MR. gray's address. 13 



tutions. It may be known as a science by the initiated,, 

 but there must be a power to receive and apply, as well 

 as to cojnmunicate, before permanent improvement can 

 be secured. 



It is one of the most glaring defects in our system of 

 popular instruction, that no provision is made for the 

 study of those branches which are intimately connected 

 with agriculture, and a knowledge of which is necessary 

 in order that the science itself may be understood ; we 

 are therefore met with an obstacle which it is not easy 

 to surmount, whenever we attempt to instruct the com- 

 munity into the principles of the art. There is wanting 

 not light on agriculture, but o. recipient poiuer in the gen- 

 eral mind to collect the light which actually exists. 

 There is knowledge enough in the world to save it, if it 

 could be brought to bear upon the popular mind ; hence 

 what we need is such an elementary knowledge of 

 mineralogy, botany, chemistry and natural philosophy, 

 with their application to the arts, that the science of 

 agriculture may be understood, and such a discipline of 

 the popular intellect that this knowledge may be practi- 

 cally applied. 



For want of this recipient poiver, the press, that great 

 engine of popular instruction, is deprived of the greater 

 part of its ethcacy. Popular lectures, the efforts, the 

 discoveries of scientific men exert but a feeble influence. 

 The fostering care of the Legislature, and the indefati- 

 gable labors of agricultural societies scarcely reach the 

 general mass of farmers. The consequence is that no 

 preparation is considered desirable to become a farmer,* 

 as if men were endowed for this employment with an in- 

 stinct like the bee or beaver, which is perfect in itself and 

 could not be improved by education. 



While some degree of preparation is deemed neces- 

 sary to practice the rudest trade, that of a coblcr or com- 

 mon pedlar, the most difficult and important of all trades 

 may be carried on, it is stipposed, without any prepara- 



* See Dr. C. T. Jackson's Ihird Annual Report of the Geology of Maine, p, 

 123, sequel. 



