ascertainment of natural laws, and their relations to each 

 other ; their physical cfFects in the production of vegetable and 

 animal life is one of the greatest of sciences, and the applica- 

 tion of these laws to the uses of man is truly an art requiring 

 systematic knowledge, and to which men of the highest intel- 

 lect may well and honorably devote their labors. 



Creation exhibits the power of Omnipotence. Yet how near 

 to creation is that power which has produced from the wild 

 crab apple that splendid fruit which adorns our orchards ; from 

 the thorny and acrid wild choke-pear the many varieties of 

 that delicious fruit which has graced the tables of this Society; 

 which has produced the powerful dray-horse, the fleet courser, 

 the docile and spirited carriage horse, from the single span 

 which Noah took into his ark ; which has produced the great 

 varieties of useful and domestic kine from the wild cattle of 

 Tartary, and the highlands of Scotland ; which has tripled 

 the fleeces of sheep, and which has brought into existence those 

 endless varieties of fruits to indulge the taste, and of flowejrs 

 to delight the eye. Where can limits be placed beyond which 

 the' power of man may not extend ; or where is the bound 

 which can be set to the advancement of science in the produc- 

 tion of useful vegetables and animals, for the comfort and lux- 

 ury of our race. 



The Duke of Argyle, in a speech of great eloquence deliver- 

 ed in August last, at Kelso, before the Highland and Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland, said, — " The interest which he look 

 in these agricultural shows was always the interest that arose 

 from the extent to which the power of man was exhibited over 

 the animal and vegetable worlds, in creating almost, as it were, 

 new species for his own benefit and his own use. He would 

 not say the power was unlimited, but he would say it was a 

 power of which the limits were not known, because the end 

 had not been arrived at, and probably never would be." 

 Science, in its researches, is constantly developing new trea- 

 sures and inviting to new delight^ in new discoveries, and 

 opening new fields for thought and labor. Now, merely 



