DE VELOPMENT. g 



Washington retiring to Mount Vernon to spend the 

 closing years of a noble life in the quiet occupation 

 of a farmer. We read, too, of Plato, and Pliny, and 

 Columella, and even of Cicero, living at times on 

 their farms and writing on subjects connected with 

 farming operations. These noted men, however, did 

 not practise farming as a profession, as a perma- 

 nent business, but rather as a relaxation from the 

 cares of political life. To accomplish great results 

 in any department of science requires that we make 

 it more than a recreation, more than a pastime. 

 It must be the study of a lifetime. 



6. Again, agriculture has made slow progress as 

 a science, because it is closely connected with and 

 dependent on other sciences which are themselves of 

 recent origin. A good farmer must know something of 

 Botany, the science of plants, whether he finds it out 

 by observation or learns it from books, that he may 

 understand the character of the various products of 

 the soil, and be enabled to adapt his mode of culti- 

 vation to the nature of his crop. 



7. The farmer must know, at least practically, 

 something of Zoology, the science of animals, that he 

 may procure and raise such stock as will be of most 

 service to himself, and command good prices in the 

 market. He must be something of a geologist, that 

 is, must know enough of Geology, the science that 

 treats of the structure and formation of the earth, 

 its soil and rocks, to enable him to understand the 

 nature of soils, and be able to judge of their value by 



