PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 341 



pursuits ? It stands in a peculiar relation to them, and that 

 peculiarity consists in this : that its resources are being exhausted 

 every day. And do we not see, further than that, that political 

 economy lies at the very b^sis of agriculture, and that we must 

 devise a system that shall not be self-exhausting-, and doomed 

 ultimately to perish in the using ; but a system that shall be able 

 to give back to the earth what it takes from it. This is one of the 

 things that agricultural progress is to do. It has yet to be settled 

 some way. And when I say that, I say it on this general princi- 

 ple. The fact is recognized as a matter of scientific demonstra- 

 tion that the fertility of our soil is deteriorating every year. 

 The end of that thing will come sooner or later unless properly 

 regulated, as it has come to some of the nations that have already 

 perished from the face of the earth. If we, as wise legislators, 

 (for we are all supposed to have to do with the making of laws,) 

 would have a system of political economy that shall be co-exten- 

 sive with our wish for prosperity, we must so devise it, in the 

 first place, that it shall not be self-destructive. You will ask me 

 how is that going to be done. I do not know exactly. It is a 

 problem I confess that I cannot solve ; I have not the means for 

 its solution. But you may rest assured that in the future, the at- 

 tention of men must be turned to the application of mathematics, 

 of natural philosophy, of chemistry, and of all those sciences upon 

 which agriculture depends, and which it is made up of; and the 

 science of its relations to other pursuits so as to involve a com- 

 pensating and self-maturing system. These matters and such 

 as these must be thoroughly studied and mastered at the agricul- 

 tural colleges of our country. 



I know that is not the way men usually reason ; men say they 

 want something practical. Gentlemen, what is life for ? What 

 do you raise your corn and potatoes for, except to live on ; and 

 what do you live for except for the future ? And if you are going 

 to throw away the future, the very object that makes life worth 

 living, don't raise any more corn or potatoes ; let us die now ; 

 we might just as well starve here, as live to no good purpose. Now, 

 all these " fine-spun theories," as you may call them, are based in 

 eternal right and justice. So surely as God has planned and made 

 this universe, so surely his laws must be recognized, and we must 

 make the endeavor to carry them out, in dealing with the things 

 which he has put into our hands. This, then, is exactly what I 

 mean by something practical. The engineering of the future must 



