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I trust you will not deem it inappropriate at this time to say a few 

 words to the young men who have chosen the profession of Agriculture. 

 It is a noble vocation, and upon you will soon devolve the high responsi- 

 bility, not only of maintaining its present position, but carrying it for- 

 ward in. even pace with the progress of the other sciences. The earth 

 on which you tread is endowed with a thousand capabilities of produc- 

 tion, which require only the fostering hand of intelligent industry to yield 

 you the most ample returns. 



In this, as in all other departments of science, " knowledge is power," 

 and it is of the highest importance to you to make yourselves acquainted 

 with the constitution and relations of every object around you, that you 

 may avail yourselves of their capabilities of ministering to your comfort 

 and happiness. And I would earnestly impress upon you the advantages 

 of acquiring a taste for reading and habits of investigation. I know that 

 youn^ men are too apt to suppose, when they have finished their preli- 

 minary studies and entered upon the active duties of their calling, that 

 they have acquired all the knowledge requisite for their proper discharge. 

 This is a great mistake. They are then only fitted to pursue with advan- 

 tage a more enlarged course of study. 



In this ao-e of cheap literature, when knowledge no longer walks the 

 streets, as in days of yore, with uncouth wig and sable cowl, but when 

 the portals of her temple are open wide, that all who choose may enter, 

 you should not fail to form and cultivate a taste that will expand the 

 mind, ennoble the faculties, strengthen the judgment, and open to you 

 innumerable sources of rational enjoyment. 



Science will inform you of the organization, the uses and the history 

 of animated nature. It will classify, arrange, and make you familiar with 

 every department of the vegetable kingdom. It will analyze the water 

 that fertilizes the earth, and the invisible air by which you are surrounded. 

 It will t«ach you the laws of heat, light, and electricity. It will do more. 

 It will elevate your thoughts to the heavens, and present to your won- 

 dering minds the immensity, the distances, the revolutions and laws 

 which govern the globes and stud the great arch above us. It will 

 teaeh you that an all-wise and beneficent Creator has impressed the same 

 unerrino" law on every portion of the universe, as full, as perfect on the 

 tiny pebble which lies upon the sea shore, as on the globe we inhabit; 

 as full, as perfect in the gentle zephyr that woos us with its soft embrace. 



