28 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



familiar with the natural history of the farm which he is culti- 

 vating ; which will enable him to understand his domestic 

 animals and wild animals, and enable him to put his eyes on the 

 various kinds of plants that are growing there, and judge of 

 their capacity, and judge of it well. I think, therefore, one of 

 the most important points of agricultural education in which 

 this Board can possibly engage, is the careful and accurate study 

 of all the natural history of the farm. And I come to that 

 natiirally, after having discussed the business of selecting, 

 breeding and feeding the animals that live upon the farm ; for 

 how can we select animals properly unless we have an accurate 

 knowledge ol their whole animal structure ? We must have it, 

 either by instinct or by careful study. How can we judge of 

 the best modes of breeding, unless we have carefully and accu- 

 rately investigated the laws which control breeding, by which 

 'we can arrive at the results we desire ? How can we best judge 

 of the condition of our pasture lands and our grass lands, unless 

 we know well, by accurate and careful study, what plants are 

 most nutritious, and what of the least use, and how to get rid 

 of bad ones, and how to cultivate good ones ? Is there any- 

 thing the farmer desires to know more than how he can rid him- 

 self of the insect pests of his farm, which invade his orchards, 

 and his grain crops, and his grass crops ; which are above 

 ground and under the ground, and invade him in the dry season 

 and in the wet season, and are really the cause of more expense 

 than all his family expenses, year in and year out ? Now, when 

 I say to you that this whole matter rolls in upon us under the 

 head of a careful and accurate knowledge of the natural history 

 of the farm, you will then understand the vast importance that I 

 put upon it ; and I trust that in discussing this question of cat- 

 tle husbandry, as part of the business of farming, there are those 

 here who will open this whole question of the education of the 

 mind of the farmer upon the natural history of the farm. 



Now, gentlemen, the question is open for you to discuss, I 

 think I have laid out ground enough. I have made as many 

 points as I possibly could in a short discourse. I leave it for 

 the meeting to take them up, one after the other, and debate 

 them. 



William Birnie, of Springfield. Speaking of this matter of 

 agricultural education, I attended a cattle show last fall, some 



