JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. IOI 
ing and that a minimum intellectual equipment is appropriate 
to the business of a tiller of the soil has always seemed to the 
writer of these lines to be a strange hallucination, though per- 
haps occasionally countenanced by those engaged in that calling 
as implied in their cynical use of the term ‘‘ Book Farming.’’ 
There are as strong incentives to mental culture in the every- 
_ day life of the ploughman as may be found in fulfilling the 
duties of the commercialist or of the artizan. 
It is the farmer’s part to create, and all trade rests on his 
primitive activity. He is a converter of the elements into food 
substance, so there must be less of envious rivalry in the work 
of chaining the sunshine and breeze. Yetin dealing with the 
tangled instabilities of the ever-varying seasons he has need of 
‘‘all the crafty vigilance of the petty shop keeper.’’ It is to: 
his material interest to be studious of the climatic conditions, 
‘\'The strange varieties of chance and the mystic seasons’ dance”’ 
and while one would not wish to condemn the discussions 
indulged in at the usual meetings of the Farmers’ Institutes 
the assumption seems to be that the stuff to be produced is of 
far more importance than the producer. 
‘* Yet the oracles tell us, 
One harvest from the field 
Homeward brought the oxen strong ; 
5) 
Another crop the acres yield 
Which I gather in a song.”’ 
We may perhaps advantageously watch what is written on the 
sibylline leaves of the meteorological conditions, try to de- 
tect the size and pace of the flowing waves of benefit 
Or Of) obstruction. bere is tate and ‘eravitation to ‘be 
dealt with, to bend and to conform to as well as to 
utilize. Some one of nature’s bounties has ‘‘its innings’’ 
every season. We make preparations to gather carefully 
the flow of maple sap.’ Some years the aerial changes 
are unpropitious to that industry. In others, despite our pre- 
parations and pre-arrangements, the flow will be so violent and 
continuous (pouring forth night and day fora week at a time) 
that there is serious unavoidable loss. Some seasons there is a 
