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to come, 1 wish to guard myself iigainst being 

 imderstood as conntenjincing the erroneous and 

 im])racticahle idea that an intelligent and im})rov- 

 ing farmer must, in the professional sense of the 

 term, be "a man of science." Such an opinion 

 this audience need not to be told is quite Utopian. 

 The })rogress of the natural and ex2)erimental 

 sciences of the present day is so marvelously 

 great that it requires the energies of a life to 

 keeji pace Avith almost any one of them. If 

 youths, intended for farming, as a means of ob- 

 taining a livelihood, were placed in the labora- 

 tory to acquire and master the \Qvy delicate art 

 of manipulation in the higher branches of organ- 

 ic analysis, with a view of becoming accomplished 

 chemists, the time occupied in such studies and 

 pursuits must preclude them from acquiring that 

 practical knowledge and those business h.ibits, 

 apart from which farming must, commercially 

 at least, prove a disastrous failure. What is 

 really needed, and what is, I think, practicable, 

 is so to instruct our 3'()uth in the principles of 

 science, as to enable them to appreciate the 

 results obtained by scientific men, and advan- 

 tageously co-operate with them in effecting 

 practical improvements. The amount of scien- 

 tific knoAvledge which such a view assumes is no 



