2. OF THE MEANS OF OVERCOMING THOSE DIFFICULTIES.

“We can clear these ambiguities.”
Romeo and Juliet.

Experience undoubtedly dissipates doubt and removes perplexity; but experience, though a sure and a safe, is a slow teacher. A whole year must revolve ere the entire labors of a farm can be exhibited in the field, and the young farmer satisfactorily understand what he is about; and a whole year is too much time for most young men to sacrifice. Could the young farmer find a monitor to explain to him, during the first year of his apprenticeship, the purpose for which every operation on a farm is performed, –foretell to him the results which every operation is intended to effect,–and indicate to him the relative progress which all the operations should make, from time to time, toward the attainment of their various ends, he would thereby acquire a far greater quantity of professional information, and have greater confidence in its accuracy, than he could possibly obtain for himself in that anxious period of his novitiate. Such a monitor would best be an experienced and intelligent farmer, were he duly attentive to his pupil. Farmers, however, can scarcely bestow so much attention as would be desired by pupils at all times; because the lapses of time occasioned by necessary engagements, in the fulfilment of which farmers are sometimes obliged to leave home, produce inattention on the part of the farmer; and inattention and absence combined constitute sad interruptions to tuition, and cannot always be avoided by the most painstaking farmer. But a book might be made an efficient assistant-monitor. If expressly written for the purpose, it might not only corroborate what the farmer inculcated, but serve as a substitute in his temporary absence. In this way tuition might proceed uninterruptedly, and the pupil never want a monitor upon whom he could confidently rely. Were a book, purposely so arranged, put into the hands of young farmers so circumstanced, the usual deprecations against recommending the acquirement of practical farming from books alone would not here apply. I would give no such counsel to any young farmer; because books on farming, to be really serviceable to the learner, ought not to constitute the arena on which to study farming–the field being the best place for perceiving the fitness of labor to the purposes it is designed to attain–but as monitors for indicating the best modes of management, and showing the way of learning those modes most easily. By these, the practice of experienced farmers might be communicated and recommended to beginners. By consulting those which had been purposely written for their guidance, while they themselves were carefully observing the daily operations of the farm, the import of labors–which are often intricate, always protracted over considerable portions of time, and necessarily separated from each other–would be acquired in a much shorter time than if left to be discovered by the sagacity of beginners.

It is requisite to explain that, by the phrase “young farmer,” I mean the young man who, having finished his scholastic and academical education, directs his attention, for the first time, to the acquirement of practical farming; or who, though born on a farm, having spent the greater part of his life at school, determines, at length, on following his father’s profession. For the latter class of young men, tuition in farming, and information from books, are as requisite as for the former. Those who have constantly seen farming from infancy can never be said to have been young farmers; for, by the time they are fit to act for themselves, they are proficients in farming. Having myself, for a time, been placed precisely in the position of the first description of young men, I can bear sincere testimony to the truth of the difficulties I have described as having to be encountered in the first year of apprenticeship. I felt that a guide-book would have been an invaluable monitor to me, but none such existed at the time. No doubt it is quite reasonable to expect of the farmer ability to instruct the pupils committed to his charge in a competent manner. This is certainly his duty; which, if rightly performed, no guide-book would be required by pupils; but very few farmers who receive pupils undertake the onerous task of instruction. Practical farming they leave the pupils to acquire for themselves in the fields, by imperfect observation and slow experience, as they themselves had previously done; theoretical knowledge, very few, if any, are competent to impart. The pupils, being thus very much left to their own application, can scarcely avoid being beset with difficulties, and losing much time. At the same time it must be acknowledged that the practice gained by slow experience is, in the end, the most valuable and enduring. Still, a book on farming, expressly written to suit his circumstances, might be a valuable instructor to the young farmer; it might guard him against the difficulties which learners are apt to encounter; and it would recompense him for loss of time, by imparting sound professional information. .

Such a book, to be really a useful instructor and correct guide, should, in my estimation, possess these necessary qualifications. Its principal matter should consist of a clear narrative of all the labors of the farm, as they occur in succession; and it should give the reasons fully for which each piece of work is undertaken. While the principal operations are narrated in this way, the precise method of executing every species of work, whether manual or implemental, should be minutely detailed. The construction of the various implements by which work is performed–the mode of using them–the accidents to which each is liable–should be circumstantially described. A seasonable narrative of the principal operations will show the young farmer that farming is really a systematic business, having a definite object in view, and possessing the means of attaining it. The reasons for doing every piece of work in one way, rather than another, will convince him that farming is an art founded on rational and known principles. A description of the implements, and of the method of using them, will give him a closer insight into the nature and fitness of field-work for attaining its end, than by any other means. A perusal of these narratives, all having a common object, will impart a more comprehensive and clearer view of the management of a farm in a given time, than he could acquire by himself from witnessing ever so many isolated operations. The influence of the seasons on all the labors of the field is another consideration which should be attended to in such a book. In preparing the ground, and during the growth of the crops, the labor appropriated to each kind of crop terminates for a time, and is not resumed until a fit season arrive. These periodical cessations from labor form natural epochs in the progress of the crops toward maturity, and afford convenient opportunities for performing the work peculiarly appropriate to each epoch; and, since every operation of the farm is made to conform with its season, these epochs correspond exactly with the natural seasons of the year. I say with the natural seasons, in contradistinction to the common yearly seasons, which are, entirely conventional. This necessary and opportune agreement between labor and the natural seasons induces a corresponding division of the labors of the farm into four great portions, or seasons, as they are usually termed. Labor should, therefore, be described with particular reference to its appropriate season.