![Three years in California [1851-54] cover](/books/content/76244/OEBPS/9189524413660457515_cover.jpg)
THE STOCKTON STAGE—THE PLAINS—SAN FRANCISCO—ITS PROGRESS—IMPROVEMENT IN STYLE OF LIVING—FEMALE INFLUENCE—EXTRAVAGANCE—FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA—EFFECTIVE POPULATION—AMERICANS AS COLONISTS—ENGLISH IN CALIFORNIA—MODERN DISCOVERIES OF GOLD—THEIR CONSEQUENCES.
After a month or two spent on the Tuolumne and Merced rivers, and in the more sparsely populated section of country lying still farther south, I returned to Sonora, on my way to San Francisco.
Here I took the stage for Stockton—a large open waggon, drawn by five horses, three leaders abreast. We were well ballasted with about a dozen passengers, the most amusing of whom was a hard dried-up man, dressed in a greasy old leathern hunting-shirt, and inexpressibles to match, all covered with tags and fringes, and clasping in his hand a long rifle, which had probably been his bosom-friend all his life. He took an early opportunity of informing us all that he was from Arkansas; that he came to “Calaforny” across the plains, and having been successful in the diggings, he was now on his way home. He was like a schoolboy going home for the holidays, so delighted was he with the prospect before him. It seemed to surprise him very much that all the rest of the party were not also bound for Arkansas, and he evidently looked upon us, in consequence, with a degree of compassionate interest, as much less fortunate mortals, and very much to be pitied.
We started at four o’clock in the morning, so as to accomplish the sixty or seventy miles to Stockton before the departure of the San Francisco steamer. The first ten or twelve miles of our journey were consequently performed in the dark, but that did not affect our speed; the road was good, and it was only in crossing the hollows between the hills that the navigation was difficult; for in such places the diggings had frequently encroached so much on the road as to leave only sufficient space for a waggon to pass between the miners’ excavations.
We drove about thirty miles before we were quite out of the mining regions. The country, however, became gradually less mountainous, and more suitable for cultivation, and every half-mile or so we passed a house by the roadside, with ploughed fields around it, and whose occupant combined farming with tavern-keeping. This was all very pleasant travelling, but the most wretched part of the journey was when we reached the plains. The earth was scorched and baked, the heat was more oppressive than in the mountains, and for about thirty miles we moved along enveloped in a cloud of dust, which soaked into one’s clothes and hair and skin as if it had been a liquid substance. On our arrival in Stockton we were of a uniform colour all over—all identity of person was lost as much as in a party of chimney-sweeps; but fortunately the steamer did not start for an hour, so I had time to take a bath, and make myself look somewhat like a white man before going on board.
The Stockton steamboats, though not so large as those which run to Sacramento, were not inferior in speed. We steamed down the San Joaquin at about twenty miles an hour, and reached San Francisco at ten o’clock at night.
San Francisco retained now but little resemblance to what it had been in its earlier days. The same extraordinary contrasts and incongruities were not to be seen either in the people or in the appearance of the streets. Men had settled down into their proper places; the various branches of business and trade had worked for themselves their own distinct channels; and the general style of the place was very much the same as that of any flourishing commercial city.
It had increased immensely in extent, and its growth had been in all directions. The barren sandhills which surrounded the city had been graded down to an even slope, and were covered with streets of well-built houses, and skirted by populous suburbs. Four or five wide streets, more than a mile in length, built up with solid and uniform brick warehouses, stretched all along in front of the city, upon ground which had been reclaimed from the bay; and between these and the upper part of the city was the region of fashionable shops and hotels, banks and other public offices.
The large fleet of ships which for a long time, while seamen’s wages were exorbitantly high, lay idly in the harbour, was now dispersed, and all the shipping actually engaged in discharging cargo found accommodation alongside of the numerous piers which had been built out for nearly a mile into the bay. All manner of trades and manufactures were flourishing as in a place a hundred years old. Omnibuses plied upon the principal thoroughfares, and numbers of small steamboats ran to the watering-places which had sprung up on the opposite shore.
The style of life had improved with the growth of the city, and with the increased facilities of procuring servants and house-room. The ordinary conventionalities of life were observed, and public opinion exercised its wonted control over men’s conduct; for the female part of creation was so numerously represented, that births and marriages occupied a space in the daily papers larger than they require in many more populous places.
Female influence was particularly observable in the great attention men paid to their outward appearance. There was but little of the independent taste and individuality in dress of other days; all had succumbed to the sway of the goddess of fashion, and the usual style of gentleman’s dress was even more elaborate than in New York. All classes had changed, to a certain extent, in this respect. The miner, as he is seen in the mines, was not to be met with in San Francisco; he attired himself in suitable raiment in Sacramento or Stockton before venturing to show himself in the metropolis.
Gambling was decidedly on the wane. Two or three saloons were still extant, but the company to be found in them was not what it used to be. The scum of the population was there; but respectable men, with a character to lose, were chary of risking it by being seen in a public gambling-room; and, moreover, the greater domestic comfort which men enjoyed, and the usual attractions of social life, removed all excuse for frequenting such places.
Public amusements were of a high order. Biscaccianti and Catherine Hayes were giving concerts, Madame Anne Bishop was singing in English opera, and the performances at the various theatres were sustained by the most favourite actors from the Atlantic States.
Extravagant expenditure is a marked feature in San Francisco life. The same style of ostentation, however, which is practised in older countries, is unattainable in California, and in such a country would entirely fail in its effect. Extravagance, accordingly, was indulged more for the purpose of procuring tangible enjoyment than for the sake of show. Men spent their money in surrounding themselves with the best of everything, not so much for display as from due appreciation of its excellence; for there is no city of the same size or age where there is so little provincialism; the inhabitants, generally, are eminently cosmopolitan in their character, and judge of merit by the highest standard.
As yet, the influence of California upon this country is not so much felt by direct communication as through the medium of the States. A very large proportion of the English goods consumed in the country find their way there through the New York market, and in many cases in such a shape, as in articles manufactured in the States from English materials, that the actual value of the trade cannot be accurately estimated. The tide of emigration from this country to California follows very much the same course. The English are there very numerous, but those direct from England bear but an exceedingly small proportion to those from the United States, from New South Wales, and other countries; and the latter, no doubt, possessed a great advantage, for, without undervaluing the merit of English mechanics and workmen in their own particular trade, it must be allowed that the same class of Americans are less confined to one speciality, and have more general knowledge of other trades, which makes them better men to be turned adrift in a new country, where they may have to employ themselves in a hundred different ways before they find an opportunity of following the trade to which they have been brought up. An English mechanic, after a few years’ experience of a younger country, without losing any of the superiority he may possess in his own trade, becomes more fitted to compete with the rest of the world when placed in a position where that speciality is unavailable.
California has afforded the Americans their first opportunity of showing their capacity as colonists. The other States which have, of late years, been added to the Union, are not a fair criterion, for they have been created merely by the expansion of the outer circumference of civilisation, by the restlessness of the backwoodsman unaided by any other class; but the attractions offered by California were such as to draw to it a complete ready-made population of active and capable men, of every trade and profession.
The majority of men went there with the idea of digging gold, or without any definite idea of how they would employ themselves; but as the wants of a large community began to be felt, the men were already at hand capable of supplying them; and the result was, that in many professions, and in all the various branches of mechanical industry, the same degree of excellence was exhibited as is known in any part of the world.
Certainly no new country ever so rapidly advanced to the same high position as California; but it is equally true that no country ever commenced its career with such an effective population, or with the same elements of wealth to work upon. There are circumstances, however, connected with the early history of the country which may not appear to be so favourable to immediate prosperity and progress. Other new countries have been peopled by gradual accessions to an already formed centre, from which the rest of the mass received character and consistency; but in the case of California the process was much more abrupt. Thousands of men, hitherto unknown to each other, and without mutual relationship, were thrown suddenly together, unrestrained by conventional or domestic obligations, and all more intently bent than men usually are upon the one immediate object of acquiring wealth. It is to be wondered that chaos and anarchy were not at first the result of such a state of things; but such was never the case in any part of the country; and it is, no doubt, greatly owing to the large proportion of superior men among the early settlers, and to the capacity for self-government possessed by all classes of Americans, that a system of government was at once organised and maintained, and that the country was so soon entitled to rank as one of the most important States of the Union.
The consequences to the rest of the world of the gold of California it is not easy to determine, and it is not for me to enter upon the great question as to the effect on prices of an addition to the quantity of precious metals in the world of £250,000,000, which in round numbers is the estimated amount of gold and silver produced within the last eight years. It seems, however, more than probable that the present high range of prices may, to a certain extent, be caused by this immense addition to our stock of gold and silver. But the question becomes more complicated when we consider the extraordinary impetus given to commerce and manufactures by this sudden production of gold acting simultaneously with the equally expanding influence of Free Trade. The time cannot be far off when this important investigation must be entered upon with all that talent which can be brought to bear upon it. But this is the domain of philosophers, and of those whose part in life it is to do the deep-thinking for the rest of the world. I have no desire to trespass on such ground, and abstain also from fruitlessly wandering in the endless mazes of the Currency question.
There are other thoughts, however, which cannot but arise on considering the modern discoveries of gold. When we see a new country and a new home provided for our surplus population, at a time when it was most required—when a fresh supply of gold, now a necessary to civilisation, is discovered, as we were evidently and notoriously becoming so urgently in want of it, we cannot but recognise the ruling hand of Providence. And when we see the uttermost parts of the earth suddenly attracting such an immense population of enterprising, intelligent, earnest Anglo-Saxon men, forming, with a rapidity which seems miraculous, new communities and new powers such as California and Australia, we must indeed look upon this whole Golden Legend as one of the most wondrous episodes in the history of mankind.
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
WORKS PUBLISHED
BY
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS,
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.
THE HISTORY OF EUROPE,
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN 1789 TO THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.
By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.
Library Edition (the Eighth), Fourteen Volumes Demy Octavo, with Portraits, £10, 10s. Crown Octavo Edition, Twenty Volumes, £6.
THE FIFTH VOLUME OF
THE HISTORY OF EUROPE.
FROM THE FALL OF NAPOLEON TO THE ACCESSION OF LOUIS NAPOLEON.
By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart. D.C.L.
Uniform with the Library Edition of the Author’s “History of Europe,” price 15s.
ATLAS TO ALISON’S HISTORY OF EUROPE.
By A. Keith Johnston, F.R.S.E., &c.
Author of the “Physical Atlas,” &c.
109 Maps and Plans of Countries, Battles, Sieges, and Sea-Fights, Coloured. Demy Quarto, to accompany the Library Edition, and other Editions of the History in Octavo, £3, 3s. Crown Quarto, to accompany the Edition in Crown Octavo, £1, 11s. 6d.
A New Edition, being the Third.
THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH.
By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.
Two Volumes Demy Octavo, with Maps and Portraits, price 30s.
“Unquestionably the best ‘Life of Marlborough.’”—Morning Post.
“Alison’s ‘Life of Marlborough’ is an enchaining romance.”—Blackwood’s Magazine.
PARIS AFTER WATERLOO.
NOTES TAKEN AT THE TIME, AND HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED; INCLUDING A REVISED EDITION—THE TENTH—OF A
VISIT TO FLANDERS AND THE FIELD.
By James Simpson, Esq., Advocate.
Author of “The Philosophy of Education,” “Lectures to the Working Classes,” &c.
With Two Coloured Plans of the Battle. Crown Octavo, price 5s.
“Numerous as are the accounts of Waterloo that have been published, Mr Simpson’s description may still be read with pleasure, from its freshness; it has the life of vegetation newly gathered—smacking of reality, little of books.”—Spectator.
A New Edition, in the Press.
CURRAN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.
By Charles Phillips, Esq., B.A.
“Certainly one of the most extraordinary pieces of Biography ever produced.... No library should be without it.”—Lord Brougham.
Three Volumes Octavo, price £1, 16s.,
A HISTORY OF MISSIONS.
By the Rev. W. Brown, M.D.
“We know not where else to find, within the same compass, so much well-digested and reliable information on the subject of Missions as in these volumes. The study of them will inspire the reader with new views of the importance, responsibility, and dignity of the Missionary work.”—American Bibliotheca Sacra.
Second Edition, Post Octavo, with Illustrations, price 7s. 6d.
THE ANGLER’S COMPANION TO THE RIVERS AND LOCHS OF SCOTLAND.
By Thomas Tod Stoddart.
Third Edition, in Octavo, with Illustrations, price 12s. 6d.
THE MOOR AND THE LOCH.
CONTAINING MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS IN ALL HIGHLAND SPORTS, WITH WANDERINGS OVER CRAG AND CORREI, FLOOD AND FELL.
By John Colquhoun, Esq.
THE STORY OF THE
CAMPAIGN OF SEBASTOPOL.
WRITTEN IN THE CAMP.
By Lieut.-Col. E. Bruce Hamley, Captain, R.A.
Originally published in Blackwood’s Magazine.
With Illustrations, drawn in Camp by the Author, price 21s.
THE POSITION ON THE ALMA.
A COLOURED PANORAMIC VIEW, DONE ON THE FIELD.
By Lieut.-Col. E. Bruce Hamley, Captain, R.A.
Price Ten Shillings and Sixpence.
“Along with this you will get some sketches of the Alma done on the spot, and worked up since I got my colour-box, &c., which were on board ship.”—Extract, from Lieut.-Col. Hamley’s Letter, Camp before Sebastopol, 29th December 1854.
Two Volumes, price £1, 7s. 6d.
HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE AND GREEK EMPIRES, 716-1453.
By George Finlay, Esq., Athens.
“It is the most complete and elaborate history of the Byzantine and Greek Empires that has appeared in an English form.”—Leader.
“At a time when so much attention is being devoted to the modern history of the Greek race, and to the constitution and history of the Greek Church, and when even our scholars are catching the enthusiasm, and insisting on the necessity of studying the modern Greek language and literature, Mr Finlay’s solid and careful works will be welcomed by all who read to be informed.”—Athenæum.
“Mr Finlay’s work deserves warm praise as a careful and conscientious performance. General readers might desire that their taste for ‘interesting’ details should have been provided for by the author. But the judicious and the scholarly will admire the severe abstinence that imparts a Doric severity to this manly and most creditable historical performance, which must confer no small distinction on its author’s name.”—Press.
By the same Author.
I. GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS, B.C. 146 TO A.D. 717. Octavo, 16s.
II. MEDIÆVAL GREECE, 1204-1461. Octavo, 12s.
MISS STRICKLAND’S LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND.
EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS AND HISTORICAL VIGNETTES.
Volumes 1 to 6 are published, price 10s. 6d. each.
“In no part of the voluminous and charming writings of Miss Strickland does she more forcibly recommend herself to the reader of history than in the interesting volume before us. Embracing a period in the annals of Scotland remarkable for the deeds of violence that were perpetrated in it, and presenting a picture of life and morality strongly contrasting with the results of modern civilisation, she has had a noble field within which to exercise her extraordinary talents for research, and has produced an historical narrative, unsurpassed, in point of interest and intrinsic merit, by any of those which have earned for her the high literary reputation she so deservedly enjoys.”—Morning Advertiser.
THE POEMS OF FELICIA HEMANS.
Complete in One Volume Large Octavo, with Portrait engraved by Finden, 21s.
Another Edition in Six Volumes Foolscap Octavo, 24s.
Another Edition, with Life, by her Sister, Seven Volumes, 35s.
“Of no modern writer can it be affirmed, with less hesitation, that she has become an English Classic, nor, until human nature becomes very different from what it now is, can we imagine the least probability that the music of her lays will cease to soothe the ear, or the beauty of her sentiment to charm the gentle heart.”—Blackwood’s Magazine.
Twenty-second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, price 7s. 6d.
THE COURSE OF TIME.
A POEM IN TEN BOOKS.
By Robert Pollok, A.M.
“Of deep and hallowed impress, full of noble thoughts and graphic conceptions—the production of a mind alive to the great relations of being, and the sublime simplicity of our religion.”—Blackwood’s Magazine.
LAYS OF THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS, AND OTHER POEMS.
By W. Edmondstoune Aytoun,
Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh.
Tenth Edition, Foolscap Octavo, 7s. 6d.
“Finer ballads than these, we are bold to say, are not to be found in the language.”—Times.
“Professor Aytoun’s ‘Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers’—a volume of verse which shows that Scotland has yet a poet. Full of the true fire, it now stirs and swells like a trumpet note—now sinks in cadences sad and wild as the wail of a Highland dirge.”—Quarterly Review.
Elegantly printed in Small Octavo, price 5s.
FIRMILIAN; OR, THE STUDENT OF BADAJOZ.
A SPASMODIC TRAGEDY.
By T. Percy Jones.
“Humour of a kind most rare at all times, and especially in the present day, runs through every page, and passages of true poetry and delicious versification prevent the continual play of sarcasm from becoming tedious.”—Literary Gazette.
“But we must leave our readers to unravel this mystery for themselves. Enough has been said and sung to make them acquainted with the claims of ‘Firmilian,’ to be deemed ‘the finest poem of the age.’”—Dublin University Magazine.
BOTHWELL: A POEM
By W. Edmondstoune Aytoun, D.C.L.,
Author of “Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers,” &c.
Second Edition.
In Crown Octavo, price 12s.
“A work which, for genius, originality of conception, and poetic brilliancy of execution has no rival in modern times. It not only sustains, but will enhance the deservedly high reputation of the author. The notes are peculiarly interesting, as containing a judicial collation and summary of the evidences which have induced the Sheriff of Orkney to record a verdict of acquittal in favour of Mary Stuart, and of reprobation of her self-interested accusers.”—Miss Strickland’s Lives of the Queens of Scotland, Vol. VI.
BON GAULTIER’S BOOK OF BALLADS.
Illustrated by Doyle, Leech, and Crowquill.
New Edition, square 12mo, price 8s. 6d.
An ILLUSTRATED EDITION of
THE COURSE OF TIME.
A POEM.
By Robert Pollok, A.M.
The Designs by Birket Foster, John Tenniel, and John R. Clayton.
Engraved by Edmund Evans, Dalziel Brothers, Green, &c.
In square 8vo, elegantly bound in cloth, price 21s.; or in morocco, price 32s.
“This sumptuously-printed book, with its vellum-like paper, its exquisite wood-engravings, rivalling in light and shadow, in softness of aerial perspective, in translucence of water, and in truth of foliage, the most highly-finished steel plates of the annuals and books of beauty of by-past years, is an unique and worthy issue of the great poem of Pollok, a bard who has now safely assumed a pedestal in the temple of poetic fame.”—Morning Advertiser.
Second Edition.
In small 8vo, with a Frontispiece, price 5s.
JESSIE CAMERON: A HIGHLAND STORY.
By the Lady Rachel Butler.
“Those who read ‘Jessie Cameron’ will desire at once that Lady Butler should continue to write Highland stories. It is a sweet and tender tale, and proves, on the part of the writer, a knowledge of humble life and character which can scarcely exist without a heartfelt sympathy with the joys and sorrows of the poor. This sympathy is abundantly manifested in the romance of Jessie Cameron’s loves and griefs and heroism—the heroism, the grief, the love, all equally touching, refined, unaffected.... No one can take up this very agreeable volume without becoming interested, and following its graceful drama to the end.”—Athenæum.
THE SKETCHER.
By the Rev. John Eagles, M.A. Oxon.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
Handsomely printed in 8vo, 10s. 6d.
“This volume, called by the appropriate name of ‘The Sketcher,’ is one that ought to be found in the studio of every English landscape-painter.... More instructive and suggestive readings for young artists, especially landscape-painters, can scarcely be found.”—The Globe.
ESSAYS; HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS.
By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.
Three Volumes Demy Octavo, 45s.
“They stamp him as one of the most learned, able, and accomplished writers of the age.... His Essays are a splendid supplement to his History, and the two combined exhibit his intellect in all its breadth and beauty.”—Dublin University Magazine.
Foolscap Octavo, 5s.
LECTURES ON THE POETICAL LITERATURE
OF THE PAST HALF-CENTURY.
By D. M. Moir (Δ).
“A delightful volume.”—Morning Chronicle.
“Exquisite in its taste and generous in its criticisms.”—Hugh Miller.
POETICAL WORKS OF D. M. MOIR (Δ).
With Portrait, and Memoir by THOMAS AIRD.
Two Volumes Foolscap Octavo, 14s.
“These are volumes to be placed on the favourite shelf, in the familiar nook that holds the books we love, which we take up with pleasure and lay down with regret”—Edinburgh Courant.
POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS AIRD.
A New Edition, complete in One Volume, Small Octavo.
Price 6s.
Second Edition, Crown Octavo, 10s. 6d.
THE POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER.
Translated by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart.
“The translations are executed with consummate ability. The technical difficulties attending a task so great and intricate have been mastered or eluded with a power and patience quite extraordinary; and the public is put in possession of perhaps the best translation of a foreign poet which exists in our language. Indeed, we know of none so complete and faithful.”—Morning Chronicle.
LADY LEE’S WIDOWHOOD.
By Lieut.-Col. E. B. Hamley,
Captain, R.A.
A New Edition, complete in One Volume, price 6s.
ZAIDEE: A ROMANCE.
By Mrs. Oliphant.
In Three Volumes, Post Octavo, price £1, 11s. 6d.
KATIE STEWART: A TRUE STORY.
Second Edition, in Foolscap Octavo, with Frontispiece and Vignette, 6s.
“A singularly characteristic Scottish story, most agreeable to read and pleasant to recollect. The charm lies in the faithful and life-like pictures it presents of Scottish character and customs, and manners, and modes of life.”—Tait’s Magazine.
Second Edition, Post Octavo, price 10s. 6d.
THE QUIET HEART.
By the Author of “Katie Stewart.”
“We cannot omit our emphatic tribute to ‘The Quiet Heart,’ a story which, with its deep clear insight, its gentle but strengthening sympathies, and its pictures so delicately drawn, has captivated numerous readers, and will confer on many a memory a good and pleasant influence.”—Excelsior.
THE MOTHER’S LEGACIE TO HER UNBORNE CHILDE.
By Elizabeth Joceline.
Edited by the Very Rev. PRINCIPAL LEE.
32mo, 4s. 6d.
“This beautiful and touching legacie.”—Athenæum.
“A delightful monument of the piety and high feeling of a truly noble mother.”—Morning Advertiser.
FARM ACCOUNTS.
In royal 8vo, bound in cloth, price 2s. 6d.,
A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF FARM BOOK-KEEPING;
BEING THAT RECOMMENDED IN “THE BOOK OF THE FARM”
BY HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E.;
ALSO,
SEVEN FOLIO ACCOUNT-BOOKS, constructed in accordance with the system, Printed and Ruled throughout, and bound in separate volumes; the whole being specially adapted for keeping, by an easy and accurate method, an account of all the Transactions of the Farm.
THE ACCOUNT-BOOKS CONSIST OF—
I. CASH-BOOK—Ruled with double money-columns for Dr. and Cr., showing the Cash received for produce sold off the Farm, the money paid on account of the Farm; and all general Cash and Banking transactions. Price 2s. 6d.
II. LEDGER—Ruled with single money columns, Dr. and Cr. on separate pages, containing Accounts with every Person or Company having transactions with the Farm. Price 5s.
III. FARM ACCOUNT—Contains the Cash received for all the Produce sold off the Farm, and the Cash paid for all the commodities required for the Farm, and these alone. Thus the Balance between the Dr. and Cr. sides of the Farm Account, at the end of the Agricultural Year, shows whether the farm has returned or consumed the largest amount of Cash. Price 2s. 6d.
IV. CORN ACCOUNT—Comprises all accounts and statements connected with—1. Wheat; 2. Barley; 3. Oats; 4. Straw; 5. Potatoes; 6. Turnips, Mangold-Wurzel, Carrots and Parsnips. These accounts show all the particulars connected with the different species of produce—the time when grain is thrashed—the parties to whom it has been sold—the uses which have been made of it on the Farm—the Balance of Grain on hand at any time in the Corn-barn and Granary—the weight of the Grain, and the prices obtained for it. Price 3s. 6d.
V. LIVE-STOCK ACCOUNT—Consists of Accounts relating to—1. Cattle; 2. Sheep; 3. Pigs; 4. Horses; showing the particulars of every species of Live-Stock, the disposal of them, the cash paid and the prices obtained for them, and the numbers on hand at different periods. Price 3s.
VI. LABOUR: ACCOUNT-BOOK—Contains, 1. Labour Journal; 2. Labour Account,—the former for showing the Labourers’ names, the days of the week on which they have been employed, and a register of the number of work-days in each week; the latter forming a summary of the amount of all the manual labour executed on the Farm in the course of a year, including the Harvest Expenses. Price 3s.
VII. FIELD-WORKERS’ ACCOUNT.—This is a simple form of keeping the Daily Labour-Account, enabling the total number of Days in which work has been done for half a year to be summed up and calculated at the rate of wages per day, when the gross amount of the half year’s earnings is brought out distinctly. Price 2s. 6d.
The Account-Books are sold separately, and the price of the complete Set, in Eight Volumes, is 24s. 6d.
ALSO,
A LABOUR ACCOUNT OF THE ESTATE.
This form of Labour Account is specially constructed for the use of Country Gentlemen, whether residing at home or abroad, who require returns to be made to them of the species of work which daily engages the time of their labourers in whatever capacity, and whether male or female; that is, besides Labourers and Field-Workers, the form is as well adapted to Gardeners, Foresters, Hedgers, Roadmakers, Quarriers, Miners, Gamekeepers, and Dairymaids. Price 2s. 6d.
“We have no hesitation in saying, that of the many systems of keeping farm-accounts which are in vogue, there is not one which will bear comparison with that just issued by Messrs Blackwood, according to the recommendations of Mr Stephens in his invaluable ‘Book of the Farm.’ The great characteristic of this system is its simplicity. When once the details are mastered, which it will take very little trouble to accomplish, it will be prized as the clearest method to show the profit and loss of business, and to prove how the soundest and surest calculations can be arrived at. We earnestly recommend a trial of the entire series of Books—they must be used as a whole to be thoroughly profitable—for we are convinced the verdict of our agricultural friends who make such a trial will speedily accord with our own—that they owe a deep debt of gratitude both to Mr Stephens and Messrs Blackwood for providing a method so complete and satisfactory to their hands.”—Bell’s Messenger.
“From experience we can strongly recommend this system to all actual and commencing agriculturists, combining, as it does, all the elements of utility with simplicity.”—The Field.
“Mr Stephens is so thoroughly conversant with all that is essential to be set down in the Farmer’s Account-Book, that it is something to find him induced to prepare a set of books for the agriculturist. These we find reduced by him to what must be regarded as the simplest and most essential element of a sound double entry system.... The ease and obvious accuracy of these books abundantly recommend them.”—Notts Guardian.
WORKS OF PROFESSOR WILSON.
EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW,
Professor Ferrier.
Publishing Quarterly, in Crown Octavo, price 6s. each Volume.
The Volumes published contain—
NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ.
Complete in Four Volumes, with Glossary and Index, price 24s.
ESSAYS, CRITICAL AND IMAGINATIVE.
CONTRIBUTED TO BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
Vols. 5, 6, and 7.
Future Volumes will contain—
RECREATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER NORTH.
POEMS.
TALES.
LECTURES ON MORAL PHILOSOPHY.
In Octavo, price 14s., with Illustrations by the Author.
THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA.
By J. D. Borthwick.
WORKS OF SAMUEL WARREN, D.C.L.
A Cheap Edition, in 5 Vols., price 24s. bound in cloth, viz.:—
Vol. I. Diary of a Late Physician, 5s. 6d.
Vols. II. & III. Ten Thousand a-Year, 2 vols., 9s.
Vol. IV. Now and Then, &c., 4s. 6d.
Vol. V. Miscellanies, 5s.
WORKS OF THE REV. THOMAS M‘CRIE, D.D.,
EDITED BY HIS SON,
Professor M‘Crie.
A New Edition, in Four Volumes, crown 8vo, price 6s. each.
Vol. I. Life of John Knox.
II. Life of Andrew Melville.
III. History of the Reformations in Italy and in Spain.
IV. Review of Sir W. Scott’s “Tales of my Landlord,” Sermons, &c.
Octavo, with Map and other Illustrations, Fourth Edition, 14s.
RUSSIAN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA IN THE AUTUMN OF 1852.
WITH A VOYAGE DOWN THE VOLGA AND A TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF THE DON COSSACKS.
By Laurence Oliphant, Esq.
Author of a “Journey to Nepaul,” &c.
“The latest and best account of the actual state of Russia.”—Standard.
“The book bears ex facie indisputable marks of the shrewdness, quick-sightedness, candour, and veracity of the author. It is the production of a gentleman, in the true English sense of the word.”—Daily News.
In Octavo, Illustrated with Engravings, price 12s. 6d.,
MINNESOTA AND THE FAR WEST.
By Laurence Oliphant, Esq.,
Late Civil Secretary and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs in Canada; Author of “The Russian Shores of the Black Sea,” &c.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.
Second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, price 4s.
LIFE IN THE FAR WEST.
By G. F. Ruxton, Esq.
“One of the most daring and resolute of travellers.... A volume fuller of excitement is seldom submitted to the public.”—Athenæum.
Two Volumes Octavo, with Maps, &c., price £1, 10s.
NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH SYRIA AND PALESTINE.
By Lieut. Van De Velde.
“He has contributed much to the knowledge of the country, and the unction with which he speaks of the holy places which he has visited, will commend the book to the notice of all religious readers. His illustrations of Scripture are numerous and admirable.”—Daily News.
Second Edition, in Crown Octavo, price 10s. 6d.
INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC: THE THEORY OF KNOWING AND BEING.
By James F. Ferrier, A.B., Oxon.
Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, St Andrews.
“It is a pleasure to meet with a man who, in these days of half-beliefs and feeble assertions, will venture to speak thus strongly. It is a still greater pleasure to meet with a man of profound thought and astonishing subtlety, who is able to express the most abstruse meanings in the most simple language, and to scatter the light spray of wit and pleasantry over those abysses of thought which lead down to the terrible Domdaniel roots of the ocean. We find it difficult to mention any other English work on metaphysics, with even half its power of thought, which can be compared with it in point of style. ‘The Institutes of Metaphysic’ is indeed the most suggestive work on the subject that has been published for many a long year, and it is the most readable.”—Daily News.
BURNETT TREATISE
(SECOND PRIZE.)
In One Vol. Octavo, price 10s. 6d.
THEISM: THE WITNESS OF REASON AND NATURE TO AN ALL-WISE AND BENEFICENT CREATOR.
By the Rev. J. Tulloch, D.D.
Principal and Primarius Professor of Theology, St Mary’s College, St Andrews.
ON THE ORIGIN AND CONNECTION OF THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE;
WITH SYNOPSIS OF PARALLEL PASSAGES AND CRITICAL NOTES.
By James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill, F.R.S.
Author of the “Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul.” Medium Octavo, price 16s.
“Displays much learning, is conceived in a reverential spirit, and executed with great skill.... No public school or college ought to be without it.”—Standard.
In Octavo, price 14s.
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT REFUGEES.
By Prof. Charles Weiss of the Lycee Buonaparte.
“We have risen from the perusal of Mr Weiss’s book with feelings of extreme gratification. The period embraced by this work includes the most heart-stirring times of the eventful History of Protestantism, and is of surpassing interest.”—Britannia.
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY.
NOW COMPLETED,
In Two large Volumes Royal Octavo, embellished with 1353 Engravings,
THE BOOK OF THE GARDEN.
By Charles M‘Intosh,
Late Curator of the Royal Gardens of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, and latterly of those of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, at Dalkeith Palace.
Each Volume may be, had separately, viz.:—
I.—ARCHITECTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL. Pp. 776, embellished with 1073 Engravings, price £2., 10s.
II.—PRACTICAL GARDENING. Pp. 876, embellished with 280 Engravings, price £1, 17s. 6d.
“We must congratulate both editor and publishers on the completion of this work, which is every way worthy of the character of all concerned in its publication. The scientific knowledge and great experience of the editor in all that pertains to horticulture, not only as regards cultivation, but as a landscape-gardener and garden architect, has enabled him to produce a work which brings all that is known of the various subjects treated of down to the present time; while the manner in which the work is illustrated merits our highest approval.”—The Florist.
“Mr M‘Intosh’s splendid and valuable ‘Book of the Garden’ is at length complete by the issue of the second volume. It is impossible in a notice to do justice to this work. There is no other within our knowledge at all to compare with it in comprehensiveness and ability; and it will be an indispensable possession for the practical gardener, whether amateur or professional.”—The London Guardian.
In Two Volumes Royal Octavo, price £3, handsomely bound in cloth, with upwards of 600 Illustrations.
THE BOOK OF THE FARM.
DETAILING THE LABOURS OF THE
FARMER, FARM-STEWARD, PLOUGHMAN, SHEPHERD, HEDGER, CATTLE-MAN, FIELD-WORKER, AND DAIRY-MAID, AND FORMING A SAFE MONITOR FOR STUDENTS IN PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE.
By Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E.
Corresponding Member of the Société Imperiale et Centrale d’Agriculture of France, and of the Royal Agricultural Society of Galicia.
THE EIGHTH THOUSAND.
“The best practical book I have ever met with.”—Professor Johnston.
“We assure agricultural students that they will derive both pleasure and profit from a diligent perusal of this clear directory to rural labour. The experienced farmer will perhaps think that Mr Stephens dwells upon some matters too simple or too trite to need explanation; but we regard this as a fault leaning to virtue’s side in an instructional book. The young are often ashamed to ask for an explanation of simple things, and are too often discouraged by an indolent or supercilious teacher if they do. But Mr. Stephens entirely escapes this error, for he indicates every step the young farmer should take, and, one by one, explains their several hearings.... We have thoroughly examined these volumes; but to give a full notice of their varied and valuable contents would occupy a larger space than we can conveniently devote to their discussion; we therefore, in general terms, commend them to the careful study of every young man who wishes to become a good practical farmer.”—Times.
“A work, the excellence of which is too well known to need any remarks of ours.”—Farmers’ Magazine.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
style of the architure=> style of the architecture {pg 90}
covered with magnicent=> covered with magnificent {pg 328}