Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine | Page 6

practice is applied science.
[Footnote 3: Hesiod considered one other appendage to the homestead indispensable, to which Mr. Stephens does not allude, perhaps from feeling himself incompetent to advise.]
To some it may appear at first sight that our author has indulged in too much detail upon this subject; but he is not a true practical farmer who says so. The weather has always been a most interesting subject to the agriculturist--he is every day, in nearly all his movements, dependant upon it. A week of rain, or of extraordinary drought, or of nipping frost, may disappoint his most sanguine and best founded expectations. His daily comfort, his yearly profit, and the general welfare of his family, all depend upon the weather, or upon his _skill in foreseeing its changes_, and availing himself of every moment which is favourable to his purposes. Hence, with agricultural writers, from the most early times, the varied appearances of the clouds, the nature of the winds, and the changing aspects of the sun and moon, and their several significations, have formed a favourite subject of description and discussion. Thus of the sun Virgil says--
"Sol quoque, et exoriens et quum se condet in undas, Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntir. Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris."
And then he gives the following _prognostics_, as unerring guides to the Latian farmer:--
"Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum, Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe; Suspecti tibi sint imbres.... Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros. At si quum referetque diem condit que relatum Lucidus orbis erit: frustra terrebere nimbis Et claro silvas cernes aquilone moveri."
Mr. Stephens recognises similar solar indications in the following rhymes:--
"If the sun in red should set, The next day surely will be wet; If the sun should set in grey, The next will be a rainy day."
And again--
"An evening red, or a morning grey, Doth betoken a bonnie day; In an evening grey and a morning red, Put on your hat, or ye'll weet your head."
In his next edition we recommend to Mr. Stephens's notice the Border version of the latter:--
"An evening red and a morning grey, Send the shepherd on his way; An evening grey and a morning red Send the shepherd wet to bed."
The most learned meteorologists of the present day believe the moon to influence the weather--the practical farmer is sure of it--and we have known the result of the hay crop, in adjoining farms, to be strikingly different, when upon the one the supposed influence of the time of change was taken into account and acted upon, while in the other it was neglected. Mr. Stephens gives as true proverbs--
* * * * *
"In the wane of the moon, A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon."
And
"New moon's mist Never dies of thirst."
But Virgil is more specific--
"Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna Felices operum; quintam fuge.... Septuma post decumam felix et ponere vitem, Et prensos domitare boves."
And in these warnings he only imitates Hesiod--
[Greek: Pempias de hexaleasthai, hepei chalepai te chai ainai.]
And
[Greek: Maenos de isamenou trischaidecha taen haleasthai, Spezmatos azxasthai phuta de henthzepsasthai arisa.]
But the vague prognostics of old times are not sufficient for the guidance of the skilful and provident farmer of our day. The barometer, the thermometer, and even the hygrometer, should be his companions and guides, or occasional counsellors. To the description and useful indications of these instruments, therefore, a sufficient space is devoted in the book before us. We do not know any other source from which the practical farmer can draw so much meteorological matter specially adapted to his own walk of life, as from this chapter upon the weather.
All this our young farmer is not supposed to sit down and master before he proceeds with the proper business of his new farm; it will be a subject of study with him in many future months, and winters too. But after a most judicious recommendation, to observe and record whatever occurs either new or interesting in his field of labour--without which record he will not be able to contribute, as he may hereafter do, to the extension of agricultural knowledge--he is taught next, in an able chapter "upon soils and sub-soils," to study the nature of his farm more thoroughly; to ascertain its natural capabilities--the improvements of which it is susceptible--the simplest, most efficacious, and most economical means by which this improvement may be effected--and the kind of implements which it will be most prudent in him to purchase for tilling the kind of land of which his farm consists, or for bringing it into a more fertile condition. This chapter also draws largely, especially upon geological and chemical science, and affords another illustration of what, I trust, Mr. Stephens's book will more and more impress upon our working farmers, that skilful practice is applied science. We have