FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 157 



against plowing by the Foyle," as follows : "In many places of this kingdome 

 there hath been a long time used a barbarous custome of plowing, drawing, and 

 working with horses, mares, garrans, geldings, and colts by the taile, which 

 (besides cruelty used to beasts) the breed of horses is much impaired in this 

 kingdome.'* Again, Arthur Young in his ^' Tour of Ireland," so late as 177G, 

 remarks that it was no unusual thing to see horses plowing hitched by the tail. 



But to go back to our subject of later antiquity. At the time of which I speak 

 no greater or higher duty ^Yas ascribed to a Koman than that of the husband- 

 man. Each man tilled his little garden, for a farm then but scarcely equaled 

 our gardens. Two acres once constituted a Koman farmer's domains (the amount 

 fixed by law). In Greece a similar state of affairs existed. The Grecian orator 

 Curious once had it said of him that he was not a good citizen, but rather a dan- 

 gerous man to the Stat3 because he would not content himself with seven acres. 



To these poor benighted people science had not the power of a vision, and 

 when the old alchemists were vainly laboring to produce gold from the baser 

 metals, no one suspected they were sowing the seeds of such a structure as is 

 our agricultural chemistry. They could not produce the precious metal, but 

 unwittingly they gave rise to a science which deals witli the production of that 

 which is more precious than gold, — the sustaining element of the animal crea- 

 tion. 



People then saw in the universe only a succession of events. A miracle 

 explained them all. The seed was placed in the soil ; there it germinated, grew, 

 fruited and died ; none knew why or how. Nature was as yet waiting to be 

 questioned. Our ancestor's miracle becomes to us a natural law. By means of 

 the microscoj)e we see in the little grain or seed the miniature plant, which is 

 yet to develop and increase, — not in number of parts as might be supposed, but 

 in the size of each part. The manner of growth, we are taught, is by cell mul- 

 tiplication. Chemistry teaches us that the means of growth is by tlie absorption 

 of soluble mineral substances from the soil and by the inhalation of gaseous 

 substances from the atmosphere. Such are a few of the advantages of the young 

 farmer of 187? over those of his ancestors of a f cav centuries ago. To one nature 

 was a vast network of chaotic mystery ruled by chance ; to the other (if he 

 studies her) she is an embodiment of systematic wisdom, yielding fruits thirty, 

 sixty, and an hundred fold. 



It seems fitting to my subject that some slight attention should be given to 

 the implements used by our ancestors as compared with our own. 



The plow has been in use over five thousand years. I have already spoken of 

 the primeval plow, and of the grades and styles between this and the Oliver 

 chilled, tne Wolverine, or the Gale. Volumes might be written, and lessons 

 may lie learned that shall be of value to us who are in the ascendancy of our 

 agricultural experience. The philosophy embodied in the working of a plow is 

 well worthy of the study of every person who is to use one. A slight variation 

 in the proportion or form of some of its parts may greatly diminish its draught, 

 increase its utility, adapt it to a particular soil, or, on the liand, render it worth- 

 less. Superior as is our knowledge over that of our forefathers of this imple- 

 ment, few of us know aught of its principle, and none of us know their perfec- 

 tion. Young men of present and coming generations, to you do we look for the 

 perfection of this first of agricultural implements. 



The harrow is an instrument of later origin, and though indispensable, is sec- 

 ond in importance to the plow. As might be supposed, the first harrow was a 



