WILLIAM H. WOOD'S ADDRESS. 219 



above our knowledge or control. And yet, from the analogies 

 of nature, we can but suppose, that even the winds and the 

 storms are governed by fixed laws, and that those laws are 

 written in a language which man may, one day, interpret. 



The agriculturalist, then, cannot hope for success, but in the 

 acquisition of knowledge relating particularly to his art, and in 

 the cultivation of his intellect as well as his fields, in constant 

 activity of mind as well as of body. It requires but little men- 

 tal effort to go through with a routine of cultivation, such as 

 his father may have practised ; but, while he stands still, the 

 world goes forward, and his farm goes backward. How many 

 are the farms that are suffered to run down, not so much for 

 want of labor, as for want of good management. How many 

 fields do we pass that have been exhausted, and given up to 

 barrenness. How little is known of the effects which can be 

 produced by a skilful rotation of crops, or by the drainage of 

 marshy lands, or by thorough cultivation, by confining labor 

 and capital to a small extent of surface, rather than by extend- 

 ing them on a larger. 



But it is not enough that the farmer strive to know that which 

 was before known. It is not enough that he know the princi- 

 ples of the science of agriculture ; he must be able to make a 

 practical application of them. Maturity of judgment, as well 

 as knowledge, is necessary. Each farm differs from eVery 

 other farm. Each farmer must determine for himself, for what 

 products, and for what kind of tillage his farm is particularly 

 adapted, considering the nature of the soil, the location, the 

 products in most demand, the distance from a market town, the 

 capital which he has to employ in its cultivation. 



But there is a higher field of action than this, and one re- 

 quiring greater intellectual power. The agriculturalist should 

 endeavor to extend the domains of science, to push his re- 

 searches into territories hitherto undiscovered. Why should he 

 not? Scarcely one corner of the veil has been raised, which 

 conceals the secrets of nature from our view. Principles which 

 now lie hidden — agencies hitherto unknown, are all around us, 

 waiting to be discovered. Problems, too, are constantly arising 

 in agriculture which require solution. Who so competent to do 



