ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



PART I 

 RURAL LIFE AND ACTIVITIES 



CHAPTER I 



THE FARMER AND NATURE 



Let Nature be your teacher. WORDSWORTH. 



1. The New Earth. Everything we see is subject to 

 constant change. We are told that our bodies change 

 completely once every seven years. Orchards that are 

 white with blossoms in May are laden with fruit in Octo- 

 ber. Meadows that are brown in autumn are to be car- 

 peted in spring with a rich green. Through all the world, 

 change is always going on. Many of the changes can be 

 detected only by comparisons from week to week or month 

 to month ; and still others take place so slowly that even 

 a lifetime is not long enough to see them. There may be 

 a hill near your home. Can any one doubt, on seeing 

 the muddy water running from its side, that in time, 

 perhaps in a thousand or maybe in a million years, a large 

 part of the hill will be carried away ? 



Thus, a new earth is forming every day. It is formed 

 out of the old earth which, more or less rapidly, is being 

 made over. New plants and animals and new particles 

 of soil are ever taking the place of the old ones. Just as 



1 



