238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It is a source of deep regret, that I am unable here to present a 

 communication \Ybich was confidently expected, from the late Dr. 

 Cuming of New Brunswick, upon a subject of great importance to 

 the agriculturists of Maine, and which no person within the circle of 

 my acquaintance, could have treated in so able a manner as he, but 

 which he was prevented from preparing, by sudden death. 



I have thought that a brief notice of this remarkable man mio;ht 

 not be out of place here, as illustrating what may be accomplished 

 by a poor farmer's boy, by dint of determined energy, industry and 

 perseverance. If such an one under the disadvantages incident to a 

 system of greater social inequality than ours, could rise from the 

 « position of a herd boy to marked eminence in a scientific profession, 

 how great encouragement have the young men of our own country 

 to aim at high attainments in science. 



Mari A. Cuming was born August 12, 1813, at Myers, in the 

 county of BaniF, Scotland, where his father rented a small croft or 

 farm. His parents being poor, Mari was sent from home at the age 

 of nine or ten, to serve as herd boy, on a neighboring farm. Seve- 

 ral summers were thus occupied, and during the winters he attended 

 school. His whole school education during his minority did not 

 exceed nine or ten months. Even at this early age, his active and 

 ingenious mind busied itself during leisure hours, in the construction 

 of various mechanical contrivances and philosophical toys, many of 

 which are well remembered. From being herd boy, he was in due 

 time promoted to the pofet of plowman, in which' capacity he served, 

 partly at home and partly upon other farms in the vicinity, until at 

 the age of twenty, he was by his father's death, left tenant of the 

 few paternal acres. Ilis father's affairs were left in a very embar- 

 rassed condition, and it cost some years of toil to cancel the^indebt- 

 edness thus inherited. 



Although his school education was very meagre, he was all the 

 while, like his illustrious countryman. Miller, acquiring a rich and 

 varied education. Nature was his teacher, and well did he heed her 



