Address. 



is practiced. It is an important fact that such agencies for good onee put 

 |nto operation, continue with constantly increasing power to benefit man- 

 kind to the remotest generation. 



Near the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the science of chemistry 

 was rapidly assuming its present form and revealing to the waiting world 

 the wondrous truths relating to the composition of soils, water and air. 

 the food of plants and animals, and the true relations of the three kingdoms 

 of nature to each other, Sir Humphrey Davy published his great work on 

 Agricultural Chemistry. The deepest interest in regard to possible im- 

 provements in agricultural operations by the direct application of science 

 was excited in the minds of many 'most intelligent men, both in this country 

 and in Europe. It had been for centuries previous to this time the belief 

 that chemical science could devise some method for trausmuting the baser 

 metals into gold. Kings, nobles, and scholars had been alike interested 

 to secure this result, but chemical analysis demonstrated that it was no 

 longer to be hoped for. 



The enthusiastic devotion of the alchemists to the mystic science 

 was now in a measure replaced by the unwarranted expectations of those 

 who sought the advancement of agriculture. Many imagined that chemi- 

 cal analysis was to reveal at once the causes of sterility in soils, and to dis- 

 cover forthwith some simple, but sufficient, remedy. This resulted in an 

 immense amount of chemical investigation into the composition of soils, 

 manures, plants and animals, which is still in progress, and though the pre- 

 cise object of search has not been discovered, a vast amount of valuable 

 knowledge, both theoretical and practical, has been attained. The meth- 

 ods of enriching soils, preparing and applying manures, stimulating plants 

 to produce the crops desired, and feeding auimals for special purposes, 

 which have been devised by intelligent men under the guidance of science, 

 have been, and will to the end of time be, of inestimable value to the world. 



The surpassing worth of any, even the smallest, improvement in agricul- 

 ture, and the rapidity with which one invention followed another awakened 

 the public mind to the necessity of some new means for the diffusion of 

 knowledge, and for the excitement among farmers of a desire for better 

 tools, seeds, stock, and methods, Hence the organization of agricultural, 

 societies, which aimed to accomplish these results by the publication of use- 

 ful information, by the discussion of various important subjects, by the ex- 

 hibition of the best agricultural tools and products, aud by the offering of 

 premiums for the trial of experiments, the invention of improved processes 

 or implements, and the production of the largest crops, the finest sped- 



