424 TIiA^'SACTIOxs of the Amebic ax Ixstitute. 



make the tallow candle drip upon the paragraphs. The ablest of all 

 the pnblic men of Greece, whenever he stepped upon the bema, was 

 accustomed to pray to his heathen gods that he might say nothing 

 unworthy of the Athenian people. Our audiences, Mr. Chairman, 

 are ten times greater than any ever reached by the words of Pericles, 

 and shall we not have some solicitude lest we say things here that are 

 unworthy this great people, and the magnificent interest which we 

 represent ? If the}^ ask us for a fish, shall we give them a serpent ? 

 If they put us a civil and important question, shall we answer with a 

 conundrum ? Is it becoming in us to discuss whether round egga 

 hatch roosters and long eggs pullets ; whether snakes eat strawber- 

 ries ; whether mare's milk is good for young pigs ; whether fi'ogs eat 

 musquitoes ; whether horse hairs turn into water snakes ; whether pork 

 butchered in the last quarter of the moon will shrink in boiling ; 

 whether tree-toads are poisonous ; whether there is dyspepsia in a 

 pickled cucumber ; whether swine's flesh is fit for food. It is time, 

 Mr. Chairman, and gen^emen, it is time to leave all these questions 

 to village wiseacres and moon -struck philosophers. If we want to do 

 good, if we would associate our names with interests that are per- 

 petual, if we would have the respect of remote States, and the honor 

 of those who come after us and wiU stand in our places when we are 

 crumbling in the soil about which we talk so much and know so lit- 

 tle, let us be earnest, manly workers. Let us take the ax-helve in 

 two hands and cut for the heart of tlie oak. Let us not stop to spin 

 yarns while the pig weeds are growing faster than the cora. Gentle- 

 men, we have done a great deal ; we have spread broadcast a great 

 number of valuable ideas, of important facts, of useful experiments, 

 but after all we have only scratched the surface, running our little 

 shares three inches deep, while for miles and miles around us 

 uncounted granaries of food lie deep in the bosom of unsunned mold. 

 We enjoy one single and eminent advantage over every other agi*icul- 

 tural society ; over the department of agriculture itself. We 

 have a broad, well paved avenue to millions of readers. We 

 have regular and weekly access to the ear of the people. "With- 

 out presuming to dictate or foreshadow too much, you will allow 

 me, Mr. Chairman, to allude to the lines of development and 

 usefulness that are upon us. We have a number of gentlemen 

 who are competent to conduct careful and important agricultural 

 experiments, and to greatly advance the interests of solid farming. 

 The country would repose in the verdict of Mr. Quinu or Mr. Lawtou, 



