ADDRESS. 11 



peat, the contrary. Our farmers are among our most benevolent and 

 patriotic citizens, ardently devoted to our free institutions, reliable for 

 the support of the same, and for the jn-eservation of our American 

 Union. They are the ballast of our national ship, keeping her upright 

 and steady amidst the winds and waves which agitate the political 

 ocean, and as conservators of the Republic, they hold with unwavering 

 hand the balance of political power. As a class, they have intelligence 

 and talent, many of them possess genius which would improve and 

 . adorn any vocation or station in society. What they need, is a 

 wise direction of their energies to their profession, and this it is the 

 object of scientific education to furnish. 



It is not the energy that wields the spade, guides the plane or reefs 

 the sail, that is capable of demonstrating or improving these arts. It 

 is a higher power, the culture of the mind; and this in Agriculture, 

 as in every other pursuit, must ever go hand in hand with the culture 

 of the soil. Such has been the relation of science to the progress of 

 art, and such it will forever continue to be ; 



" Survey the globe, through, every zone, 



From Lima to Japan, 

 In hneaments of light 'tis shown 



That Culture makes the man. 

 All that man has, had, hopes, can have, 



Past, promised, or possessed, 

 Are fruits which Culture gives or gave 



At Industry's behest." > 



The Science of Agriculture has been defined a knowledge of the 

 principles which govern judicious cultivation ; but in truth it is an 

 aggregation of sciences. A youth may soon learn the construction 

 of a steam engine, the principles of its action, to take it apart and 

 put it together, and to direct its fearful energy with his puny arm. 

 But if its mechanism is to be improved, and its utility increased, 

 greater attainments, original and independant thought are requisite. 

 So in Agriculture, the farmer may soon learn sufficient of the natural 

 sciences, to understand the common arts of cultivation, but their high- 

 est improvement requires a profound knowledge, not merely of one 

 branch, but of many sciences, mutually related and reciprocally de- 

 pendent. 



That I speak advisedly when I say that scientific education must 



