PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 351 



was the only being in the universe, excepting his little son, after 

 spending millions of years in solitude, he one day concluded to 

 exercise his creative power and he made an oyster ; the first thing 

 of life, aside from himself and his little son, that the old universe 

 had ever seen. His little son was so delighted with that new form 

 of organized life, that he besought his father to make something 

 higher and better than the oyster. But the old god looked wise 

 and shook his head and at last concluded it would not do to have 

 anything better than the oyster ; so he went on making oysters 

 for ten thousand years. I have thought that as farmers, when 

 improvements are brought to our notice and demonstrated clearly 

 and forcibly, we are too apt to look at them doubtingly, shake our 

 heads, and too many of us go on making oysters for ten thousand 

 years. 



Ex-Governor Coburk. I have been very much gratified to-day, 

 and think I can bear witness to the truth of the remarks that have 

 been made. I endorse fully the sentiments of the address of the 

 evening, and I look forward with a good degree of confidence to 

 improvements in agricultui'e and in every department of industry, 

 in the future. Looking back twenty or thirty years, I can perceive 

 very great improvements in the manner of managing farms, the 

 raising of stock, and all the minutiie of agriculture. Those of us 

 who have been in the habit of seeing the mode of culture pursued 

 by our neighbors in Canada, even now, and the implements they 

 use, cannot but see that they are far behind us, even as we were 

 thirty years ago. I remember when the first plow, that really was 

 a plow, went over the Chaudiere ; and I remember perfectly well 

 that for years and yeai's, even those farmers who had good farms 

 would not have a chain to plough with, but hitched their oxen 

 to the plow with elm bark tied to the end of a pole, so that the 

 oxen, when they came round, would have to come round sideways. 

 They had no yoke, but instead there was a pole tied to the horns 

 of the oxen. The doctrine was, and I presume they think to-day 

 it has real force, that by the use of the yoke they lose the strength 

 of that part of the ox that runs through the bow. That idea pre- 

 vailed through the whole length of the Chaudiere valley, which is 

 a very fine agricultural region indeed. It is so with their other 

 implements. It did not take much for them to live on. They were 

 willing to eat what nobody else would, and they sold the best part 

 of their products; the women would go to market with their 

 chickens and bring back the money, and they got along very well. 



