64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in dignity, and never till then. I almost welcome the destroying 

 agencies of insects, mildew, drought and blight. They make 

 more thought needed, and thus they elevate and dignify the 

 pursuit of agriculture. « 



And this introduces some of the subjects that press themselves 

 upon the farmer for study, that he may reap abundant harvests, 

 and raise his employment to that rank where it by its very 

 nature belongs. 



Whence came this soil which he cultivates? It is simply 

 pounded stone, a mere sprinkling scattered upon solid rocks; 

 but still enough to give beauty and softness of outline to our 

 globe, and furnish a yielding bed, into which the tall tree can 

 thrust its roots, the fine fibres of the grass can weave their 

 matted webs, and the soft, succulent beet can bury itself. Not 

 only is it a soft bed of powdered stone, into which all these 

 plants can plunge their roots, but through this the waters can 

 sink into the earth, when they fall in great abundance ; through 

 this again they can rise, by capillary attraction, for the constant 

 supply of the plant. From this very powder, too, comes that 

 portion of the food of plants that forms the ashes, without which 

 they cannot grow. What a wonderful provision is this ! Our 

 earth might have been left a solid rock, or in broken blocks, 

 like the Titanic quarries of Mount Washington. New England 

 might then have been covered with lichens, that cling to rocks, 

 and feed upon air, and perhaps with some higher though humble 

 vegetation. But for the rich fields of our highland towns, and 

 the fertile Valley of the Connecticut, some mighty machinery 

 must be brought into play. That great geologic agent, water, 

 was called into action. It was piled up in frozen masses on our 

 northern hills, until they and their valleys were covered by a 

 glacier, by the side of which the glaciers of Switzerland or 

 Greenland are pigmies. This enormous mass, moving towards 

 the south, not only ground the rocks to powder, to form the 

 soil, but so mingled their materials that the uniformity of com- 

 position was a wonder to chemists long before they understood 

 the vast quartz crusher and sifter which nature had set in 

 motion to prepare the globe for man. Every farmer's field 

 presents rich geologic problems. Every worn pebble that his 

 plough brings to light, every layer of sand, every bed of clay, 

 has a history written in it that tells of past changes. Do you 



