■THE RURAL SOCRATES, 2^' 



The Society, as a teflimony of regard and good will 

 to their gneds, had provided a dinner ; where there 

 was fo general an appearance of cordiality and kind-, 

 ncfs, that the conclufion of the day was not leis atieft- 

 if}g to a v/eil-v/i{her to mankind, than the beginning. 



THE Philofophical Society having difcovcrcd, that 

 Z^/^iy-'" written by pcrfons/zc?.^ engaged in practical agricul- 

 ture, had little comparative weight with the peaiantry ; 

 propofed (as has been related) ^4nnual prize quejliom^ 

 to which the pta(ants replied in writing.* At the 

 end of tlieyear, the information contained in the papers 

 of the peaiants was extraded ; and recommended 

 with the more confidence to the inhabitants of the coun- 

 try, as it had been fuggefiied by fome of their com- 

 rades. 



The firfi objecl propofed for difcufilon regarded the 

 care oi forejls. The increaflng confumption of wood 

 from the progrefs of luxury and manufadlures and from 

 an augmented population, joined to the decreafe of the 

 forefbs, made this a neceifary fubjeift of attention ; and 

 yet it had wholly been neglected by the peafantry, who 

 even thought it ridiculous in any cafe to plant wood. 

 The prize queflions v/hich were iirit propofed in 1763, 

 and continued in 1764, refpected the fowing5the care, the 



cutting, 



*In the fecond volume of the French eJiiion of the Ksral ^sc^ate;^ % 

 letter is inferted dated 24 Sept. 1774 ; and written by Dr. Hirzel, to the 

 Baron de Tchoudi, an officc-r in the Krcnch fervlce, and author of an Ef- 

 {zyoT\ReJinom and cone hearing trees and of of her perfor.>.ance3. It chief! 5? 

 legards the improvemcns? in rhc canton of Zurich which fefohed fron? 

 the hiot furnifiied by the conference between the Philofophical Society of 

 Zurich and certain peafants of the canton ; a conference, as we have feen, 

 iirft propofed by Kiiyogg. — From this letter, the following part of the 

 above fedion of this work isextrn<^^ed and tianflated. 



Mr. Young's tranfiator from this period of our work will no isore be 

 ^card of; except in our Appendix, E, 

 IVI 



