34 



and how much surer will the way to wealth be to your 

 hardy poineers, if they have been taught in their early 

 homes, not only how to choose land, but where to look for 

 the kind they wish to buy, and how to till it best, whatever 

 it may be, when it has come into their possession. 



I ought, perhaps, to apologise for saying so much on this 

 subject. To you, who have expended so much public 

 money, and so large a measure of talent in developing 

 the geological structure and natural resources of this and 

 other states, it may appear presumptuous in me to urge 

 further upon your attention, what you have shown that you 

 already so fully appreciate. I may plead as an excuse, 

 that in a country where all action originates, and all power 

 centres in the masses, a brief discussion of the subject 

 before a great meeting like this, may help new listeners 

 towards a proper general estimation of the practical value 

 of science — and that what I have said will not fail in being 

 useful to scientific agriculture, if it convince a single unde- 

 cided voter in this great commonwealth of the worth of 

 those aids which science offers you, in developing the 

 resources of the soil. 



II. Relations of Chemistry to Agriculture. — 



Permit me now to say a few words on the subject of 

 chemistry, in its relations to agriculture. 



The special applications of this science, as many of you 

 are already aware, are far too multiplied to admit even of 

 enumeration. Of the practical ends which have been 

 more or less perfectly attained by means of chemistry, I 

 might mention such general ones as these : — 



1st. In what general exhaustion consists, how it is pro- 

 duced, and how it may be repaired ? 



2d. In what special exhaustion consists, how it is 



