82 the pbesident's addeess. 



The Report of the Council for the year 1856, of the proceedings 

 of the Institute, affords much reason for congratulation. The ad-' 

 ditions to the number of its members show the increasing sense of 

 the value of the Institute ; and this conclusion is strengthened by the 

 observation in the report, that these additions are such as give it k a 

 Provincial rather than a local character," and entitle us to hope 

 for a far more widely extended co-operation than we at first 

 might have reasonably expected. In no respect, perhaps, can that 

 co-operation be more usefully afforded than in communications on 

 the various branches of literature, science, and art, which, read at 

 the meetings of the Institute, may, whenever their novelty or im- 

 portance justifies it, form part of the published records of our proceed- 

 ings, in the Canadian Journal. Observation and experience are the 

 sources for enlarging the extent of all our knowledge. The com- 

 munication of individual observation and experience not only adds 

 to the general mass of what is known, but it furnishes help to the 

 attainment of further knowledge. Every phenomenon, whether the 

 result of physical experiment, or of that class which occur inde- 

 pendently of human agency, when properly observed and noted, 

 promotes the knowledge of causes, and aids in the deduction of 

 general laws. I cannot doubt that, among the members of the In- 

 stitute, there are many capable of responding to the invitation of 

 the Council in this respect, and where the capacity exists I feel less 

 doubt that there will be a readiness shown to co-operate with those 

 who have so strenuously laboured for our advantage, and who de- 

 vote so much of their time and talents to our service. In no way 

 can a sense of obligation to the Council of the Institute generally, 

 or to the Editing Committee of the Canadian Journal in particular, 

 be more fitly shown than in an endeavour to share in their labours, 

 and to promote the objects to which they are devoted. In so doing 

 we are, in truth, serving ourselves. The influence of science extends 

 alike to agriculture, to commerce, to manufactures, to the adminis- 

 tration of justice, to each art of domestic life, and to the prosperity of 

 the Province. The comfort and enjoyment of its inhabitants are de- 

 pendent on tbose pursuits. Every advance made in the one is of 

 necessity a corresponding benefit to the other. The time is quickly 

 passing by — in some parts of the Province it has already passed — 

 when all the farmer has to do, after exhausting one portion of his 

 land, is, to leave it to waste, and to clear another. Such a process 

 must very soon bring itself to an end ; and those whose whole know- 

 ledge of farming has been obtained under such training stand more 



