, 1881-07-06
= 81. Q 10 go a v 81 I
l. ABooK-EARMER /.
BY N STEWART.

J0os1 ~
fafmerr was used as O terp7offepFeaehH1t
! was intended to refer to d man Msfohafy,
Ignorant, uuprscticaa,rand =oacourse=nnsac.
c%essful. Il was used by persons who
Believed that the art Of farming couid all
be learned behind the plow. no that
nothing remained to be known beyond
what was already known BY 1.-The most
ignorant man who ever plowed1 a fur
row. Now, it is a sad and serious truth
that none g think they khowss $50 vrnnehz
as they who know5 the least, and dt3 has
turned out that those pelsons who were
used but a few years ago 10 scorp; 9 BOOK
farmer, COR q farmer who read agricultural
papers and books, have been more helped
ard benefited by these very studious men
than they know of. In fact, they owe
nearly all that they know to books sand book
farmers, for if they have learned something
from other farmer, and have adopted plans
and methods and the use OF tools aud
implements and crops from them,
they have either directly or Indirectly
gained This knowledge from, bcokfarmers,
who learned it from books. There is
nothing new under the sun we are told.
And book-fa.ming is by no means new.
Some persons are apt to think that 1.-The
present age is the only one in which men
knew much, end that the cd times we Q
scarcely worth living through, SO Ignorant
were the people, of those days. But tins
is a great mistake. There were no rail
roads nor teIpgrophs in those timer, and
people were not so refined or cultured as
we now claim to be, but so Tar as
farming is concerned very much OF what
we know aud practice now was quite
commonly known then. Some of the
highest arts OF farming were practiced
thousands of years ago. The merlno sheep
was at its best at the time OF the Roman
Emperors, whose royal robes OF in'pe.ial
purple were woven from the finest ffeeces
from Spanish metinos, which were
carefully protected by coverings wrapped
around the sheep. That old boek-iarnier,
Virgil, teaches US the art and practice OF
the selection and breeding of seed, and our
modern pedigree" corn and wheat is
nothing more than the practice Of what he
advised. In many things those old
Romans could give ODDS to our best turmel2
shepherds, cattle breeders and feeders,
horeemen, and even bee-keepers, and
take the premium every time. After them
certainly came dark ages, in which the
arts Of peace were lost in the midst of
war and bloodshed, but when men emerged
from these the books, fortunately, were
left, and there were some book farmers
then who read those books, profted by
them, practiced their suggestions, and
other farmers learned by the example OF
those reading farmers. e4e'a
And SO we come down to what we mav
call the modern age, chat in which America
was ~peopied.; and in q measure wenmay
claim it as our own age,s because. our
country and people We're planted and
began to grow at the beginning Of it, And
it we go back to that period, the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, we may find
not only bookfarmers but books on
farming, in plenty. The farmer who
filings q gibe at a book farmer to-day
may be told that it is to ain old book
farmer that he owes the knowledge
of clover as a farm crop ; that the
practice .ofg drainage. of the rotation of
crops, OF green mannring, Of Summer fall
lows, OF cultivating crops, OF soiling; nay,
of the very. practice Of e~nsilagp, about
VIII CHI some persons are at their very wits
end of excitement, as being something
decidedly novel and worthy OF the very
l.l... oooe;lo~ot:oc Loaonaor 4hox, hoyo