ree-nb,3 
Stroppiana_Strop-pe-ah- na 3 
Suzia. Soo-sa,l 
Ticino... .Te-chce-ho.2 
Torino..-.To-ree-no,2 
Tortona..Tgr-lo-na.2 
Valenza.V nh-len-zn h .2 
Vercelli..Vert-ohel-lee,2 
Verona.Va-ro-na.2 
Vigevano.'.Ve-jay-va-no.3 
Vincenza:....: .Veen-chcn-za,2 
Voghera.V o-gay-ra,2 
Somebody Else iai the Editor’s Chair. 
Being very busy putting up a new fence, and making 
sundry other improvements on that new place, we' were 
called 'avvay in the afternoon, just after finishing the 
above lesson in Geography, and so we invited one 
of our Associates into the sanctum and surrendered 
to'him the arm chair, saying, “there, now, sit.down and 
have a chat with oUr Agriculturist boys and girls.” He 
wanted.to knowiwhat to talk about. Oh, “anything,’ 
“ anything,” was the reply. “ Talk about the birds and 
