New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-05-07
soLON ROBINSON's BOOK.

. n
compost Of Rich Me,en H. for ~ Lsnd-Ownors abb "
| Domos'e Economy Farm Building, Gardrh,, CrrtarA
and Vineyard: aud all farmCrop' Iools, teess ie a.
Patton Dfai.ne and lIielfion; liuf r.tcd with sec
Lneravnes: Edited by soLoy RoBnsoS, Agricultural
I I'd t"' S a"si ' Fa sJ iod no.
| lis Fulton street
Perhaps no single volume was ever before issued
which contained so much and such varied iniorIna-
ton with regard to Agriculture and Household
Economy The author in his preface truthtuily
says:
lie does not advance new theories. lie has made a
pondeTons volume not ofdry dissertations but Of Short
crisp facts The hook IS l0f little thincs gloahings
fIom many folds from al lbeagricniuial papers ii1ni
Conversations OF farmers; fOm,takS no iaTwerE cubs
from books little; from personal experience Inucb
fIom the memory Of long life devoted to the praclice
aud sudy Of aficuItUrc tbs volume Is born IL Ia tho
fruit years OF labor IL great and good ted IL Ger
,niny confirms much that will be useful ~ ali classes
who III the easih who live IN isrmen housrs. IL
should be in every rural home, as WORK OF Reference
II IL arranged the musi convenient form iOT THIS pur
pose. Each chapter comprises general subject
Each section embraces separate branch Each NUM-
bmed paragraph is complete ID ituci and conveys AZ
item Of Information. Zach subject Is completely IN
doxed. AS whole though continuing much. il 10 not
on encyclopaedia Of agriculture. u docs not teaoh an
That farmer should know That must b. learned "
daily pcrusal or agricultural papers aud books
." Though not perfect farmers viii find this book q
useful ose. II not invaluable hope it Is one that H.
eaLnot aiord 10 40 without In its compilation. the
he has also laDorod under many difficulties. lille en-
gagged "a al agricultural editor OF great daily aud
Hs,A! ne" sPapcr: loa viii ind here STORED up many
OF lhe valuable NILE liens that You have roaa approx.
/ ingy ia THE TIaBUEI. aud many from other sources
useful 10 etery iaiIlcrs family. aud worthy of preeoya-
ton"
Mr. Robinson is FAR more agreeable and proba-
bly, therefore successful teacher of Agriculture
than tie writer Of this notice could hope to be.
lie has that divine patience with stubborn igno-
rance, prejudice and incliciencY, which l do not
even aspire TO. Once in great while-as, notably,
in en- address, some years since, before The Conn.
Agricultural Socicty--he lets the truth master his
Difference, aud flames out into startling exposure
and rebuke of the nonstrous stolidiy soyonliaess,
aud waste Of Effort which too commonly pass
for farming; but he usually keeps carefully Oh the
plane Of the average piow-j logger seeking to VIE
him gradually, and las it aerel insensibly, away
from the errors and misconceptions which have kept
both his crops ard himself poor throughout his
thirty or forty years of old-iashioned cultivation
lie may not convince and arouse, but no seldom
proyokcs and alicnGtcs him.
For my part, incline 10 the old prophets injunc-
ton, "Cry aloud ana spare not If st. Paul
wothily lad his spirit stirred within him By the
I
I igel that al honest man who knows what Agricul
ture nueht and should be cau hardly restrain his IN
lguation in view Of what it quite commonly Is.
10 look over an average farm on this Atlantic sea-
board, and see it, owner greycy plotting around
and over tho same stones thst his grsst grandfather
powed over o century ago, when they should long
since have been taken out or tho fields which con-
tain them given up 10 the growth Of timbor-grow'
Ing two hundred bushels Of corn per anAum On ten
acres, when 10 might glow that quantity so much
chcarer on fouI-lettiug tho very best quarter %
eighth Of Lis LAM lie useless, obstructive, malan
GUS, in swamps and boys, when the adjacent hill
sides hunger and thirst fof that very nutrition Of
which they have through thousands Of years bcca
ldorulcd T. make these noisomo and unff.itiu
sNcnps-aad training up their boys 10 stc4. fruit
all over the township by falling 70 provide the
choicest IN suitable variety audabnnAance al home
feel that patience with such infatuafionis scarcely
less than crir.c. To-day, hundred thousand
sons Of New England, FOR example, are gold-hunt-
ing IN California, Nevada, Colorado, Australia, Sc
whom Gold is tn be accumulated more amply, rs
veil as far moro certainly By deepening tie soil
lof the farms whercon those adventures were
born freeing II Of stone, pulverzing 1t, and
lenrclingit with muck from the al aCeIt swamPs
and tie waste and ofal Of the convenient cities,
villages and manufactures. How can one who
sees oud feels how general and dcplorable
lis this misdrection OF effort treat il with the easy
tolerance which peryados the teaching Of the great
mass of our agricultural wrtersl We see that the
youth fogsako their fathers farms 10 beg for any
I 81
arc so wrctchcly cultivated that their annual pro-
. duct rather falls OIL than Increases We know that
thousands Of acres that once Yielded twenty bushels
of wheat per acre would lot Row give fve we re-
alize that Agriculture, which should DO the most
attractive and honorcd vocation, is really the most
neglected and underyaluedi yet We chat and joke
over all this as though it we're letter Of Aricmn'
Ward or the last fashionable novel. Should we not
rather parallel the stirring Hebrew rcmonstrance-
"Why wH ye die|
believe thcro is not farmer on earth who can
read our language who would not derive from =
careful perusal of Mr. Robinson's book information
worth 10 him many times its cost and each Of hi'
SONS and daughters between ten and twonty ycars
Of age might read it with even greater profit. lti'
cranmcd with facts calculated TO make each reader
think, and TO win him to the use Of improved meth
DDS and processes in every department of rura
economy. Each page is pregnant with valuable
suggeslions il is lively, pleasing, readablc while
the Illustrations are at once instructive and cap
tally executed. Large as the book is, there is mol
page of it that the buyer would bo willing tc
spare; and, though not in form an enoyclopa dia he
will very rarely need or seek information on any
point connected With husbandry that this book viii
not raadily afford him. II. q.