12 MR. gray's address. 



create a motive for scientific men to turn their attention 

 to it, and to produce in this as in all other professions, a 

 union of theory and practice; the theory must be taught 

 in the schools, the practice in the fields. Its princi- 

 ples will then be sought out, its experiments carefully 

 compared and classified ; its apparently discordant 

 facts reconciled and wrought into one perfect system of 

 light and truth. 



It is only in this way that pej-fection^ can be attained. 

 Why is it that the mechanic arts have arrived to such 

 a high state of perfection, while agriculture is so mani- 

 festly imperfect ? It is simply because these arts have 

 been made the subjects of patient and persevering study. 

 The lights of science have shone upon them until we 

 ore astonished and almost confounded at the magnitude 

 af the results, no less than delighted with the beauty, 

 simplicity and cheapness which characterize their pro- 

 ductions. Every scientific man has his telescope out, 

 that nothing may pass in heaven or earth but that it may 

 be known; but alas for the farmer, very few but empy- 

 rics have consulted his interests. He could do well 

 enough without the aid of science ; so the farmer has 

 said, and so he believed, and settled down in his self com- 

 placency, repelling all attempts to arouse him from his 

 comfortable, and as he verily believes, consoling posi- 

 tion. But scientific men and practical farmers are turn- 

 ing their attention to this subject. New discoveries are 

 being made, new resources are being developed ; the 

 importance of the subject begins to be seen, and unless 

 I mistake the signs of the times, a necessity felt by many 

 of the best men that in order to secure perfection in 

 agriculture it must be made a branch of an English 

 education. 



If agriculture is made a science how^ever, its princi- 

 ples cannot be understood, disseminated and applied 

 unless it is made a branch of study in our literary insti- 



* Perfect Agriculture, says Professor Liebig, of Giossen, is the true founda- 

 tion of all trade and industry,— it is the foundation of the riches of States. But 

 a rational system of Agriculture cannot be formed withcut the application of 

 jicicittiftc principles 



