SECRETARY'S REPORT. 133 



If there were no oxygen, the globe would be mainly a metallic 

 ball, mingled with silicon. The rocks, the sand, the clay-beds 

 and the soils, would be impossible, for oxygen makes up one- 

 half the crust of the eai-th. AVithout this element there could 

 be no soils, no plants and no animal life ; for it not only enters 

 into the composition of animals and plants, but in the atmos- 

 phere it offers the only condition of animal life. All must 

 breathe, and breathe oxygen, or they die. 



Without hydrogen, the second element, there would be no 

 water upon the globe. The oxygen might form the oxides as it 

 now does, but if there were no hydrogen the earth must forever 

 remain a barren rock. Water is the great geologic agent in 

 preparing the earth for vegetation, as well as in sustaining life. 

 And so I might go on to enumerate one element after another 

 and show that if it were gone, or essentially changed in quantity 

 or property, the earth would be a dreary waste, unless it were 

 supplied with plants and animals entirely unlike those that now 

 exist upon the globe. When we consider the number of these 

 elements, and the great variety among them, how wonderful it 

 is that in the great world-making experiment, such a multitude 

 of conditions should have united to fit the earth for life ! The 

 number of adjustments arc without limit. The elements are 

 adjusted to each other in their quantity and chemical power so 

 that they can carry on the vital processes in both plants and ani- 

 mals, and then in every living being we find a series of adjust- 

 ments, mechanical, chemical and vital, by which each one is 

 fitted for a particular place in the universe. 



The subject is absolutely without limit, and everything that 

 has to do with the conditions of life upon the globe is of interest 

 and practical importance to us. The complex machinery of 

 earth, water and air with which the farmer has to do, far sur- 

 passes the most complicated and perfect work of man. The 

 farmer ought to enter into these secrets of nature, that he may 

 not be a mere operative, doing so much work by the aid of this 

 machinery ; but he should so understand it that he may use it 

 aright, always to the best advantage, and be ever ready to avail 

 himself of those hints which nature is ever making to those 

 who understand her processes and look to her for instruction. 



I shall only have time to speak of a few of the adjustments by 

 which plants are fitted to their place in the world, by which they 



