THIRTEENTH THOUSAND. THE FARMER'S EVERY-DAY OR, SKETCHES OF SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COUNTRY: WITH THE POPULAR ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL AGRICULTURE, AND TWELVE HUNDRED LACONICS AND APOTHEGMS RELATING TO ETHICS, RELIGION, AND GENERAL LITERATURE; ALSO, FIVE HUNDRED RECEIPTS ON HYGEIAN, DOMESTIC, AND RURAL ECONOMY. "Would you be strong? Go follow up the plough; BY THE REV. JOHN L. BLAKE, D.D. AUTHOR OF A FAMILY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GENERAL LITERATURE NEW YORK AND AUBURN: NEW YORK: 25 PARK ROW-AUBURN: 107 GENESEE-ST. 1855. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by JOHN L. BLAKE, D.D. in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of New Jersey. AUBURN: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS. The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs, the better I am pleased with them; insomuch that B584 I can no where find so great satisfaction as in those useful pursuits. PREFACE. THE following work has been prepared at intervals of ime. amid the supervision of a farm; of moderate size, indeed, but at first destitute of everything deserving the name of culture; literally, a waste, without buildings or fences. Possessing some natural capabilities for a desirable residence, his attention was directed to it. Having had little or no practical knowledge of agriculture since he was a small boy, he had comparatively to learn everything as he progressed. His habits and pursuits of life had prepared him to look beyond the mere improvement of his own premises; to the subject of agriculture generally, and especially to the social and intellectual interests of rural life. Hence, he very soon abandoned the prosecution of some labors on general literature that had been begun, in order that the time appropriated to them might be directed to subjects suggested by objects with which he had now become more immediately surrounded. Another work simply embracing the elements of agriculture may not be needed. Works of that description are already numerous; and some of them from individuals far more competent than the author. We experience no want of good agricultural books, but of a disposition in the agricultural community to use them. There is an inexplicable prejudice against book-farming, as it is called; and, the presumption is, that there is in our country not one farmer in ten, if there is one in twenty, possessing a book of any sort on the subject. The design of the author is to overcome this prejudice; to induce agriculturists to avail themselves of the experience of others; Science must be combined with practice, to make a good farmer. 283721 Agriculture is the art of arts-without it man would be a savage, and the world a wilderness. |