144 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED. 
Mr. Holmes—I have been a farmer in Maine fifty years and up. 
wards. I farmed it as my neighbors did, and supposed I knew enough 
about farming, having never read any authors or exchanged any ideas 
on ilie subject of agriculture, I never once thought of any improvement 
in the art, except that when I saw any of my neighbor’s cattle very 
poor, and so starved that they would eat much from my dung heap 
in winter, I was, to be sure, satisfied that he did not work it exactly 
right. Even then I supposed he had better keep a smaller number of I 
creatures, and not be guilty of the great sin of starving his stock, and 
thereby actually losing money, paying taxes, and being at the expense 
of keeping two cows when one well kept would have given more than 
both of them. 
But within the last three or four years, particularly since your Maine 
Farmer was published, I have read and attended to agriculture more 
closely, by reading and attending agricultural meetings, cattle shows, 
and hearing others relate their views and experience on the subject, 
Let me put a case. Who of you, that has a spark of laudable ambi¬ 
tion, would not feel it a privilege to spend an evening with Washing¬ 
ton, Arthur Young, or Sir John Sinclair, all men eminent as farmers, 
and hear them relate their practice, their observations, and their im¬ 
provements in husbandry? Who could fail to profit from their in 
structions? And again. What farmer would not count himself fortu¬ 
nate in the opportunity of hearing Sir Humphrey Davy, or some other 
eminent chemist, explain, in the language adapted to his comprehension, 
the nature and properties of the soil he tills, of the plants he rears, and of 
the manures he employs—of the agency in vegetation of air, heat, light 
and moisture, and the method of applying these facts to his immediate 
| benefit? Now it happens that all this is virtually within his reach. 
Those great men have written all I have supposed, and have left their 
instructions for your benefit. Do you converse, in your social meet- 
lings with your neighbors, upon husbandry, without receiving some 
useful hint in your business, or imparting such to others ? And if you 
experience pleasure and profit from this limited intercourse, how much 
Not a little information have I gained by what your valuable cbrres- ! greater must be the advantage when you extend it, as you may, 
pondents have brought to view in the Farmer, as well as your extracts j through books, to the most eminent farmers of you own and every 
from other and distant writers, from all which and my own reflection, j other country ? Besides, there are other branches of knowledge con- 
I have learned, (and I find others are not behind me,) not to depend so inected with your duties in life, and with your happiness, which it be- 
much on English hay for our stock in winter, as it may be so cut short]! comes you to acquire, and to teach to those confided to your care. And 
the means are within your reach. Franklin rose from obscurity to dis¬ 
tinguished eminence, and from indigence to wealth, principally by the 
aid of self-instruction. He commenced his course of usefulness by 
buying single volumes, gleaning the knowledge they afforded, and then 
selling them to buy others. Public libraries were not then known 
among us. The facilities which these afford are manifestly great. 
They are a cheap and an excellent means of acquiring and diffusing 
useful knowledge. The annual contributions of a few neighbors, will 
soon buy a respectable collection of books, and the individual then re¬ 
ceives the advantage not only of his own expenditure, but of that of 
the whole association. You should, at all events, subscribe for one or 
more agricultural periodicals, if you mean to keep pace with the im¬ 
provements of the day. 
The human mind is prolific in good or evil. It is seldom sterile. 
by drought and other causes, as to render our stock worth nothing in au¬ 
tumn. Hence we have learned to raise ruta baga and other roots, to 
aid in carrying our stock through the winter. Fresh meadows are 
more set by and improved. Even browse has been found useful. I 
have learned that store swine may be kept as well on turnips as pota¬ 
toes, and that many more of the former may be raised on a given quan-| 
tity of land, at no considerable more expense, if any. I have learned 
that tight and warm barns and stables not only save hay best, but in 
such our stock are more comfortable and require much less food. I 
have learned how to make a barn, &c. I have learned that one hun¬ 
dred bushels of corn may be raised in a single year, on an acre of 
ground in Maine, which I should have been slow to believe many years 
ago. I have learned that wheat may be raised on a clover sod, with a 
light top dressing of plaster or ashes. I have learned that our stock 
particularly black cattle, have been much improved in size and value I Like our soil, it will produce either useful or noxious plants ; and if 
recently, to which I have no doubt our cattle shows have been a great we do not cultivate and nurture the good, the bad will spring up and 
auxiliary. I have learned that the labor on a farm may be carried on grow spontaneously. Our duties to our families—our obligations to 
to more advantage without alcohol than with it. Time would fail me|j soc i et y— our pride as good farmers, combine, with irresistible force, to 
urge us to the decision, that neither our minds nor our lands shall run 
to weeds ; but that both shall be sedulously cultivated in the way that 
shall best conduce to usefulness and happiness in time and eternity. 
to name half the advantages which have accrued to the agricultural 
interests, from the publication of the Maine Farmer and similar papers 
in the nation. But I will name one more, and that is, that apples are 
excellent for fattening swine and other creatures, and for winter keep 
And yet I am told that the proprietors of the Farmer talk of letting its 
publication cease, for the want of subscribers! they say they are los¬ 
ing money by continuing it! For one, I am determined to procure one 
more subscriber to it, if it cost me some trouble. I do hope every 
subscriber will not rest untill he does the same. Can it be that our 
farmers, mechanics, and growers of stock are so blind to their own in 
terest as to starve those valuable citizens who instituted the paper in 
question? This I will not as yet believe .—Maine Farmer. JAY, 
Young’ Men’s Department. 
HINTS TO YOUNG FARMERS.—No. III. 
Self-instruction is a principal means of arriving at eminence in any 
employment. The education we receive in youth serves but as the 
foundation, at best, of the superstructure which is to be reared in man 
hood, and every individual is, in a measure, his own architect, and may 
select his model. To the farmer this truth applies with as much force 
as to any other employment. The business of husbandry is so diversi¬ 
fied, that the wisest men engaged in its pursuits, continue to add to 
their knowledge as long as they retain the powers of intellect. The 
experience of every country, and of every day, is adding practically 
something new and useful to this branch of labor, while science is 
beaming upon it the light and life of her effulgent rays. Him that will 
may profit by the concentrated wisdom of the age, and advance pro¬ 
gressively in improvement, in usefulness, and in intellectual enjoy¬ 
ment. The farmer is urged to the effort by a triple consideration:—the 
improvement which it promises to his mind and his means;—the bene¬ 
fit which the example confers on his children;—and the increased abi¬ 
lity it may afford of doing good to those around him—the last a consi¬ 
deration of no little weight with those who appreciate their obligations 
to society, and who have felt the pleasures that flow from their requi¬ 
tal. The directions for felfinstruction are comprised in two words. 
become readers. Most farmers can appropriate three or four hours 
in every twenty-four of the winter months, to this means of acquiring 
knowledge; and while they are cultivating they own, they cannot fail 
to scatter seeds of usefulness in the prolific minds of their children. In 
the period of ordinary life, these hours will make an aggregate of 
years. 
WHAT IS EDUCATION?— by w. e. channing, d. d. 
The great end of education is not to train a man to get a living. 
This is plain, because life was given for a higher end than simply to 
toil for its own prolongation. A comfortable subsistence is indeed very 
important to the purposes of life, be this what it may. A man half- 
fed, half-clothed, and fearing to perish from famine or cold, will be too 
crushed in spirit to do the proper work of a man. He must be set free 
from the iron grasp of want, from the constant pressure of painful sen¬ 
sations, from grinding, ill-requited toil. Unless a man be trained to 
get a comfortable support, his prospects of improvement and happiness 
are poor. But if his education aims at nothing more, his life will turn 
to little account. 
To educate a man is to unfold his faculties, to give him the free and 
full use of his powers, and especially of his best powers. It is first to 
train the intellect, to give him a love of truth, and to instruct him in 
the processes by which it may beacquired. It is to train him to sound¬ 
ness of judgment, to teach him to weigh evidence, and to guard him 
against the common sources of error. It is to give him a thirst for 
knowledge, which will keep his faculties in action through life. It is 
to aid him in the study of the outward world, to initiate him into the 
physical sciences, so that he will understand the principles of his trade 
or business, and will be able to comprehend the phenomena which are 
continually passing before his eyes. It is to make him acquainted with 
his own nature, to give him that most important means of improve¬ 
ment, self comprehension. 
In the next place to educate a man, is to train the conscience, to give 
him a quick, keen discernment of the right, to teach him duty in its 
great principles and minute applications, to establish in him immova¬ 
ble principles of action. It is to show him his true position in the 
world, his true relation to God and his fellow-beings, and immutable 
obligations laid on him by these. It is to inspire him with the idea of 
perfection, to give him a high moral aim, and to show how this may 
be maintained in the commonest toils, and how every thing may be 
made lo contribute to its accomplishment. 
Further, to educate a man in this country, is to train him to be a 
good citizen, to establish him in the principles of political science, to 
make him acquainted with our history, government and laws, to teach 
him our great interests as a nation, and the policy by which they are 
to be advanced, and to impress him deeply with his responsibility, his 
