Would'st Scott, or Prescott, rather be? The Cotton crop--is't aught to thee? The Crayon Papers? Art rich at heart? or yet to know-- But hark! thy strain again doth flow, Again, in music, stirs! Ah Rogue! I see thee, have thee now-- That leap from off the transverse bough, That knowing look, inspires; The sound _thou_ lov'st shall now be heard: 'Fresh seed and water for my bird, And sugar for his wires!' 'Tis done--and here 'King, Cawdor, Glamis,' Not more to Macbeth were, than this Thy stock of seed renew'd Is joy to thee!--would I might draw, From thy bright gayety, a Law Of confidence and good: Forget my bars, forget my cage Like thee; my wants, my cares, my age, A lone and widow'd bed; And raise to Heaven thy magic song In words, that might to both belong, 'Thanks for our daily bread.' JOHN WATERS. MEADOW-FARM: A TALE OF ASSOCIATION. BY THE AUTHOR OF 'EDWARD ALFORD AND HIS PLAYFELLOW.' CHAPTER FIFTH. 'THE common notion has been, that the mass of the people need no other culture than is necessary to fit them for their various trades; and though this error is passing away, it is far from being exploded.' 'SELF-CULTURE:' CHANNING. THE cultivation of the soil is the most easily learned of any art. It is falsely supposed that a certain degree of obtuseness, roughness, clod-hopper ignorance, is essential to the farmer; that intelligence, refinement, and science are poorly applied to agriculture. This is the impression that farmers themselves have; and as a body they mistrust the advantages of education as applied to their occupation. The cause of this impression may be traced to the fact, that most of the scientific farmers sink money in carrying on their farms, while they who doggedly plough, plant, and dig, as their fathers did before them, lay up money yearly. These successful men sneer at the gentleman-farmer, and deride his science; and his yearly losses only confirm them the more strongly in their previous habits. Now they might be told that this gentleman farmer expects from the beginning to sink money; that he has taken up the cultivation of the land for amusement, health, or scientific experiment; that his object is not to make money, but to gratify his taste, or perhaps benefit the general farming interest of the country by his failures. It can easily be understood that a very erroneous notion of the value of science, as applied to agriculture, is likely to be drawn from such instances, and how the true farmer comes to mistrust the spirit of modern improvement.