Agriculture_, author of many books, of which the best remembered is his
_Travels in France_ on the eve of the French Revolution, which is still
read by every student of that stirring era.

"The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs," such were the
words that flowed from the writer's pen, "the better I am pleased with
them; insomuch, that I can no where find so great satisfaction as in
those innocent and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings I am led
to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task
of making improvements on the earth than all the vain glory which can be
acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of
conquests."

Thus wrote George Washington in the fulness of years, honors and
experience. Surely in this age of crimson mists we can echo his
correspondent that it was a "noble sentiment, which does honor to the
heart of this truly great man." Happy America to have had such a
philosopher as a father!

"I think with you that the life of a husbandman is the most delectable,"
he wrote on another occasion to the same friend. "It is honorable, it is
amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. To see
plants rise from the earth and flourish by the superior skill and bounty
of the laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy
to be conceived than expressed."

The earliest Washington arms had blazoned upon it "3 Cinque foiles,"
which was the herald's way of saying that the bearer owned land and was
a farmer. When Washington made a book-plate he added to the old design
spears of wheat to indicate what he once called "the most favorite