WILLIAM H. WOODS ADDRESS. 217 



manner, whether sown broadcast, in drills, or planted in hills, 

 and how thickly shall the seed be sown or planted ? These in- 

 quiries open a wide field as to the botany and natural history of 

 plants, inquiries, with regard to which much is known, but 

 more remains unknown. W^hile growing, how shall the crop be 

 cultivated and protected ; to what enemies is it exposed, what ver- 

 min beneath the soil, what insects and birds above it? What they 

 are that make war upon the labors of the husbandman, is more ea- 

 sily ascertained, than it is to find protection against their ravages. 

 But having ascertained vjJi,at is to be done, the question arises 

 how it is to be done. This brings to view the subject of natural 

 agents. Man, in his physical constitution, is weak. The ox is 

 superior to him in strength, the horse in fleetness, and even the 

 beaver can fell a tree of the forest sooner than he. He can do 

 nothing until he brings his mind to act upon the agencies of na- 

 ture around him, and press them into his service. Nature has 

 not provided him with the axe, the plough and the spade, but 

 has provided the materials, and given him an intellect, so that 

 he can construct them for himself. The agriculturalist takes 

 advantage of these agencies, in the tools and implements of hus- 

 bandry, and in his beasts of draught. He avails himself of the 

 labor of other minds who have discovered and invented, and 

 whose discoveries and inventions have now become the proper- 

 ty of the race, and. so far as they are labor-saving machines, 

 they improve his condition. His own mind is called into activ- 

 ity, in selecting those implements that are best fitted for the 

 kind and mode of tillage, which he concludes to adopt, and he 

 will not use those which he has inherited from his fathers, 

 while improvements are going on around him. Were the man- 

 ufacturer not to keep pace with the improvements in labor-sav- 

 ing machinery, which are constantly being made, he would soon 

 find himself so far distanced in the race of competition, that he 

 would find " his occupation gone." Why should not the farmer 

 profit by the example thus set him 7 That improvements in 

 agricultural implements are being made, we have had abun- 

 dant evidence to-day. Compare the ploughs used here to-day, 

 with those in use a quarter of a century ago, and mark the pro- 

 gress. The materials used in their construction are much the 

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