170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



study of nature, and when we shall not speak of one College of 

 Agriculture in the State, and that endowed with a mere pit- 

 tance, but when we shall have a temple thrown open, wherever 

 there arc a few hundred men gathered together, in which the 

 works of nature shall be studied with the same degree of pre- 

 cision and devotion with which God's Word is studied in our 

 community. That is what we must aim at. That is one of the 

 objects which we have before us, and we must, from this time 

 forward work in that direction. The natural world must be 

 studied, and in order to study it properly, means no less com- 

 prehensive than those which arc bestowed now on any part of 

 our education should be, shall he forthcoming, if I have learned 

 to know anything of the character of the people with whom I 

 have mingled. 



Gentlemen, this is a matter of national importance. It is a 

 matter in which the future destiny of the nation is involved ; 

 it is a matter in which the relation of this country to the Old 

 World is involved. What is our position now ? I speak of " our 

 position," because I am glad to say I am now an American citizen. 

 It is this war which has made me an American citizen. I lived 

 here peacefully, not caring for public affairs, during fifteen 

 years, until these troubles broke out. Then I asked myself, 

 What better can I, a simple individual, do, to show my sympathy 

 for the country, and to show my confidence in the present and 

 in the future, than to become an American citizen ? 



And that I have done. I have done so, ladies and gentle- 

 men, because I believe in the future of this nation ; I have 

 done so because I trust that the tables are turning, and that the 

 position in which we stood a few years ago, with reference to 

 Europe, in respect to the higher branches of knowledge, will be 

 entirely changed. Now-a-days, if one of our college graduates, 

 in high standing, wants to. obtain a knowledge of those higher 

 branches of science, which are not taught in our schools, what 

 is he to do ? If he would become an accomplished chemist, he 

 must go to Liebig, or Wochler. If he would become an accom- 

 plished astronomer, he must go to Bescl or Gauss. If he would 

 become an accomplished physiologist, he must go to Bepp or 

 Grimm. If he would become an accomplished naturalist and 

 cmbryologist, he must go to Paris, and attend the lectures of 

 Cuvier, and so 'on. That is now the position of America in 



