Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-11-29

Near The grave
Golden shcavcs reward our teafs,
Charm our SORROWS. stli our fears,
Till the grasses DER Us wave.
The Connecticut Agricultural Report.
1t used to be quered in England, "Who
reads an American book ?" Our trausat
lantic cousins have got over that, what with
Lougfellow, Emerson Hawthorne Prescott
Motley and the rest; but the question, " Who
reads an agricultural book 2" still awaits
satisfactory reply. The agricultural book
trade is about the very smallest branch Of
the extensive business Of publishing, aud
though the book agent pervades the land
and knocks often at the farmhouse door, it
is with a volume Of Mark Twain or some
popular theologian, never with the How
Crops Grow" and Feed of Johnson" or
"Downing's Fruit Trees of America" that
he beguiles the scrip from the farmers
pocket. He knows his market and equips
himself accordingly lie may sell the life
Of Grant, or some other general, but the lives
of the great farmers, stock breeders and hor-
ticuturists, or Of the great inventors Of agri-
cultural implements are yet 10 be written,
because nobody cares to read them. When
We see the portraits Of Liebig and Lawes
aud Bates and Blackwell and Hammond and
Downing and Thomas looking down upon
MS from the walls OF the farmers sitting
room, and their lives and writings in his
hands and upon his tables we shall expect
towrite leading articles upon something more
cheering than "The Decline Of our Agri-
culture"
As forlorn hope few Jealous men have
devised the plan Of furnishing the farmers
library with books relating to their art and
business, gratuitously, by government publi-
cation in hopes to generate taste for such
reading. As purist in political economy,
under our Republican institutions, it would
be difficult for us to defend this sort Of
thing. Book publishing at the public cost,
for the benefit Of a single class can only be
defended as public necessity. The clergy
might just as reasonably demand theological
treatises the doctor books on physiology and
pathology, the merchant compends Of the
laws OF trade, the workman textbooks OF
mechanics, gratis, from the government
printing Offices, as the farmer his "agricul-
tural reports 1t is an anomaly, justifable
only by the fact that the whole country
suffers from the ignorance, the gross, willful
ignorance of its agricuturists, to that extent
that temporary violence to the very prin-
ciples Of democratic administration must be
thus winked at.
All the New England States except Rhode
Island now issue these socaled " Reports"
not reports in any legitimate sense, as to the
bulk of their contents, but books of essays
and discussions upon all subjects related di-
rectly or indirectly to rural affairs. Among
them the reports of Connecticut rank very
high--were not comparisons odious, we
might be tempted to say at the head of all.
For Connecticut has among its citizens, be-
sides johnson and Brewer and Atwater,
leaders of our agricultural scientists, who are
also men of the pen as well as the plow-
men of zeal and public spirit in all that con-
Germs the improvement of the soil and its
culture, and the culture of those who labor
upon it.
Nine volumes of these reports have been
issued and along with those of Massachu-
sets, Maine and New Hampshire they make
a grand array upon our library shelves.
Another shelf, with the two volumes of Yer
mont reports, waits anxiousy to see whether
there will be enough scrub farmers in this
legislature to help the politicians discon-
tinue them, or whether the necessity of more
" winking will be recognized, and the Sc
ries be permitted to 60 on.
The last volume of the Connecticut report
for 1870, for which as well as for preceding
ones, we are indebted to the courtesy of Hon.
r. 5. Gold, secretary of the Connecticut
board, is, in the first place, deserving high
commentator for the skill and care with
which it has been edited and published.
The more noteworthy articles of this report
(where all are noteworthy are those upon
" Public Roads and their Construction by
skillful civil engineer; upon Fences" by
one who has evidently well studied the sub.
iecti upon Farmers Homes" 10y practi-
cal as well as tasteful writer; and the re.
port Of the pomologist of the Board, The
questionings and discussions are well re.
ported, and replete with instruction. Mr.
Gold has a right to be very proud of this
and all Of his nine volumes, and we trust his
state will continue to recognize his services
by keeping him long in the position he fills
50 skillfully and well.
But perhaps the most valuable, and at any
rate the most interesting part of the volume
is that which gives us an account of the pre-
liminary work Of the new Experiment
Station" lately established by the Connec
ticut legislature. So far, its operations have
been limited to the not strictly legitimate
work of Analysing commercial manures, but
this has been well done, and will be profta.
bic to the state. We are promised that the
regular work Of experimentation upon some
important farm problems will be at once
proceeded with; and as upon the efficiency
of this, and the wise choice OF subjects, will
greatly depend the chance of the multipli.
cation of these stations in other states, we
shall anxiously await the results of the la
bors of Director Atwater and his co-laborers
Farm Implements.
We take the following from the Journal
Of Progress -" Now that the crops are laid