SECRETARY'S REPORT. 147 



gation. She will not destroy licr own work by its law of 

 growth. 



Man was made as the lord of creation. Every living thing 

 was put under his control and given to him for his use. It is 

 his work to study the laws of nature, that he may work with 

 her, for he can never successfully work against her. 



The farmer is more dependent upon the forces of nature than 

 any other man. He, of all men, should bo the most diligent 

 student of her laws. There is nothing in the earth, nor in the 

 air, nor in the manifestations of life upon the globe, that he 

 cannot turn to good advantage. He may call to his aid every 

 natural science ; and when he sees what provisions nature has 

 made in her adaptation for his intellectual and physical nature, 

 he is false to himself, and false to the world, if he mistakes his 

 position, and concludes that his work is one simply of routine 

 and toil. 



THURSDAY MORNING. 



The meeting was called to order at half past nine o'clock, by 

 the President, and Harrison Garfield, Esq., of Lee, was chosen 

 as the President for the day, who accepted the position with an 

 expression of grateful acknowledgment. 



LECTURE ON METEOROLOGY. 



Mr. Capen, of Boston, agreeably to arrangement, was intro- 

 duced, he having expressed a wish to present his peculiar views 

 on the subject of meteorology. 



Mr. Capen expressed his gratification in being permitted to 

 address the Board on this subject, and promised to announce 

 some startling principles, which, however, he believed he was 

 fully warranted in presenting. He was perfectly satisfied that 

 the theory which he was about to advance was true, and capable 

 of demonstration. In this connection Mr. Capen gave a summary 

 of a certain prediction he had made of the weather for a few days 

 past, and including the present day — claiming that the prediction 

 had been substantially verified. The calculations on which these 

 predictions were based are the same, he said, as are employed 

 for the " Old Farmer's Almanac," and for the determining of 

 eclipses. These formula} give the combinations of the forces 

 which produce heat and cold ; and they are the influences which 



