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handed down to him from the fathers, little knowing and 

 little caring what knowledge had been acquired or what 

 modes were pursued in other parts of the earth. And 

 when at length intelligent men began to observe, and to 

 record and compare observations, the field of their in- 

 quiries was generally very limited and their conclusions, 

 however valuable in their immediate localities, were often 

 of little or no use elsewhere ; and their reflections, how- 

 ever brilliant, acute and profound, served to discover and 

 establish but few rules of general, much less of universal, 

 application. 



"The modifications of practice," says Hoskyns, "oc- 

 casioned by climate on a large scale have been again par- 

 celled over smaller areas by variety of soil. Not only 

 does the agriculture of a southern temperature vary ma- 

 terially from that of the north, but even in the same coun- 

 try and province the code of practice which would ap- 

 ply to a light soil would be immediately at fault when 

 attempted on a clay : and thus, the geological structure 

 of the earth, again subdivided by difference of eleva- 

 tion, occasioning effects analogous to those of different 

 latitude or climate, would all tend, as we find they have 

 done, to retard that codification of results by which the 

 edifice of a science can alone be reared." 



The isolation of the farmer is the next cause assigned 

 by the writer, and which, before the discovery of print- 

 ing, operated with far greater force than it does now. 



Collision of mind with mind is one of the most fruit- 

 ful agencies in the acquisition of knowledge, and is in- 

 dispensable for the correction of errors into which the 

 solitary thinker is so liable to fall. And, therefore, a 

 mode of life that tends to segregate men has been very 

 generally considered a serious obstacle to the progress 

 of science. That this obstacle has been almost overcome 

 in modern times is a cause for profound congratulation, 

 and that one of the chief agents in overcoming it are 

 the Agricultural and Mechanical Associations like that 

 which I now address, is patent to even the most casual 



