Our Farm of Four Acres and the Money We Made by It — John Shaqi
Our Farm of Four Acres and the Money We Made by ItCoulton, Miss
History
Our Farm of Four Acres and the Money We Made by It
Coulton, Miss
Agriculture; Farm life
This little volume will possess rare interest for all who own a
"four-acre farm," or, indeed, a farm of any number of acres. Its chief
value to the American reader does not consist in its details of
practice, but in the enunciation and demonstration of certain
principles of domestic economy of universal application. The practice
of terra-culture must be varied to meet the different conditions of
soil and climate under which it is pursued; but sound general
principles hold good everywhere, and only need the exercise of
ordinary judgment and common sense for their application to our own
wants. This is now better understood than heretofore, and hence we are
better prepared to profit by draughts from the fount of universal
knowledge. We would not be understood as intimating, however, that
only the general principles set forth in this little book are of value
to us; the details of making butter and bread, feeding stock, etc.,
are just as useful to us as to the English reader. The two chapters on
making butter and bread are admirable in their way, and alone are
worth the price of the book. So, too, of domestics and their
management; we have to go through pretty much the same vexations,
probably a little intensified, as there is among us a more rampant
spirit of independence on the part of servants; but many of these
vexations may be avoided, we have no doubt, by following the
suggestion of our author, of procuring "country help" for the country.
Domestics accustomed to city life not only lack the requisite
knowledge, but are unwilling to learn, and will not readily adapt
themselves to the circumstances in which they are placed; in fact, the
majority of them "know too much," and are altogether too impatient of
control. A woman, however, must be mistress in her own house; this is
indispensable to economy and comfort; and the plan adopted by our
author will often secure this when all others fail.
We have not deemed it advisable to add anything in the way of notes;
we have made a few alterations in the text to adapt it better to the
wants of the American reader, and for the same reason we have altered
the English currency to our own. In other respects the work remains
intact. In some works of this kind notes would have been
indispensable, but in the present case we have thought we could safely
trust to the judgment of the reader to appropriate and adapt the
general principles set forth, leaving the application of details to
the shrewdness and strong common sense characteristic of the American
mind. The object of the work is rather to demonstrate a general
principle than to furnish all the minutiae of practice, though enough
of these are given to serve the purpose of illustration. The American
reader will not fail, of course, to make due allowance for the
difference of rent, prices, etc., between this country and England,
and the matter of adaptation then becomes a very simple affair.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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