1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
85 
wasteful source of heat, we must come at once to 
the practical details of warm stables, dry sheds, 
and a free use of good litter and thick horse blan¬ 
kets. The winds which sweep through the cracks 
often seen in barns, carry off every winter many 
hard dollar’s worth of food ; the comfortless wet 
floors, and yards of snow and mud, absorb a still 
larger portion. The practice of even blanketing 
cows, in connection with a thorough attention to 
cleanliness, has been adopted by some to great 
advantage. We have known an intelligent farm¬ 
er, who, by providing warm, close, and comfort¬ 
able houses for his sheep in winter, actually lost 
less than in summer; and we have beard of an¬ 
other of extensive experience in sheep raising, 
who is about to erect a house in such a manner as 
to be moderately warmed in the severest weather 
by stove heat, as being more economical than 
maintaining the heat by feeding. 
This is a subject that ought to receive a more 
thorough attention from farmers generally; for 
these facts do not rest on the basis of uncertain the¬ 
ory, but are established as thoroughly as any 
truths in farming. Their full appreciation gene¬ 
rally in a country where there are several months 
of freezing weather, would, we doubt not, lead to 
a corresponding practice in the erection of shel¬ 
ters, that would save the country at large many 
hundred thousand doll&rs in every year. 
Agricultural Charlatanry. 
Truth, as opposed to error, is the chief good, 
and in its knowledge lies all progress in religion, 
politics, social intercourse, science and art. Its 
antagonist is the great enemy of improvement, and 
thus these two principles are arrayed against each 
other; the one the almoner of prosperity, the 
other the forerunner of ruin. 
No one can have failed to detect the presence 
of these opposing principles in the science and art 
of agriculture, as taught at the present day. Er¬ 
ror as the result of ignorance, opposes the general 
improvement of agricultural practice, entrenching 
itself in a blind conservatism. That error is often 
honestly entertained, in no degree lessens its per¬ 
nicious influence; for in the absence of truth, as 
a proper means of guidance, false principles are 
adopted and adhered to with the zeal due to truth. 
The most learned are more or less subject to ig¬ 
norance, for truth is yet in the progress of deve¬ 
lopment, but there is a common stock of know¬ 
ledge, sufficient for ordinary guidance, and the 
neglect of this is culpable. This kind of error 
grows out of mental inactivity, and is entirely in¬ 
compatible with the thrift of the farmer. 
Error, as the result of cupidity, a desire for 
fame, or other selfish motives, coupled with igno¬ 
rance, constitutes downright charlatanry. It as¬ 
sumes a specious, tinselled form, to allure the 
simple and beguile the uninstructed. It is plain 
that a different culpability attaches to the honestly 
wrong, and the wilfully false. Yet the effects of 
charlatanry are determined by the degree of diver¬ 
gence from truth, without respect to motives, and 
he who proclaims the result of partial observation, 
ranks with the deceitful suppressor of known truth. 
Charlatanism is especially prevalent during the 
early existence of a science, or before its princi¬ 
ples are well established. “ Astronomy had its 
astrology, chemistry had its alchemy, geology had 
its hundred baseless cosmogonies,” and agricul¬ 
ture has had its thpusand fallacies, many of which 
are still flourishing. Charlatanry is the misty 
and spectral darkness of error, and disappears with 
the dawning of reason and intelligence, and the 
establishing of sound principles. Agriculture 
has been especially subject to the impositions of 
the charlatan, since the majority of farm laborers 
have been too ignorant to distinguish the true 
from the false. 
Among the prominent humbugs of agriculture, 
arfe the transmutation of wheat to chess, electro- 
culture, sowing and reaping by the moon, shade 
the secret of vegetable growth, barberry blight, 
atmospheric churns, &c. Some of these lay claim 
to hoar antiquity; others are the offspring of the 
last decade. Each have commanded respect in their 
several localities, and though they have failed to 
endure the strict ordeal of investigation, they have 
served a good purpose, in teaching that deviations 
from the path of truth are to be carefully avoid¬ 
ed. Perhaps not one of these erroneous princi¬ 
ples had its origin in wrong motives.* 
There are, however, certain humbugs which 
savor of trickishness. They are the counterfeits of 
genuine coin, and consist chiefly in the professed 
application of well established principles. Books 
on agricultural subjects are manufactured, not 
because 'of their worth,but because, with the pre¬ 
sent appetite for information, they sell profitably. 
Originality is out of the question, and compilation 
is undertaken by persons totally unfit for the task, 
which fact may often be ascertained by the varie¬ 
ty and scope of their labors. When one man 
stands as the author of books on half a dozen 
sciences, and then writes one on agriculture, or 
when a dozen agricultural topics are made the 
subject of as many volumes by one man, it is evi¬ 
dent there is great ability in the writer or great 
worthlessness in the books. But voluminousness 
is not the only mark of want of ability in a writer. 
I have seen a book of scarcely 300 12mo. pages, 
professing to serve for the farmers’ enlightenment 
in all the sciences that bear upon his occupa- 
