ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 13 



importance than heretofore and consequently a more valuable fea- 

 ture in our Institution. At the beginning of the present year not 

 more than two-thirds of the volumes, were entered on the cata- 

 logue. A complete catalogue is now nearly prepared, adding 

 much to the library facilities 5 over five hundred volumes at the 

 beginning of the last fiscal year were missing from the shelves 

 with no record of their disposition, neither has any clue to them 

 been yet discovered, A more perfect system is adopted by the 

 present Librarian which will prevent any such loss in future'. 



The Farmers^ Club has been in existence some eighteen years, 

 and its beneficial results to the cause of Agriculture and every 

 interest of the Farmer, can scarcely be estimated. It has been 

 the means of bringing together the scientific and the practical 

 Farmer ; thereby correcting whatever errors a want of practical , 

 knowledge may have misled the Farmer in his theories, and ena- 

 bling the latter to make use of and properly apply such improve- 

 ment to the management of his farm as the nature of the soil 

 demanded, A fund of useful information, the result of the expe- 

 rience of the largest and most successful farmers of the country 

 is thus collected, and through the reports of the Institute, and 

 our public journals, published to the world. A careful extract 

 of such matters of interest as relate to the various branches of 

 agriculture, stock raising, &c., from foreign journals or scientific 

 works, is made, and at once presented to the club, and as the dis- 

 cussions are free to all who choose to take part in them, the 

 meetings are of great and varied interest, and fraught with good 

 results. 



The Polytechnic Association is of more recent organization than 

 the Farmers' Club, but promises no less important results. It has 

 not only become the medium of distributing scientific information, 

 and canvassing the rights of the theories, inventions, &c., which 

 are presented to its attention, but it brings to notice new scien- 

 tific theories, discoveries, or mechanical inventions, which by 

 having their merits and demerits freely discussed, bring to light 

 that which might otherwise have remained long in darkness. 



Congenial minds are thus brought to act in concert, and already 

 important results have sprung from the conversational meetings 

 of the Polytechnic Association. It seems to me, however, that 

 there must be a higher aim and purpose in this department of the 

 Institute, before it can claim that position of authority which is 

 accorded to cotemporary institutions in Europe. 



