Autograph Letter Signed to J.C. Loudon c/o Longman & Co., Paternoster Row, London".,

Four pages, 4to, fold marks, discoloration, some damage with minor loss of text. "My Dear Sir/ Pressed as you are by more important business, it demands apology from me, to intrude any foreign matter on your time and attention - Your wonted kindness is my least & only apology - The business of , in which I am here engaged, is very pleasant, & I will add, lucrative, so far as it goes [underlined from so]; but, as you are doubtless aware, it does not go far enough [underlined from it]:- in other words, it leaves too large a portion of the year unemployed - Now, according to my notions, the interval betwen May and Oct. is too great for Holiday purposes, and yet, I have no specific means of filling up this hiatus - To be sure, I could, as some have hinted, fill up my time with the sale of coals & other articles which may be brought up to my very door by a navigable river; but then I should interfere with the young Salmons, who have recently (since the failure of their father) set up in this business and to take the bread out of their mouth, however indifferent they may be to me, is what I own I could not do, that I am now occupying the very station, which, but for misconduct, not not their own perhaps, they once occupied [page 2] themselves - What I wish to consult you on, is this. A good Farmer's paper is wnted - The Farmer's Journal (never so good as it might have been made) is now merged in Bell's Weekly Messenger; a huge mass of Tory materials, badly arranged, and evidently conducted without a particle of Agricultural Skill - It is, like some other things of the kind, you & I have known: a mere mercantile Speculation. Bad as it is, it is the best, I may say, the only farming paper we have - Surely something of the kind might be advantageously started - I wish you would mention the subject to our friend Chadwick, or Richd. Taylor (who prints several of these Weekly Papers) and let me know if I can be of any service (still living in the Country of course) in such an undertaking - Mr. C. and I had at one time much conference about <?> Editn. of the Examre. - In broaching the matter to you, I should wish for your co-operation & assistance - Don't you think such a thing would be more likely to take than the Magazine you spoke of & [inserted] I should fear, the would damp the public appetite for this description of knowledge - Do not think for one moment, I am urged by necessity [underlined from by] to strike out another line of business - My Income is amply sufficient for me & mine: but thetruth is, [page 3] I see no reason why, if I can earn in 6 months a maintenance for 12, that therefore [underlined] I shd by idle for the remaining 6 - All I wish is Employment, with, of course, a moderate, & but a moderate [underlined from first moderate], remuneration for such labour as I may be able to bring into the undertaking - My name is of no value, but I own, it would acquire [excision] honor by being associated with that of Loudon - either in this or in any other literary [inserted] speculation _ Do not think me pre[su]mptious in harbouring this Idea - I thi[nk] we might be mutually serviceable to each other - Of this be assured - The hope & the wish to render you [underlined] service, operate fully as much as the desire to serve myself in this matter -/ I thank youfor the trouble you have had about Howden's Gate <?> - I recd one [underlined] set of the Irons last monday: but, wanting another, (there being two [underlined] gates to fit up) I wrote to Cottam & Hallem stating as much, & also requesting them, if possible, to cast the part by which the rack is screwed on the back of the gate [underlined from on], an Inch narrower - My gates being barely 3 inches wide at this part, & the irons being 4 inches wide - I will settle the cost when I next go to London [page 4] There are no secrets in this Lre - Perhaps you will not object to letting Mr. Chadwick see it, as the shortest mode of proceeding - From either him or you I shall be ahppy to hear an opinion on the subject -/ address panel]/ Give my best regards to Mrs. L. & your Sisters: in which I am cordially joined by Mrs. T. . . ." Note: "The New Farmer's Journal" commenced in Feb. 1833.