502 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



XI. The limits of modification are widest in those species that 

 can assimilate the most various kinds of food. 



XII. Perfection of breed is a relative term, implying different 

 organizations for different purposes. 



XIII. As fine breeds are introduced into this country more pains 

 must be taken to protect and feed our cattle well and fittingly, or 

 they will " degenerate" to the same stock. 



XIV. Fine varieties, when protected, do give a greater product 

 from the same amount of food than the coarse. 



Mr. Meigs remarked on the origin of plants and animals. Take 

 one example. We see the oak tree in some places. Were they 

 all there for ages 1 No. Were some there 1 Yes. Must not 

 there have been a time when there was but one 1 Yes. And a 

 time when there was not one there ? Yes. Is this true of all the 

 oaks of the world ? Yes. Then there was a time when the first 

 oak existed 1 Yes. But one asks, may there not have been sev- 

 eral oaks created at first 1 There is not an atom of human expe- 

 rience to prove it. For instance — at this moment there are thou- 

 sands of millions of acres suited to the growth of oak which never 

 had one. Why ? Because the creation is so recent that there 

 has not been time by all the agencies for distribution by land, or 

 sea, by man or by animals, to distribute the acorns ! The Mosaic 

 account of the creation of seed bearing plants, is infinitely superior 

 to our Darkling synthesis — reading backward philosophically to 

 the first action of God as to our earth, we encounter fables or voids 

 for a long period of mere human history until we stop at the Reve- 

 lation of our Heavenly father in Genesis, which when profoundly 

 studied, as it has been by hundreds of thousands of good and 

 learned men, contains the only truth on that mighty subject — a 

 text which grows steadily more and more dear as true science 

 clears away the mists resting on the meanings of Moses. I am 

 ashamed to apply the word true to science, but there are more 

 crimes committed in the name of science than there are in the 

 name of Liberty. 



If the Almighty had pleased to do afterwards what he did at 

 the beginning — create the oak tree as often as it was wanted. 

 What then was the necessity of making seeds? Genesis I, 11th 



