10 



by which the hard and imyiekling bed of clay becomes, through 

 the agency of a simple circulatory tube, as obedient to the hand 

 of the cultivator as the warmest and most fertile loams. They 

 have brought out of wild and useless classes of plants, the 

 nutritious grains and luxuriant fruits which nourish and delight. 

 They have seized and tamed the species of animals adapted 

 to their wants, and have produced every variety of breed whi61i 

 diversity of soil and climate and market may require. The 

 heavy Shorthorn makes haste to repay them for his food by a 

 rapid production of beef. The hardy and patient Ayrshire 

 devotes all her faculties to an abundant supply for your dairy. 

 The clumsy draught horse learns readily the duty which has 

 been imposed upon his phlegmatic family. The racer and the 

 roadster are ever alert in the service to which you have specially 

 assigned them. You have learned the capacity of your lands, 

 and understand what fertilizers they require, as well as you 

 know the food which will best nourish your domestic animals. 

 You have discovered how to subdue nature, and go forth to the 

 tirst step of the process with axe upon your shoulder, as con- 

 fident of the result of the contest as if the blooming fields were 

 already before you. Out of this number of practical men came 

 Cavour, who in the intervals of his public life was the most 

 successful farmer of modern Italy ; and Meclii, whose practical 

 operations as recorded have become one of the text-books of 

 farming ; and Marshall, who learned to manage his own lands, 

 and who declared that " attendance and attention will make any 

 man a farmer ; " and John Johnston, who has taught us all how 

 to raise wheat on drained lands ; and Parmentier, who was 

 obliged to turn farmer before he could overcome popular preju- 

 dice and introduce the potato into France. From among their 

 numbers have come the clear-sighted, quick-witted workers, 

 who have made immediate application of every good suggestion, 

 and have brought agriculture to a high standard. To them 

 belongs especially that class, who, having acquired their knowl- 

 edge, reproduce it in some useful foi^m for the practical benefit 

 of mankind ; that class whose minds are not so burdened with 

 theories, that when the moment for action comes, they lose 

 sight of tlie very object for which their theories were constructed. 

 It is to such as these that we owe the early construction of 

 our social and civil fabric, and the existence and early pros- 



