MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COL-
LEGE.

Lecture by Dr. Miles.

Besides the special lectures to the different
classes in their several departments, on nearly every Wednesday afternoon some one of
the faculty gives a more general lecture to all
of the students and professors. We were
fortunate enough to be just in time to hear a
lecture from Dr. M. Miles, the eminent professor of agriculture. He is a man whom all
the students respect, as well as most others
acquainted with him,-a man who has a vast
amount of information upon a great variety
of subjects, together with a tact of being
able to put all this in practice.

As professor of agriculture, a man to be
successful is required to possess great executive ability and practical skill. This is not
enough; he must also be an educated, scientific man and an old teacher, to fill the place
properly. It is a rare thing to find all these
combined in one man. Those best acquainted with Dr. Miles believe him to be just such
a man as needed for the place he now occupies. His lecture was upon " ANCIENT AGRICULTURE." This science had grown slowly
because very imperfect records had been
kept of the discoveries and experiments of
the oldest farmers. There is & tendency in
modern times, especially in the United States,
to underrate the knowledge of the ancients.
By not keeping and publishing full accounts
of their labors, the same results have been
reached many times over, by different persons in different times and countries. A few
stories and snatches of poetry were appropriately interwoven with the rest. Machines
patented and found worthless have been
again and again invented in our own country. Much time and money have been spent
upon these, because men have not read what
was easily accessible to them. Hence the
great necessity of constantly reading and
thinking about what others have done in
such a complex and extended subject as ag-

riculture. We should in this way profit by
the experience of all. The earliest accounts
on record are a good deal obscured by
mythology and superstition. Cato, before
Christ, had good views of plowing and manuring for successful farming. Columella and Virgil wrote considerable, and thought
it the highest kind of a compliment to be
called a farmer. Pliny the elder, speaks of
plowing nine times, in some instances, to pulverize the soil thoroughly-a process which
we should perform with a variety of apparatus. They taught by experience, and generally drew correct conclusions from careful
observations. Pliny taught the necessity of
a rotation of crops-that leguminous plants
should follow corn; the great value of manure-that it should be increased by litter of
forest leaves, sedges, turf, lupines, bean
stalks, etc., about barns and stables. Before
certain crops it was well to fold sheep by
movable fences.
Pliny taught the propriety of spreading
manure in winter-a practice now consider-
ed best, though a few years ago it would
have been thought far out of the way. They
dressed certain crops with dust from the
aviary, which was a good substitute for our
modern guano. Nearly two thousand years
ago he described a machine for cutting off
and collecting the heads of wheat, somewhat
after the fashion of some modern machines
on the western prairies. Surely after this
we are almost inclined to believe with Solomon that there is nothing new under the
sun.
Several senators were present from the
Michigan legislature now in extra session.
It is intended to follow this lecture with
another one or more upon Early English Agriculture.

The tendency now among farm implements is to make the horses do most all the
work; and of these machines a large number are so constructed that the driver can
ride upon a spring seat. We notice, other
things being nearly equal, the implements
which have a seat for the driver find the
.greatest favor. We have seen none yet with
a shade for warding off the hot sun. A few
years ago, when a. boy, three or four men
abreast cut the grass with the scythe, and we
did the hardest work of all behind them in
carefully stirring and spreading the hay. We
all turned in and raked it by hand. It was
loaded and pitched off and mowed away, or
stacked by the hardest kind of labor. Now
the horses leisurely draw a mower as they
fight the flies; the driver at ease can eclipse
the scythes of a gang of men. The hay tedder follows, kicking the hay in every direction, as a boy rides it whistling or eating apples. He rides a buggy with spring teeth
over the ground, and leaves the hay in
large rows ready to stack or haul in. The
hardest work about it is "pitching on." At
the barn it is nothing but fun to see the harpoon or hay fork elevating a hundred or two
at a time over the big beam. Down it tumbles into the mow ready for winter use.
Don't the farmers have easy times now-a
days?

W. J. B.