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the fanner liut upon the whole country. It has been truly 

 said, "To destroy the productiveness of the soil, to squander 

 the elements of that productiveness, is to destroy the hopes 

 of civilized humanity, and rob posterity of its birthright to 

 a career of progress." We are the agents in the employ of 

 nature to prosecute and improve her interests ; and in order 

 to do this understandingly we must be fully acquainted with 

 her workings. We must understand the action of light, heat, 

 moisture and the properties of vegetable growth ; how this 

 plant food is formed, and how and in what manner the plant 

 takes up and appropriates that food to its own use ; the 

 efl'ect of cropping upon the soil, and the condition of the 

 soil under any circumstances ; the causes of fertility ; the 

 effects of ploughing, underdraining, irrigation, &q. 



There is a love of nature instinct in every living soul. 

 This, if rightly influenced, may conduce to the highest inter- 

 ests of agriculture. The mind is ever active, and possesses 

 the quality of curiosity to a large degree. It must know the 

 why and wherefore of external objects, and their relations, 

 and it receives pleasure in the cftbrt to obtain this knowledge, 

 and the possession but creates a desire to know more and 

 more. New ideas and emotions excite and perpetuate the 

 mind's activity, which is essential to our enjoyment. Na- 

 ture is boundless ; she is a complete laboratory ; she is full of 

 information. The sciences applicable to agriculture are the 

 key to unlock and disclose to the inquii'ing mind her mys- 

 teries. 



]\Iy friends, the future prospects of agriculture in this 

 country cannot be misunderstood. The rapid improvements 

 that are being made in the machinery of the farm, show that 

 the mind as well as the muscle is actively at woi'k ; that the 

 days of ignorant toil are fast giving way to the united efforts 

 of the head and hand ; that the prejudices which have sur- 

 rounded the tillers of the soil like mists around the moun- 

 tain's SLunmlt, are being gradually dispelled through the in- 

 fluence of an enlio-htened understandino". The farmer is 



