392 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



One thing is cheering from this standpoint: There is a grow- 

 ing intimacy between city and country. They are not so far 

 apart socially and practically as formerly. This is as it ought to 

 be, and a move in the right direction. The barriers of our social 

 caste are being broken down by the agencies of education and 

 internal improvements. The inhabitant of city and country are 

 being thrown more and more together ; the one learns he can buy 

 cheaper and get better products, the other better prices, by dis- 

 pensing with the parasite, that has fed from both hitherto. Let 

 farmers and consumers cherish this intimacy, cultivate this direct 

 exchange, pursue this avenue of promise, walk this path devoid 

 of vermin, and it shall be one great aid to desired results. 



The Farmers' Club we recognize as ' an efficient and powerful 

 aid toward ridding industry of parasitical pests. In the club we 

 see the same capabilities for educating farmers and mechanics, as 

 in the common school to educate c! ildren. They are, in fact, the 

 common schools of agriculture. No town can afford to be without 

 them. No community is so advanced as not to need their aid. 

 Success to them ! may their numbers increase, and attendance 

 double. 



But I must close ; fruitful as is the subject under consideration, 

 fraught as it is with interest to the masses, I feel that I have but 

 poorly treated some of its many points. It is a subject that 

 demands our earnest thoughts as artizans and producers. It 

 demands individual action and united effort. 



Let me close by repeating the words of another, when he says 

 of true life : " The mere lapse of years is not life. To eat and 

 drink, sleep and wake, to be exposed to darkness and light, to 

 pace round in the mill of habit, and turn the thought into imple- 

 ments of trade — that is not life. In all this but a poor fraction of 

 the consciousness of humanity is awakened, and the sanctities 

 will slumber which make it worth while to be. Knowledge, 

 truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith alone can give vitality to the 

 mechanism of existence. The laugh of mirth that vibrates through 

 the heart ; the tears that freshen the dry waters within ; the music 

 that brings childhood back ; the prayer that calls the future near ; 

 the doubt which makes us meditate ; the death which startles us 

 with mystery ; the hardship which forces us to struggle ; the 

 anxiety that ends in trust, are the true nourishment of our natural 

 being." 



