Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Their articles may
individually be worthy of occasional consultation by the initiated;
but they present to the student a bewildering and motley jumble of
instruction, "beer" being found, perhaps, next neighbour to "beet,"
and "bones" in juxtaposition with "botany." Their prelections, written
in different styles, and by authors differing oftentimes in opinion,
resemble a multitude of loose, independent, and particoloured threads.
In the _Book of the Farm_ we find all rightly arranged, and woven
by one artist into a web of continuous and consentaneous narrative.
The concluding part of the work is entitled "Realisation," in which
the author places his pupil on a farm of his own, pointing out the
principles that should guide him in his choice of a farm, and teaching
him how he should reduce his knowledge into practice. This is not
the least valuable part of the work, and in the strongest manner
indicates the superior value that the author attaches to skill, energy,
and success in the actual practice of husbandry, in comparison with
any knowledge of the "Book theoric," or any passion for experimental
freaks. Having fairly embarked his agricultural alumnus in the business
of life, Mr Stephens, as if loath to leave him, still accompanies
him with invaluable directions, and continues to counsel him in
kindliest strain regarding the duties which he owes his servants,
his neighbours, his landlord, and himself. Upon the whole, there is
something approaching to epic excellence and dramatic unity in the
conception and execution of the work; and when the author, in his final
paragraph, bids us adieu, and expresses a hope that his labours may
prove profitable and instructive to his brethren, it is impossible not
to feel that the curtain has fallen upon a complete performance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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