No. 124. J 163 



lation that such meetings are becoming frequent here also. For it 

 must be conceded, that although the information collected at these 

 assemblies may be afterwards condensed and disseminated in a print- 

 ed form, yet it is quite evitlent that knowledge of this nature is 

 more readily and clearly acquired when the senses of the eye and 

 ear are engaged,, than when the acquisition of it is left simply to the 

 mental exertion of reading. It is quite impossible for us at present 

 to estimate the real value of these agricultural associations and assem- 

 blies. There, meet men of various calibre, of all opinions and ideas; 

 the practical farmer and breeder, the theoretical agriculturist, the 

 inventive genius, the scientific and practical mechanic, the student of 

 vegetable economy, as well as the student of nature in its animal 

 forms, the meteorologist, and the observer of times and seasons : and 

 their polar star, agriculture — guided by this they wend their way, 

 each anxious to throw his mite into the common stock of knowledge, 

 and to acquire further information. There, are exhibited the finest 

 specimens of the triumph of the mind of man over mere brute force 

 and passion, in the magnificent breeds of cattle, sheep and swine. 

 One is valuable for its pov»'er of draft, and another for its milk; a 

 third for its meat; a fourth for its fat ; another for its wool, &,c. 

 Here, on this side, stands the man of science, ready to explain the 

 nature of the various foods on which these animals are nourished ; 

 and to excite to comparison and experiment on that species of food 

 most productive of muscle and sinew, of bone or of fat: willing to 

 expatiate on the nature of milk and the other animal secretions, 

 and to point out the results of researches into the mysterious relation 

 which exists between these and the food or treatment such animals 

 require. In another group may be observed the mind of the mecha- 

 nic, di'ating on the value of various machines and implements of 

 husbandry ; there again is the hborer in chemistry, explaining the 

 nature of soils, their capacities, the value of various manures, and 

 collecting from the ]>ractical farmer his results, for the purpose of 

 comparison and further researches ; while another group is disiussing 

 the value of various grasses, grains, and other vegetable products — 

 and what, my friends, is the general result of all this interchange 1 

 Scarcely a single man goes home without having learned something 

 useful ; many learn much, others little, but all are gratified ; all 

 look at such meetings, with satisfaction in those that are past, and 

 with hope in those that are to come. What is the final end of this 

 mass of ideas collected in one spot 1 It is this — it becomes a matter 

 of history ; these ideas are winnowed out, the chaff is scattered to 

 the four winds of heaven, but the heavy valuable seed is sown in the 

 mind, and produces, some twenty, some forty, and some an hundred 

 fold. Such is the scene I have endeavored faintly to sketch to you, 

 although its results are far more extensive than I can lay before you* 

 for the mere personal introduction to each other of those who attend 

 these meetings is productive of the greatest good. I have been chiefly 

 engaged in my leisure hours in that minor branch of agriculture 

 called horticulture, and have always found that the greatest stimu- 

 lant to the gardener was the examination of his neighbor's garden ; 



