10 



sympathy others share in these results and occupy the 

 same higher position. It is a generous enthusiasm lead- 

 ing to noblest benefits. Why does an acre that once 

 yielded forty bushels of corn now yield a hundred ? Why 

 are eight hundred bushels of roots raised upon an acre 

 instead of three hundred ? Why is the average produce 

 of butter nearly doubled ? Why do mowing fields yield 

 two tons to the acre instead of one ? How is it that 

 oxen of the largest size are well fatted at three years of 

 age ? or that pigs of improved forms and properties are 

 fit for slaughter at nine or ten months, when it formerly 

 required two years to reach that condition ? Because 

 theorists have theorized, and experimentalists have ex- 

 perimented, and rich men have freely spent their money, 

 and fancy farmers have carried out their fancies, and 

 book farmers have diligently studied tlieir books, and 

 agricultural chemists have investigated the qualities of 

 soils and manures, and skilful mechanics have embodied 

 the principles of natural philosophy in better machines 

 and tools than our fathers dreamed of ; and then all have 

 brought their contributions into a common stock, and 

 formed Agricultural Societiesj and these again have dis- 

 tributed the accumulated gains into a thousand channels, 

 and the practical farmer has reaped the result of the 

 whole operation in additions to his knowledge and skill. 

 The individual theorists and chemists and fanciers and 

 book men may not always increase their wealth ; they are 

 not an eminently selfish race. But the community gains, 

 and even they who ungenerously depreciate the enter- 

 prise, come in for their share of the profits. 



Here then is the justification of our Association. And 

 yet I have not mentioned all the elements that enter into 

 the result. In scarcely any other art do improvements 

 advance so slowly as in agriculture, when not impelled 

 by associated activities. The farmer works alone, and 



