ADDRESS 



BY REV. C. W. EMERSON. 



If I should tell you what I know about fanning, it would not be 

 much. 1 can better tell ycu what I know about farmers. 



Therefore I have selected as the subject of my address, The Rela- 

 tion of Agriculture to Manhood. Whatever is second in life, man- 

 hood is first. And I believe there is no other pursuit so well calcu- 

 lated to develop true manhood as that of agriculture. From agricul- 

 ture has come almost everything that tends to the develop.nent of cur 

 civilization. Perhaps I could dwell upon no theme that would be 

 more interesting than that of tracing the origin, and the subsequent 

 development of the arts and sciences from the necessities of agriculture. 

 I think it would be shown that nearly all the arts and sciences had 

 their rise in the needs growing out of agriculture. 



Egypt is acknowledged to be the mother of science and art Why 

 can the principal arts and sciences be traced to Egypt V Because 

 ancient Egypt was exclusively agricultural. Early history will bear 

 us out in the supposition that Ham and some of his descendants emi- 

 grated to Egypt and settled on the banks of the Nile, and colonized 

 the whole of lower Egypt. The soil was very fertile, but there was 

 difficulty in securing a crop on account of the inundations of the Nile. 

 For a long time they found themselves unable to determine at 

 precisely what time the inundation, which lasted between two and 

 three months, would commence. At last, however, they descovered 

 one of the most brilliant, though not the largest, of all the stars of 

 Heaven, just close to the horizon, where it shone a few moments before 

 the rising of the sun. This star always made its appearance just 

 before the inundation of the Nile commenced. 



This star seemed to the ancients like a faithful watch dog. warning 

 them of approaching danger, therefore they called it the Dog Star. 

 And from this the Egyptians developed, as far as it extended, a per- 

 fect system of Astrononiy. 



Prof. 0. M. Mitchell stated in a lecture, a few years since, that he 

 had met, not long before, in the city of St. Louis, a man of great 

 scientific attainments, who, for forty years, had been engaged in Egypfc 

 in deciphering the hieroglyphics of the ancients. This gentleman 

 stated to him that he had lately unravelled the inscriptions on the 

 coffin of a mummy, now in the London Museum. The Zodiac, with 

 the exact position of the planets, was delineated on this cuffiin, and the 

 date to which they pointed was the Autumnal equinox in the year 

 1722, B. C, or nearly 3600 years ago. 



Prof. Mitchell employed his assistants to ascertain the exact posi- 

 tions of the heavenly bodies belonging to our .'jystom on the equinox 



