242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



through this transformation. Yet we have in Massachu- 

 setts acres and acres of land which we know a hundred 

 years ago were fertile ; but to-day, although in its aggre- 

 gate and in its general physical characteristics and appear- 

 ance it remains as of old, it is, nevertheless, very sterile. 

 There must, therefore, be a very marked distinction be- 

 tween soil in general and fertility. Mr. A. owns large 

 areas, leagues of land ; and yet he possesses nothing of 

 which he can immediately avail himself for the production 

 of crops. And, again, Mr. B. is the owner of a very small 

 area ; but he owns something which will enable him at once 

 to harvest the most bountiful crops. 



Now, there is a great distinction, as I have already said, 

 between soil and fertility. The question which I am to 

 discuss this afternoon is really this difference between these 

 two conditions of the land; and I shall necessarily be 

 obliged, in discussing it, to speak somewhat of the com- 

 position and organism of plants, the composition and the 

 changes of soil by which soil is converted into plants ; and 

 then, again, I must speak of the influence of the air and 

 of the water in producing these changes, and the influence 

 of the general growth of plants to the same end. 



First, gentlemen, the plant. To me the living plant is 

 always a wonder ; to me there is something within the living, 

 growing plant that is a profound mystery. And yet there 

 is an aspect of this case in which we may say the plant is 

 ar. well known as the building, in its structure and in its 

 composition, is to the mechanic who has just erected it. 

 The seed is to me a wonder; and it is to me also, in some 

 aspects, a profound mystery. Curious and wonderful is its 

 formation. It is composed of two principal parts : first, the 

 germ, which is a little plantlet, or more properly a plant in 

 embryo, composed of roots, of stem, of bud, and of leaves. 

 This is always surrounded by a little sack of cellular material, 

 prepared by the parent plant as the food of the young plant- 

 let, before its own organs are able to gather food from the 

 element in which it is located. Now, the mystery of the 

 thing is, that this little plantlet enclosed within the endo- 

 sperm of the seed has within it the vital principle. It is 

 alive ; and, though apparently a dead thing, it will live on 

 year after year, until there shall be a conjunction of all those 



