book-farming. That gentlemen farmers, who know nothing about farming but what they get out of the libraries, spend a great deal, but never make any profit by their agricultural projects, and schemes of domestic economy. It is, however, obvious to every person capable of reflection, that written documents must necessarily surpass in every respect those of the most retentive memory, the experience of no simple individual being capable of comprising all that is or ought to be known.

That knowledge, which gives man his supremacy over the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and which bestows on individuals among mankind a pre-eminence much more substantial and less invidious than birth, wealth, title, or popular applause, can be acquired only by three modes, viz: observation, conversation and reading. Observation and conversation are very important inlets to ideas, and reading furnishes perhaps, as great a quantity of useful materials for the mind to operate upon as either of them. Book-knowledge then is power, and other things being equal, the farmer who obtains information from books, or other printed works, and has strength of mind, and good sense sufficient to make a proper use of it,. has the advantage over his unlettered neighbour, who despises book-farming. Be-. sides what is this book-knowledge, which some honest cultivators think is so much to be dreaded? It is nothing more than the result of observation, or experience,. which after having passed through the channel of conversation, is at length reduced to writing, sent to the press, and the moment it is printed, becomes, accord-. ing to the objectors to whom we allude, book-farming; and therefore is to be considered as something very ru inous to the practical husbandman! Thus, we will suppose that A has found out a safe and easy cure for the

botts in horses, or a method by which he can raise double the usual quantity of Indian corn on an acre; A communicates his discovery or improvement to B, his neighbour, who, although he has a great aversion to book-farming, makes use of and derives great advantages from it on the strength of A's oral testimony. But A sends an account of his discoveries and processes to the printer, and it is published in some periodical paper, and perhaps finds its way into some volume written on agricultural subjects. The whole thus becomes book-farming, and not worthy the attention of real, genuine, practical farmers.

But these absurdities are fast yielding to reason and the lights of science. The time has arrived in Europe, and is fast approaching in America, in which books and the information which they contain, will be considered as necessary to make a man a complete farmer, as a complete physician, lawyer, or divine..

SIZE OF FARMS..

The size of farms is a subject on which much has been written, and respecting which a great diversity of opinion prevails. It is impossible to lay down any precise or universal standard, as so much depends upon the nature and situation of the country; the character, skill, and capital of the farmer; and a variety of local cir

cumstances..

It is well observed in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, that on this topic, perhaps the people of no country are so little practically instructed as ours. This arises from the condition in which the agricultural interest has been placed from the time of the first settle

ment of our country. Our ancestors found a wildernes unoccupied except by savages. Those who fixed themselves in the country, when lands were cheap, naturally estimated their riches by the number, rather than by the productive power of their acres. Two, three, or four hundred acres were thought, at first, to be suitable for a farm. Afterwards, when population became increased and lands divided, the ideas of farmers settled down to the opinion, that from 80 to 150 acres, was sufficient for the independent support of a family. Upon less than 80 acres, though a man might find ways and means to live, yet it was thought he could not expect greatly to thrive. Accordingly the first effect of thriving among men of that size of farms, was generally evidenced by the purchase of more land. Often these purchases were made at the risk of embarrassment by debt and almost always to the real injury of such farmers, whose surplus capital, or even their borrowed capital, would have been generally much better employed, in improving the lands they possessed, rather than in the purchase of more acres.

With respect to men possessing only 30 or 40 acres, they scarcely ventured to call their possessions by the name of a farm, so little is such an extent of land in general estimation, entitled to the use of that term. If they attempted to live and bring up a family upon them, they for the most part looked to other employment for their support. Turning mechanics, or hireing themselves out at the most valuable season of the year, to their richer neighbours, or abandoning their own farm to tenants, and taking leases of farms, comprehending a greater extent of land, and so much better calculated to give that full employment to their activity, which to their mistaken apprehension, a farm of 30 or 40 acres did not afford. Until of late years, opinions and con

duct of this kind were almost universal.

Even at this

day we know men, active, intelligent and industrious, possessed of this extent of land, who are labouring for others, or taking charge of their neighbour's concerns, upon the avowed reason, that they cannot support their families upon 30 or 40 acres ! Yet their lands are good. The owners are industrious, intelligent, possessed of a strong desire of living independent. But they do not realize the actual efficiency of the soil, undoubtedly there are many honorable exceptions to the observation we are about to make; as a general truth, it may be asserted, that THE FARMERS OF NEW-ENGLAND ARE YET TO LEARN THE IMMENSE PRODUCTIVE POWER OF A PERFECTLY CUL

TIVATED ACRE. Instead of seeking riches in augmenting the number of their acres, let them be sought in better modes of husbandry. As a general truth, we' believe it may be asserted that every farmer in New-England, possessed of 100 acres of land, might divide themfairly, by quantity and quality, into thirds, and by a suitable cultivation, make either third more productive than his whole 100 acres are at present. This is the operration, at which those interested in the agriculture of New-England, ought chiefly to aim to make farmers realize what cultivation can effect, and to teach the modes, by which the productive power of the soil can best be elicited.

It has been said, that the man who makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, is one of the greatest benefactors to mankind; and that the man who, by good management, makes one acre produce as much as two did before, has added another and better acre to his estate. Mr. Madison illustrates this opinion by quoting one of the Roman writers on husbandry, who enforces the obligation to improving management, by the story of one Paridi

us, who had two daughters and a vineyard. When the eldest was married, he gave her a third part of the vinyard; notwithstanding which he obtained from two thirds the same crop as from the whole. When the other daughter was married, he portioned her with half of what remained, and still the produce of his vineyard was undiminished. This story, short as it is, contains a volume of instruction!

The farmer, in every article of his business, should' consider the event before he fixes upon the means; and always have the end in his eye when he is about to make a beginning Every consideration that can have influence on a man, calls on him to be cautious in not buying too much land. The pernicious practice of imperfectly cultivating a great deal of land, at much labour, toil and expense, without order, calculation, or method; and finally, without profit; instead of bestowing a proper degree of labour upon the tillage of a less quantity, is a very prevalent fault. What makes it the more to be regretted is, that our most industrious, enterprizing, and meritorious farmers must frequently fall into it. Instead of confining their labours to a moderate extent of ground, applying to it all their manure and physical force, blindly bent upon realizing the greatest possible profit, they diffuse their culture over so large a space, as to render it in a great degree ineffactual, and thus defeat the very object they have in view. The mischiefs arising from this course are more numerous than we can now enumerate. Suffice it to say that the drudgery and perplexity of farming are thereby greatly increased; the time employed in carrying every thing to and from its distant parts is much greater; the crops are more liable to injury; the quality, and we believe we may add (in most cases) the quantity of the produce