lture in the Atlantic States is beginning to attract the attention
which its great importance demands. Thorough draining is, as yet, little
used among us, but a beginning has been made; and Judge French's book
will, doubtless, be of value in extension of the practice. If any reader
has not yet heard what thorough draining is, we would say, in brief,
that it consists in laying tile-pipes, from one and a half to three
inches in diameter, four feet under ground, at from twenty to sixty feet
apart, so inclined as to drain out of your ground all the water that may
be within three feet of the surface. This costs from $30 to $60 per
acre, and is in almost all kinds of arable land an excellent investment
of capital,--making the spring earlier, the land warmer, rain less
injurious, drought less severe, the crops better in quality and greater
in quantity. In short, thorough draining is, as our author says,
following Cromwell's advice, "trusting in Providence, but keeping the
powder dry."

* * * * *

_The Novels of James Fenimore Cooper_. Illustrated with Steel Engravings
from Drawings by Darley. New York: W.A. Townsend & Co.

The British Museum, it is said, has accumulated over twenty-seven
thousand novels written since the publication of "Waverley." With the
general diffusion of education the ambition of authorship has had a
corresponding increase; and people who were not inspired to make rhymes,
nor learned enough to undertake history, philosophy, or science, as well
as those who despaired of success in essays, travels, or sermons, have
all thought themselves capable of representing human life in the form of
fiction. Very few of the twenty-seven thousand, probably, are wholly
destitute of merit. Each author has drawn what he saw, or knew, or did,
or imagined; and so has preserved something worthy, for those who live
upon his plane and see the world with his eyes. The difficulty is, that
the vision of most men is limited; they observe human nature only in a
few of its many aspects; they cannot so far lift themselves above the
trivial affairs around them as to take in the whole of humanity at a
glance. Even when rare types of character are presented to view, it is
only a genius who can for the time assimilate himself to them, and so
make their portraits life-like upon his canvas. In every old-fashioned
town there are models for new Dogberrys and Edie Ochiltrees; our
seaports have plenty of Bunsbys