40 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to chance or the will of the creature itself, but are performed in 

 a wondrous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules 

 laid down by the great Creator," 



My friends, I have brought forward these examples, showing 

 the process of development of the bud and seed, not assuming 

 that you are ignorant of these facts, but to show that we are of- 

 ten unmindful of the most ordinary workings of nature in the 

 world around us ; and it is because these methods of nature are 

 so common and unobtrusive that they escape our notice. And 

 here I would appeal to the young men and boys who are just 

 entering upon the stage of active life, and assure them that 

 farming can be made the most interesting and instructive em- 

 ployment they can pursue ; that if they once become interested 

 in the study of nature, through the medium of agriculture, they 

 will thereby form a habit of thinking and observation, so that 

 with every crop they raise from the ground, there will be raised 

 in the mind a corresponding crop of new ideas. So will the 

 problem, — What shall we do to keep our boys on the farm ? be 

 readily solved. Some few weeks ago, it was my rare fortune to 

 witness a most beautiful phenomenon of nature. I stood on one 

 of the bold cliffs of Mt. Mansfield,, the loftiest peak of the Green 

 Mountains, facing the eastern valley which lies between Mt. 

 Mansfield and Mt. Sterling. The thickly wooded valley lay be- 

 neath me like a broad, green carpet. The day was declining, 

 and the sun shining at my back. As the thin curtains of mist 

 that hung about the mountains silently parted and revealed the 

 wide landscape, there suddenly appeared to my sight, as if by 

 magic, a beautiful rainbow painted upon the green carpet of the 

 valley, thousands of feet below me. It was small in size with 

 upright sides, and arched at the top. But the most surprising 

 feature of this marvellous phenomenon was, that while gazing 

 at it with wonder and delight, I beheld in the centre and at the 

 base of the picture, the perfect image of a human form, inclu- 

 ding the body above the waist ; and that image was the sem- 

 blance of my own broad shoulders and head. Even the fingers 

 of my hand could be distinctly seen. Doubting, I raised my 

 arm horizontally ; the shadow did the same. I described a cir- 

 cle over my head, and the shadowy hand described the circle of 

 the rainbow. The guide, standing by my side, also had his rain- 

 bow and shadow ; but neither could see the shadow of the other, 



