DANIEL LEE'S ADDRESS. 391 



was far in advance of ours at this time ; but they lacked the 

 light of modern science, which mere routine, practical farmers 

 so much undervalue. Mago, a Oathagenian general and dis- 

 tinguished farmer, wrote twenty-eight volumes on husbandry, 

 the rearing of domestic animals, and their diseases, six hundred 

 years before the commencement of the Christian era. When 

 Carthage was destroyed, these books were carefully preserved, 

 sent to Rome, and translated by order of the senate. They are 

 frequently quoted as high authority by Columella, Varro, Pliny, 

 and other ancient writers on rural topics ; but not one of these 

 books has come down to us. With all their love of agricul- 

 ture, energy and learning, the Romans did not advance the art 

 of tillage nor of husbandry, at all, in a thousand years ! On 

 the contrary, there is abundant evidence that they impoverished 

 their little farms, by robbing the soil of its fertilizing elements, 

 and depended mainly on their distant provinces for breadstuffs, 

 beans, meat and other food. The earth has been tilled and 

 manure applied to it for at least 5000 years, without the opera- 

 tors ever discovering where the matter came from that made 

 the crop, or what it was. 



That the manure made by a pig, will cause corn to grow, 

 and the corn in turn make a pig grow, was always plain enough ; 

 but is it commendable, and worthy of the enlightened, scien- 

 tific age in which we live that we make no public effort to 

 enlarge our knowledge of the most common operations in rural 

 economy ? I have known young gentlemen who were proud 

 of their collegiate honors, that could not tell why a baked po- 

 tato is better for their breakfast than a raw one. Baking adds 

 nothing to the tuber, takes nothing but a little water evapor- 

 ated by heat, away. Yet, cooking effects important changes, 

 one of which is to transform a large amount of starch that is 

 insoluble in cold or warm water, into a soluble gum, which is 

 more easily digested. For a similar reason, all the seeds of 

 cereals, whether ground or not, should be cooked or scalded 

 before they are fed to domestic animals. Boiling hot water 

 poured over cut cornstalks, hay or straw, greatly assist the or- 

 gans of digestion in extracting whatever of nutriment the for- 

 age may contain. The intrinsic value of science consists main- 



