THIRD 
VOL. I. 
€n Smprnitt iljt Inil rra^ il/t 
ALBANY, FEBRUARY, 1853. 
SERIES. 
No. II. 
The Parmer’s Influence. 
HE true test of ability in 
farming, all the world over, 
is the greatest amount of 
success in the management 
of those two practical anti¬ 
podes, cost and result. A 
" man who may raise enor¬ 
mous crops at a cost of ten 
times all that these crops will repay 5 or who 
may compel his farm laborers, however indus¬ 
trious and efficient they may be, to work with¬ 
out tools, or at best, to hoe his corn with a 
garden-trowel, or to water his cattle in an egg¬ 
shell—'would be set down as decidedly a bad man¬ 
ager. On the contrary, the farmer who applies 
his means in the best possible manner, to ob¬ 
tain the greatest amount of results, whether 
by enriching his land ultimately, or increasing its 
immediate products—who turns all the currents 
of waste into profitable channels—shows that the 
touch of his hand is that of a master, and that he 
possesses the true philosopher’s stone, which turns 
all his applied energies into gold. 
But our present object is not to point out the 
best way to secure large dividends from farm ca¬ 
pital. We shall deviate for once from this almost 
universal track, and endeavor to show how the 
farmer may increase the physical and mental com¬ 
fort of himself and those about him, quite as much 
(and by the outlay of far less monied capital,) as 
by simply heaping together piles of gold. The 
means by which this most desirable result is to be 
secured, is the proper use of his influence. “ My 
influence? /have no influence!” exclaim a host 
of moderate farmers, more ambitious and restless 
perhaps, than they are willing to admit, and who 
failed to secure any nomination at the last town 
caucus. “ What influence can I possibly have,” 
gravely expostulates the more sedate country re¬ 
sident, “when I cannot even persuade my own 
boys to avoid the city, and become cultivators of 
the soil?” “ You can’t expect me to have any in¬ 
fluence?” is the inquiring exclamation of the young 
farmer of taste, who failed in saving from the re¬ 
morseless axe, a beautiful group of sugar maples 
which stood in the public road ■ and whose public 
spirit has been chilled by the jeers of his stupid 
neighbors, for proposing to line the highway with a 
mile of forest trees. 
But our friends must not by any means despair. 
They possess a power of which they are not con¬ 
scious, although it may not be capable of operat¬ 
ing quite in the way they would most desire. The 
truth is, there are too many who are looking only 
for some great or extraordinary occasion to exer¬ 
cise their powers. They may profitably remem¬ 
ber the fable of the sweeping mountain torrent, 
that was soon dry, contrasted with the perpetual 
rill, which always enlivened and refreshed its 
banks,and in process of time filled a vast lake with 
its waters. 
In the first place, every one may exert a most 
healthful influence for rural taste. A friend of 
ours moved into a district of country where the 
people generally would have been regarded as ut¬ 
terly destitute of all taste of the kind. He 
could not persuade a single man among them to 
plant an ornamental tree. He however resolved 
to have the comforts and embellishments of country 
life, though of a cheap character, for his own fa¬ 
mily. His wondering neighbors began to inquire 
about the trees he planted, “ that were good for 
nothing but to look at,” and pitied the wretched 
taste which he exhibited by not placing his lilacs, 
honeysuckles, magnolias, and evergreens, “ all in 
a row.” But it is a characteristic of the works of 
true taste, that the more they are scrutinized, the 
more pleasing they appear ; and those rude inha¬ 
bitants evinced, before they were aware of it, 
that the latent principle of genuine appreciation 
of the beautiful, which had so long slumbered 
within them, was beginning to show itself in the 
little plantations of roses and shrubbery about 
their dwellings, that they might enjoy something 
