1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
275 
of our country, and it will tell, too, upon its future 
prosperity, that we now have individuals scattered along 
in the agricultural profession, who fully answer this 
description. 
Among these, we may regard our lamented friend, 
Mr. Phinney, as an eminent example. Fitted for the 
highest walks of civilized life, he yet found ample 
scope for the successful employment of his talents and 
acquirements, in the peaceful and noiseless pursuits of 
agriculture. And so it ought to be. It is of the first 
importance to successful farming on the part of the in¬ 
dividual, and, hence, to a prosperous agriculture, with 
its long train of attendant blessings, on the part of the 
State, that our farmers, generally, should be men of 
thought and observation,—men of mental culture. The 
farmer has to do with the great and mysterious opera¬ 
tions and principles of nature; all his various steps or 
processes of cultivation, are closely connected with 
those principles, and his success, in a high sense, is ab¬ 
solutely dependant upon a knowledge and close obser¬ 
vation of them. He finds, that in the cultivation of 
the earth, there are undiscovered principles enough, to 
engage the utmost efforts of Science to develope, mys¬ 
teries enough, to task the most highly cultivated, the 
most specially endowed mind to unravel. 
11 The scenes of nature lie open to our view; they 
solicit our senses, and are adapted to impress themselves 
in a most lively manner upon our minds. Still, the 
mysteries of nature, with regard to the essences of 
things, and indeed to a multitude of subtle operations, 
are kept in a kind of sacred reserve, and elude the ut¬ 
most efforts of philosophy to surprise them in their con¬ 
cealments and bring them to light. While Science goes 
on from step to step, in the march of her discoveries, 
it seems as if her grandest result was the conviction 
how much remains undiscovered; and while nations in a 
ruder state of science have been ready to repose on 
their ignorance and error, or to confound familiarity 
with knowledge, the most enlightened of men have al¬ 
ways been the first to perceive and acknowledge the 
remaining obscurity which hung around them; just as, 
in the night, the further a light extends, the wider the 
surrounding sphere of darkness appears. Those that 
have devoted themselves to an investigation of the laws 
of nature, find, in a great variety of the most common 
productions, sufficient to engage their inquiries and em¬ 
ploy their faculties: they perceive that the meanest 
work of God is inexhaustible;—contains secrets which 
the wisdom of man has not been able to penetrate. 
They are only some of the superficial appearances and 
sensible properties with which we are familiar. Sub¬ 
stances and essences we cannot reach. The secret laws 
which regulate the operations of nature, w r e cannot un¬ 
veil. Thus, one of the best effects of intellectual cultiva- 
tivation, and the acquisition of knowledge, is to restore 
the mind to that stale of natural simplicity and sur¬ 
prise in which everything above, beneath, and around 
us, appears replete with mystery, and excites those 
emotions of freshness and astonishment, with which the 
scenes of nature are contemplated during the season of 
childhood.”* 
In the year 1837, Mr. Phinney w r as chosen one of 
the Trustees of the ‘ Massachusetts Society for Promo¬ 
ting Agriculture.’ This office he held till the time of 
his death. The various masterly reports of this Socie¬ 
ty. during this time, were from Mr. Phinney’s pen; and 
it is but fair to presume that the susrgestions put forth 
by him in this capacity, have had much to do in mould¬ 
ing and perfecting the improved modes of culture, now 
so common in the State. Among other things, it may 
be stated that the present improved form and light 
draught of the subsoil plow, as compared with the hea¬ 
vy, cumbrous implements of the kind that w r ere first in¬ 
troduced among us from Europe, may be attributed to 
the investigations and suggestions of Mr. Phinney. 
His mind was always open to improvements. Although, 
as before seated, his large and important operations 
w r ere entered upon and conducted w r ith a strict regard 
to practical utility and profit, yet, so great was his 
love for Science, in its application to Agriculture, that 
he w r ould try, upon a small scale, any experiment, sug¬ 
gested from a respectable source, which seemed to lean 
towards the development of important principles. 
But our friend has set sail upon that vast ocean to 
the shore of w T hich we, too, are so rapidly tending. 
His long life, so closely compacted w r ith usefulness to 
the community, was closed, by a short and severe in¬ 
flammatory illness, at his residence in Lexington, on the 
24th of July last. He had attained his seventieth 
year, without ever before experiencing any severe sick¬ 
ness. The amiable and interesting family have met 
with a loss that can never be repaired; but wffiile sor¬ 
rowing over their bereavement, may a reflection upon 
his kind and fatherly deportment w r hile among them, 
the high and noble deeds of his life, and the important 
influences which they are calculated to impart to Socie¬ 
ty, cheer them in their path of life, and, like him, may 
they fulfil the course allotted to them by like deeds of 
beneficence. 
The public generally, and the agricultural communi¬ 
ty particularly, have also experienced a great loss, in 
the death of one so distinguished for the busy occupa¬ 
tion of both pen and hand, in every v r ay that, could pro¬ 
mote the interests of society. Though dead, yet does 
our friend, by his illustrious example, emphatically re¬ 
mind us to be up and doing, u while it is called to-day;” 
to seek the enlightenment, and elevation of our fellow's, 
in distinction from a total engrossment, in merely selfish 
and paltry pursuits. 
“ So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death. 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams ” 
Brattleboro ’, Vt., August 15, 1849. F. Holbrook. 
®lje feferinart} SDqmrtmmt 
Inflammatory Fever. 
Eds. Cultivator —My attention having been at¬ 
tracted by several communications in your useful jourai, 
on the diseases of animals, I am induced to offer a few 
remarks on one of the most fatal diseases of cattle, 
wdiich may be properly called “ sanguineous conges¬ 
tion,” or “ inflammatory fever.” 
The primary source of this disease, in my opinion, 
lies in the too sudden changes from scarcity to rich 
pastures. Plants vegetating in a warm dry atmos¬ 
phere, and those growing on elevated lands, contain 
much nutritive matter; on the contrary, when plants 
grow luxuriantly or in wet situations, they are not very 
nutritious. No one can doubt that nutritious food makes 
rich blood, and if cattle are allowed to eat, ad libitum. 
grasses of good quality, can w r e w r onder that an abund¬ 
ance of blood should be formed which pre-disposes the 
animal to sanguineous congestion. Other causes may 
unite themselves wuth this excess of food, as want of 
exercise, great dryness of the air w’ith excessive heat 
i These, by taking away the serous (w’atery) parts of the 
* Rev. Robert Hall. 
