346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



wants of the physical system under this new order of things. If 

 we could be driven into raising only Indian corn it would be bad, 

 because we do not need the Indian corn, and the coarser articles 

 of food, so much as our ancestors did ; we need a finer product, 

 and we shall have it. I remember when Indian corn was about 

 the only food that was raised in some parts of this State. It was 

 cooked in a variety of ways, and we lived well, because that was 

 all we needed. But now we need something that makes more 

 brain, because we have sharp competition. These young men 

 who attend this college have got to eat something that produces 

 more than muscle, because thej^ go there to sharpen their wits, to 

 exercise those faculties 'that will enable them to go out into com- 

 petition in the work of a world that is very difierent from that of 

 our predecessors. 



It is a mistake to argue the necessity of keeping the world in 

 exactly the same position, or reproducing it just as it was in 

 Adam's time. God does not mean you shall do it. He means 

 you shall be better and more intellectual men than Adam was, and 

 therefore he changes the world by taking away the coarser things 

 and giving the finer. We must, therefore, study the relations 

 which we sustain to the world we live in. The time is coming 

 when the coarser foods, that go to make up the muscular system, 

 shall give way to those finer foods that we must have in order to 

 fit ourselves to live in this new earth that is being made, I do 

 not believe, therefore, in the doctrine that our friend has been 

 inculcating, but that we must study into this matter, and prepare 

 ourselves to meet the future, and not look back to old times and 

 mourn about them. 



It is often said, if we would only live as our forefathers did, we 

 should have as good health, and as good muscles as they had. 

 We do not want so good muscles ; we don't need them. Wo want 

 as good health as they had ; and if we do not have it, the reason 

 is because we use dainties to excess. We are told that if we would 

 only live on bone broth and hominy, as our forefathers did, we 

 should be as healthy. Not at all ; we sliould not be fit to live and 

 do the work we are designed to do. The gentleman himself is a 

 physical manifestation of that fact. You see that his brain is a 

 great deal larger, proportionally, tlian his muscles, just as it ought 

 to be. If he was designed to do such work as our forefathers did, 

 and nothing else, what would be the use of having such a brain ? 

 It would be of no more use than it would be for him to have a hun- 



