n.

I notice, too, that, at about the same period, Dr. Beddoes, the friend
and early patron of Sir Humphry Davy at the Pneumatic Institution of
Bristol, wrote a book with the quaint title, "Good Advice to Husbandmen
in Harvest, and for all those who labor in Hot Berths, and for others
who will take it--in Warm Weather." And with the recollection of Davy's
description of the Doctor in my mind,--"uncommonly short and
fat,"[27]--I have felt a great interest in seeing what such a man should
have to say upon harvest-heats; but his book, so far as I know, is not
to be found in America.

A certain John Harding, of St. James Street, London, published, in 1809,
a tract upon "The Use of Sugar in Feeding Cattle," in which were set
forth sundry experiments which went to show how bullocks had been
fattened on molasses, and had been rewarded with a premium. I am
indebted for all knowledge of this anomalous tractate to the
"Agricultural Biography" of Mr. Donaldson, who seems disposed to give a
sheltering wing to the curious theory broached, and discourses upon it
with a lucidity and coherence worthy of a state-paper. I must be
permitted to quote Mr. Donaldson's language:--"The author's ideas are no
romance or chimera, but a very feasible entertainment of the
undertaking, when a social revolution permits the fruits of all climes
to be used in freedom of the burden of value that is imposed by
monopoly, and restricts the legitimate appropriation."

George Adams, in 1810, proposed "A New System of Agriculture and Feeding
Stock," of which the novelty lay in movable sheds, (upon iron
tram-ways,) for the purpose of soiling cattle. The method was certainly
original; nor can it be regarded as wholly visionary in our time, when
the iron conduits of Mr. Mechi, under the steam-thrust of the Tip-Tree
engines, are showing a percentage of profit.

Charles Drury, in the same year, recommended, in an elaborate treatise,
the steaming of straw, roots, and hay, for cattle-food,--a
recommendation which, in our time, has been put into most successful
practice.

Mowbray, who was for a long time the great authority upon Domestic Fowls
and their Treatment, published his book in 1803, which he represents as
having been compiled from the memoranda of forty years' experience.

And next, as illustrative of the rural literature of the early part of
this century, I must introduce the august name of Sir Humphry Davy. This
I am warranted in doing on two severa