A few years ago, all the world was agog about electricity applied to
vegetation. Sanguine persons grew red in the face with excitement, and
enterprising schemers hoped to supersede all past processes of culture
by this magical fluid. Things were to be made to grow not only as fast
as lightning but _by_ lightning. Those mischievous bolts which had
played their dangerous pranks with chimneys, oaks, and towers, were to
be regularly harnessed and set to work in the field like horses or
oxen. Many of our readers will recollect how widely the agricultural
papers copied the glowing accounts brought from over the seas; and
nobody was afraid of anything except of not believing enough.
Well, the lightning has been too smart for them; and the whole pack
which opened loud on the scent, are now heard just as loud on the back
track. It usually takes two foolings to satisfy the public. They first
swing to an extreme folly of injudicious admiration, and them vibrate
to the opposite extreme of disgust. Everybody was fever-hot with morus
multicaulis; and then they went into chills about it. Durham stock
brought almost their weight in silver at one time, and then could
hardly be sold at butchers’ prices. Berkshire hogs were all the rage,
and now are in great and unmerited contempt. The guano fever sent
hundreds of ships a-dung-hunting all over the earth: and lucky were
they who espied a precious heap of excrement. How little did the
penguins and sea gulls of the Pacific imagine, that their unconscious
observance of the laws of nature was one day to figure so largely on
the British Exchange, and to raise such a bustle in chemical
laboratories!
We believed but few of these accounts of electricity, because we
perceived nothing which could be regarded as settled. And now, we are
far from sympathizing with the recantations and apostasies from the
electric faith. Like all other things driven to extremes, we shall by
and by see it settle upon a middle point.
Editors are not without blame for these actions and reactions. Many of
our best agricultural papers are connected with agricultural
warehouses which deal largely in all articles for which there is an
agricultural demand. Without the slightest intention of deception,
nay, with a desire to act cautiously, such pecuniary interest may
sensibly affect the judgment of sanguine editors. But the wish to
issue a spicy paper, full of life and surprise, inclines an editor to
publish whatever is new, without a scrutiny of its truth. With a few
honorable exceptions of standard periodicals, we scarcely take an
agricultural paper which does not contain most absurd stories gravely
indited without a word of comment. Now, it seems to us that
agricultural papers ought not to be the common sewers of news, full of
waste and refuse matter; but registers of rigid facts and scientific
expositors of the principles deducible from facts. Farmers are at
fault also in the matter. An editor who depends for his support upon
the proceeds of his paper, must be a man of rare independence if he
can shield himself from the selfish influence of those who are his
best supporters. Men that have a novelty, a new and precious jewel of
a flower, a heavy stock of nursery commodities, or large herds of
fancy stock, sheep or swine, can afford to circulate widely and praise
any paper that will circulate widely and praise their special
interest. A sanguine editor inditing a eulogistic article, with a
red-hot speculator whispering at each ear, will be very likely to lead
many simple farmers astray. Such articles, copied by newspapers,
spread the infection beyond the circle of subscribers. Farmers that
take, and farmers that do not take the paper will be deceived.
Now, let husbandmen give to their agricultural papers such a support
as shall leave the editors free from temptations to listen to
interested persons; let them contribute so freely of their
observations that editors will not have to draw upon their imagination
for facts, and the agricultural press will become sober, stable,
accurate, and so, profitable.