PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 355 



wish to go back to the earth as the Almighty made it first, for He 

 covered it with the old Silurian seas, and filled those seas with 

 Silurian monsters. We are all going to be perfected, through the 

 perfected products of the earth. I did not think it necessary to 

 carry my idea through every possible ramification. 



I find that my experiment failed in one respect ; it succeeded, 

 however, in another. It succeeded in bringing us into the relation 

 which I hoped we should come into, perfect harmony. You ex- 

 periment, I will experiment, let us talk the thing over in a friendly 

 spirit, and we shall all of us get light upon it. 



Prof. Fernald. I have listened with a great deal of interest to 

 the lecture and discussion, and I was particularly interested in 

 that part of the lecture which elaborated somewhat the course of 

 study. That certainly has a very close relation to agricultural 

 pursuits. It so perfectly corresponded with my own views upon 

 the subject, that I wish to thank Prof. Brackett forthe veiy happy 

 and able manner in which he has shown the relation between those 

 studies that the students at the college must necessarily pursue, 

 and the practical pursuits of life that follow, in their relation to 

 agriculture. 



Passing from that, I wish to take up a point, that the lecturer 

 of the evening brought out — that a portion of the products of our 

 farms must necessarily go from the farms ; for I believe Prof. 

 Brackett is citirely right, that is, taking the broad view, which 

 is the correct view. How are the horses in the cities to be sup- 

 plied with food ? How would the gentleman who has raised a 

 point in opposition have the horses in the cities fed ? How 

 would he have the people in those cities fed ? He says he would 

 keep his hay at home. Very well, if he keeps his hay and corn 

 and potatoes at home, somebody else must send their hay and 

 corn and potatoes to the market, for the cities are an inevitable 

 necessity. I think it has been shown to-day, and certainly it 

 can be shown, that cities will spring up in -certain localities : 

 they are as much a matter of necessity as is the country, in our 

 present state of civilization. We cannot control the matter. God 

 has put liis hand upon it, and those cities will exist; we need 

 them, as means of commercial exchange ; they are our marts, we 

 need them for manufactures. Implements must be manufactured 

 somewhere ; they are not made on the farm; there must be facto- 

 ries, and the operatives must be fed from the farm. If every man 

 keeps all his products on his farm, how can those who are thus 



