100 APRIL. 



son generally to a month, and sometimes to a 

 particular week, without considering whether 

 the earth be in a proper state to receive the 

 seed, from whence it generally happens that 

 what the sower sowed with sweat, the reaper 

 reaps with sorrow. The wise economist should,, 

 therefore, endeavour to fix upon certain signs 

 whereby to judge of the proper time for sow- 

 ing. We see trees open their buds and expand 

 their leaves, from whence we conclude that 

 spring approaches; and experience supports 

 us in the conclusion, but nobody has, as yet, 

 been able to show us what trees Providence 

 has intended should be our calendar, so that 

 we might know on what day the countryman 

 ought to sow his grain. No one can deny 

 but that the same power which brings forth 

 the leaves of trees, will also make the grain 

 vegetate; nor can any one assert that a pre- 

 mature sowing will always, and in every place, 

 accelerate a ripe harvest. Perhaps, therefore, 

 we cannot promise ourselves a happy success 

 by any means so likely, as by taking our rule 

 for sowing from the leafing of trees. We must, 

 for that end, observe in what order every tree 

 puts forth its leaves. To these most ingenious 



