S6 



is not known to have ever reached the intelligence of man. 

 The night comes _; the telescope is levelled at the point of the 

 heavens indicated ; when, at the predicted moment, up from 

 the vast of space, out from the abyss of dark eternity, swings 

 the shining planetary world ! These are the miracles of man ! 

 They declare the power of science. 



And now when science comes to the farmer and exhibiting 

 her trophies fain would fertilize his fields, improve his crops, 

 and herds, and increase his gains, shall he reluct and turn 

 aside, nay rather, shall he not go forth to meet her, welcome 

 her, crown her and prepare for her the seat in the high place 

 of honor ? 



Gentlemen of the Society, — You are engaged in the honor- 

 able work of promoting the advancement of agriculture at a 

 most interesting period. It is one of transition, and as such, 

 is full of the buoyant expectancy of hope. That which has 

 been accomplished by science and experiment, is justly re- 

 garded as the guaranty of still more important results. There 

 is great encouragement in the reflection that much as has been 

 done for agriculture by science, even at the lowest estimate. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, the father of agricultural chemistry, the 

 science most relied on as an organ of progress in your pursuit, 

 began his labors so recently as the beginning of the present 

 century. As late as thirty years ago a constituent of the soil 

 essential to vegetation, still remained undetected. It is only 

 within the last thirty years, that there has been a general ad- 

 vancement in the art. I have not concealed what I believe to 

 be the fact, that there is still much to be done. There is much 

 to be done in the public economy of civilized communities to 

 insure to agriculture the conditions of a self-sustained fertility. 

 There is much to be done in our own commonwealth in the 

 application of known and available resources to increase the 

 productiveness of its soil. Whatever there is to be done, 

 which is within the appropriate sphere of this society, it will 

 undoubtedly do. Its action in the past, has been of the high- 

 Cbt advantage to the agriculture of the state and the county. 



