ago. Not a sight or sound is there that will not return at mem- 

 ory's voice. Now, thirty years ago, the Agricultural Fair and 

 Cattle Show was the crowning pleasure of the year. Then the 

 old "South Green" was covered with its cattle pens, and impris- 

 oned swine, and closely cooped fowls. Choice knots of farmers, 

 each the centre of an admiring crowd, gathered here and there 

 before some favorite animal to discuss his poims or bulk. Com- 

 mittee-men, stirring and be-ribboned, went from place to place 

 with a long following of boys and rustics, an impromptu court 

 to ratify or criticise their verdict. Watchful sentinels stood be- 

 fore the cages of the more delicate stock, ready and anxious to 

 rap the knuckles of every intruding hand. And what Arcadian 

 rambles there were in the ancient and musty "City Hall" with 

 its corridors and ante-rooms overflowing with the tide of har- 

 vest ! There were the big pumpkins and potatoes, the bed-quilts 

 fluttering from the galleries with the names of their workers or 

 knitters — dames of an impossible old age — , pats of competing 

 butter, bushels of gorgeous fruit. It will be only an act of tar- 

 dy justice if I can bring you anything worth your hearing now. 



I shall put what I have to say under the general theme of 

 Science in its relation to Agriculture. Much has been said and 

 done to unite the two. It would be useless to assume that all 

 the promises of the one had been kept or the expectations of the 

 other answered. It would be as stupid to pronounce their union 

 undesirable, and divorce the tillage of the soil from that system- 

 atic study of nature which has so marvellously quickened every 

 other human industry. At least it is my wish to offer a few 

 thoughts tending toward that conclusion. 



The farmer, in the common language of the day, is chief 

 among the producers of the world. The wealth of cities, the 

 revenues of states, the might of kingdoms are most of all his 

 work. But he originates no force. He harvests and stores up 

 force l:;y wisely directing the great currents of power that flow 



