PISCATAQUIS CENTRAL SOCIETY. 321 



than would have been the discovery of the philosopher's stone. You 

 should conduct your researches in that spirit of hope and enterprise 

 implied in the following lines : 



"Though, here, true Love! thou never wilt be found, 



Yet I'm resolved to search for thee ; 



The search itself rewards the pains — 



So though the chemist his great secret miss, 



(For neither it in art of nature is,) , 



Yet things well worth his toils he gains ; 



And does his charge and labor pay 



With good unsought experiments by the way." 



It is a trite but true remark, that he is a public benefactor who 

 causes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before. 

 Everything done by invention, — an intelligent application of labor 

 under the direction of science, or a skillful adaptation of means to 

 ends, — to develop the capacity of soils, and to increase the quantity 

 raised upon a given surface, by a given amount of labor, is certainly 

 a public benefit. And how much more honorable and noble it is to 

 be a producer in some department of labor — to add something to the 

 common heritage, than to be a lazy consumer of the products of 

 other men's toils. 



I will suggest, in passing, that careless and superficial cultivation 

 is an evil among farmers that is a prolific source of much hard 

 labor, bitter disappointment, and not unfrequently of severe poverty. 

 Agriculture means earth-working ; and one, to be entitled to the 

 distinction of agriculturist, must do his work thoroughly. The 

 statistics of the products of small farms, under thorough cultivation, 

 both in this country and Europe, will convince anybody that a 

 " little farm well tilled" is much more profitable than a large farm 

 under careless and defective cultivation, growing up to weeds and 

 brambles. 



The importance of thorough tillage was well understood in the 

 days of ancient Rome, and is finely illustrated by the following 

 apologue : * 



" A vine-dresser had two daughters and a vinevard ; when his 



oldest daughter was married, he gave her a third of his vineyard 



for a portion, notwithstanding which he had the same quantity of 



fruit as formerly ; when his youngest daughter was married, he gave- 



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