20 president's address. 



tbe bumper year. This may be distrnguishetl as the drought-sleep or resting 

 or sweetening of the laud. The dittereuce between Nature's two methods of doing 

 the same kind of thing depends on geographical position, aiul on cosmical condi- 

 tions of high and low pressure areas, sun-spots perhaps, and so on ; and, of 

 these, the meteorologist and the astronomer can give a scientific account. 



Therefore, to rail at droughts, to call them a curse, to sjieak of them as re- 

 sponsible for a relentless, cruel environment for the man who goes on the land in 

 Australia, or as a Demon who robs the squatter of his hard-earned wealth, some 

 of it earned simply by allowing Nature to convert grass, her own grass, into wool 

 and mutton, is to be as ignorantly foolish as to say, night, the need of sleep 

 and recreation, the Sabbath-day's rest, and holidays are curses, unfriendly 

 Demons, because they nightly, weekly, or periodically interrupt his money-making 

 activities. And it might be supplemented by lamenting that Jian is such an im- 

 perfect creature, because a perfect man should have an iron constitution, which 

 would enable him to dispense with sleep and rest, so that he might uninterrupt- 

 edly be making money, twenty-four hours per diem, seven days per week, three 

 hundred and sixty-tive days per annum, year in and year out . That would be 

 the way to make money ! 



The man on the land in tlie Northern Hemisphere, after sreiierations of ex- 

 perience, has learned his lesson, and is able to live in harmon>' with iiis environ- 

 ment. The severity of the annually recurring winters compels him to house and 

 feed his stock; therefore, he must grow enough fodder to provide for them, and 

 he must cull his flocks and herds, so that the demand for fodder shall not exceed 

 the supply. What helps him to learn his lesson is, that the recurrence of winter- 

 conditions, on the whole, is so regular, that he can arrange his programme 

 of work by the almanac; and, not less, that he certainly knows that he will be 

 ruined, if he does not come up to the mark. So, knowing exactly what he has 

 to do, and how to do it, and what will happen if he fails to do it, he makes 

 good ; and abstains from talking nonsense and heresy about his relentless, cruel 

 environment, even when the thermometer goes below zero; or about winter being 

 a curse. In a word, lie Ijccomes a ]>hilosopher, in the primary sense of the 

 word; and the idea of a long, weary gamble with malignant frost and ice finds 

 no place in his mind. 



The man on the land in Austi-alia, Subtropical S..uth America, and South 

 Africa, has to carry out his work on a ditferent basis, inasmuch as he lias to learn 

 how to adapt himself to Nature's arrangements for giving the land its needed 

 rest and sweetening, juot by a regularly, annually recurring winter-sleep, but by 

 a periodical but not regularly lecurring drought-sleep. Nature, in Austi'alia, 

 has proWded a genial climate, with splendid natural jiasture-grasses and fodder- 

 plants; with no hard, annually recurring winter, recjuiring the man on the land 

 to house his stock, and grow crops to feed them under those circumstances, as 

 well as to cull out all but what he can feed; and, in many cases, with procurable 

 water, tiiough it may not always be visible on the sui'face. Nevertheless, he ha.s 

 not yet learned to live in harnumy with his enviroinncnt, so successfully as his 

 representative in the Northern Hemisphere, because, though he knows from ex- 

 perience or from historical recoi-ds, that droughts are certainly to be looked for 

 from time to time, lie cannot tell from the almanac exactly when to exiiect them. 

 This recunence of dro\ights at uncertain intervals, which he cannot calculate. — 

 and Science cannot definitely ]iel]> him in that respect at ])rcsent — is a dis- 

 turbing factor, wliich )iei indically makes Ids environment erratic, and ]nits him out 



