MR. king's address. 9 



and their example, to help in the promotion ol its interests and 

 the advancement of its prosperity. Your united efforts can 

 make this institution an honor and a blessing to the whole farm- 

 ing community. Will you not use your endeavor to strengthen 

 and sustain a Society which was formed for your advantage, and 

 which subsists only for your benefit ? In recommending to you 

 to try experiments and to study the periodicals and books devot- 

 ed to husbandry, I do not advise you to an universal and indis- 

 criminate adoption of any man's rules or opinions. I would not 

 have a farmer go into the field with a book in one hand and a 

 hoe in the other ; such a practice would lead him to the result 

 of a certain visionary farmer who complained " that the carles 

 and cart avers make it all, and the carles and cart avers eat it 

 all" — the labor and expense of cultivation more than balance 

 the value of the crop. But the farmer should read and ponder 

 and deliberate ; he should study and reflect, and adopt such 

 rules and methods as he finds applicable to his own soil and cir- 

 cumstances. A judicious practice, enlightened by sound theory 

 and science, will effect wonders for Agriculture, the mother and 

 nurse of the arts, as it has done for all her children and depend- 

 ants. Unless theory and practice walk hand in hand, mutually 

 helping and encouraging each other, we cannot hope that Agri- 

 culture will keep pace with the improvements of the day, or 

 that she will ever arrive to the perfection of which she is capa- 

 ble. 



But let it not be inferred from these remarks, that the public 

 interest in the subject of agriculture has declined, that the per- 

 manence of this Society is in danger, or that its prospects are less 

 promising than they have been. This large and respectable 

 assembly would contradict such an opinion ; the long and regu- 

 larly increasing list of members would confute it. The number 

 of animals in your pens, the well contested ploughing match, 

 the products of the dairy, the exhibition of manufactured arti- 

 cles, elegant and varied in their qualities, are satisfactory evi- 

 dence that the usefulness and prosperity of your Society have 

 not declined. The fruits and flowers exhibited on this occasion 

 are witnesses of the increasing interest in the object of your 



