250 [Assembly 



the farmer. He is in league with nature. Her attractions are 

 nnfoldii:g continually. He finds that nothing is dead, in the 

 Sense he has heretofore attributed to that word. How delightful 

 for him to study her changes. The germination of the seed, for 

 instance, the unfolding of beauty presented m that alone, would 

 repay weeks and years of study Seeds will and have lived 

 thousands of years, under certain conditions. At the end of 

 that time expose them to the right temperature, place them in a 

 favorable position, and they sprout and germinate as well as they 

 would have done the first year of their existence. In this man- 

 ner we can take seed-wheat from Egyptian catacombs, and raise 

 in our times, and on our soil, the same plant that flourished on 

 the banks of the Nile. Nothing is more interesting than to fol- 

 low out these investigations, as science points the way. 



But how is the farmer to be able to know all these things? 

 Must he become a chemist, a geologist, a mineralogist ? Not by 

 any means. But he can easily become acquainted with the lead- 

 ing principles. These are plain and simple. Then he must have 

 a sincere desire to learn, this must govern him in his thoughts. 

 He must seek for improvement with a candid eye. Thus he can 

 fit himself to judge between the false and the true. To go farther, 

 for him would be useless. No man can become a thorough cliemist 

 or scientific man, without years of patient study and investigation. 

 To become such, should not be the end or aim of the farmer. 

 The scientific man should devote himself mainly to his profession, 

 and the farmer should do the same. But he could obtain suflB.- 

 cient scientific knowledge through the medium of schof-ls for the 

 advancement of agriculture, to enable him to make his business 

 an interesting one, and one of greater mental elevation as well as 

 pecuniary profit. For deeper investigations he would rely upon 

 the professed scientific man, and would use the results. Thus 

 would the two work harmoniousl3^ To inculcate these truths 

 would be the object of his lectures. 



The Prof, illustrated further by presenting the instance of the 

 germination and growth of a plant, and the immense sMidy pre- 

 sented to the student of nature, in order to comprehend and de- 



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