SECRETARY'S REPORT. 65 



say such knowledge will not grow more corn. I doubt that. 

 But at least it opens a field for thought and study ; it brings the 

 brain into action with the hand, and when that is done the 

 dignity of labor will vindicate itself. 



It is not the soil alone that demands the farmer's study, but 

 every plant that it produces, and every destroyer that preys upon 

 his harvest. To obtain a crop is a warfare among all these 

 enemies, but it is warfare of study and thought more than of 

 manual labor. If to these inducements to intellectual culture 

 we add those by which the farmers' crops cannot only be pro- 

 tected but increased, we have love of learning and love of 

 property combined to call out the mental activity. Among 

 these means of profit, while it is most fascinating as a study, 

 is agricultural chemistry. Not that we would for a moment 

 countenance the quackery that has abounded in connection with 

 this branch of science. We do not advise farmers to send a 

 snuff-box full of soil, and give five dollars, to know what tlieir 

 fields will produce, as spiritualist doctors tell diseases from a 

 lock of hair ; but we wish them to understand so much of this 

 science that they will know when they are robbing. their fields of 

 their richness. We wish them to understand the changes going 

 on around them, in the soil and above them, and understand the 

 means by which they can call down riches from the air, and 

 change the poisons, that generate disease, to golden corn and 

 delicious fruits. The poisons of our summer months, that 

 threaten cholera, ought, under the skilful manipulations of 

 science, to be turned into new channels. They ought to blossom 

 in the rose, and appear transformed into the rich fruits of the 

 field and orchard. If, now, we set before us the varied fields of 

 investigation, where mental must be joined with manual labor, 

 in what profession will you find more interesting, more delight- 

 ful, more useful, and more constant subjects for thought and 

 study ? In this, as in all other pursuits where science is joined 

 with practical labor, new sources of pleasure and profit are 

 constantly opening. It is to be sincerely hoped that one result 

 of scientific, intelligent farming, will be to stop the waste by 

 which our lands are drained of their riches. It is not enough 

 for us that our crops must cross the ocean, carrying in every 

 shipload precious substances taken from the soil, never to be 

 returned, but from the sewers of our towns and cities, from 

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