222 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



signalizing some special event — we see gatherings of multi- 

 tudes for political or moral purposes; but, in none of these, is the 

 acquisition of knowledge so essentially the aim, if indeed it can, 

 in most cases, be considered an aim at all. Here, however, this 

 is with a large majority really the object. Some are more par- 

 ticularly interested in stock, others in implements, others again in 

 grain and various forms of ripened produce. AH come to seek 

 and to give information. 



Where, then, the gaining of knowledge is the definite object of 

 assemblage, a few remarks, bearing directly upon practical sub- 

 jects, will not, perhaps, be thought out of place. Were I to give 

 advice upon matters of simple practice, I might well be consid- 

 ered presumptuous for even attempting to enlighten such emin- 

 ent practical farmers as surround me. 



But if I succeed in illustrating and explaining some connec- 

 tions of science with practice ; in giving satisfactory reasons 

 for modes of procedure generally adopted from the mere force 

 of custom, my remarks will certainly not be devoid of interest. 



The farmer of the present day, who desires to improve, and 

 to thoroughly understand his profession, has a wide range open 

 before him. All of the natural sciences offer advantageous 

 fields for exploration. In the air, the earth, the water, in the 

 vegetable and animal worlds, the mind once aroused, finds suf- 

 ficient space for its utmost energies. 



Each one of the subjects that I have indicated, affords ample 

 scope for a host of observers during a long series of years ; even 

 with the great progress already made in research, each possesses 

 within itself a multitude of unresolved problems, waiting for 

 solution, and harmonious laws which we only need to under- 

 stand, to be impressed with a still greater admiration than that 

 we now feel when we are only able to see their incomprehen- 

 sible workings. 



These assertions, it is my purpose to illustrate to-day, by some 

 observations upon one of the above topics. 



I have selected the soil — not that it afibrds a broader field 

 than some of the others, but because it seems naturally to come 

 first when we speak of improvement, and because it is the 

 foundation from which all progress must be made. I shall 



