74 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



at Amherst, yet the facilities which have been eniimeratecl for 

 the study of Botany in its various departments and applica- 

 tions are absolutely essential, if the State College for farmers 

 is to maintain a high position as a school of science and to be 

 eminently efficient in the advancement of agriculture and 

 horticulture. The appropriate work to be executed there is 

 grand enough to satisfy the ambition of the most gifted botan- 

 ist, or the most wealthy and liberal patron of learning. As 

 the field is all ready for occupation, and trees gi'ow while men 

 sleep, it is fervently to be hoped the planting may speedily 

 begin. 



The possil^le and unforeseen advantages to be derived from 

 cultivating together representative forms of vegetation from 

 diflferent countries, and so imparting to beholders some con- 

 ception of the variety and magnificence of the flowers and 

 foliao;e with which the Creator has adorned the earth, are 

 beautifully shown by an incident in the life of the renowned 

 author of "Cosmos." He informs us that "the sight of a 

 colossal dragon tree and a fan palm in an old tower of the 

 botanic garden at Berlin, implanted in his mind the seeds of 

 an irresistible desire to undertake distant travels." The vol- 

 umes containing the results of his journeys in Europe, Asia 

 and America, are justly regarded as among the most learned 

 and philosophical treatises which the world has ever seen. 

 They have been translated into all the principal languages of 

 civilized nations, and must in the ages to come be a perennial 

 source of instruction and pleasure to every scientific lover of 

 Nature. Who can say that some American youth might not 

 be inspired by the scenes in a Massachusetts garden to enter, 

 like Alexander von Humboldt, upon a glorious career of use- 

 fulness ? 



In conclusion, permit me to mention a circumstance in my 

 own personal history in further illustration of the most im- 

 portant principle that all faithful and worthy study of pure 

 science, without regard to its immediate application in the 

 arts, will inevitably result sooner or later in some substan- 

 tial good. More than twenty years ago I went to Europe to 

 qualify myself to become a practical geologist, and spending 

 a few weeks in London, I visited the Kew Gardens. Here I 

 beheld, with wonder and delight, the fii'st specimen ever culti- 



