RELATIONS OF FEEDING TO FERTILITY. 3]^ 



work. It becomes necossaiy onl}- for us to introduce the work of 

 to-dav. 



"We desire to make of this meeting something different from a 

 mass meeting of farmers for the purpose of listening to windy 

 speeches or wordy talks. It is a meeting for investigation, a mutual 

 effort to search for, and find, if possible, a deeper, fuller and better 

 knowledge of these questions which are yet unsolved, these problems 

 in agriculture. In order to carry this on successfully we must make 

 it as informal as possible. "We want vou to consider that this is 

 3'our meeting as much as ours ; that it is a meeting for mutual 

 benefit ; that we, the members of the Board of Agriculture, have 

 come here to meet with the members of the Farmers' Club, and hold 

 a joint Farmers' Institute, for our mutual benefit and for the benefit 

 of the agricultural public, and, through that, the benefit of the State 

 at large. 



The programme we have arranged has been pretty well advertised 

 in this section, the outline has been scanned by ever}' one present; 

 yet in opening the meeting it ma}' be well to refer to it somewhat, 

 and point out directly the course of investigation which we propose 

 to introduce here to-da}'. 



"We have a great deal of superficial discussion ; I think 3'ou will allow 

 that term to be used here ; it is an easy thing for farmers to present 

 opinions ; but opinions, without being based upon principles, lose a 

 large part of their force ; and sometimes I fear we give them more 

 weight than the}- are worth. We should search for the foundation 

 principle. It is said of Lord Bacon that in looking over his agi'i- 

 cultural librar}- he ordered this book and that book burned, because, 

 said he, "they contain no principle and therefore are without value." 

 If, then, a book containing no principle, is without value, may we 

 not say the same of an opinion or of a discussion, public though it 

 may be. "We want to develope principles, facts ; so we must try to 

 dig deeper, to plow deeper, and turn up the hitherto untried soil. 



The leading subject, as announced for the meeting, is, "How to 

 market the products of the farm." It is an accepted fact, I think, 

 which goes through every man's experience, that crops can be pro- 

 duced on the farm at a profit. "We will take the farm crops of the 

 present year ; they have been produced on your farms at a i)rofit ; 

 that is, the cost of planting, caring for, and harvesting the crops 

 has been less than the value of -the crops ; therefore those crops 



