14 



that it aspires to place them on the pinions of Life, the rain- 

 bow of the Mind, and even the still small voice of Deity. I 

 am not abont to declaim at all against its follies, nor utter 

 loud warning against its excesses ; for that which is true shall 

 alone endure, and that which it builds of stubble will surely 

 come to nought. That the verities of science are a benefit to 

 humanity, one must be weak indeed to deny ; and of these 

 no one is better prepared to see the value in j)ractice than the 

 tiller of the ground. For if it be the province of a true sci- 

 ence to investigate and expound the laws of nature, surely 

 the man who of all stands most near to her side wMl be the 

 best customer in that mart. He talks with botanists, for he 

 needs to know more and more of the structure and style of 

 vegetation. He consorts with geologists, for the rocks are 

 the original of soils, and to know something of the material 

 is to command a surer result. He can welcome the chemist 

 at all times, for what part of his calling does not need his 

 lessons ? — and whoever can teach him of climate and the at- 

 mosphere, is a friend in jieed, whether for drouth or storm. 



"VVe may say that some special lines of study fit better some 

 other pursuit than this. The mariner has greater need of 

 astronomy and the mathematics than the farmer ; nor will the 

 latter be urgent after the finer engineering, nor perhaps the 

 profounder optical and electrical studies. But for science in 

 general, and especially all that treats of organic and living 

 existences, he is the man of strongest and most abiding ap- 

 petite. 



Let me be understood. Much has been said of "book- 

 farming," and, if I mistake not as to its present popularity, 

 the nays have it by a plain majority. Yet this term, applied 

 as it usually is, to a merely theoretical agriculture, has no 

 connection with science as I speak of it. For agriculture, of 



