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The great obstacles in the way of the cultivation of 

 the natural sciences in the country, where there is a 

 disposition to do it, are the want of suitable books and 

 collections, and the want of time to use them. The 

 people of Vermont are mostly agriculturists, who culti- 

 vate their farms with their own hands, and who depend 

 upon the productions of the soil for their subsistence ; 

 and being 1 thus obliged, " in the sweat of their brow 

 to eat their bread," they have very little time to spare 

 for any other pursuit. Even if good public libraries 

 and collections were at hand, very few could find leis- 

 ure from their necessary occupations, for the researches, 

 among 1 a multiplicity of books, which would be required 

 in the successful prosecution of any one department of 

 natural history. But of libraries and collections of nat- 

 ural history there have hitherto been none in Vermont 

 which deserve the name, and for the want of them, 

 many a tyro, who had entered with ardor upon some 

 favorite branch of natural history, has become discour- 

 aged and obliged to relinquish the pursuit in despair. 

 Ten years ago, a respectable library for the use of a 

 naturalist could not have been culled from all the pub- 

 lic and private libraries and all the bookstores in Ver- 

 mont ; and although there has been, since that time, 

 great improvement in this respect, the deficiency of 

 works on natural history, in our public libraries, is still 

 very great.* 



* It is not to be inferred from these remarks, that we have no 

 good public libraries in Vermont. The remarks have been made 

 with particular reference to deficiencies in the department of Nat- 

 ural History. The library of the University of Vermont, though 

 numbering only about 8,000 volumes, is, perhaps, one of the best 



