60 GEOLOGY OF AGRICULTURE. 



will pay by-and-bye. I do not despair of the time, 

 when the man who toils, if he toils intelligently, on a 

 poor farm, will be as well paid as lie who works on a 

 good one, after taking into account the rise in the value 

 of the first, and comparing it with the stationary or 

 retrograde value of the other. Thousands of unseemly 

 spots, sand and bog, on which it might have been un- 

 wise for our fathers to invest capital fifty years ago, 

 would make an excellent return for capital invested 

 on them this day ; and there is every reason to be- 

 lieve, that others will fast come into the same relation 

 to capital and labor — will pay well, ten, fifteen and 

 twenty years hence. 



96. In the matter of reclaiming lands, as well as 

 of cultivating those already good, farmers should be 

 guided by experience, by observation, and by common 

 sense. Undoubtedly these are the best teachers. But 

 they are not the only teachers. Science proffers her 

 sympathy and her instructions. Farmers should wel- 

 come her aid. Why should they despair of her wil- 

 lingness and her ability to benefit them, when they 

 see what she has done for other interests ; manufac- 

 turing bales of goods with the labor once required for 

 single pieces ; sending merchandise with the speed of 

 steam, aud mercantile intelligence with that of light- 

 ing ? ^ 



97. Science has its various branches ; and if it be 

 asked, what particular science is n^ost adapted to bene- 

 fit agriculture, I answer without hesitation, that every 

 science teaches tilings, whiclj thp farmer may turn to 



