LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
SOME OF THE 
 
 HINDRANCES AND HELPS 
 
 ADVANCEMENT OF AGIIICULTURE. 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE 
 
 |]ciu |orh ^tate gciriniltural ^ofictir, 
 
 AT THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL FAIR, AT ELMIRA, 18G9, 
 
 BT 
 
 GEORGE DUCKLxYND, 
 
 riiOFESSOU OF AGKICULTt'KE, UXIVKUSITY COLLEGE, 
 
 TOUONTO, AND Sl'X'KETARY OF THE 
 
 BOARD OF AGRICULTUUE 
 
 OF ONTAKIO. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 
 CHARLES YAN BENTIIUYSEN & SO>fS' PRINT. 
 1869. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Prmdent^ and Members of the 
 
 New York /State AgricuUural Society : 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 I esteem very highly the honor yoii have 
 done me, hy inviting me to deliver the Address 
 usually given on the anniversary occasions of 
 your extensive, instructive and world-renowned 
 exhibitions. I have always been accustomed to 
 regard your Society with feelings of respect and 
 gratitude, as being the precursor of inany simi- 
 lar institutions on this wide and fertile Conti- 
 nent; and I shall esteem the present occasion of 
 addressing the farmers, mechanics, and citizens 
 generally, of the old Empire State, among the 
 happiest of my life, if I can saj- anything that 
 shall, in however humble a degree, tend to 
 encourage you in prosecuting the important ob- 
 jects contemplated by the founders of this Society 
 more than a ([uarter of a century ;igo. 
 
4 
 
 Orators <and poets of all ages and countries 
 have extolled the importance of Agriculture, and 
 sung of the charms and beauties of rural life. As 
 the first want of man is food, and the only supply 
 being the produce of the soil, the cultivation of 
 the earth and the keeping of flocks and herds 
 must have been coeval with the first fixed forms 
 of human society, and the history of this neces- 
 sary art may be justly regarded as the history of 
 civilization itself. Not only do we depend on 
 the skill and industry of the husbandman for the 
 staff of life, — "our daily bread," — Imt also, in a 
 great measure, for the raw material, as it is 
 termed, which the manuf;xcturing and ornamental 
 arts of an ever-advancing civilization work up 
 into the necessaries and adornments of social and 
 domestic life. 
 
 If, therefore, agriculture be so ancient and 
 indispensable, not only to the general well-being 
 of society, but to the very physical existence of 
 man, removed but a degree from the savage state, 
 the question naturally arises in every reflective 
 mind, acquainted with its general or particular 
 history. How is it that this most valuable art has 
 not kept pace with the other industries of life, 
 but has generally been found lagging behind, and 
 frequently exhibiting symptoms of a feeble and 
 
o 
 
 sickly existence ? There have been laws and 
 customs in most of the countries of the old world,- 
 affecting the acquisition, distribution, and man- 
 agement of landed propert}^, that have done much' 
 and unhappily in some cases yet continue, to 
 impede the progress of a national agriculture; 
 causes from which we, of the new workl, are in 
 great measure, or altogether, free. But the ques- 
 tion naturally occurs, whether, under favorable 
 circumstances, there is anything in the nature 
 of agricultural pursuits, per se, that tends to ren- 
 der its improvement and progress comparatively 
 slow ? I think there is. 
 
 In the first place, in countries of the temper- 
 ate zone, at least, it requires a whole year for the 
 farmer to make a single experiment, and, as the 
 art advances, much longer periods, a;i rotations 
 of four, seven, or more years are involved, before 
 safe conclusions can be drawn from Avell estab- 
 lished data. If to this be added tiie differi^nces 
 of soil, even on the same farm, the variable char- 
 acter of the seasons, and the many substances 
 now employed as manures, it will be at once 
 apparent that agricidtural experiments are, in 
 their very nature, highly complicated, and the 
 num[)or that comes within the experience of the 
 busiest and longest life, must be necessarily 
 
6 
 
 restricted. In most other industrial arts, experi- 
 ments may be almost indefinitely multiplied 
 within ordinary limits of time, and subjected to 
 a series of rigid corrections, so that reliable 
 results may, in most cases, be readily obtained. 
 
 Again : The isolated character of the farmer's 
 life must necessarily tend, in some measure, to 
 retard the j)rogress of his art, as compared with 
 those carried on in the populous centres of human 
 industry. In cities and towns, merchants and 
 manufacturers come in daily contact with one 
 another ; inquiry hence becomes stimulated, infor- 
 mation rapidly and widely diffused, experiences 
 compared; and whatever Jiiay occur to affect tlie 
 interests of any particular branch of industry, 
 those who pursue it can meet without delay, and 
 take counsel in regard to their common welffire. 
 Farmers, from the nature of their jjursuits, even 
 in this wonderful age of cheap and rapid inter- 
 communication, are necessarily cut off, more or 
 less, from each other, and can only come together 
 at infrequent intervals. It is noteworthy to re- 
 mark how comparatively rapid has been improve- 
 ment in agriculture, both in the old world and 
 the new, since the general introduction of the 
 railway, which, with other agencies, has been a 
 chief means of quickeniijg the agiicultural mind. 
 
7 
 not merely by cheapening transit, and in some 
 instances creating new markets, Ijut chiefly by 
 enabling the tillers of the soil to extend the 
 sphere of their oljservations, of witnessing and 
 comparing different systems of culture, and of 
 obtaining valuable information of a reliable char- 
 acter from each other's observations and different 
 modes of practice. I can remember the time 
 when laru'e numbers of Enirlish ftirmers seldom 
 went beyond the boundary of their own county ; 
 some even hardly passed the limits of their own 
 or adjoining parish. What a change has been 
 effected since the introduction of the railway ! 
 Farmers may now be seen traveling hundreds 
 of miles to an Exhibition, or in company as mem- 
 bers of a Club, paying periodic visits to inspect 
 the practices of distinguished individuals of their 
 craft in different parts of the countr3^ A little 
 perambulating of this sort has a most salutary 
 effect in enlarging the farmer's circle of obser- 
 vation, enabling him to gain new ideas, to break 
 loose from traditional prejudices, and to improve 
 his practice by adapting it to the new lights 
 which science and enlarged experience throw 
 across his path. 
 
 Among the causes that have retarded the pro- 
 gress of husbandry mny be mentioned the a1)sence 
 
of a healthy and efficient agricultural literature. 
 It is true, that a number of treatises on this 
 ancient and indispensable art were written by 
 distinguished men Ijelonging to the two most cul- 
 tivated nations of antiquity — the Greeks and the 
 liomans — and in such of their works or fragments 
 as have come down to us, we find interspersed 
 not a little that is excellent and practical, from 
 which we might profit in the present day. These 
 writings, however, and even those of a much later 
 date, contain, as Lord Bacon said, ^^ no principles;'''' 
 that is, they are, notwithstanding the many valu- 
 able and practical directions which they contain, 
 essentially empirical. Indeed, it could not pos- 
 sibly have been otherwise, as agriculture was 
 incapable of being reduced to anything approach- 
 ing the condition of a science, till chemistry and 
 and physiology, at least, assumed a definite form ; 
 a result that may be said to be quite recent. 
 Going back to the early part of the present cen- 
 tury, when Sir Humphrey Davy delivered his 
 celebrated lectures on agricultural chemistry to 
 the Board of Agriculture in England, and to the 
 report of Baron Liebig, on the same subject, to 
 the British Association for the Advancement of 
 Science, some thirty years ago, we discover the 
 cause of the mighty impulse that has in these 
 
9 
 
 davs been efiven to more earnest scientific re- 
 search, and wider and deeper investigations, so 
 as to pnt not only the hiboratory, bnt also the 
 printing press into a more active and harmonious 
 operation. In all civilized countries science, of 
 late, has more or less been brought to bear on the 
 practice of agriculture with beneficial results, 
 and the Reports and Transactions of Agricultural 
 Societies in different parts of the world, to- 
 gether with a legion of periodical journals in this 
 great interest, unmistakably indicate the present 
 healthy state of progress, the future limits of 
 which it is quite impossible to define. I may 
 further observe, that America occupies a foremost 
 place in agricultural literature, as the valuable 
 Rejiorts and Transactions of this and other Socie- 
 ties, with the do?,uments that are annually issued 
 bj' the Federal and State governments, amply 
 testify. Your numerous weekly and monthly 
 periodicals, embracing such pursuits, works 
 mostly, 1 believe, of private enterprise, esti- 
 mated by their price, ({uality and circulation, 
 stand unquestionably ahead of any other .similar 
 puljlications in the world. And here I shall be 
 only doing a simple act of justic ; by makiilg a 
 passing reference to the last Report published by 
 your Society. The "getting up," as it is tech- 
 
10 
 
 nically termed ; its nuraerons and beautifully 
 executed illustrations; the seientific and prac- 
 tical papers on some of the most important and 
 difficult subjects that come within the range of 
 modern research, brought down to the jDresent 
 state of knowledge, would be an honor to any 
 Society, older and wealthier tlian your own. 
 Instead, then, of croaking and finding fault on 
 account of the slow progress of our art, instances 
 such as these should inspire us with glowing 
 hopes for the future. 
 
 It htis been remarked that, as a general rule, 
 whatever is must valuable and enduring is of 
 slow and progressive development. The globe 
 we live on — at least its crust — appears to have 
 been subjected to physical changes through untold 
 and even uninuigined periods of duration. Its 
 vegetable productions, the trees of our own forests, 
 for instance, — some will endure for centuries ere 
 they become finally resolved into the mineral 
 and organic constituents of which they are com- 
 posed. Our Christian civilization has a most 
 interesting and instructive history to tell; its 
 numerous vicissitudes, sometimes apparently sta- 
 tionary nnd even retrograding, at others marked 
 by decided if not rapid progress ; and yet it has 
 taken nearly nineteen centuries to reach its pre- 
 
11 
 
 sent imperfect condition. So, again, as regards 
 civil government. What time, talent, states- 
 manship and phihinthropj have been expended 
 in reducing to a practical form the best way of 
 ruling mankind, so as to obtain the legitimate 
 object of all sound legislation, " tlie greatest hap- 
 piness of the greatest number." In these mat- 
 ters our knowledge has to be corrected and en- 
 larged by time and experience ; and notwith- 
 standing the progress, particularly of late, that 
 has marked the history of many nations, who has 
 the temerity to athrm of any one of them, that 
 it has reached the ne plus ultra of perfection ? So 
 it may be that the slow advance of agriculture 
 during the past centuries is in accordance with a 
 principle of nature, of a much wider application 
 than is generally perceived. 
 
 Whatever causes may have contributed to im- 
 pede the onward march of agriculture, some more 
 difficult to modify or remove than others, I have 
 long felt a strong conviction that the most formi- 
 dable obstacle to the general advancement of tlie 
 art in all ages and countries has Ijeeii, and nnfor- 
 tunatel}^ still is, the low estimation in which it 
 is held, not only by communities, l)ut also by the 
 great mass of its foll-owers themselves; — by this 
 1 mean, the little acquisition of an intellectual 
 
12 
 
 character which has been regarded necessary to 
 a farmer. I believe, and rejoice in the convic- 
 tion, that a new era is commencing, or rather has 
 already commenced in earnestness, in several 
 countries of the Eastern hemisphere, and that to 
 us here of the We«t, especially, a high and import- 
 ant trust has been committed, which, if faithfully 
 executed, will be pregnant with untold blessings 
 to all coming generations. To thoughtful minds 
 the truth is beginning everywhere to be more or 
 less distinctly recognized, that it is not every 
 man can, by the old routine of mere muscular 
 toil, be made a prosperous and improving farmer, 
 but that a good general education in the first 
 place, supplemented by special study and train- 
 ing, with the acquisition of sound business habits, 
 are the essential elements of success. The tact 
 is, that farmiug, intelligently pursued, is quite 
 as nmch an ailair of the mind as of the body. 
 Indeed, muscular force, as is well known in all 
 other matters, spends itself for naught when not 
 directed by mental power; aud most assuredly 
 the practice of husbandry is no exception to this 
 great, general law ; and he who successfully 
 labors to base the art of culture on the facts and 
 principles of science, dissipates the darkness and 
 uncertainties of empiricism, and becomes, in the 
 
13 
 
 highest sense, the improver and benefactor of his 
 race. Let ns look at this matter for a few min- 
 utes in a familiar manner. Let us ask ourselves 
 the question, Wliat is Agriculture? and try to 
 answer it as briefly and accurately as we can. 
 Agriculture, it may be said, is the art of cultivat- 
 ing the soil for raising crops for the sustentation 
 of man and animals. Now, who that reflects on 
 Avliat is involved in this short answer, can come 
 to the conclusion that any man, provided he has 
 powerful muscles, can make a farmer ? 
 
 The first thing that might strike the attention 
 of a reflecting person, in the above definition, is 
 the little word "50//;" a term expressing not a 
 simple, but an extremely complicated substance, 
 comprising a variety of materials, in different 
 chemical and mechanical conditions. In travel- 
 ing through any considcraJjle area of country, 
 you pass over a diversified surface, composed of 
 difterent soils, from the disintegration and com- 
 mino-lini!; of the various underlving rocks, differ- 
 ino" in some instances verv widely from each 
 other in chemical composition, and mechanical 
 and hygrometric properties. To ac(j^uire what 
 may be termed only a practical knowledge of 
 soils, a life of observation and farm-experience is 
 recjuired ; and if we desire a minute and accurate 
 
14 
 
 acquaintance with particulars, on which much of 
 success or loss in practice may depend, we are 
 compelled to invoke the aid of the chemist and 
 the geologist. The soil is a very complex thing, 
 susceptible at the hands of man of great improve- 
 ment, or, as is unhappily sometimes the case, of 
 great deterioration ; and no cultivator, however 
 advanced his practice, or minute and extensive 
 his observation, can obtain the maximum of profit 
 and sustain the fertility of his land, without an 
 acquaintance with those facts and laws, in rela- 
 tion thereto, which science has investigated and 
 can alone explain. 
 
 Again : The soil, air, and water contain all the 
 constituents which the farmer by means of culti- 
 vation elaborates into crops, and it is from the 
 former alone that they obtain their mineral or 
 inorganic portion. Now mark what is implied 
 by this single word, cultivation. It involves, of 
 course, the use of tools, implements and ma- 
 chines, the efficiency of which mainly depends 
 on their mechanical adaptation to the various 
 kinds of soils, as regards texture, densitj^, and 
 relation to warmth and moisture, and also to 
 the habits and special requirements of different 
 crops. In addressing an American audience, a 
 people so distinguished fur fertility of invention. 
 
15 
 
 I need only say, that between implements and 
 machines constructed on the most aj>proved prin- 
 ciples of modern mechanics, and successful and 
 profitable farming, there is an intimate and indis- 
 soluble connection. Take only that important 
 and primitive symbol of husbandry, the plough, 
 and without going back to Egypt, or the ancient 
 Romans, compare, or rather contrast the imple- 
 ments that were in general use in Europe and on 
 this Continent less than fifty years ago, with 
 those of the present time, and you perceive at 
 once how much depends upon the employment of 
 such implements as are in their form and con- 
 struction in accordance with the laws and well- 
 ascertained formulas of mechanical philosophy. 
 
 Further : The farmer cultivates the soil for the 
 exclusive purpose, in the first instance, of rais- 
 ing crops; in otlier words, such vegetable pro- 
 ductions as are best suited to soil, climate and 
 markets. He ascends from the dead mineral 
 earth to the living organized plant. A tiny seed 
 is deposited in the earth, and under the intiuence 
 of warmth and moisture germinates, assimilating 
 materials from both the air and soil in the pro- 
 gress of growth, and after passing through a won- 
 derful cycle of changes, reaches the condition of 
 a perfect plant, ripens its seed, and thus secures 
 
16 
 
 the perpetuity of its species. Here he is brought 
 directly in connection with the higher teachings 
 of Chemistrj^ and Vegetable Physiology. 
 
 The farmer has yet a further and higher ob- 
 ject: he raises plants for the sustentation of ani- 
 mals. This is the great and ultimate end of all 
 agricultural operations. What a beautiful view 
 is here opened by the ordinarj^ routine of the 
 farmer's dailj' life, of the intimate connection 
 between what are termed the three srreat kirio^- 
 doms of Nature ! The animal could not exist 
 without the vegetable, which in its turn depends 
 upon the mineral. Thus he ascends from the 
 dead earth to the living plant, on which is nour- 
 ished the living, moving and sentient animal ! 
 In the breeding, feeding and general management 
 of his stock, tlie manner in which these opera- 
 tions are conducted may be regarded as an unerr- 
 ing index of the state and progress of agricul- 
 ture ; and much of the success of the practical 
 man will depend on the extent and correctness 
 of his knowledge of the principles of Zoology and 
 Animal Physiology. 
 
 Now, will it be maintained that agriculture is 
 so simple a thing that any youth, however feeble 
 his mind and sluggish his mental habits, can 
 readily be made into a farmer, and that to engage 
 
17 
 
 in this pursuit, but little special information or 
 training is needed, Ijut simply a large expendi- 
 ture of muscular force in accordance with a certain 
 time-honored routine ? This, unhappily, has been 
 the prevalent feeling of the past, and it is still too 
 much so at ])resent; and I repeat, that it is to 
 this low and fallacious estimate of the nature of 
 agriculture and the qualifications of its pursuers, 
 that much of its complained-of slow progress is 
 attributable. We must rouse ourselves so as to 
 take higher and wider views of this great art, 
 which, instead of being the simplest, is one of the 
 most difficult and complex, as it is unquestionably 
 the most valuable, of the various industries of this 
 brief and busy life. 
 
 I am aware that many fallacies have been com- 
 mitted b}" persons of sanguine temperament, 
 earnestly desirous of correcting this low and 
 degrading estimate of agricultural pursuits, by 
 too strictly comparing its actual progress with 
 that of some other arts. In order that compari- 
 sons may not be invidious, it is necessary they 
 should be correct. It should be borne in mind 
 that the marvelous progress made during the 
 present centurj^ in the cheapness and increased 
 productions of textile manufactures, bleaching, 
 dyeing, calico printing, etc., is in great measure 
 
18 
 due to the application of inorganic chemistry and 
 improved machinery ; the former science having 
 attained to extraordinary development and exact- 
 itude during the past fifty years. The aid which 
 chemistry renders the farmer, relates chiefly to 
 the nutrition and growth of vegetable and animal 
 life, termed organic, a department of the science 
 having as yet but a very brief histor3% and the 
 pursuit of which is beset with many and peculiar 
 difficulties, and is subjected to rapid changes as 
 in the progress of discovery, past errors become 
 corrected and new truths established. The man- 
 ufacturer, by availing himself of the certain aids 
 of a more simple and advanced department of 
 chemistry, and operating exclusively on dead 
 matter, under well-defined physical conditions of 
 temperature, light, moisture, etc., is placed in a 
 position almost absolutely to command whatever 
 results may be desired. How difterent is it in 
 these respects with the farmer, whose operations 
 are exposed to and influenced by the uncertainty 
 and variations of the weather, the changes in the 
 nature of soils, often within very limited areas, 
 and the complicated workings of that wonderful 
 and mysterious force denominated life I In view, 
 then, of these simple facts of the case, it would 
 oljviously be unreasonable, even under the most 
 
19 
 favorable conditions, to expect agriculture to ad- 
 vance with the rapid speed that has of late years 
 characterized several of the manufacturing; arts. 
 The apparent anomaly, however, only strength- 
 ens and illustrates what I am desirous of impress- 
 ing on this large and intelligent audience, — the 
 necessity and advantage o^ connecting practice lolth 
 science. The principles of the latter are as appli- 
 cable to the farm as they are to the manufactory, 
 and the many and peculiar difficulties which at 
 present beset the pursuits of farmers in relation 
 to the higher teachings and applications of sci- 
 ence, should induce them more earnestly than 
 ever to devote their lives to inquiry, patient 
 observation and unfaltering perseverance, wel- 
 coming with gratitude every ray of light which 
 science may throw across their path, in the full 
 assurance that, by degrees, present anomalies and 
 perplexities of practice will bo explained, and 
 this noble art removed in great measnre, if not 
 entirely, ont of thc^ dark recesses of empiricism, 
 into the cheering and health-iuspiring light of a 
 progressive science. 
 
 Having thus spoken of the connection between 
 science and agriculture, and of the valuable aid 
 the former has of late years rendered the latter, 
 with a prospect of still greater benefits in time 
 
20 
 
 to come, I wish to guard myself against being 
 understood as countenancing the erroneous and 
 impracticable idea that an intelligent and improv- 
 ing farmer must, in the 'professional sense of the 
 term, be "a man of science." Such an opinion 
 this audience need not to be told is quite Utopian. 
 The progress of the natural and experimental 
 sciences of the present day is so marvelously 
 great that it requires the energies of a life to 
 keep pace with almost any one of them. If 
 youths, intended for farming, as a means of ob- 
 taining a livelihood, were placed in the labora- 
 tory to acquire and master the wavy delicate art 
 of manipulation in the higher branches of organ- 
 ic analysis, with a view of becoming accomplished 
 chemists, the time occupied in such studies and 
 pursuits must preclude them from acquiring that 
 practical knowledge and those business habits, 
 apart from which farming must, commercially 
 at least, prove a disastrous failure. What is 
 really needed, and what is, I think, practicable, 
 is so to instruct our 3^outli in the j^rinciples of 
 science, as to enable them to appreciate the 
 results obtained by scientific men, and advan- 
 tageously co-operate with them in eflecting 
 practical improvements. The amount of scien- 
 tific knowledice which such a view assumes is no 
 
21 
 
 contemptible modicum, and would demand years 
 of patient study and careful observation of an 
 active business life to acquire. The great ques- 
 tion is, how, in the present state of society and 
 its educational appliances, a knowledge of scien- 
 tific and practical agriculture can be best ob- 
 tained ? 
 
 It has often occurred to me that in this, as in 
 most other matters, the best plan is to begin at 
 the beginning, by imparting a knowledge to the 
 pupils of common country schools of the founda- 
 tion principles of good husbandry. Tlie extent 
 of the information that could thus be given would 
 necessarily be restricted, but it need not on that 
 account be otherwise than sound and practical. 
 We have alreadj^ several little text-books suited 
 for such a purpose, and teachers without the ex- 
 penditure of much time and money, might pre- 
 pare themselves for the work, which would cer- 
 tainly tend to raise their professional status in 
 the country, by increasing their respect and 
 usefulness. The matter contained in Jolinstoii's 
 Catechism of A^ricuJtura' Chtmistnj and Geology, 
 and Stephens' Catechism of Practical Agriculture, 
 modified and adapted to xVmerican wants, would, 
 if carefully gone through in a country school, 
 impart a considerable amount of sound aiul use- 
 
22 
 
 fill instruction, and lay a firm foundation for 
 whatever subsequent additions the pupils might 
 acquire to erect thereon. It would be a pleasing 
 and instructive object to have country schools 
 provided with gardens for experimental and illuv 
 trative purposes. Such adjuncts would • form 
 valuable auxiliaries of teaching, and also tend to 
 refine the tasto and enlarge the minds of the 
 pupils. A school house, instead of being, as is 
 even yet too much the case in old and wealthy 
 districts, bald and uninviting in appearance, if 
 not posit ivel}^ repulsive, should be expressive 
 and in harmony with its primary objects, both in 
 its exterior and interior features, and a little or- 
 namental planting and fencing would, as in the 
 cases of churches and other buildings, public and 
 private, very much improve the landscape of the 
 country and add a new charm to rural life. 
 
 Agricultural Colleges have, of late years, at- 
 tracted no inconsiderable amount of attention, 
 both in Europe and America, and a number of 
 experiments have been made with very varying 
 degrees of success. The immense grants of the 
 public lands made a few years ago by the Federal 
 government for the establishment of agricultural 
 colleges, and the prompt action taken by many 
 of the State Legislatures to reduce the noble pro- 
 
23 
 
 ject to practice, redound to the honor and intel- 
 ligence of this great nation. An old and distin- 
 guished member of this Society has immortalized 
 his name, and done imperishable honor to his 
 country by the princely munificence which 
 founded the Cornell University, in this State ; an 
 institution which recognizes the true dio-nitv of 
 hunum labor, ))oth of the mind and of the hands, 
 and strives in a natural and beneficent manner 
 to combine both in harmonious relation. Every 
 true friend of his country and race must earnestly 
 desire that this and similar institutions may 
 realize the aspirations of their founders and pro- 
 moters, and impart untold blessings to posterity. 
 It would be impracticable to lay down, in all 
 cases, a])solute rules for teaching agriculture, 
 theoretical or practical, in pul)lic institutions, as 
 much must depend on the varying circumstances 
 of each country or State. If elementary instruc- 
 tion were generally given in primary schools on 
 the leading principles of this art, a desire, no 
 doubt, would be increased, in many instances, fur 
 more extensive and minute inrormatiou, which 
 the higher order of colleges only could impart. 
 When it is found impracticable to establish and 
 sustain a pure and independent agricnltural col- 
 lege the object might, to a great extent, be 
 
24 
 
 accomplished by incorporating an Agricultural 
 Department with already existing educational 
 institutions, possessing a staff of teachers in the 
 various branches usually comprised in a Univer- 
 sil:}' course of instruction. A farm of more or 
 less extent for experimental and illustrative pur- 
 poses would seem to be a necessary appendage, 
 where the teaching of the class room might re- 
 ceive a practical exemplification in the field or 
 the garden. And here I may observe that agri- 
 culture, or the other industrial arts, cannot be 
 thoroughly learnt in colleges or schools however 
 well adapted they may be for teaching their sci- 
 entific principles; the farm and the workshop 
 are the only places where a practical knowledge, 
 constituting an accomplished workman, can be 
 obtained. It is most desirable that youths, in- 
 tended for agriculture as a pursuit, should be 
 regularly trained to firm labor, and in all young- 
 countries especially, such a condition is a neces- 
 sity. Work, both of the head and hands, consti- 
 tutes the basis of e\Qry sound system of agricul- 
 tural education. And after all, perhaps, to make 
 a thorough and accomplished agriculturist, one 
 whose acquirements will enable him to extend 
 the bounds of knowledge, and enable him to adapt 
 himself to the varying circumstances and condi- 
 
25 
 
 tions of practical life, lie must study in more 
 than one school, and become familiar with more 
 than one system of instruction. The facts and 
 laws of science he can learn in the college, and 
 observe their application to practice on the 
 experimental grounds ; but he will further re- 
 quire a wider circle of observation only to be 
 acquired Ijy travel, and thus make himself person- 
 ally acquainted w^ith the different systems of 
 management pursued by distinguished cultivators 
 and breeders in various localities or countries. 
 
 Among the most efficient means of advancing 
 the agricultural and cognate arts, I feel no hesi- 
 tation in placing Societies, such as the one whose 
 annual exhibition many thousands will have wdt~ 
 nessed on these grounds during the present week. 
 Happily, Societies of this nature have been 
 formed in most civilized countries, and their suc- 
 cess, upon the wdiole, must be considered decid- 
 edly encouraging. Numbers, no doubt, attend on 
 these occasions for mere holiday pleasure, and 
 probably carry away but little information that 
 will Iteneht either themselves or others. It is to 
 be regretted that the great essential objects and 
 functions of these shows are not more clearly 
 and generally understood, and their teaching- 
 power more deeply and w idely felt. To see and 
 
26 
 
 to observe are too frequently very different 
 things. It is the facilities given to observation, 
 comparing one thing with another, and the draw- 
 ing of sound practical conclusions from a suffi- 
 cient number of well-observed facts, that give to 
 occasions like this their principal means of use- 
 fulness. The management of these shows, as 
 they increase in size and complexity, requires 
 continued modification, and is yet susceptible in 
 all instances of improvement. I observe that 
 you have adopted the plan of entering articles 
 some weeks previous to the holding of the show, 
 a practice which we in Canada (Ontario) have 
 pursued with much satisfaction for several years. 
 Now, we have only to take a step or two further; 
 so to limit the period for taking entries, and make 
 it absolute, that sufficient time may be affijrded 
 for compiling a complete classified catalogue or 
 catalogues, and providing in the show-yard and 
 its buildings, " a place for every thing, and have 
 everything in its place." To this state of ad- 
 vancement most of the great National Societies 
 of Europe have already brought their exhibitions, 
 and we on this side of the Atlantic would greatly 
 consult the convenience and information of visit- 
 ors, and materially enhance the interest and 
 increase the usefulness of our exhibitions by fol- 
 
27 
 lowing, as close and rapidly as circnmstances 
 admit, so good an example. The management 
 of the Royal English Society's show, last year, 
 at Leicester — the ease and harmony of its work- 
 ing — was to me a marvelous phenomenon. The 
 grand secret of all this consists simply in the 
 final closing of all entries in proper time to allow 
 of the necessary arrangements for the placing of 
 the articles in an orderly and systematic manner. 
 Further: It has appeared to me that a longer 
 time tlian is ordinarily given is required to bring 
 fully out the teaching-power of our exhibitions. 
 Live stock probably could not be kept longer 
 than it usually is, without incurring an amount 
 of inconvenience, risk and expense that might 
 discourage exhibitors. But, as regards mechan- 
 ical, manufacturing and fine arts productions, 
 and those of the fiirm and garden, that is, with 
 the exception only of animals, the same reasons 
 do not apply, or, at least, only in a very inferior 
 degree, while the addition of only one or two 
 days to the very contracted time usually allotted 
 the public to observe these departments, would 
 be both welcome and advantageous to all visitors. 
 I have often thought that we go to enormous 
 trouble and expense to get great crowds together 
 for a day or two, in which it is always difficult, and 
 
28 
 sometimes impossible, for individuals desirous of 
 obtaining information, to inspect the articles with 
 any degree of care or comfort The suggestion 
 which I have ventured to make would, to a con- 
 siderable extent, at least, rectify this serious 
 defect. 
 
 It has often occurred to me that there is a 
 latent power of good in local agricultural socie- 
 ties that would be of great public benefit, if it 
 were properly developed. I refer to the advan- 
 tages that would follow the more frequent meet- 
 ino; of their members, for the consideration and 
 discussion of subjects of a practical or scientific 
 character. Members of the majority of township 
 societies are commonly satisfied, I believe, with 
 an annual lair, and meeting for the yearly trans- 
 action of Inisiness and election of officers. Exhi- 
 bitions are very useful and excellent things, but 
 they are not everything. An agricultural society 
 should be, in the strict sense of the words, " a 
 muival ijiiprovemmt sociciy.'' This valual)le object 
 is, no doubt, largely obtained by bringing the 
 results of industry before public attention, for 
 inspection and competition. Such occasions 
 awaken thought and interest, inspire men with 
 hio'her aims, and more powerful motives to im- 
 provement. Periodical meetings during the re- 
 
29 
 
 iniiinder of the ye<ar, especially the comparatively 
 leisure season to fjirniers — the winter — would 
 more eftectnally sustain and direct these impulses 
 into fresh and practical channels. In this w'ay 
 the alle<*;ed sluo'srishness of the agricultural mind 
 Avould be quickened, practical men would com- 
 pare notes, and each would inspirit and improve 
 the other by tlie mutual interchange of thought 
 and the teachings of experience. Thus the foun- 
 dations of aoricultural knowledge w^ould become 
 broader and deeper, popular fallacies corrected, a 
 pleasing social interest strengthened, a taste for 
 reading and observation elicited, and the prof- 
 fered aids of science with increased earnestness 
 invoked, I am not aw^are to wdiat extent "Far- 
 mers' Clubs," as they are termed, exist in this 
 countr}^; — the one in the city of New York lias 
 for many years had a wide reputation ; and I have 
 felt much pleasure and derived considerable profit 
 from reading the reports of meetings for discus- 
 sion during the exhibition-week of your Society, 
 and also of its winter-meetings in Albany. If 
 the smaller societies in the country w^ouhi gen- 
 erally follow out this principle, a fresh and most 
 salutary impulse would be given to agriculture, 
 and young men engaged in the pursuit would 
 take a £»;reater and more rational interest in its 
 
30 
 advancement, and better prepare themselves for 
 the discharge of the public duties of life. Refer- 
 ring to young men — how is it that so many aban- 
 don the rural pursuits of their fathers, and rush 
 into cities and towns, to intensify the already 
 severe competition generally existing in com- 
 merce and the professions ? 
 
 There are doubtless several causes which con- 
 spire to produce this social phenomenon; the 
 principal I believe to be, what has already Ijeen 
 referred to — the fixlse and low estimate commonly 
 put upon farming a% a pursuit. It is yet too 
 much regarded as a monotonous life of drudgery, 
 naturally inferior in social status to the more 
 dazzling occupations of city lite, and utterly pow- 
 erless as a means of acquiring a fortune. Young 
 men of ardent imaginations and undisciplined 
 minds soon become dissatisfied with what to them 
 is one dull and dreary round of duty. How little 
 is done in many country homes, to make them 
 attractive to the young, and often still less on 
 the fjirni, to render its various seasonal opera- 
 tions a source of rational interest and agreeable 
 information! Give to youth such an education 
 and training as will enable them to comprehend 
 and appreciate the wonderful phenomena of their 
 daily life, and they will soon feel convinced that 
 
31 
 
 agriculture is an intellectual, agreeable and dig- 
 nified pursuit, alike favorable to health of body, 
 and strength and purity of mind. Practical firm- 
 ing of course implies a certain amount of manual 
 labor, but this, within proper bounds, is a bless- 
 ing, rather than a curse. Everybody knows that 
 physical exertion of some kind or other is an 
 essential condition of l)odily health; and the 
 farmer has the pleasure and advantage of labor- 
 ing in a sakibrious atmosphere, under the blue 
 vault of heaven, surrounded by the beauty and 
 charms of country scenery. Besides, if the 
 farmer has at particular times to work hard 
 through many a long day, we must not suppose 
 that city life is one of peculiar ease. It is, prol)- 
 ably, on the whole, a harder life than that of the 
 country. Men, as a rule, do not make fortunes 
 in trade, or rise to eminence and opulence in the 
 professions, without powerful and continuous ex- 
 ertions of the mind, and sometimes, too, of the 
 body. Multitudes in every large city labor hard 
 day by day, for little njore than a bare subsist- 
 ence, enjoying but few nitellectual resources, or 
 the amenities of social life. In a country like 
 yours, where class distinctions are not sharply 
 drawn, and honest laljoi' in any department of 
 industry need not be ashamed to raise its head, 
 
32 
 
 what a pity it is to see the youth from the coun- 
 try, the strength and hope of the State, flocking 
 into the cities to intensify, as I have already 
 said, the competition that even now is, in many 
 cases, overdone. As to the making of a fortune, 
 if by this is meant the securing of a competence 
 after an honest, industrious business life, agricul- 
 ture holds out inducements generally, when in- 
 telligently pursued, equal at least to those of 
 commerce or the professions. It may be a some- 
 what slower way of making money, and devoid 
 of the few dazzling prizes belonging to the lot- 
 tery of trade, but its gains, if smaller and slower, 
 are in the long run surer. I have a strong mis- 
 giving that our modern systems of education, 
 vastly improved and enlarged as they have been 
 of late, are yet in some important things much 
 wanting; and that they indispose our youth to 
 enter with hearty good will on those particular 
 pursuits which necessarily involve the perform- 
 ance of manual laljor — pursuits, we should re- 
 member, that constitute the very foundation and 
 framework of society. Now, this pernicious ob- 
 jection can only be removed by enlightening 
 public opinion and reforming educational sys- 
 tems, so that youth will be taught, not merely 
 in theory, but in practice nlso, to compreliend 
 
33 
 
 and appreciate the worth and dignity of laljor, 
 whether of the head or hands, or, what shoidd 
 always he the case, of hoth conjoined. I cannot 
 regard onr position as farmers to he hopeless, as 
 the fact is trnly encouraging that every improve- 
 ment made in agricultural mechanics — and such 
 improvements in this mechanical age are great 
 and rapid — as this and similar exhihitions tes- 
 tify, necessarily tends to diminish the severity 
 and monotony of manual labor. Ploughing, for 
 example, with our modern and improved imple- 
 ments, is quite a different thing from what it was 
 with the heavy and ill-constructed ones of thirty 
 or forty years ago ; and the threshing, reaping 
 and mowing machines, in the perfection to which 
 they have already been brought, reduce human 
 labor, as it were, to a minimum, and in great 
 measure relieve the husbandman of some of the 
 hitherto most laborious of his operations. 
 
 The agricultural world seems certainly, if not 
 rapidly, adopting a new power in the cultivation 
 of the soil, and for diminishing manual and ani- 
 mal lal)or, that will form a new and striking 
 epocdi in the history of the art. I refer to the 
 application of steam to farm work. The steam 
 plough has already obtained a firm footing in the 
 British Islands, and several European countries, 
 
34 
 in Egypt and India, in Anstralia and New Zea- 
 land. From what I saw last year of its working 
 both in England and Scotland, and the severe 
 and extensive trials to which it was snbjected at 
 the Uoyal Show at Leicester, the few misgivings 
 I might have had relative to its practical and ex- 
 tensive adaptation w^ere certainly removed. Not 
 only is steam culture cheaper than horse, but it 
 can be made deeper and more thorough than it is 
 j^ossible to do by the ordinary methods. It has 
 been said that the age of the plough, the old 
 characteristic symbol of husbandry, is gradually 
 drawing to a close, and that, this ancient imple- 
 ment will be superseded by the cultivator or 
 grubber. Without endorsing this opinion in its 
 entirety, there is no doul)t some reason in its 
 favor. For many purposes, and in particular 
 conditions of the soil, the action of the grubber 
 is far more advantageous than that of the plough, 
 as a more perfect disintegration and commingling 
 of the whole mass is thereby effected ; and there 
 seems a growing tendency in an advancing agri- 
 culture to produce tliis thoroughly breaking up 
 and mixing the soil in preference to the simply 
 turning of it over, as is done in ordinary plough- 
 ing. There is, besides, an increasing conviction 
 among those that have adopted steam cultivation 
 
that better crops are therel^y produced ; and 
 from the opportunities I have had for observation 
 on this matter, I am constrained to agree with 
 the conclusion. I couhl not help remarking last 
 summer on the farms of the Messrs. Howard, of 
 Bedford, the renowned agricultural implement 
 makers, as also in other parts of England, that 
 the growing crops appeared more luxuriant and 
 promising where steam culture had been adopted, 
 all other conditions, soil, manure, &c., being ap- 
 parently equal, than when, sometimes in the 
 same field, what was considered good horse-power 
 cultivation had been practiced. The difference 
 in favor of the former was explained by the facts, 
 that steam power effects a deeper, more thorough 
 and uniform moving and intermixing of the soil, 
 without subjecting it to the tramping of horses, 
 which in wet weather and on heavy land, every 
 practical man knows is very detrimental. The 
 steam plough has, as yet, been only introduced 
 for experimental purposes, 1 believe, in this 
 country. Various causes have combined hitherto 
 to prevent its general introduction. 
 
 Notwithstanding, I feel it is a moral certainty 
 that on this continent, jiarticularly on the im- 
 mense prairies of the great West, the steam 
 plough will one dny achieve its proudest triumphs. 
 
36 
 The richest soils, after the exhaustive crop2:)ing 
 to which they are commonly subjected, will 
 require deejjer and more perfect cultivation in 
 order to sustain their wonted fertility, and there 
 can, 1 think, be little doubt that in, it may be a 
 few years, these improved modern appliances 
 will renovate many of your already deteriorated 
 soils, and impart a fresh impetus and give a new 
 and much improved character to American agri- 
 culture. 
 
 In a new and extensive countr}^, possessing 
 various decrees of natural fertilitv, where the 
 
 CD «/ -' 
 
 23rice of labor is high, and that of produce com- 
 paratively low, the farmer is strongly tempted to 
 adopt a system of tillage that will surely, 
 although at first almost imperceptil)ly, diminish 
 the productive power of the soil. This gradual 
 deterioration is sometimes allowed to proceed to 
 such an extent that cultivation ceases to be pro- 
 fitable, and the land may be abandoned and re- 
 vert back to its original wild condition. In an 
 immense continent like this of North America, 
 where there are yet many millions of acres of 
 untouched virgin soil. of great natural productive- 
 ness, it would be unreasonable to expect the adop- 
 tion of systems of culture which have long been 
 profitably practiced in the older, smaller, and 
 
87 
 more populous countries of the Eastern hemis- 
 phere. Still it must be obvious, on a little reflec- 
 tion, that even in America some limit will have 
 to be put to the operation of this principle of 
 deterioration, or the period will be reached when 
 farming will cease to be remunerative, or the 
 land to yield sufficient food to meet the growing 
 wants of a rapidly increasing population. The 
 great problem to be solved l)y the American 
 farmer is how best to sustain the equilibrium be- 
 tween waste and supply. Every crop he raises 
 abstracts from the soil a certain amount of min- 
 eral ingredients, constituting the essential ibod 
 of plants. If this waste be suffereil to go on 
 without repair, the ultimate result will surely 
 be sooner or later reached, the exhaustion of tlve 
 soil; or, in other words, a soil so weakened by 
 over-cropping and non-numuring that its cultiva- 
 tion ceases to be profitable. Amidst the too 
 general tendency of diminished productiveness, 
 it is encouraging to be assured that in most 
 instances exhaustion of the soil is rclotive rather 
 than absolute. A farm absoluteli/ exhausted, that 
 is, the tillable soil deprived of all, or nearly all, 
 the ingredients necessary to feed healthy crops, 
 would, in a countrj' Avhere land is 2)lentiful and 
 cheap, Ije dear as a gift, unless it possessed some 
 
38 
 intrinsic value arising from situation, or other 
 local circumstances. It is commonly found that 
 what is termed exhausted, or worn out land, is 
 only in that condition a few inches deep, such 
 soils having usually been cultivated in a shallow, 
 and imperfect manner ; and below the four or five 
 inches to which the plough has penetrated, there 
 is frequently locked up a considerable store of 
 plant-food. In such cases deeper cultivation, 
 and a more intimate mixing of the soil w^ill some- 
 times, w^ithout extra a2)pliances, restore its lost 
 fertility. Cultivation, of course, does not create 
 matter, but simply changes its mechanical and 
 chemical condition. It frequently lia2)pens that 
 soils considered infertile contain a sufficient 
 amount of plant-food in a dormant state, and all 
 that is required to bring it into a condition to 
 enter into the circulation of growing crops is to 
 admit freely air, warmth and moisture by means 
 of deeper cultivation. 
 
 There are, however, too many instances of 
 land being worn out by over-cropping, that deep- 
 er tillage alone w^ill not be found sufficient, but 
 extra substances must be applied to the soil be- 
 fore its lost productiveness can be restored, hence 
 the necessity and value of what are termed ma- 
 nures. It is in this department of husbandry 
 
30 
 that modern chemistry has rendered the greatest 
 service, not merely by analyzing the products 
 yielded by the decomposition of plants, and 
 therefore defining the nature and relative amounts 
 of the various constituents of their food, but also 
 b3^ so treating a numl)er of substances which oth- 
 erwise would remain useless, or positively inju- 
 rious, as to work them up into special manures 
 adapted to the requirements of particular crops. 
 In Europe the manufacture of artificial manures, 
 as the}' are termed, has for some time assumed 
 gigantic proportions ; and it is encouraging to find 
 that in several of the larger cities of this Conti- 
 nent, similar manufactures have already made a 
 successful commencement. Many English farm- 
 ers annually expend as much money in purchas- 
 ing artificial manures and cattle food, as the 
 amounts of their respective rents. This, with a 
 thorough and clean system of cultivation, will 
 account for their high average produce; fifty or 
 sixty bushels of wheat per acre being now grown 
 on land which a quarter of a century ago only 
 produced twenty-five or thirty. We sometimes 
 read with feelings bordering on incredulity, of 
 the enormously hirge crops raised under the sys- 
 tem designated '' high farming T but there can be 
 no doubt that in a country like England, an ex- 
 
40 
 
 penditure that appears to us enormous, if not 
 Utopian, is, when directed by sound judgment 
 and experience, productive of a maximum profit. 
 It has been said " that the soil is always grateful, 
 but it will have so.kiething to be grateful for." 
 Teniint-farmer.^ in Britain may generally be said 
 to have a working capital of from eight to ten 
 pounds sterling per acre, the amount depending 
 greatly on the system pursued. I was told last 
 year, by an Eu.glish tenant-farmer pursuing the 
 mixed husbandrj^, tliat lie had sixteen pounds an 
 acre, and he felt confident that his business could 
 l)e made more profitable by increasing his cap- 
 ital. Yet, even in England, one constantly hears 
 the com})laint that too little capital is invested 
 in the management of land, and practical men 
 generally endorse the sentiment. Certainly on 
 this side the Atlantic our larming capital gener- 
 ally is miserably deficient, and farmers, as a rule, 
 could make no investment of their savings so safe 
 and profital)le, as to use them for the further de- 
 velopment of their oavu freeholds. 
 
 We must be careful, however, in drawing 
 practical conclusions from analogical reasoning 
 founded on the conditions and practices of British 
 agriculture, as applying to our own, under differ- 
 ent circumstances. What might pay well to do 
 
41 
 
 in England, might, if attempted in the same man- 
 ner, entail an actual loss in this country. True, 
 the principles of agriculture are the same all over 
 the world, i)ut it requires both caution and local 
 experience in properly modifying their applica- 
 tion to meet the varying conditions of soil, cli- 
 mate, and markets. In old populous countries, 
 where land is high in price and in constant de- 
 mand, it may pay well to incur a very heavy 
 expenditure in restoring absolutely exhausted 
 farms; but in America, where land is plentiful 
 and cheap, and the appliances for restoring a lost 
 fertility, scarce and dear the operation would 
 likely prove a heavy loss, the market value of 
 the improvements falling below their cost. 
 
 There is an old adage of a very wide applica- 
 tion, which comprises the case under considera- 
 tion : " An ounce of preventiori is worth a pound 
 of cure." It is certainly much cheaper, and in 
 some respects even easier, to keep the soil in 
 good heart, when we have it in that condition, 
 than to sutler its j^roductiveness to decline, and 
 restore it afterwards. This, no doubt, would be 
 the practical sentiment of farmers generally, if 
 they took a broad and prospective view of the 
 case, and felt a permanent interest in the land. But 
 it has been too much the fashion to look too ex- 
 
42 
 cliisively for immediate results, and to adojot a sys- 
 tem of management whicb^ while it enriched the 
 fathers, must inevitably impoverish the sons. The 
 vast fertile and unoccupied areas of the West, 
 yielding for a while bountiful crops with little 
 care and expenditure, have, doubtless, tended to 
 retard the healthy deveh)pment of agriculture in 
 the Eastern and Central States, and this cause 
 will continue to be felt, more or less, till that 
 immense region, — of the extent and resources of 
 which we are beginning now to form some defi- 
 nite conception, — becomes peopled with an indus- 
 ti'ious and thriving population. When that period 
 shall have arrived, and the progress is assuming 
 immense rapidity and proportions, the motives 
 to exhaust land here, remove and commence a 
 similar operation on new and fertile soils there, 
 wdll be reduced to a minimum, and American 
 agriculture, as a whole, will assume a high and 
 homogeneous character, ultimately working out 
 for itself a position, whether for magnitude or 
 excellence, that will be unsurpassed by any por- 
 tion of the habitable world. 
 
 From a pretty intimate acquaintance wdiicli I 
 may be supposed to have of Canadian agricul- 
 ture, which in its leading features must resemble, 
 more or less, that of these Northern States, there 
 
43 
 are a few important points on which I am accus- 
 tomed to insist, and which may not l)e devoid of 
 some interest and relevancy on this side of the 
 lines. I say to our people, cultivate less, and culti- 
 vate better. It is tlie slovenly and superficial cul- 
 ture, so widely practiced, that keeps the average 
 of our crops so low. Really, when we consider 
 how little the soil receives, and how much is 
 taken from it, the wonder is, not that it produces 
 so little per acre, but that it grows so much. I 
 feel morally certain tliat much of the land in the 
 old world, if it received no better treatment than 
 we are accustomed to give ours, would Ijc inferior 
 in production even to our own. Cultivating 
 less, does not necessarily imply growing less. 
 Every practical man knows full well that one 
 acre of land properly pre])ared for a given crop, 
 will produce as much as double the quantity 
 imperfectly and negligently prepared. If, there- 
 fore, by adopting an improved system of hus- 
 bandry suited to our specific wants, we can pro- 
 duce as much grain, roots, etc., from a less 
 surface, the remainder can be made profitable in 
 another way, that is, in pasture, whereby we 
 give the land " rest," and enable it to sustain a 
 laro;er number of live stock. Between " corn 
 and horn," to use an old phrase, there is an inti- 
 
44 
 mate connection and a mutual dependence. By 
 kee})ing more stock of improved and suitable 
 breeds, we get larger and quicker money returns, 
 make more manure, which is the farmer's sheet 
 anchor, after he has diminished the often great 
 natural fertility of his virgin soil. 
 
 I can see no other method, alike practicable 
 and ])rofitable, of restoring and sustaining the 
 fertility of the soil. As the population of the 
 country increases, particularly in the great cen- 
 tres of manuhicturing and commercial industry, 
 the demand for food of improved quality propor- 
 tionately increases. Prices advance for grain 
 and meat, and a fresh impetus is given to both 
 departments. The more cattle ai?d sheep the 
 farmer keeps, the more grain he grows, as ani- 
 mals are the manufacturers of manure, that is, 
 the food of crops. And here let us pause a mo- 
 ment, and reflect on the lamentable waste o^' 
 productive power, arising from the most culpable 
 neglect of the precious article of farm-yard ma- 
 nure. I don't exactly know how tliis matter 
 stands with you on this side the boundary, but I 
 never meet a body of our farmers without remind- 
 ing them of the fact, that from unneces ary ex- 
 posure, barn-yard manure is frequently reduced 
 in value forty or fifty per cent; a loss that might 
 
45 
 generally be prevented hy the exercise of a little 
 forethought and care, involving no heavy pecun- 
 iary expenditure. In old-settled sections such 
 waste is unpardonable, and would be considered 
 inhuman, if plants were regarded as possessing a 
 sensitive organization. I can remember when 
 this kind of manure was similarly neglected in 
 the more backward districts of England, and felt 
 puzzled to determine which inflicted the greater 
 evil on his country, the tenant-farmer who neg- 
 lected his manure to develop his crops, or the 
 game-preserving landlord, who caused them to 
 be eaten up. The possession of land is a sacred 
 trust, and society sanctions by law the right of 
 private ownership on the understood condition 
 that it be used in such a manner as to confer the 
 greatest benefit, not merely on the individual 
 owner or occupier, but on the community at 
 large. 
 
 Among the most efficient means of agricultural 
 improvement in the temperate zone, at least, is 
 Draining, an artifice that has been attended by 
 the most beneficial results, particularly on wet 
 and heavy soils. I will say a few words both of 
 caution and encouragement on this subject. I 
 have found newly arrived settlers in the newer 
 parts of Canada, who had been accustomed to the 
 
46 
 
 use of draining tools, quite cast down in spirits, 
 because they found themselves unable to carry 
 out in practice the refined, elaborate, and expen- 
 sive systems of draining to which thej had been 
 accustomed in the parent country. The difficulty 
 in some instances of getting a sufficient outfall, 
 and no draining tools, or pipes being accessible, 
 the operation was looked upon with feelings bor- 
 dering on despair. I have spoken words of en- 
 couragement to such people, and shown them 
 how they might make a commencement, at least, 
 with success. In a new country especially, we 
 must be guided in the character and extent of 
 our operations by the main physical conditions 
 of the surface ; in other words, aid and improve 
 nature's drainaoe. The clearing out of streams 
 and creeks where they are obstructed by mud, 
 fallen trees, and aquatic plants, is the first lesson 
 to learn in practical draining. In this way an 
 outfall can be generally obtained ; but in very 
 level districts to accumplish this primary and es- 
 sential object, the co-operation of several owners 
 of land, through considerable distances, is some- 
 times necessary. Few can fullj^ understand, 
 apart from personal experience or observation, 
 what an advantage it is to improve the natural 
 water channels of a wet and level district. This 
 
47 
 
 preliminary being acconiplislied, the making of 
 open or covered drains, as circnmstances reqnire, 
 may be advantageously proceeded with. In the 
 older cultivated dif-tricts of this country the 
 more thorough and refined British systems of 
 draining may be profitably followed, subjected to 
 such modifications as differences in soil and cli- 
 mate naturally suggest. In a new country, liow- 
 ever, draining must be, as a rule, differently com- 
 menced and executed, to what can be done in 
 such as are older and wealthier. A ditch dug- 
 out as narrow at the bottom as the tool will 
 allow, and partly filled with old rails or the 
 boughs of trees, closel}" trodden down with a por- 
 tion of the moved earth, will often answer an 
 excellent purpose for several years. I observed 
 in England last summer a few drains in a field 
 two or three of which had not wholly lost their 
 functions, which I assisted in making when a hoy, 
 near half a century ago. The land is in perma- 
 nent pasture, exceedingly tenacious, the drains 
 were dug three feet deep (considered in those 
 days "deep draining"), and the width gradually 
 diminishino- to about two inches at the bottom, 
 in which was placed heath (heather) and the soil 
 returned thereon^ closely tramped down. The 
 durability of such draining in clay soils, when 
 
48 
 
 carefully executed, and with which cultivation 
 or wild animals do not interfere, is almost incred 
 ible. I mention these facts to encourage settlers 
 in new districts to commence and persevere in 
 the prosecution of such an efficient method of 
 agricultural and sanitary iniDrovement. The 
 ditching plough, which has recently received im- 
 portant structural modifications, promises to 
 become a very valuable implement in cheapening 
 and extending draining processes. Before, how- 
 ever, dismissing this subject it is important to 
 observe that the cheap sj^stem of draining (if 
 what has been suggested can be so designated) is 
 intended simply as introductory and provisional, 
 as the best suited to the wants and circumstances 
 of new settlers. There is no other agricultural 
 operation that calls for the exercise of more 
 judgment and care ; and when means and appli- 
 ances admit, no reasonable amount of expense 
 should be spared in making the work as eifective 
 and permanent as possible. 
 
 I cannot conclude without again very briefly 
 adverting to the immense progress made of late 
 years by the exhibitions of this Society, and the 
 improvements in agriculture and other industrial 
 arts that must have resulted therefrom. From a 
 humble commencement, not much more, 1 be- 
 
49 
 
 lieve, than a quarter of a century ago, the course 
 of this Society has been constantly onward, and 
 its inliuence for good has been widely felt, not 
 only in this and neighboring States, but through- 
 out the Union and the Dominion of Canada. 
 Indeed its fame has extended to every country of 
 the civilized world. Its contributions to our 
 common agricultural literature, the researches it 
 has instituted into the nature and treatment of 
 new and mysterious forms of disease of a most 
 malignant character among the domesticated 
 animals, and the thorough, systematic trials of 
 farm implements and machines which it has on 
 several public occasions made, impart to your So- 
 ciety a very high character for energy and 
 usefulness. 
 
 What a magnificent theatre does this great 
 country present for the working out of the en- 
 lightenment, freedom and happiness of our com- 
 mon humanity ? Extending east and west from 
 one ocean to another, and from the great lakes 
 in the north to the gulf of Mexico in the south, 
 comprising almost every climate, traversed by 
 rivers of unrivaled magnitude, and richly en- 
 dowed by nature with the means of agricultural, 
 manufacturing and mineral wealth, it offers homes 
 of plenty and comfort to the many thousands of 
 
50 
 
 the sons of toil who annually land upon its 
 shores. I well remember, now more than half a 
 century ago, a mechanic with his family emigrat- 
 ing from my little picturesque native village in 
 the south of England, to the western portion of 
 the State of Illinois, which at that day was 
 regarded as the " far west." It took him more 
 time and trouble to get from New York to his 
 destination than the whole ocean voyage, Avhicli 
 at that period was a much more formidable under- 
 taking than it is now. How stupendous the 
 changes in the means of locomotion, as in many 
 other things since then, supplied by the steam- 
 boat and the railroad, the latter now connecting 
 the Atlantic with the Pacific! These are truly 
 marvelous changes occurring within living mem- 
 ory, and their benefits, with yet still further 
 developments, will be transmitted from sire to 
 son, through all future generations. 
 
 It is now upwards of twenty years since I 
 first had the pleasure of attending the New York 
 State Agricultural Show, and I have observed 
 with much gratification and benefit the astonish- 
 ing progress you have made. Many of tlie earlier 
 members of this Society, who took a prominent 
 part in its management, among whom I had the 
 honor of including several esteemed personal 
 
51 
 
 friends, have been removed from this earthly 
 scene. And I cannot allow the present opportu- 
 nit}^ to pass, without expressing my deepest sym- 
 pathy with the members of this Society, for the 
 recent loss of its late venerable, respected, and 
 most efficient Secretary. Col. Johnson was no 
 ordinary man, and he was known and esteemed 
 far beyond the Society, which he so long and 
 honorably served. He certainly had a British, if 
 not a European reputation, and we, over in Can- 
 ada, were accustomed to look upon him as one of 
 ourselves. In common with you, Ave mourn his 
 loss; m;uiy of his acts of kindly and courteous 
 attention will be long and gratefully remembered 
 by not a few of the members of our " Provincial 
 Association ;" and now, that so good and true a 
 man, full of years and honors, has been taken 
 from us by the relentless hand of death, all I 
 will further say is, what I am sure will honestly 
 express the most sacred feelings of all your 
 hearts : " Requicscat in pace.'" 
 
 Only another word, and I have done. We 
 meet on this occasion to promote the arts of 
 peace and good will, the wealth, intelligence and 
 haj^piness of Nations. As a British Canadian, I 
 wish to express to you, and through you to the 
 citizens of the United States generally, the cor- 
 
52 
 
 dial feeling of my people on the other side of the 
 Lakes, not only towards this Society, but for the 
 peace and prosperity of your common country. 
 We live, it is true, under different forms of gov- 
 ernment, but we speak a common language, and 
 are j)roud of a common ancestry ; and in fact we 
 have so much in common that we regard as good 
 and permanent, as will, I most devoutly trust, 
 under the guidance and blessing of Divine Provi- 
 dence, lead to earnest and harmonious action in 
 promoting the material development of our res- 
 pective soils, and the peace, liberty, and happi- 
 ness of the toiling millions of this vaat Continent.