’ ■ *2- •> ■ ■ ’ t* 
/ CULTURE> H i 
EXCELSIOR 
#.t.GO PER YEAR. 
Single Yo.. Eight Cents. 
j 41 Pnrlt Row, New York 
7 I HS HuITalo St., Rochester. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JAN. 9, 1869 
Ksteryti, nrcordinp t-i Act of Cr»Tifftt»aA, in the year IStkS, by D. D. 
T. Moore, Hi the Cleric*4 OfRce of the District Court of the 
United States for the Southern District of New York. 
PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT 
RURAL HOME DECORATION 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL. LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
D * !D ■ 7. 2VT O O R 73, 
Ooilcluetiiiji Editor and Proprietor 
CHAS. D. BRAGDON, G. F. WILCOX. A. A. HOPKINS. 
associate Editors. 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Editor or thu Dur-xcr.uAT or Shkep Hcsbandry. 
• X. A. WILLARD, 
ypimr. oftiik pri'inTMTTT or Dairy Husbandby. 
DANIEL LEE M. D., 
Or TrxNersarK, Sorrur.RN CoBBKsrosmsH Editor, 
Spccinl Contributors i 
T. O. PETERS, 
CHAS. V. ItlLEY, 
E. W. STEWART, 
JAMES VICK, 
J. WILKINSON, 
MRS. E. K. El,LETT, 
MARY A. E. WAGER 
P. BARRY, 
H. T. BROOKS, 
.J. R. DODGE, 
E. II. ELLIOTT, 
J. It. GRISCOM, M. D, 
J. STANTON GOULD, 
“ NOW AND THEN,” 
This .Ioprnal Is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value. Purity and Variety of Contents. Its Conduct¬ 
ors earnestly labor to render It. Reliable AUthorltyon 
the Important Practical and Sclentlllo Subjects con¬ 
nected with the business of those, whose interests it 
advocates. The aim Is to make It eminently Instruct¬ 
ive, Usefulnnd Bninrt.itn Ingas a Family Journal, 
hy adapdug It to the wants and tastes of all people 
ot Intelligence und reflnetnent. It embraces more 
Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Rdupational, 
Literary, News and Commercial Matter, with appro¬ 
priate Illustrations, than any other journal,— render¬ 
ing it hy far the must comnleto UritAi,, LITERARY, 
Family and Bcsi.vess Newspaper in the World. 
VTETW OF' LAWN 
solved. A precarious mode of living demor¬ 
alizes and dwarfs ail the faculties, moral and 
physical. So long as we indulge in eating 
every day, and think it necessary to 
clothe ourselves, farming will remain the 
center and substance, the bottom and bulk 
of our earthly doings—it holds the fountains 
of human life. Improved agriculture does 
not follow improved society; improved so¬ 
ciety follows improved agriculture. First 
the breakfast, then philosophy and the moral 
lesson. 
He is a miserable bungler who begins with 
abstractions. Science is simply the process 
of growing corn and spinning wool; religion 
tells us what to do with the coni and the 
wool. Pursuing the great business of getting 
a living, we have stumbled upon some of the 
principles or laws that underlie it, and that 
is all the “ science ” worth speaking of. 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, partners 
in business, have furnished the, occasion and 
the incentives to discipline and discovery. 
When improved implements, and labor-sav¬ 
ing machinery enabled fanners to raise 
better crops with less labor, then there was 
time and opportunity for elegance, luxury, 
education and refinement.—then it was that 
neat or stately mansions succeeded the rude 
cabin, and boorish manners were softened 
and refined. This brings us to this year of 
grace 1869 ! What’s in The Future ? 
The tanner of lorty years ago ate plain 
food, traveled on foot, on horseback, or in 
a hard, open vehicle, wearing “hotuc-made, ’ 
rudely fashioned with strong seams, and 
well fastened buttons; his son to-day rides 
on clip tic springs with a soft cushion under¬ 
neath, and an elegant cover overhead; dot hod 
in garments modeled by an accomplished ar¬ 
tist.— the father was patient under his heavy 
tasks, the son is looking for a still easier way 
ol getting a living. This change, so great, 
so sudden, and so sadly looked upon by the 
patriarchs of our Agricultural Israel, took 
place just when the Herculean labors of 
clearing up and fitting the new farms had 
been accomplished, and mowers, reapers, 
threshing machines, and horse lioes came in 
to shorten and lighten the labors of the farm 
and augment production. 
If farm labor is lightened as much during 
the next forty years as in the past, farmers 
will be the gayest people among all the 
tribes; and if improvement goes on indefi¬ 
nitely they will ride leisurely and luxuriously 
over their fields, putting neither their hands 
nor their feet to vulgar work, gathering rich 
harvest: by steeds and steam. It is more ab¬ 
surd to suppose that “ improvement” will stop 
where it is than to suppose that it will dismiss 
judge as to whether an article would be 
worthy of a patent? 1 have known people 
to claim old and well known fruits as seed¬ 
lings. I have known instances, I might say 
by thousands, of people supposing they had 
produced or discovered a valuable fruit, 
when, in fact, it was utterly worthless. 
All such persons would of course flock to 
the Patent-office to become the owner of a 
patented novelty; and probably, in most in¬ 
stances, more money would he expended in 
procuring the patent than the production 
would be worth. 
In my opinion the influence of a patent law 
of this kind would be to retard the dissemi¬ 
nation of new things, and in this way be a 
positive damage to the country. As it is 
now, if a new potato, for example, of great 
or supposed great value, is produced, the 
originator either propagates it largely at once, 
or transfers it to others who do. Look at 
the Early Rose potato, the new grape, &c., 
Ac. If they had been patented, the owners 
would have wasted their time selling patent 
rights, and their agents would have eaten up 
all the profits. 
For these and many other reasons 1 am in 
favor of letting this matter regulate itself, as 
it. does at present. We are making great 
progress, and we must not allow it to be 
hampered or checked by pernicious re¬ 
strictions. 
labor, and retain only recreation. Whatever 
else is doubtful, progress is a certainty. 
What will the future reveal ? We are all 
anxious to know in what shape the “coming 
farmer," will come! Looking through I he 
misty centuries do we see him in a skeleton 
buggy, with a fast horse, a cigar in one 
corner of his mouth, a diamond pin, and a 
drink at each end of the route ? Does he 
keep servants? Would lie accept office if 
persistently “ brought forward ” by admiring 
friends? Is he troubled with the dyspepsia, 
and does he cat brown bread? Does he 
complain ot his school tax ? Does la* bor¬ 
row his neighbor’s half-lmshel? Does he 
invariably return it ? Arc his gates always 
in order? Will he take his wife along when 
he don't go strictly on business, and some¬ 
times when he does? Will lie always let 
his wife have a horse to go to the sewing 
society, and habitually speak well of that 
charitable institution, eyon though buttons 
are missing from his own shirts? Is he 
fond of heavy bread, occasionally? Does 
he think as much ol' his kitchen garden as 
his com field? Does he cultivate the Doo¬ 
little raspberry extensively, plant pears as 
often as the blight kills the trees, and never 
come to the conclusion that strawberries 
cost more than they come to ? Are all his 
animals thorough-bred ? Has he improved 
his Suffolk pigs till they will grow fat on the 
water that lias leeched through a corn field? 
Does he come into his supper at five o’clock 
and leave his dirty boots at the back door? 
Will he quit “ selling out,” stick his stakes 
for life, beautify and adorn the homestead, 
so that his daughter must have an extra 
good offer of marriage before she will con¬ 
sent to change either her name or her abode; 
and his son will be glad to spend his days 
amkl the associations that cluster round tiie 
spot hallowed and improved by a long line 
of ancestors ? 
The Coming Farmer will be as ready to 
buy an addition to his library, as an addition 
to l»Ls farm. He will value social pleasures, 
domestic comfort, moral and intellectual cul¬ 
ture, higher than money at interest. Sys¬ 
tematic and moderate labor will strengthen 
and develop his body and his mind, and lie will 
leave off, and 1m irife will (cave off, those un¬ 
timely and unreasonable toils that, forbid 
mental and moral culture, inflict rheumatic 
pains, and premature death. 
Trades and professions supported by vice 
and folly will vanish out of sight; fanning 
belongs to the Millenium ; whatever exalts 
human nature will improve agriculture. 
The Coming Farmer will be the Model Man! 
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Jjn'trnstrial 
AGRICULTURAL PATENTS, 
THE COMING FARMER. 
