AS BELATED TO WEALTH. 117 



laboratory, the breaking of stones with a hammer, 

 cease to be mechanical or ignoble, because intellec- 

 tual thought and principle govern the mind and 

 guide the hands." According to this principle, to 

 which, we believe, all will assent, every source of 

 study and thought which we can connect with 

 agriculture will give it dignity and attractiveness. 

 And just in proportion as these are wanting will 

 men relinquish it, if possible, as they become 

 intellectual and refined. We have only to make 

 agriculture require as much thought as the learned 

 professions, and men will need no panegyrics from 

 agricultural orators to induce them to forsake the 

 counting-room and office for life in the open air. 

 Nothing can produce this desired result like the 

 study of Natural History. Perhaps we ought to 

 add Chemistry. But this requires such skillful 

 manipulations that it must be confined mainly to a 

 few who make it a profession. But not so with 

 Natural History. Every portion of it can be made 

 practical and of interest. Agriculture is Natural 

 History applied. Geology, Botany, and Zoology 

 are its basis, and in proportion as these are under- 



