Time of Entry on Farms. 325 



"was induced to try some cuttings from a plant that grew upon a 

 hedge-row in the neighbourhood, whicli he had observed to thrive 

 when t!ie cultivated grounds presented but a scene of ruin. He 

 succeeded ; his plants soon rose to a high premium ; he kept up 

 his price, and finally realised a large sum of money. His hops 

 became the favourite sample of the London market. I mention 

 the fact as an instance of the value of that intelligence and quick 

 eye, which I recommend the young farmer most strenuously to 

 cultivate from the first moment of his entry upon his farm. The 

 simplest circumstance will supply to a mind thus trained the 

 germ of a grand discovery. 



As Napoleon is said to have gathered his first idea of the 

 celebrated Code Napoleon from the casual study of a volume he 

 picked up when once placed under arrest as a young man — Jus- 

 tinian's Institutes I believe the work was ; and as Nelson laid 

 the foundation of his great fame as a pilot in the Baltic while 

 employed as a midshipman to sound the windings of the Tiiames ; 

 so did the project of Bell's reaping-macliine occur to him as he was 

 amusing himself with a pair of liedge-clipping scissors in his 

 father's orcliard. In fact, as great inventions are usually of the 

 simplest kind, so do the most trifling circumstances suggest them 

 to an observant mind. Let the young farmer, then, look out; 

 let him travel to get acquainted with stock and places and men 

 of authority in agriculture ; there are landlords in England who 

 will pay the expenses of a tenant travelling with tliat view, so 

 well do they know the ultimate benefit such a course must bring 

 to themselves — the tenant — and so perhaps eventually to the noble 

 science of agriculture itself. 



Whoever aspires to be distinguished in any pursuit or profes- 

 sion must have his eye and ear ever on the alert to select the 

 wheat from the chaff of knowledge that is thrown out, as well in 

 books as in the conversation of the so-called " men of the world." 

 The points of useful information he should note, and never after- 

 wards forget ; there is no knowing at what time they may be 

 inquired after in the market of life. Witness Sir Josepli Paxton, 

 who was picked up as an under-gardener at Kew, by the Duke of 

 Devonshire being struck by his unusual intelligence : the man 

 who subsequently, amidst the hubbub of a railway board, of 

 which he was a member, sketched upon a piece of blotting- 

 paper, the world-celebrated plan of the Crystal Palace. Witness, 

 again, George Stephenson, whose first essay in life was his 

 untlertaking to clear of its flooded contents a coal-mine which 

 had been despaired of by more practised hands. The proprietor 

 casually overheard him express an opinion that he could drain it, 

 as he stood in sorrow amidst the crowd of lookers-on. Stephen- 

 VOL. XVIII. Z 



