A BOY of twelve summers, clad in two curtailed garments of home spun, reaching up to the handles of a Peacock plow which would persist in going into the beam after some neglected stone or beech root, or rise to the surface with the directness and speed of a brook trout, might have been seen on one of the tough clay farms of western New York, nearly fifty years ago. This boy was simply a type of hundreds who jerked at the single home-made rope line, and lustily yelled, "gee!" "gee !" or lay panting on the earth holding the aching side which in the gyrations of that "improved" plow, had come into too violent contact with those abbreviated handles. One lad at least used to wonder if the beam was made three times as long as the handles in order to give the boy the short end of the lever, so that he would not become lazy. It was rough, hard training those young lads had, but not entirely devoid of valuable lessons. Happily, one may get enjoyment out of hardships which lead to victories over difficulties, as well as from ease, which tends to enervate. As the world progresses, new and more difficult problems present themselves, and a good working knowledge of Nature's modes of action becomes more and more necessary.

But no amount of knowledge will ever relieve mankind from the necessity of putting forth effort, which is the greatest factor of growth and development. Knowledge makes effort more effective, hence more pleasant. The lad on the sulkey plow is by no means idle; he has only substituted skill and watchfulness for an aching side and bruised toes. Fifty years ago, plowing was a constant warfare; to-day it is victory. The man who controls the binder must not sleep at his post, or the three powerful horses, so useful when subject to the direction of intelligence, may become forces of destruction.

A complex problem has been solved by inventive genius and the introduction of cheap horse power; watchfulness and training supplant the sickle and back ache, and the slight youth with gloved hands and alert eye accomplishes more than could a score of the old time hand reapers. Knowledge has been substituted for human muscle ; or, more accurately speaking, the maximum of the former and the minimum of the latter have joined their forces, and all mankind is benefitted by their union.

Horticulture and agriculture are fast becoming sciences; in fact, they are sciences, and those engaged in them are already beginning to feel the gratification and pleasure of dominion. The man who plucked the wild fruits of the forest, which were pronounced good - and were as good as they could be under the conditions - has given place to one who now commands the knotty crab apple to bring forth fruit, large fruit, sweet fruit, red fruit, and it is so. He stands erect and proclaims to the myriad forms of life that he is a god within his sphere, that his authority comes in words that cannot be mistaken : "Let them have dominion over all the earth and over every living thing." He asserts his God-given right by making use of the appointed means, and the first unblemished fruits reward him for his obedience. He speaks, and golden grain takes the place of thorns and thistles. His fiat goes forth, and the animals yield up their lives ; he commands, "multiply and replenish the earth," and the land flows with milk and honey.

Then or now ; which will you choose, my young reader ? If then, harden the muscles as the ox hardeneth his neck, and learn to be content with meager rewards. If now, train them deftly to execute the commands of their master in order that should be only the application in the most effective way of laws already operative. The man with the cultivator has somehow discovered that a straight corn row is shorter than a crooked one; that the time to kill weeds is before they grow, and that horse power and steel are more effective instruments of culture than bent knees and fingernails. As he rides to church in his carriage he enjoys the rewards that come from the discovery and application of laws which are inexorable ; laws which are helpful if controlled, hurtful if ignorantly or carelessly used. True! if he lose dominion of the high mettled horse, greater destruction will come than if the oxen leave the beaten road; but what American boy would exchange the former for the latter ?

"Fifty Years Ago Plowing was a Constant Warfare ; To-day it is Victory".

Ninety-eight per cent. of all the people of the world who are mature and able bodied have to put rows, and realized that every "bout" meant five acres cultivated, he could but look back to the time when a boy was given one of those hoes which were never sharp and never wore out, and was set to digging in that checker-board garden or in that inverted, clayey, undrained, blue grass sod, where a family of ten boys could find constant employment for two months. There are many of those old boys living yet who cannot take a long breath when they think of that time without getting a stitch in the side. Why those gardens were always made square and surrounded with Rubus villosus and Prunus Americana, no one was then able to explain ; the modern political economist has discovered that it was for the purpose of saving the horse and giving an abundance of pleasant and cheap recreation for the entire family. Now the garden of the thinking man is long and narrow, and every thing is planted in straight long rows, and the trees and bushes are placed at one side by themselves, and "Dobbin" and one lad devotes two hours a week to it. Then April was selected as the most suitable month in which to haul out the farm manures and water - there was usually more of the latter than of the former.

Why this month of all others was chosen we did dimly surmise, as we had learned that the first day of the month was all fools day ! But modern science has declared this notion apocryphal and has classified it with Washington's hatchet, marked it "N. G." and pigeon-holed it. After careful research it has been decided that the time was chosen in order to economize wagon tire and furnish an acre or two of clods around the bars in order that the boys could learn what a valuable implement a maul is for setting free plant food and ameliorating clay land. It has dawned upon us in these modern days that manures are just as good without baptizing, and that in most cases best results are secured by following nature's hints; so they are spread, or should be, in the fall on the surface where there is a plant growing. Then apple trees were long-waisted and carried their heads high, ten feet to the first limb and thirty-five to the topmost branch; this, it is now supposed, was to keep the worms and the boys from getting at those leathery Pennocks ; but more likely it was for the purpose of having on hand, free of cost, all styles of trapesia for family use.