LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 327 



To lis farmers the words of the philosopher come : If judgment is difficult, if 

 experience is fallacious, if the occasion is fleeting, if art is long, if life is short, 

 how shall we most advance this science of agriculture to which we are given? 

 The answer comes, give and leave to the co-laborers in our calling the recorded 

 experiences of the fleeting occasion. For who navigates this stream will hasten 

 his voyage as much by a knowledge of the rocks and bars, as by a knowledge 

 of its deep, smooth waters. 



The result of not being able to express our thoughts, is, that a vast fund of 

 information now learned by long experience, remains hidden away in the store- 

 house of memory, until at length, by reason of declining years, it is forgotten 

 and lost. There, too, is lost to us the reciprocal pleasure of entertaining each 

 other with our best written thoughts. Again, we, as wise delegates, go forth 

 to the metropolis of our county, weighed down with the oppressive honors of 

 representing our people, and lo, and behold, the work is all cut and dried for 

 us, and we cannot say them nay, not thus, not thus, for we are hushed to 

 silence behind our own bashfulness, and our interests are not represented in 

 proportion to their extent. The more shrewd and pushing monopolize the 

 larger share of legislation in their benefit. But it is folly for us to complain, 

 for we have not chosen to fit ourselves to represent these interests. With the 

 proper qualifications on our part, and with the people on our side, shrewd, in 

 deed, will be the politician that will give to us a representation co-equal with 

 our agricultural interests. Can we now, so long unaccustomed to literary 

 exercises, attain this culture and discipline? Not so fully as had we begun 

 earlier in life. But we may still arrive at most if not all the practical benefits. 

 How? By the same attention and assiduity with which the fields are cultivated 

 and their surplus wealth treasured. 



While there exists in the people these latent faculties that will in time be 

 developed, and will overcome the defect, yet the good time corning could be 

 materially hastened by the help of those already taught in the agricultural 

 schools. But where shall we look for teachers to inspire and direct us in the 

 acquisition of these attainments? Shall we look to the IJniversity of Michigan?' 

 While we can as yet look for but little direct aid from the University, yet there 

 are from there those, and some of them with us to-day, who are toilers and 

 workers for this, our common good, and I am sure that they will not stay their 

 hands until the work is completed. 



How much may we expect from the Agricultural College? A question I wish 

 might be answered at the meeting of this institute, farther than the general 

 diffusion of learning, which is of itself an uplifting power to any people. 



Kepresentation is not the only inducement to literary attainments. How- 

 ever desirable it may be to represent the interests of agriculture, there yet 

 remains a vast variety of topics constantly presenting themselves for consider- 

 ation, some leading into fields of practicability and others into the realms of 

 fancy. Among the practical will be the papers and discussions of this insti- 

 tute. Among those leading into the realms of fancy is this one : 



I have been listening to the music of the trees to find out whether they were 

 not conscious of their own and each others existence, and whether there were 

 not a subtile thread of consciousness running through and connecting animal 

 and vegetable life. I know that when forest trees are shaken by rough winds 

 or moved by the gentle summer breeze, each tree giyes forth a note of music 

 of its own. I know that the flowering maple and the oxalis, our house plants, 

 droop their leaves at nightfall and lift them again at the approach of morn- 

 ing; that many of our flowering plants, if not all, close their petals at the- 



