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could not be said of "committing words to memory," that it is "not an intellectual exercise," nor that in any exercise of it whatever the intellect is untouched." Nor does it accord with our idea of the human intellect, that any of its movements or powers can be properly compared to a bag or a basket, or the casing that sausages are stuffed in, and so, "crammed," and damaged in the process of cramming; nor would we say of such bag or sausage casing, that it was "crippled," nor of any thing else, that it "shared the cripple."

On page 8, same article, we have the following: "The teacher's office is no sinecure. He or she that undertakes, under such impression, and so intending to work it, may be assured of being most grievously mistaken." That is, the writer first asserts, that the office of teacher is " "no sinecure," and then assures us, that whoever undertakes it, under the impression that it is "no sinecure," will find himself most grievously mistaken."

On page 21, we have an article headed "Educators," which commences thus: "Those creations are not alone educators that rule in our colleges, academies and school houses." The word teacher is defined-"a creation that rules in colleges," &c. In the article previously noticed, it was repeatedly called “the teaching element."

Again, "Nature is a teacher, and we are taught thereby to look through Nature up to Nature's God." She teaches us to look through herself. Nature may be said to be indeed, in some sort, a teacher, but it does not follow that "we are taught thereby to look through nature, &c., any more than we are taught thereby "reading and writing." If there are sermons in stones," it must be acknowledged they are hard books to read, and only open to cultivated minds.

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The leading idea of this article is to call attention to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as an "Educator." We learn for the first time that this great enterprise, which it was generally supposed, was designed to develop the material resources and build up the commercial interests of the State, has been "conceived," and is still carried on, for educational purposes, and that John W. Garret, Esq, is perhaps the "Head centre" of the primary school system of the State, and will, Lo doubt, in the shrewd way that people give him credit for, be associated with Dr. Nelson in editing the Journal. This is a sly proceeding, it must be confessed, in behalf of the education of the masses. If we are mistaken about it, let it be laid to our charge in

not comprehending the language of the Jour nal; here it is: "Hence we have reason to thank the men of enterprise who conceived, and who still carry on among us this great work, to educate the masses, for we yet have among us those who need to be educated," &c. &c.

Our limits and time forbid us to dwell longer or make any further note of such passages as we have marked. Let us say, in conclusion, that it is a serious matter to have our educational interests represented abroad in such guise, whatever may be its influence among curselves. We can well understand, that Dr. Van Bokkelen, in his zeal to accomplish a great deal, has given his endorsement to the Educational Journal, in colfidence of its becoming a useful instrument for his purposes, and that he has found it impossible to give it that superintendence which the use of his name as editor seemed to demand. If what we have said shall have the effect of bringing its past defects to the notice of the accomplished gentleman who now takes hold of it, in such manner as to command his effective supervision, we shall hope to have a Journal worthy of its high position, and our purpose in making these comments will have been accomplished.

A MOST USEFUL INVENTION.-One of the most useful and important inventions we have seen lately is the Tin-lined Lead Pipe, which will prevent the water passing through it from partaking of the taste of lead in its transmission. Cases of sickness which have occured from drinking water left standing in lead pipes can thus be obviated. The pipe will doubtless be generally adopted. In the pipe to which we allude one-fifth of the tickness is pure block tin, encased in four-fifths of lead, forming a perfect union of the tin and lead, and giving the pipe twice the strength of common lead pipe, while the price is less. Messrs. Colwell, Shaw & Willard, of New York, are the manufacturers.

SECURITY AGAINST FIRE.-The numerous letters received from our friends who suffered loss of books, accounts, valuable papers, &c., during the "fiery ordeal" throughout the South, induce us to draw attention to the advertisement of Mr. L. H. Miller, manufacturer of Iron Safes, in this city. We selected one of his make for our new office, believing it to be as good as any in the land.

WISCONSIN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.—We are indebted to J. W. Hoyt, Esq., secretary, for an invitation to attend the exhibition of this society at Madison, and also for programme and list of premiums.

Book Table.

DADD'S THEORY AND PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY, containing the Curative Treatment of diseases of Horses and Cattle, Sheep and Swine, and embracing all the latest information on the Rinderpest and Trichina. By Geo. H. Dadd, Veterinary Surgeon-Author of "Anatomy and Physiology of the Horse," "Modern Horse Doctor," "Cattle Doctor," Professor of

and Intolerance, Tevsk, Maximilian, The Chiffoniev, The Bill as it is. From the Leonard Scott Publishing Company, 14 Fulton street, N. Y.

THE LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW FOR JULY, 1867. Contents, New Paris, Cornish Antiquities, Reminiscences of Massimo d' Azeglio, The New Courts of Law, Mountain Climbing, Characteristics of English History, Agricultural Gangs,

Anatomy and Physiology in the Veterinary In-Hannibal's Passage of the Alps, The Church and her Curates, Reform Essays.

stitute of Chicago.

This work, of which we have received from the author a copy, contains near eight hundred pages of well printed matter, and is elegantly illustrated. We have not yet had time to examine it as we wish, but cannot doubt that it is a valuable addition to our stores of knowledge, on a most important subject. It is sold only by subscription.

HISTORY OF THE SOWING MACHINE, by James Parton, as originally published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for May, 1867.-We are indebted to McKenny & Co., No. 17 Sharp street, Agents for Maryland and Virginia of the Howe Sewing Machine, for this interesting publication.

THE CATAWISSA RASPBERRY.-C. D. Copeland, of Lima, N. Y., writes the Rural New Yorker thus concerning this fruit: "It is now, with us, in its blossoming stage for the autumn crop. This is produced by the canes of this year's growth. The first crop which is on the old canes, continues to redden the bush at this date

THE AMERICAN NATURALIST, a popular Illustrated Magazine of Natural History, published by the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.-This is a magazine that fills a want long felt in our serial literature. We have been plentifully supplied with magazines of light literature, and light enough most of it is too, and some of a mixed-Aug. 10th. A gentleman living in the town character containing scientific articles; but these are often so highly popularized, that the science is nearly lost sight of; and then we have a few like Silliman's Journal, useful only to the savans. But this magazine seems to us to occupy the middle ground where its influence will be to induce the young to study science. The articles are written in plain but scientific language, and its whole appearance is commendable.

MENTAL AND SOCIAL CULTURE. By Lafayette C. Loomis, A. M., M. D. New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co.-This little work is design

ed as a text-book for schools and academies.

The author is the president of the Female College at Wheeling, and he seems to have given much earnest thought to the subject treated of. Many of the chapters are abridged from Dr. Watts' "Improvement of the Mind;" and for maxims and rules of conversation and politeness the author is largely indebted to the writings of Chesterfield. His own views are advanced with clearness, and altogether the work is a valuable compendium.

BLACKWOOD FOR AUGUST.-Contents, Brownlows-Part VIII, The Social Era of George III, Life and Letters of Governor Winthrop, The Easter Trip of two Ochlophobists, Intemperance

of Catawissa, Pa., where the bush originated, in a private letter now before me, says: "In an experiment made by himself, forty hills that were three years old, yielded upon an average, from July until October, weekly, a quart to each hill."

We are in receipt of Annual Reports of the President and Secretary and Treasurer of the Mechanics and Agricultural Fair Association of Louisiana for 1867.

Also of Schedule of Premiums, amounting to $20,000, with rules and regulations and programme of proceedings of the Second Grand Fair of the Association, to commence on Tuesday, 19th of November, on their magnificent grounds in the city of New Orleans, to continue eight days.

We are indebted to Wm. McPherson, Jr., Esq, for Schedule of Premiums amounting to $25,000, of Seventh Fair of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association, to commence on Monday, 7th day of October, and continue six days,

John Mitchell, of Brookfield, Wis., raised forty-two bushels of spring wheat to the acrethis year.

For the "American Farmer."

Hops-What Varieties to Plant.

BY AN OLD HOP GROWER.

It is a well-known fact that almost, if not quite every press and paper, has devoted much time and many columns upon the different varieties of produce of nearly every kind and description, and thousands if not millions of dollars have been spent in attempting to search out the true paths to future success and happiness. In every circle of farmers we hear the question argued, "What varieties of grain is best to sow to insure the largest yield? What variety of potato is most hardy and productive? What varieties of fruit trees to plant?" and so on with farm produce of all kinds.

The gardener is in constant pursuit of the most hardy, productive and valuable varieties of fruits, berries, and vegetables of every description. So with the herdsman-unknowu thous ands have been spent in searching out the best breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, swine, and fowls. The same may be said of the vineyardist. Innumerable columns have been written upon the different varieties of grapes, to obtain the most hardy, productive and valuable grades, and the most formidable against the attacks of vermin and diseases.

one thousand to fourteen hundred pounds per acre, and of an inferior quality.

I have frequently known whole vineyards of the inferior grades totally destroyed by insects, while the English Cluster stood side by side, without receiving scarcely any perceptible injury.

BELLEVUE FARM,

Near Amherst Court House, Va.

Editors American Farmer:

A communication over the signature of "Ploughman" refers to a Centrifugal Disseminator as an efficient machine for destroying grape vines with sulphur, seeding grain, &c., and suggests that the same might be made a destructive engine of warfare. I have had one of these things, a small affair, backled to a man, for seeding grain and grass seed, for several years past, but there is great difficulty in seeding a particular quantity to the acre, or an even distribution of seed. The piece of your correspondent reminds me that some years ago an aged and intelligent gentleman of Texas called on me, when on bis way to Washington to procure patents for his invention, to which he laid claim. One was this Centrifugal Disseminator as an engine of war for throwing balls, and which he claimed would prove so powerfully destructive as to destroy whole armies at once, and must therefore put an end to all war.

The other was an improved Corn Mill.

The

While the pen and press have been nearly silent upon the cultivation of hops, its acreage, use and value has been rapidly increasing.improvement to which he laid clalm was, in first Whereas, as yet, very little has been said and but few columns, if any, have been devoted in regard to the best variety to be cultivated.

From this neglect, nearly all the inexperienced suppose there is but one variety. To such, this is a sad and fatal mistake. There are as many different kinds of hops as of fruit or grapes, and as liable to the attack of diseases. At the present time the hop crop stands No. 1 among the most saleable and best paying products of the country; and as the vermin are making their attacks upon this noble plant, the future success of the grower will depend entirely upon the selection of the variety that is most formidable against the attacks of its enemies.

In many of the oldest hop growing districts experiments have been made on the different varieties, side by side, and results have satisfactorily proven the English cluster to be far superior in every respect. They are the earliest, rich, hardy, productive and saleable variety known. The average yield of the English Cluster is from eighteen hundred to twenty-five hundred pounds per acre, while the average of others is but from

passing the corn between two steel plates, over the hopper, the inner surfaces were jagged, or rather they were coarse rasps. The corn was rasped into coarse meal, with great rapidity, into the eye of the stones, the latter being only required to round the meal and give to it even

fineness.

I never learned whether the gentleman succeeded in turning his inventions to account. He could scarcely have awakened at that day and in this country, any interest in implements of warfare. I would suggest to him that he might just

now meet with better success.

I think some invention for even cracking the grains of corn before they pass into the mill stones, would be found an improvement; and the inventor referred to said his idea was suggested by examining the teeth of graniverous animals, intended for this purpose.

W. A. STAPLES.

The "Disseminator" above referred to used to be extensively advertised, but we have heard nothing of it of late. It is so with failures generally, and our correspondent has our thanks

for setting the example of reporting as well failures as successes. Failing of its peaceful purposes, let us hope it may make for peace by a more successful application of its warlike capabilities.-ED. FAR.

To the Editor of the American Farmer:

This plant, in full flower, is presented in your office. Will you be so kind as to declare in your next issue if it is the Canada Thistle? If not, what is it? Information will be thankfully received by a subscriber.

The plant left as above is not Canada Thistle, but belongs to the Solanum family, and its common name is Horse-Nettle.-ED. FAR.

efficiency, is the great drawback to the business of a farmer. This is greatly lessened, but cannot be wholly superseded, by machinery. There may be said to be two classes who make farming a paying business. The one, born and brought up in the country, accustomed to labor, early rising and abstemious habits, works with and leads his men, thus getting more labor and at a low cost. By halil, by inclination, and by necessity, he has been taught to look on the paternal acres as the only source of competency, if not wealth, and as affording the only means of a settlement on arrival at manhood. Every one can point to hundreds of cases like this, in every section of the country, where such beginners, after passing through the ordinary active period The Profits of Farming. of life, have settled down at last in a quiet evenWhile the business of Farming in many re- ing and an abundant competency. These men spects differs from all other business, we have started on the shia of beef, and they can afford never been able to see that in the general princi- to finish off on the rib." Money with this class ples on which it is to be conducted, it is excep- is made and saved, and it is also accumulated by tional in character, or differs from all other saving. Their own labor and unremitted attenpursuits more than they differ from each other. tion and devotion to business, makes up, and These differences are in kind, but not in degree. more than makes up, often, for inadequate and A man may make a successful merchant or an un- unscientific culture. The other class ad verted to, successful farmer, and vice versa, and precisely who also make money by farming, consists of the same reasons operate in both cases. Success those who, brought up in the city, have yet a in any pursuit implies first that a man must be preference for agricultural life. They cannot interested in it, that he must make himself labor, but they have capital. They invest in thoroughly master of it in principle and in prac-good laud, and, by draining, liming and manurtice, and then that he must attend to it energeting, by deep ploughing and thorough culture, ically and perseveringly. raise premium crops. Their live stock embraces the best breeds, and yields the largest products. If their cows and sheep cost some hundreds of dollars each, they also yield a heavy percentage or profit on the investment. A cow costing $350 (a frightful price to many farmers) is considered a very profitable investment, if she produces a calf which is worth $100 at a few weeks old, and also yields $50 to $75 worth of milk and butter per anum.

It is utterly impossible to carve doctors and lawyers out of some people, and we know of one person who failed three times as a dry goods merchant, and afterwards succeeded, and became very wealthy, as a machinist. We happen to know of another case, where a person seems to have a dislike to green grass and green fields, remaining in Philadelphia as a matter of choice through the whole of the most sultry season, often remarking "that nothing looks so green These men have a working capital to expend in and delightful as the red bricks." Let circum- the management of their land, and they charge stances of any kind place this person in posses- it (the land) with the interest of this capital, sion of a fine farm, well ornamented, and stocked and do not saddle the outlay on the annual crop. with the finest cows, sheep, horses, &c., and we We know of cases like these where money to a should soon hear of farming being very unprofit-pretty large amount has been invested in such able,-of the expenses of fencing, of accidents farming, and where it is considered to pay, to the live stock, of short crops, and everything | taking an average of five or ten years, as well working the wrong way. Aversion to a business as merchandising. of any kind is no more certain to result in want of success than is ignorance of the proper way to manage it; and this brings us to the question of why farming has the standing stigma of being, per se, unprofitable.

A cow making six pounds of butter only per week would soon be weeded out and sold to the butcher, and 150 bushels of potatoes to the acre, 40 bushels of corn or oats, 20 of wheat, and one and a half tons of hay, would be considered beIt cannot be disputed that in the United hind the times, and as more adapted to the earlier States the high price of labor, no less than its in-years of the 19th century, and most certainly

not its last half. These men have been accustomed to keeping regular book accounts with their business, giving it debits and credits for profits and losses, and they decline to grow oxeye daisy, wild carrot and other noxious weeds, because they will not pay, the market for them being always a dull one. For the same reason they consider it rather cheaper to stop the liquid waste from their barnyards than to pay $100 per ton for Peruvian guano.-Practical Farmer.

Experiments in Feeding Cattle. In England every thing connected with agriculture is experimented in, without regard to expense, in every possible way. In no country has the cultivation of the soil been carried to a higher state of perfection, or in which it is more productive, and as an occupation, more lucrative. We always read with pleasure the results of farming, and especially the many experiments which are tried there with a view to discover the most successful and profitable way of conducting the various operations on the farm.

The following experiment in feeding cattle with cooked and with fermented food, was lately tried upon one of the largest estates. It will be seen that this experiment suggests the importance of great care and cantion in feeding, before a decided opinion is adopted in so nice and delicate a subject as the nutrition of animals, the health and constitution of which is so various.

Four heifers were selected, as equal in all respects as possible: and six pigs were also selected, from the same family; each lot was divided by the selection, alternately, of an animal. All were weighed, and at the end of each week during the experiment each animal was weighed.

In the first week of the experiment the fermented food consumed was much less than the other, and the increase of the pigs in live weight is considerable more; and the heifers also seemed to have made rapid advances. The second week, however, changed the scene entirely. Those on cooked food were making steady progress, while those on fermented food had produced scarcely an increase from the preceding week. It was then observed that the bowels of the lot using fermented food had been confined, and had become free in the second. The apparent success in the first week was the result of indigestion and accumulations of undigested matter in the intestines. The experiment continued for twelve weeks-those on cooked food thriving and increasing, the others not. On slaughtering them, it was found that the intestines of the three fed on fermented food were full of worms-thus

accounting for their not advancing. There was a difference in the return of the lots of pigs in favor of those fed on cooked food of £1 7 3.

Knowing as we do that there is a considerable difference of opinion among farmers upon this question, the above is submitted to their attention in the hope that they will give us their own views upon the subject, which is one, they will all admit, worthy of consideration.-German town Telegraph.

Manuring The Wheat Crop

Manure holds the same relation to the farm that steam does to the engine; it is the force used to accomplish the desired result. Let the one fail in the engine and the wheels stop, let the other be withdrawn from the soil and its useful products rapidly and constantly diminish. If the farmer cannot manure every crop, then he should consider from which he can best afford to withhold the fertilizers. If he designed growing a crop of oats, followed by one of wheat, it would not be wise to apply the manure to the oat crop and give none to the wheat. It would not pay as well; the crop of manure would be sold in a cheap market. So, too, it might be injudicious to manure a crop of potatoes and have none to apply to the succeeding grain. The season in which manure should be applied, the stage of the crop, and the depth at which it should be placed, are also topics which the farmer should think much about. Many consider that if manure is only buried in the soil it is enough, no matter whether it be deep or shallow, whether the subsoil be firm or leachy, if the manure is in the earth the crops, they argue, will get the full benefit of it-some time or another. But this is not always true, and it is certainly more scientific and profitable farming to apply manure-not to increase the general fertility of the soil with a view to benefiting several crops in successionbut to directly augment the yield of a specified crop. This course will bring the most profit, for products which command the highest prices are thus largely increased.

Doubtless most farmers will asseat to the assertion that the wheat crop needs manure as much as any other one, and pays as well for its liberal application. But the profits of this opera tion may be greatly varied by the manner in which it is done. Plowing in mature deeply will not give as good results as placing it on, or just under, the surface. It is less labor for the farmer to plow in the manure, for it is easier to haul it on a hard surface than over freshly plowed ground. And then it is out of the way of the

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