274 MY FARM. 



for tenant, than one fresh from the schools, bringing 

 an exaggerated notion of salts, and a large contempt 

 for sagacity. If on some day of latter summer the 

 milch cows rapidly fall away in their ' yield,' I should 

 expect the latter to puzzle himself about the sudden 

 exhaustion of some particular constituent of the milk 

 food, and to multiply experiments with bran or bone 

 meal for its supply ; but I should expect the sagacious 

 veteran, under the same circumstances, with a bold 

 philosophy, to attribute the shortcoming to the 

 scorching suns of August, that have drunk up all the 

 juices of the grass ; and I should expect him to meet 

 the want by a lush and succulent patch of pasturage, 

 which his foresight has kept in reserve. 



Business Tact. 



AKIN" to this sagacity is a certain business tact, 

 which is a large helper to whoever would suc- 

 cessfully engage in agricultural pursuits. It implies 

 and demands adaptation of crops to soils, exposure, 

 and the market wants. It is eminently opposed 

 to the drowsiness in which a good many honest 

 country-livers are apt to indulge. It reckons time at 

 its full value ; it does not lean long on a hoe-handle 

 for gossip. 



The farmer who turns his capital very slowly, and 

 only once in the year, is not apt to be quickened into 



