ADDRESS 



OF PRESIDENT ABBOT OF THE STATE AGRICULTUHAL COLLEGE BEFORE 

 THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MICHIGAN LEGISLATURE, 

 MARCH 4, 1875. 



KNOWLEDGE 18 POWER. 



For a long time, says Sallust, a Roman historian, the discussion prevailed among men 

 whether military success depends more on the energies of the mind or of the body. In his 

 opinion history had rendered a verdict in favor of the mind, and he adds that through men- 

 tal energy must architecture, navigation and agriculture hope for any triumphs. 



The world was for many ages coming up to thjs opinion of the ancient Roman, until at 

 last Lord Bacon supplied these later ages with its watchword in the short sentence " Knowl- 

 edge is power." 



Bo far as physical science is concerned, these words were in Bacon's day more a prophesy 

 than the statement of a fact. It is no longer so. In water changed into steam we possess 

 a powerful agent for all work. We transform dark earths and oils into the brilliant lights 

 of our cities, and make electrical agents speed with our news, and plate our wares. 



"Now, more than ever before," says Dr. Ray, in his work on " Mental Hygiene" (p. 18) 

 " the fortunes of men, the welfare and happiness of the race are determined by mental effi- 

 ciency. The time has been when the mass of the people bad but little use for their minds. 

 They* had no occasion to think. A few favored mortals did their thinking for them. It 

 was enough for them to do as they were bid. Stout limbs, stalwart frames, robust health 

 were what tbo times demanded and what the times admired. A man was valued by the 

 force of bis blows, by the swiftness of foot, by his capacity for hardship. Now, these quali- 

 ties will give him but a low place in the social scale, and secure for him but a small share of 

 those privileges which constitute the highest kind of human happiness. Never before did so 

 large a portion of mankind think. Never before did so large a portion of the race strive to- 

 gether for the prizes of life, in a contest of mind with mind." 



War will be one of the first of arts to seek the aid of science. Whatever mechanics 

 and chemistry can do to aid her murderous work will be sought out and pressed into service. 

 Commerce also will ransack all the records of science for the means of competing in the sup- 

 ply of whatever comfort, vanity or appetite makes valuable in her markets. 



BACKWARDNESS OF FARMERS. 



Have the farmers as a class shared as largely as others in this course of improvement? 

 Are they equally with others using mind in the operations of their calling, and so keeping 

 abreast of the age in its advance? No class of men are of more importance to the State : no 

 interest is so large as theirs. The statistics of Michigan for 1870, table 14, gives the occupa- 

 tion of 379,764 persons, of whom 187,211, or almost one-half, are agriculturists. The same 

 proportion holds true of the country at large. On agriculture the wealth of nations must in 

 the main depend, with all their commercial and manufacturing interests. 



Towns that are dotting ocean's shore, 

 The mountain elope, the inland rale. 

 Could flourish, populous no more. 

 If thy full granaries should fail/ 



One department of agriculture alone advances with the progress of science, its machinery ; 

 this is because it is less a part of agriculture proper than of mechanics, whose principles are 

 known. 



Ode by Wm. H. C. Hosmer of Avon, N. Y., read by him at the Michigan Agricultural College Commence- 

 ment, 1864. 



