you that the cultivation of sorghum will afford larger profits 

 than the cultivation of maize ; no facts with which to compare 

 the merits or demerits of the different breeds of imported stocky 

 nor with which to add to your stock of information already ac- 

 quired by personal observation and experience, or the published 

 observations and experience of others. 



Reports of this, and other agricultural societies, and publica- 

 tions of the results of careful and scientific labors of men who 

 have devoted the highest order of talent and energy in de- 

 veloping the wealth, and adding to the spontaneous produc* 

 tions of the earth, by the application of knowledge and science, 

 — have been open to you all, and by many of you read with 

 pleasure and profit. 



While questioning my ability to add interest to topics which 

 have been discussed in the annual addresses to the members of 

 your society, by men whose knowledge and experience have 

 given to their views and theories the weight of well authentica- 

 ted facts, I should, as a matter of justice, declined the honor of 

 your invitation, had I not known that a frequent repetition of 

 the same ideas and facts tended to fix them more firmly in the 

 minds of the hearers, -—that although it might require great 

 engineering skill and labor to survey, blaze, and map out the 

 most direct and practicable path through a wilderness, yet 

 men ot lesser capacity may follow and tread that path until it 

 becomes a well-defined 'way, from which any deviation become^ 

 a matter of choice, or the result of carelessness, rather than a 

 matter of necessity. Therefore, you will pardon me if my 

 suggestions are but steps in the track of others ; and that I 

 follow rather than strike off into untried ways, as by so doing 

 you will feel on assurance that however faint may be the jfeflec- 

 tion of the light borrowed of others, yet that it is no ignis fa- 

 tmis to lead you from the right direction into the swamp of un- 

 tried experiment. I shall, therefore, briefly point out to you 

 some of the prominent landmarks and monuments already set 

 up by the labor and skill of others, and call your attention to 



