586 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



tific cultivation, the economy of labor and capital, of small 

 farms, but of large crops and profits. The truth is, in New 

 England, where labor is expensive, there are but two kinds of 

 farming which will pay. One is, gathering the products which 

 a kind Providence sends without cultivation ;' and the other, 

 that which is guided by intelligence and science. No man can 

 afford to cultivate a large farm poorly, nor to gather a small 

 crop, when he might harvest a large one. 



Science has already improved our agricultural productions, 

 and will continue to improve them. How much she has done 

 for the potato. Compare the original, small, black, and acrid, 

 with our numerous fair, mealy, palatable varieties ! How dissim- 

 ilar in quality, flavor and size ! Compare our luscious peaches 

 with the original species, the almond, tough, dry, and bitter; — 

 our magnificent apples with the sour crab; — our plum with the 

 parent sloe ! The Bartlett and the Seckel pear, the Green Gage 

 plum, and the Baldwin apple were produced from accidental 

 seed ; but science teaches how to obtain new and rare varie- 

 ties, by hybridization, or crossing the existing varieties. This 

 art depends on the sexual character of plants, which was de- 

 veloped by Linnaeus, one century ago, amidst that ridicule and 

 scorn which so often attach to discoveries, inventions, and new 

 theories in our day. Our farmers are familiar with facts which 

 develop the principles on which this art depends. They are 

 aware of the necessity of keeping their varieties of corn, 

 squashes, grains, and fruits, separate, lest they should intermix 

 and produce, not each after its kind, but other sorts, unlike the 

 original, sometimes as speckled as Jacob's cattle. But science 

 alone can teach them how to turn this law of nature to the 

 highest practical account ; and how by it to produce new and 

 valuable varieties, adapted to their particular location and cli- 

 mate. 



By a corresponding law in the animal kingdom, we already 

 have ornithologists, who pretend to breed fowls to order, in 

 respect to size, plumage, and other qualities; and also among 

 our experienced stock breeders, some who profess to breed 

 domestic animals with similar exactness. Infinite Wisdom has 

 fixed these laws and given us faculties to comprehend them, 



