ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 333 



European scholars. It is this so-called superficiality, this knowing somethinj; of many things, that 

 has made us the nation that we are. We do not grudge unsuperflclal ones tlieir learning. For 

 fortunately learning in our country does not generally inifit a man for ' ' a battle with life. ' ' Probably 

 because he is what a mere bookworm would call superficial, he uses books only as a medium for 

 thiuking upon— knows enougli of them for practical use, and wants also to know something of every- 

 day aftairs. Is willing to study Latin and even Greek, because of their value In understanding 

 seientific terms, but likes to read his newspaper as well as the fabled loves of the ancient gods and 

 goddesses; fights the battle of life, and enjoys the fact that modern luimanity is superior to the fabled 

 hero gods. 



The present generation want to reap some benefit from Agricultural education. How shall 

 this be done y First, by lectures upon pi-actical Agriculture, the nianageuieut of the farm, 

 orchard and other rural pursuits, rt)tati(in of crops, improvement of seeds, stuck breeding and 

 rearing. Jlanagement of the dairy, and all that pertains to in-door farm life. Surface and under 

 draining, their principles and effects, ilechanical and chemical action upon soils. Cultivation of 

 timber. How climates are changed by tlie settlement of the country, and what may be done to 

 bring it into a more equable condition. The phenomena of atmosjjheric and acpieous influences 

 sofaras weknowthem. Upon the propagation, rearing, and pruning of fruit trees, shrubs and 

 vines, their habits and culture, gatheriug, marketing and use. The forcing cultivation, market- 

 ing, and uses of vegefeibles. The cultivation of ornamental, medicinal and flowering plants. 

 Glass and other structures for forcing, landscape gardening. Rural architecture and ornamenta- 

 tion. Upon the sciences connected with Agriculture, their uses and appropriate places so far as 

 discovered. The mapping out and recording upon experimental farms, gardens and in proper 

 structures, from year to year, of all that is new in Agriculture, Horticulture ami Floriculture. 

 Experimenting from year to year upon improved methods of cultivation, and acclimating, insti- 

 tuting comparisons, and reasoning therefrom— the Chemist, the Botanist, the Geologist, the Ento- 

 mologist, tlie Veterinarian, and other professions, down to tlie humble delver in the soil, being 

 actuate<l by one motive— the advancement of agricultural science— whicli, disseminated throughout 

 the land by means of the public press, finds its way to every fireside in the country ; while at the same 

 time the young men appointed to fill the diflerent classes in our agricultural scliools, if they may 

 happily be rescued from the grasp of sectarians, will gradually eliminate the dross from the pure 

 metal, and give us something else besides that obnoxious word " empiricism," which we translate 

 "quackery "'—the pretensions of ignorant men to skill. We have happily supposed thai agriculture 

 was somewhat scientific: we had supposed that intimately connected as it was with chemistry, 

 botany, and kindred sciences, that it must necessarily partake somewhat of science itself. But, 

 alas! this agriculture, which in itself is really the sum of all science— the science of life— toward 

 which every known science more or less intimately tends. Every fact in nature which is constant is 

 science. Any certain knowledge is science. Bakewell and the Collings were scientific stock breed- 

 ers. The fruit grower who saves his crop under adverse circumstances, by the application of certain 

 knowledge, is scientific. So of the husbandman. The florist is decidedly scientific who forces 

 plants to bloom in an artificial atmosphere, under artificial conditions; and so also is the lan<lscape 

 gardener, who makes a paradise o a desert— even pure science, as maihenuitics, must enter here. 



1 pity the agricultural teacher who is so far behind the age, is so ignorant of what he is teaching, as 

 deliberately to write agriculture as "empiricism." 



The annual election for officers resulted as follows : 



rnESiDENT— M. C. McLain, Charleston. 

 1ST Vice-President— L. C. Francis, Springfield. 

 2ND Vice-Pkesident— B. O. Curtis, Paris. 

 .3uD Vice-President— J. B. (lark, Onarga. 

 SECRETARY— H. J. DuTilap, Champaign. 

 Treasurer— John Davis, Decatur. 



The By-Laws were so amended that the President, Secretary and last ex-President 

 form the Executive Committee. 

 The Committee on Fruits on Exhibition reported as follows: 



Your Committee on Fruits report that they find a show of apples possessed of consideral)le inter- 

 est, some specimens being extra fine. 



E. Daggy, of Tuscola, presents a collection from Douglas county, among whicli we note Minkler, 

 Willow, Milam (large). Yellow Bellflower (very large), Vandevere Pippin, Michael Henry Pippin 

 (fair). White Winter Pearmain (scabby). Red Canada, Green Newton Pii)pin, Janet (very large), 

 Pennock, Hoops, and Rhode Island Greening. 



