AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 305 



the fact that in every State the cultivators of tlie soil are the last to 

 avail themselves of, or rather the last to demand of government a 

 share in those benefits which are continually heaped upon less 

 important but more sagacious and more clamorous branches of the 

 body politic ? Why this fact has not been more generally heeded 

 has, I confess, much puzzled me, but latterly you seem to have been 

 very plainh'' putting this pertinent question of the moment to your- 

 selves, for it is evident that we are on the eve of a great change in the 

 future position and influence of the agricultural classes in this 

 country. California has very recently shown what her farmers, what 

 her Grangers, can do when they take united action. The sun-browned 

 giant that tills the soil is gradually awakening into conscious activity; 

 he i^erceives his own resources; he begins to feel that upon his broad 

 shoulders rests the State, that from his labor proceed the material 

 forces used to feed the national strength; he knows that from his 

 loins are largely drawn the strong men that give force and stability 

 to the great impulses and sound institutions of Republican America! 



With this newly awakened consciousness of the meaning and value 

 of his life, the farmer, the owner of the soil, both East and West, 

 should seize any and every advantage to develop his best faculties. 



There is a great deal of difference, I know, concerning the value of 

 an Agricultural College as a State institution, and I put forward my 

 opinion not so much to guide as to supplement those which you may 

 have expressed. I have called agriculture a science. It is at once a 

 science and an art; it may be studied in the closet, in the laboratory, 

 and the lecture room, and yet the student may have a perfect knowl- 

 edge of all there taught and not know how to well perform a single 

 one of its labors in the field. Again, a knowledge of agriculture 

 may be gained by rote in the field by one who cannot give you the 

 reason for the operation of a single law of nature which his toil daily 

 involves. The first is mere absolute theory; the second, dull mechan- 

 ical practice. 



This is neither the time now the place to enter into a long discus- 

 sion upon what constitutes the best cultivation of lands,' or upon the 

 proper use of manures. Still I cannot resist the opportunity of making 

 a few general appropos remarks. A truth which hundreds and thou- 

 sands of agriculturists do not recognize, or if they recognize do not prac- 

 tically adopt, is, that good cultivation depends on nothing so much as 

 the supply of an abundance of food. This truth stands as broad an 

 application to human beings as to the cereals or vegetables, for an ill- 

 fed nation, people, or community is never a progressive one. Cattle 

 have undeniably mouths and stomachs, so they must be fed. Given 

 an amount of stock and a sustained system of rich feeding, result, the 

 capture of all the State medals for good appearances; given the same 

 amount of stock, left to themselves and their own diance feeding, 

 result, a miserable looking lot of animals, lacking in every good point 

 except the opportunity they oft'er for the study of anatomy. One 

 would think the application of so clear a principle was a certainty; 

 but no, because a plant has a thousand little concealed mouths, 

 instead of one gaping one, because it finds enough even in poor soils 

 to keep it from actually starving to death, you appear to consider 

 you deserve well of all your trees and plants, if their roots are barely 

 kept covered with earth. You make plantations in their soils or 

 upon lands exhausted of all inorganic food by numberless croppings, 

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