ess
mankind;--indulging his taste for art, in the plan of his farm and
buildings, their claims to architectural skill; in the planting of his
fruit and ornamental trees, 'in groves, in lines, in copses;' in the
form and make of his fishponds, shady walks, grottos, or rural seats for
quiet resort for study, comfort, pleasure, or rest.

The ancients paid great attention to the cultivation of the earth. Many
of the best men of Greece were agriculturists. Mind was given to it, and
great progress was made in the improvement of implements; in the method
of cultivation, and in the additional yield of their farms. The Romans
continued for a long period to improve on the state of agriculture as
they received it from the Grecians, until the political condition of
their country destroyed all freedom and independence of action and
thought. The best and greatest men of all ages and countries, statesmen,
scholars, kings, and presidents, have loved it, followed it, and labored
for its advancement. Do noble minds stoop to ignoble vocations, and
become identified with them? This nation, not yet a century old, can
boast, as among the statesmen-farmers, of Washington, Adams, Jefferson,
Patrick Henry, Franklin, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, and many
others, the least of whose greatness of character was not that they
loved nature, or knew the charm of agricultural pursuits. The occupation
has become sanctified by their devotion to it.

We all know the sympathy and love of the late lamented Prince Albert for
the vocation of farming, and the liberality with which, on his model
farm, experiments were verified which in any manner might contribute to
the interests of the farmer. He even entered the lists for the prize for
the best stock at the yearly exhibitions of the Royal Agricultural
Society. There is something very suggestive of nobility in this vocation
of farming, when the brightest intellects of the nation bow in homage to
the strength of mother earth, and seek by severe thought, study, and
experiment, to assist a further yield of her kindly fruits, or persuade
her to bestow a portion of her bounties, so long withheld, upon the
wooing husbandman. It marks agriculture as the first and highest calling
for the development in the highest degree of the nation and of mankind.

Every man may have his plot of ground, in the cultivation and adornment
of which he may realize the pleasure which accompanies the calling of
amateur farmer, ho