STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 87 



for me to say to an audience of intelligent, practical horticulturists, that 

 the elements of fertility in the soil, though essential, constitute but one 

 factor in the sum of successful agriculture, and that the proper manipula- 

 tion of the soil, so that the atmospheric elements that enter so largely into 

 the composition of all vegetable products may be most readily obtained 

 and appropriated, is another and equally important one to the success of 

 your pursuit; and thus you become indebted to geology and chemistry 

 alike for the knowledge necessary to the attainment of the most desirable 

 results. Indeed, there is no pursuit in life where a general acquaintance 

 with the elements of the natural sciences is more essential to success than 

 in the cultivation of the soil, and hence the necessity of the introduction 

 of these sciences as a necessary part of our common school system, so that 

 every child that graduates from these schools shall be fully prepared, so 

 far as the school room can prepare them, to enter upon the practical duties 

 of a useful life under the most favorable conditions. It is not only nec- 

 essary that those who till the soil should understand something of the 

 geological character of the locality from whence the soil is derived, the 

 manner of its derivation and the chemistry of its composition, but he 

 needs to know as well the forms and habits of the insects that are destruct- 

 ive to his crops, as well as the parasites that prey upon them, so that he 

 may successfully fight the one and cherish the other; and a knowledge of 

 the elements of botany is also equally essential. Surely no vocation is 

 more essential to the existence and well-being of our race than the culti- 

 vation of the soil, and in no way can those engaged in this pursuit elevate 

 it to its proper standard, as one of the noblest to which men can devote 

 their energies, than by bringing to their aid the requisite educational facil- 

 ities, so that those engaged in agriculture and horticulture shall be the 

 peers of those engaged in any other avocation. 



The truly educated man is not necessarily the one most conversant 

 with the dead languages, or the one who can converse freely in the great- 

 est number of modern tongues, but rather the one who has the most com- 

 prehensive knowledge of the universe of which he is a part, and of the 

 eternal laws by which that universe is governed and controlled. 



The time is surely coming, in the progressive development of our 

 race, when men, and women too, will be esteemed for what they can do 

 rather than for what they possess; when the inquiry will not be in regard 

 to the length of purse, the number of title deeds, or the sum total of the 

 tax roll; but rather what he or she can accomplish in the production of 

 such things as are necessary to satisfy the physical, intellectual and moral 

 wants of the race, out of the elements of nature so bountifully provided 

 by Divine Intelligence. Then the man who shall cause two blades of 

 grass to grow where but one grew before, or the woman who shall devise 

 a new and wholesome dish to replenish the wasted protoplasm of the 

 father, husband or brother, as they return from their daily toil, will be 

 esteemed as far more worthy members of society than the idle drones of 

 the parlor, the sharpers who get up corners in wheat, the wealthy gam- 

 blers in stocks, or any other class of idlers who live exclusively upon the 

 productive labor of their fellow men. 



