1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
239 
cultivator in this vicinity has put a cart-load of manure 
around a tree yearly, and he has sometimes sold the 
fruit for five or six dollars a barrel.” 
Pear Blight. 
. J. Downing, in a late number of his Horticultu¬ 
rist, after stating that the pear blight is caused by the 
extremes of heat and cold in our variable climate, says, 
“ The remedy is to wind straw ropes around the stems 
and larger branches, and mulch the surface of the ground 
over the roots. A cultivator of our acquaintance, who 
lives in a blight district, and who made wry faces for 
years over the blight, has become a cheerful and happy 
man since he has practiced this simple method.” 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Lessons in Modern Farming; or Agriculture for 
Schools; containing Scientific Exercises for Recitation; 
and Elegant Extracts from Rural Literature, for Acade¬ 
mic or Family Reading. By Rev. John L. Blake, D. 
D. New-York: M. H. Newman & Co. 
This work is from the same pen as the “ Farmer’s 
Every-day Book,” published a year ago, and winch we 
are pleased to learn, has been well received by the public. 
The author seems to have a good understanding of the 
wants of our rural population, in regard to general edu¬ 
cation, and the kind of books best fitted to inspire a 
taste for agricultural pursuits. The volume under con¬ 
sideration is composed partly of original articles, and 
partly of selected ones. They are of a character well 
calculated to interest the rising generation of farmers, 
and to infuse more elevated ideas in regard to their vo¬ 
cation. The book is of a convenient form and size for 
the use of schools—containing upwards of 400 pages, 12 
mo.—-is neatly printed and well bound. 
Agricultural Report of the Commissioner of 
Patents for 1849-50. We have lately received a 
copy of this document. It contains a large amount of 
valuable matter, well arranged; We should have been 
much interested with many of the articles, had we not 
read them before in the Southern Cultivator and the Ge¬ 
nesee Farmer, which had been made the mediums for 
giving them to the public before the Report was issued. 
A Treatise on the History and Management of 
Ornamental and Domestic Poultry. By Rev. E.S. 
Dixon; with large additions by J. J. Kerr; illustrated 
with original figures of Fowls. Philadelphia: E. H. 
Butler & Co. 
Of the making of poultry-books there will probably be 
no end, at least so long as the “ hen fever” continues. 
This is the fifth work on this subject which has been pub¬ 
lished in this country within the past and present year, 
besides the new editions of former American works of 
this character, and the importation to a considerable ex¬ 
tent, of several of foreign origin. The work above men¬ 
tioned purports to be a reprint of the highly popular 
work of Rev. Mr. Dixon, first published in London in 
1848, “ with additions” by Mr. Kerr. The preface 
opens thus: “In offering to the public Mr. Dixon’s 
Treatise 1 on Ornamental and Domestic Poultry/” &c. 
But notwithstanding this, and the use of Mr. Dixon’s 
title, the work contains, comparatively, but a small part 
of Mr. D.’s. It is, in reality, aw ixture of selections from 
Mr. Dixon, with remarks of Mr. Kerr, and letters from 
the owners of fowls whose “portraits” are said to be 
given. But the descriptions of varieties do not agree 
with those of Mr. Dixon, even where Mr. D.’s ar¬ 
rangement is ostensibly followed. Thus Mr. Kerr 
represents the Hamburgh fowl as a toy-knot variety, 
giving a corresponding cut—whereas Mr. Dixon applies 
the term only to a kind of fowls which never have this 
appendage. But we cannot here go into particulars— 
shall probably take another occasion for this purpose. 
So far as regards mechanical execution, the work is enti¬ 
tled to much praise—it is decidedly superior to any 
which has been got up in this country, especially in the 
style of the engravings, many of which are highly credi¬ 
table to the artist. -— 
The Old Red Sandstone; or New Walks in an Old 
Field: By Hugh Miller. Illustrated with numerous 
engravings. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 
We have received from Messrs. Gray & Sprague of 
this city, a copy of this work. It contains many impor¬ 
tant geological facts, presented in a very interesting light. 
The strange hypothesis of transmutation of species, styl¬ 
ed by its advocates “ progression,” is thus humorously 
shown off by Mr. Miller: “ The descendants of the 
ourang-outang, for instance, may be employed in some 
future age in writing treatises on Geology, in which they 
shall have to describe the remains of the quadrumana 
as belonging to an extinct order. Lamarck himself, 
when bearing home in triumph with him the skeleton of 
some huge salamander or crocodile of the Lias, might 
indulge, consistently with his theory, in the pleasing be¬ 
lief that he had possessed himself of the bones of his 
grandfather—a grandfather removed, of course, to a re¬ 
mote degree of consanguinity, by the introduction of a 
few hundred thousand great-greats. Never yet was there 
a fancy so wild and extravagant but there have been 
men bold enough to dignify it with the name of philoso¬ 
phy, and ingenious enough to find reasons for the pro¬ 
priety of the name.” 
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. This valuable 
Magazine has entered on its second year. The first num¬ 
ber of the volume, (that for June,) commences with 
“ Summer,” by Thompson, beautifully and appropriate¬ 
ly illustrated. It is issued promptly on the first day of 
each month. Each number contains 144 octavo pages. 
The number before us indicates that the work will con¬ 
tinue to be, as it has been, one of the best literary peri¬ 
odicals published. Harper & Brothers, New-York. 
Wild Inconsistency. —Dr. Lee remarks, in relation 
to the present forgetfulness of agriculture by the gov¬ 
ernment, “ To Washington, as a General, there is go¬ 
ing up in the federal metropolis, a monument which will 
cost over a million, and be five hundred feet or more in 
height; but to Washington the farmer, nothing is done 
except to permit the once fine estate at Mount Vernon 
to grow up in briars, bushes and pines, a harbor for wild 
beasts. What with the ten millions a year expended on 
the army , and the nearly twenty millions given to politi¬ 
cians, it seems extraordinary that a nation of farmers 
cannot afford a few dollars necessary to make the estate 
of the great and good Washington an experimental or 
model farm.” 
