SECRETARY'S REPORT. 33 



which has been collected into the form of a text-book of agricul- 

 ture, must be careful lest he lose himself in his attempts to 

 judge of the occupants of a barn yard, and lest he find with 

 astonishment that the crops of surrounding farms far outstrip 

 tliose which lie beneath the shadow of his own institution. It 

 is not to be supposed that the agriculture of our country is 

 waiting for that light alone which is to radiate from the schools. 

 We have already accomplished much ; and the school which is 

 successful will take its departure from the facts now established 

 by long experience. In this way, and in this way alone, can it 

 be useful to a community of farmers. We must at least use the 

 knowledge we now have, until we are offered something better. 



The truly scientific man feels and knows this. He knows the 

 value of what has actually been done on the farm. And while 

 he patiently pursues his investigations, he never loses sight of 

 the point of his departure, nor forgets that he must return to 

 the farm, in order to ascertain how his labors may be useful 

 and valuable. 



In discharging our duty as a Board of Agriculture, we are 

 called upon to be ©specially observant of the practical operations 

 of farmers themselves, at the same time that we endeavor to 

 collect and diftlise all the valuable explorations of science. But 

 inasmuch as we have the farmers for our constituency, I propose 

 in opening the discussions of the present session, by dwelling 

 upon the general business of managing a farm — that business 

 which is alone universal — that business which belongs to every 

 people and varies as their soils and climates and tastes and 

 necessities vary — that business which lies at the foundation of 

 all others, and which although pursued sometimes rudely and 

 sometimes with the utmost skill, never fails to bring with it a 

 permanent and even prosperity. 



It is indeed the chief business of the world. Those nations 

 which have of necessity adopted it as the great means of sub- 

 sistence, have endured the most devastating wars, civil and 

 foreign, with comparative impunity. While the great manu- 

 facturing and commercial cities and nations of olden times, have 

 succumbed either to the destruction of internal dissentions or 

 to the waste of foreign invasion, the agricultural people and 

 kingdoms have flourished with almost immortal force and 

 vitality : Tyre and Carthage have hardly loft a trace of their 

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