Notes on Fields and Cattle and Successful Farming, by the
Rev. W.- Holt Beever, M.A. (Bradbury and Evans), are both described on the title-page as "from a diary of an amateur farmer." If there has been• a sort of slur on this name, as implying an inferior or partial acquaintance with the subject, nothing can be better suited for doing away with it than such thoroughly practical and sensible little books as those before- us. An "amateur " farmer of this kind means a man who comes to hie- work with some culture, for which a man, one would think, must ba- the better, not the worse. Anyhow, the reviewer gets an advantage, for he has, as in this case, pleasant sprightly books to read. Whatever may be- their technical value, and this seems large to the present writer, chiefly,. he should say, from the simplicity and directness with which the author deals with his subject, their literary worth is unquestionable. For the• benefit of the world, we must quote a recipe against rage : "Fill your mouth with comfits. What with the delightful taste and the f ar of sputtering them out, a person is found to smooth down speedily."
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