38 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



their knowledge and practice concerning the careful tilling 

 of the soil is to-day superior to ours, with all our boasted 

 enlightenment. A tract of fifty square miles about Shang 

 hai is called the Garden of China; and, while we of the 

 United States are lamenting our worn-out farms, and talking, 

 about emigrating to virgin lands, this people, for countless 

 generations, have tilled the same soil, and, under their man 

 agement, it is to-day as productive as ever. 



Some of the States of ancient Greece esteemed agriculture 

 as the mother of arts, and their agricultural products were 

 exhibited at the Olympic games. With the Spartans, how 

 ever, agriculture was contemned. It was left to the Helots, 

 their slaves, whom they thought fit only to cultivate the soil. 

 It is not strange, -therefore, that they should have been 

 obliged to sup black broth (whatever that may have been). 

 Nor is it strange that they took a distaste to their wretched 

 fare, and finally rivalled even the Athenians in luxury, the 

 laws of Lycurgus to the contrary notwithstanding. 



THE TRUE DEFINITION OF AGRICULTURE. 



Agriculture is not simply getting the utmost present 

 wealth from the soil with the least outlay of labor. It is 

 not the mere rearing of flocks and herds, to convert into as 

 much ready money as possible. It is not hewing down for 

 ests to such a degree that the next generation must replant. 

 It is not a system of culture that will exhaust the soil 

 before the farmer s hair turns gray. And most certainly it 

 is not raising crops to sell at such price as the buyer may 

 arbitrarily choose to offer. 



High and progressive agriculture is such a system of till 

 age as shall give the greatest present returns, while the soil 

 retains its full fertility, or, still better, increases its powers 



