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the time and on the spot. It is for want ol this, thai 

 agricultural journals frequently fail of giving such satis- 

 factory information as we desire. They are essential 

 and valuable aids to agricultural improvement, and if 

 they accomplished no other object than to keep our 

 minds in active exercise on the various subjects in which 

 we are so deeply interested, they would be worth more 

 than the price at which they can be procured. 



Every thing, indeed, which exercises the faculties — 

 which elicits the thought and enlarges the knowledge of 

 the farmer on his ow^n calling, should be brought into 

 requisition for his use. His is a pursuit whose daily 

 operations demand far more intense application of mind, 

 as well as of body, than was fondly imagined by the 

 poor old King of England, who, in the midst of trouble 

 and disasters of state, is represented by Shakspeare 

 to sigh — 



Methinks it were a happy life 

 To be no better than a homely swain — 

 To sit upon a hill, as I do now ; 

 To carve out dials, quaintly, point by point, 

 Thereby to see the minutes how they run 

 How many make the hour full complete, 

 How many hours bring about the day — 

 How many years a mortal man may live. 

 When this is known, then to divide the times , 

 So many hours must I tend my flock ; 

 So many hours must I take my rest ; 

 So many hours must I contemplate ; 

 So many hours must I sport myself; 

 So many days my ewes have been with young ; 

 So many days ere the poor fools will yean; 

 So many years ere 1 shall shear the fleece ; — 

 So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and yeara, 

 Passed over to the end they were created. 

 Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. 

 Ah what a life were this ! how sweet ! how lovely ! 



Thus thought a crowned head, and thus think many 

 uncrowned heads, of the homely farmer's life — so sweet, 

 so lovely, because, forsooth, in their estimation, it is free 

 from all care and all anxiety of mind. When troubles 

 surround and threaten to engulph the merchant, he 

 sighs for the peaceful farm, where life shall flow on like 



