112 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



which demands the same constant cultivation as his land, 

 " Experience," says London, " shows that men situated like 

 small farmers, (who are their own masters,) are very apt to 

 contract habits of irregularity, procrastination, and indolence. 

 They persuade themselves that a thing may as well be done 

 to-morrow as to-day, and the result is, that the thing is not 

 done till it is too late, and then hastily and imperfectly. Now 

 nothing can be conceived better adapted to check this disposi- 

 tion, than a determination to keep regular accounts, and a dia- 

 ry. The very consciousness that a man has to make entries 

 in his books of every thing that he does, keeps his attention 

 alive to what he is to do ; and the act of making those entries, 

 is the best possible training to produce active and pains-taking 

 habits." Should a society oifer premiums for the best kept dia- 

 ries, it would be well to make a class of those kept by boys 

 and girls under fifteen years of age. The youth reared on the 

 farms of New England, cannot have more profitable evening 

 employment, as it not only tasks their mental capabilities, but 

 fosters an attachment to their parental acres, and demonstrates 

 the profit of well directed agricultural labor. 



To the student of political economy, or of history, as well 

 as of agriculture, a volume of diaries, kept at the same time, in 

 different sections of a county, could not be destitute of value 

 the next year — in a century it would be invaluable, for agri- 

 cultural information is always read with interest. What farmer 

 has not wished for more precise accounts of Noah's vineyards, 

 and of Solomon's orchards, which " bore all kinds of fruit ;" 

 of the cattle of Uzziah, who " loved husbandry ;" and of the 

 operations of Elisha, who was found " ploughing with twelve 

 yoke of oxen." We read in the Journal of the Pilgrims, 

 among the interesting events which occurred in March, 1620, 

 that, " Monday and Tuesday proved fayre days, so we digged 

 our grounds, and sowed our garden seeds," — a matter of no 

 marvellous importance in itself, but worthy of remembrance as 

 the commencement of those beautiful gardens which now 

 adorn New England. 



