1851 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
failed to produce any. I understood several other in¬ 
stances within his own observation, had uniformly result¬ 
ed in the same manner. This is important, and certain¬ 
ly worthy of a trial. Whether anything of the kind has 
ever been observed in our country, I do not know. He 
says that the work of Guenon is universally credited in 
France, and that they are so particular with their dairy 
stock, that they use no male which has not the desired 
escutcheons. I went through one class of the cows and 
heifers at Windsor, with two intelligent French gentle¬ 
men, who came over by order of the government, I be¬ 
lieve, and they did not pass a single animal without care¬ 
fully examining the developments as suggested by Gue¬ 
non. I believe the rule holds good, that those cows 
which are so marked, are uniformly fair milkers, although 
many excellent milkers do not have these marks. The 
Frenchmen say, however, that it is all important in the 
selection of heifers which have not had a calf, as you 
may, with reasonable certainty, select a fair milker. I 
find many Englishmen who have paid attention to the 
subject, and they came to the opinion above expressed. 
I omitted in my last letter to say that the first prize 
Short-horn bull is said to have been sold for 500 guineas, 
to the Belgian government. Although he was a fine 
bull, I think the money could have been much better 
expended on the show grounds. Yours. B. P. John¬ 
son. 
The Science of Unimproved Farming. 
Analytical Laboratory, Yale College, I 
New-Haven , Conn.. July 29, 1851. J 
Messrs. Editors —It seems to me that we need a lit¬ 
tle change in our modes of arguing upon agricultural 
subjects. We have been accustomed to argue upon the 
necessity of improvement—have been endeavoring to 
convince the mass of farmers that they may better their 
practice in a variety of ways, and have given them what 
we consider incontrovertible proofs upon the subject, yet 
all, in many cases, without avail. They say that scien¬ 
tific farming is nothing more or less than an imposition 
upon the more gullible part of community ■ that scenti- 
fic men know nothing of practical subjects, and that the 
poorest of all ways to make boys farmers, is to set them 
at studying the subject of their future profession in any 
other manner than following the plow, or swinging the 
scythe. 
Let us then take up this view of the subject, and sec 
what can be made out of it. The science of improved 
farming has met with its advocates, and numbers many 
followers ; why should not the purely practical and let- 
alone system, have something publicly said in its favor? 
If it is really the true system, it ought to bear the test 
of printing as well as any other, unless it be that the very 
act of printing destroys all truth. The fact is, that the 
farmers want information, and are determined to have it 
from some quarter. If, as many of them say, the pre¬ 
sent book farming is all wrong, let us have something 
that is satisfactory. 
One of the first points, and a highly cardinal one in the 
estimation of many excellent practial men, is that a 
young farmer, or a boy preparing to become a farmer, 
must carefully avoid anything like an extended course 
of study. Such a course is all very well for those who 
309 
are to be professional men—they need it, and are bene¬ 
fited by it. By such study they learn what has been 
done in their profession by others, they learn what re¬ 
mains to be done, and what is doing; they are thus ena¬ 
bled to commence their active life with clear ideas of 
what is before them, and with a full knowledge of that 
which is essential to their ultimate success. Nothing of 
this sort is necessary to the young farmer. If he is al- 
llowed to study anything relative to his profession, it will 
be the ruin of him as a practical man. A tolerable ed¬ 
ucation in the district schools or academies, embracing 
the common English branches, is all that he can safely 
bear; anything farther than this will make him an im¬ 
proving farmer, which is closely connected with his be¬ 
coming somewhat scientific. The unimproved farmer 
meditates deeply upon the curious fact, that in propor¬ 
tion as men are educated, so are they more likely to be 
filled with what he calls wrong notions, to commence 
trying experiments, and to advocate the reading of 
books. 
Some persons might draw from this fact, conclusions 
favorable to the effect of knowledge upon the agricultur¬ 
al mind, especially as the results obtained by these 
reading farmers are frequently of the most satisfactory 
kind; not so, however, with our friend-; he decides that 
the only way to prevent his boys from imbibing any of 
these ruinous modern fancies, is to confine them at home, 
to take them out of school at an early age, and to keep 
them hard at work on his farm. Thus they learn what 
work really is; they become used to it in every depart¬ 
ment, and by the time they are twenty, are able, per¬ 
haps, to lead off the hired men with the scythe, hoe, or 
cradle, to guide the plow or wield the axe, with any oth¬ 
ers in tne country. This now, he says, is an education 
worth having; here is a boy who is able to take care of 
himself under any circumstances; he knows all of farm¬ 
ing that is needful to be known, as much as his father or 
grandfather knew before him, and will pursue the good 
old track quietly, frowning down all innovations, for the 
very reason that they are novelties. 
The farm, under his management, will run down 
gradually it is true, but that it has been doing steadily 
for the last twenty years; land is not as good as it used 
to be; but if it gives out entirely there is plenty more 
at the west, so that that difficulty can be overcome with¬ 
out any help from books. He is in fact a specimen of 
a farmer whose only literary education has been of a 
nature wholly unconnected with his business in life, 
whose practical education has been just that of the hired 
day laborers whose work he directs; he has had no ad¬ 
vantages apart from those afforded by intercourse with 
his neighbors, whose experience is just that of his own 
father over again. These then, must be considered the 
fair results of a purely practical education. Are the 
farmers of our country content to be represented as such 
a class? 
Whether content or not, this must be the most appro¬ 
priate description of them, unless they depart from the 
strict line of their practical course. A young man can¬ 
not go into other districts to study farming under the 
best farmers without getting indirectly at least, the re¬ 
sults of greater knowledge and science. This is a la¬ 
mentable state of things, but it nevertheless exists. The 
