STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1 43 



omniscient, nor all the Latin names of every plant, tree, fruit, bug^, and 

 flower in creation, but only to know those he is likely to be called to 

 meet, to use, or to combat in his own daily vocation, and the more 

 thoroughly he understands these the better. Some of the rudiments and 

 bare outlines of this special knowledge can now be acquired from the 

 books and the schools to the immense advantage of the pupil, while its 

 grand essential whole can only be obtained in the actual study, and toil, 

 and care, and conflict of the-field. But it will be found w^holly impossible 

 to make the best use of even our extant science for industrial ends, till 

 we have time to make special text-books for each special art. 



What the horticulturist or agriculturist needs to know about geology, 

 botany, or chemistry, or entomology, is almost as wholly distinct from 

 what the special geologist, or botanist, or phvsician, or manufacturer, or 

 chemist, or entomologist, needs to know, or generally does know, as 

 though they were separate and distinct sciences; and yet the greater part 

 of the text-books we actually ha\e, are made by parties, who have 

 wrought in the interests of these specialties and professions; who cannot 

 tell us the precise things we need to know, simply because, for the most 

 part, they do not know them themselves. 



We do not care by what Latin name any bug, tree, or plant may be 

 called, or to what artificial class it belongs, or what its chemical or 

 medicinal qualities are, except in so far as this knowledge may better 

 enable us to know either how to grow and use them, or how to defend 

 ourselves against them in the field. 



Here then lies the greatest of all the works before us; the making of 

 proper text-books for our several special arts, or rather the educating of a 

 new race of men who can make them. When that is done we shall find 

 the fundamental principles, both of horticulture and of agriculture, taught 

 in every common school in the land. Till then, we must grope our way 

 along as best we can. 



I trust I have already made concessions enough in regard to the dead 

 languages, to fully satisfy the most radical extreme ; and still I wish to see 

 these languages taught in our higher industrial schools and universities, 

 to all who voluntarily desire t6 study them. 



The reason is obvious. We as industrial men must educate our own 

 teachers and professors from our own class, and prepare to make our own 

 text-books, or they never will be made. We can not allord to stand 

 forever, in the republic, as a mere underling class, and depend upon the 

 other professions above us to supply us with all the teachers and professors 

 and text-books \\c need. But to the man who undertakes to make text- 

 books of any sort, languages, both ancient and modern, are of great 

 importance. They are in fact as much the tools of his trade, as the plow, 

 spade, and the hoe, are the tools of the gardener and farmer. He is dis- 

 tinctly a dealer in words, and not in work; and therefore needs to study 

 words more than work. As words are in the very nature of the case, one 

 of the great instruments of his peculiar life-work — the more thorouj^hly 

 competent, drilled, sensitive, and certain, he becomes in their true meaning 

 and use, the better he is fitted for his task, all other things being equal. 



