WE DON'T KNOW. 179 



not to be. This Board of Ao-riciilture oiio^ht to do somethms: 

 to stop it. We ought to know what we buy for fertilizers, 

 and there ought to be a law to punish any man as a criminal 

 who sells an article as a commercial fertilizer that is not what 

 it purports to be. He may charge what he pleases, but he 

 ought to be compelled to show Avhat there is in it, and then 

 people may buy it or not. There are many things sold which 

 are not worth anything like what our fiirmers pay for them, 

 and there are a great many things sold which are absolutely 

 injurious. I may say here in this connection, what I said 

 yesterday, that Professor Agassiz uttered the most eloquent 

 words I had heard, when he said, "I do not know." That is 

 what is the matter with us all. The trouble is we do not stop 

 to know. The trouble between farmers and scientific men is 

 just here, — that farmers imagine that scientific men know 

 everything, l)ut they are so stuck up they won't tell them what 

 they know. You think if it was not for that we could tell 

 you how to raise corn for twenty-five cents a bushel, and all 

 such nonsense. But that is not the fact. The trouble is, we 

 do not know. I was glad to hear Professor Agassiz, who 

 stands at the head of the learned men of the country, say 

 here, "I do not know." When he says, "I do not know," 

 he means 2ve do not know, and the rest of us can stand it 

 after he has said it. Now I would simply ask that we may 

 try to know something, that we may try to apply science to 

 some useful end. One difficulty in the way of progress comes 

 from the fact, that the farmers of this CommouAvealth are not 

 yet waked up to the idea that it is necessary to spend any 

 money, or to spend any brains to learn anything. The fact 

 is, knowledge does not come for the asking. There is no 

 royal road to learning ; it must be gained through mental dis- 

 cipline, study and experience. We have got to work it out. 

 That is the only way in which we can get it. And who is 

 going to do it ? The man who is paid for it. Do you sup- 

 pose men are going to spend all their time in working for the 

 public good and be starved to pay for it ? Not much ! Men 

 of science can earn a living by lecturing for a hundred dollars 

 a night about something that is simply entertaining, if they 

 cannot be supported in doing some useful work ; but I would 

 rather do something which shall be of lasting benefit to the 



