University of Virginia Library

“The cultivation of the scholarly gentleman shows itself in every page,
and a sunny geniality of soul throws a softening tint over the ordinarily unpoetical
and angular characteristics of agriculture.”

“The instruction which it embodies will be none the less valued because
of the desultory method which the author has followed, or the many digressions
into which he has been beguiled. By the great mass of readers,
these very features will be considered as an additional charm. The light
and easy movement of the author's style, the graceful and delicate transitions
which he makes, the quiet humor in which he so naturally indulges,
the sly but good-natured satire which seems to drop so naturally from his
pen, and the unaffected yet chastened pathos into which he rises for a moment,
are all exquisitely wrought into a varied and beautiful tissue, which
is fitted to give perpetual delight to the cultivated reader, and to be itself an
instrument of culture to the unrefined.”

“It is a book whose merit can hardly be over-praised. It should be in
every farmer's library, as a volume full of practical advice to aid his daily
work, and full of ennobling suggestions to lift his calling into a kind of
epic dignity.”

“Mr. Mitchell has unusual skill in putting his experience, his culture,
his taste, his delicate perceptions, into such literary forms as to make them
of use to others. This work has the vitality which springs from love of
and acquaintance with nature, and will long be read as one of the best and
pleasantest pictures of a New-England farm, and of the charms and draw-backs
of our New-England country life.”