Inaugural Address. 481 



selves in what relation our lives stand to the lives of 

 the animals and plants which form the subject matter 

 of the sciences of botany and zoology, in a word, of 

 biology. 



When the pioneers of civilization reach an unset- 

 tled country, they find it covered with certain kinds of 

 vegetation and inhabited by certain species of 

 animals. This population of plants and animals 

 represents the balance which has been arrived at as 

 the result of a long struggle between the various 

 species, each trying to cover the whole ground for 

 itself. Though this balance no doubt alters slowly in 

 the course of ages, yet from the observation of the vege- 

 tation which covers long deserted human habitations 

 such as the ruined temples in Mexico, we conclude that 

 when the land has been cleared and then abandoned, 

 so that the struggle recommenced under the same con- 

 ditions, it leads to the same residts, for the proportion 

 of the species in such spots is the same as that obtaining 

 in the surrounding virgin forest. 



The population, therefore, of unsettled land repre- 

 sents the state of affairs which jSTature is for ever 

 trying to bring about, and which man when he clears 

 and cultivates land alters. It follows that the position 

 of the civilized settler is one of unceasing war against 

 Xature ; he maintains an artificial garrison, one might 

 almost call it, of cultivated plants and domestic animals, 

 in the face of a large opposing force of wild plants and 

 wild animals which he is dispossessing of their terri- 

 tory and which are constantly seeking to regain it. 



Under these circumstances, it is obvious that the 



' first condition of success would be as complete a 



knowledge as possible of the habits and powers both 



of the garrison which the farmer is seeking to main- 



