1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
357 
close with a song, so that you will have at least a 
little spice of variety, if nothing more. Perhaps at 
some other time, I may give you an article on the 
Barb, or Arab horse. I have a noble and elegant 
gray Barb, and a beautiful Arab pony, which I de¬ 
sign taking to the States with me, in a month or so, 
as well as a pair of Spanish pigs, a young wild boar , 
some Spanish fowls, &c. I hope to reach home in 
time for your State Fair. Yours, truly, T. H. Hy¬ 
att. 
Means for Mental Improvement,* 
There is a tongue in every leaf— 
A voice in every rill 
A voice that speaketh everywhere, 
In flood and fire, through earth and air! 
A tongue that’s never still! 
Farmers often complain that they are deficient in 
education. For this there is no necessity. Let them 
support and improve good common schools. Let 
them avail themselves of the other means of mental 
improvement within their reach, and they will ac¬ 
quire an education adequate for any occasion they 
will be called to meet} and they will hold an eleva¬ 
tion in society held by no other class of men. It is 
known that they have a large amount of leisure. 
Let this be spent in the cultivation of their minds: 
in laying up stores of useful knowledge. 
The benefits of the common school have been 
named. They make a good foundation for any sub¬ 
sequent mental culture. Then let the leisure time 
of farmers be spent in reading good books, good 
family newspapers, and studying the topography 
and statistics of the country. Read no bad books; 
they are worse than none. Let every family take 
a weekly secular newspaper; a weekly religious 
newspaper; and a monthly agricultural paper. Let 
the families in the same immediate neighborhood-— 
half a dozen or less—act in concert; not all take the 
same papers, but as many different ones as they can. 
Let these secular papers come on different days in 
the week; one Monday, one Tuesday, one Wednes¬ 
day, and so on, so that a fresh paper will come into 
the neighborhood every day. Let all exchange these 
papers with each other, after each has been read 
by its owner. The religious papers should come 
the latter part of the week, so that each family have 
a fresh one for Sunday. Thus, these six families 
will all have the benefit of six different secular pa¬ 
pers, giving them all the important news fresh, with 
a vast amount of valuable miscellaneous matter—in 
the course of a few years sufficient to make a little 
library, were it in volumes. A year of such read¬ 
ing will be of equal value to a family, especially the 
young members of it, as going to school three months. 
If paid in advance, as newspapers always should be 
paid for, the cost will be to each family only about 
five dollars—equal in value to twenty-five dollars in 
tuition for going to school. 
An objection is at once made that the expense can¬ 
not be endured; and possibly that there is no leisure 
for all this reading. As for the latter, a plump con¬ 
tradiction is interposed. There is time for it, and 
much besides. The pecuniary means are easily pro¬ 
vided. Let every farmer appropriate the produce 
of half an acre—if he has a large farm, an acre, for 
literary purposes—for the education and mental im¬ 
provement of his family. Let it be well tilled, well 
manured, and planted with potatoes, corn, eabbage, 
wheat, oats, or whatever will give the best crop. 
Let it be understood, that the profits are not to be 
touched for anything else, and you may depend upon 
it, there will be no neglect in its supervision. No 
* From Dr. Blake’8 new work “Farmer’s Every Day Book.” 
more will a weed be found upon it than upon a Mac¬ 
adam turnpike. The women of the family will 
watch its growth; the boys will keep their hoes 
bright as swords and bayonets, in destroying what¬ 
ever should be removed. The profits on this half 
acre will certainly be fifteen dollars. Here, then, 
in a district of six families, will be ninety dollars to 
be expended in mental culture; five dollars to each 
family in paying for the periodicals above named, 
and ten dollars to each for the purchase of interest¬ 
ing and useful books 1 Let the three hundred agri¬ 
cultural families of a town eontaining, it may be, 
from three to four thousand inhabitants—a fair equa¬ 
tion—do this, and in ten years, when the children 
are grown to adult stature, what a change will their 
society exhibit ! Think of it, reader! Make a be¬ 
ginning! The example, under proper inducements, 
will spread like wildfire. 
To encourage an enterprise so pregnant with re¬ 
sults, let agricultural societies offer a premium of 
one hundred dollars to the town within the limits of 
the society’s operation that has, according to its 
population, the greatest number of these fields de¬ 
voted to literature; and let each town give a pre¬ 
mium of ten, fifteen, or twenty dollars, for the great¬ 
est profit on any one of these half acres in that 
town. Are there no persons in our state and county 
agricultural societies to make such a movement; and 
may not individuals in every town be selected to do 
the same? Let some of the old premiums offered by 
towns for killing wild cats, wolves, and bears, as 
that description of gentry so troublesome to our fore¬ 
fathers, has been destroyed, or has prudently re 
moved to other regions, be now offered for making 
our sons and daughters fit for a residence, six months 
every year, at the seat of the Federal Government. 
Nothing is wanted for the effecting this, but the 
zealous efforts of a few distinguished individuals in 
every town. 
It is not often considered what large results come 
from a cause in itself frequently very diminutive- 
Many may, and doubtless will, ridicule the propo¬ 
sition suggested. A case may be named apropos to 
the scheme here recommended. Nearly fifty years 
since, a boy of eight or ten years old was known to 
live in one of the then new townships of our coun¬ 
try. Probably there was not a book there, save a 
small family Bible, here and there Watts’ Psalms 
and Hymns, spelling-books, small arithmetics, and 
half a dozen or so of Morse’s dollar geography. 
These constituted the literature of the town. This 
boy was allowed to plant a little patch of potatoes, 
it may be half an acre. The increase was annually 
sold at about tw T enty cents the bushel, and the cash 
laid by. During this period he accidentally came 
across the last volume of Josephus in six volumes, be¬ 
longing to a little social library of two hundred 
volumes, in an older settlement, ten miles distant. He 
read that volume with eagerness. The influence upon 
his mind was incredible. Previously he knew noth¬ 
ing of books save those named. Of a library he had 
never heard. The importance of this one acquired 
more value in his mind than a gold mine. He re¬ 
solved to appropriate a portion of his potato funds 
for an interest in it. He did so; and weekly, for 
several years, he continued to take a half day for 
obtaining a book to read the succeeding week. 
However, this did not satisfy; he wanted books of 
his own. His potato funds were used up in the pur¬ 
chase of them. At sixteen he resolved to obtain a 
public education. This he accomplished; studied a 
profession; took no small part in promoting the 
literature of the country; and finally received the 
highest collegiate honors; the whole of which may 
