SPECIALTIES IN FAKmNG. 89 



has been made in medical science during the last twenty 

 years is clearly referable to a division of labor in the line of 

 research. Though the carriage-maker is no longer a wheel- 

 wright, and the shoemaker has lost his trade, yet the result 

 is seen in better carriages and more durable shoes ; and 

 wherever a division of labor is practised to the greatest 

 extent, it is there we look for the choicest products of human 

 sldll. What is true in the mechanic arts is also true in 

 agriculture. The man who makes a specialty of any given 

 crop is very justly looked up to as possessing superior 

 knowledge of everything pertaining to its habits, wants and 

 growth, and the public concede to him the reputation of pro- 

 ducing the best. Experience teaches that however glutted 

 or depressed a market may be, superior specimens sell at 

 remunerative prices. Specialties in farming mean better cul- 

 ture, larger crops and higher prices. 



There is not a plant that grows or a flower that blooms in 

 the vegetable kingdom whose perfect development may not 

 challenge a lifetime of close study and laborious investiga- 

 tion ; and he who has the patience to explore into the realm 

 of nature, and make himself master of her secrets, will be 

 rewarded with special delights and pleasures which can be 

 drained from no other source. A knowledge of the wants, 

 habits and tendencies of a particular plant, and the means 

 of successfully exterminating its enemies, is obviously of 

 more importance than a superficial acquaintance with many 

 varieties. We can reach such knowledge only by close 

 attention to the plants that we select for our study. We 

 must become specialists, as those are called who devote their 

 research in science or art to branches of their professions. 

 Suppose, for an illustration, that the farmers of this town 

 were compelled to rely wholly on a crop of asparagus for the 

 money they were to receive from year to year. The beetle, 

 whose depredations are so fjital to the perfection of this crop, 

 would be hunted as a common enemy by an army of allied 

 forces. His habits, his hiding-places and the means for his 

 sure destruction would be as familiar as nursery tales, and 

 his early appearance would cause no more alarm than the 

 buzzing of a common house-fly or the joyful antics of a sum- 

 mer swallow. 



