201 
The Present State of Afjrkulture 
which grows and extends the moxe, the more it imparts to other 
jnatter of its own light and heat. 
I look forward therefore with interest and hope to the various 
methods now contemplated, or already in actual operation, for the 
diffusion of existing agricultural knowledge. As we advance in 
this useful worlc, the patchy green and yellow which now chequers 
the surface will graduallv disappear, and verdure of a more uni- 
form tint will overspread the largest breadths where soil and cir- 
cumstances favour all alike. 
But I advance to the second aspect in which our defective 
knowledge may be viewed, and on which it is my purpose at pre- 
sent principally to dwell. 
If we study the actual condition of scientific agriculture, in any 
one of its branches, with the view of thoroughly mastering it, we 
arrive sooner or later at depths beyond which no one has ever 
gone. In other words, our existing knowledge, though great, is 
everywhere limited and full of imperfections, and, though rapidly 
progressing, is still unable to explain many important appear- 
ances, or to give explicit and satisfactory instructions in regard to 
many important agricultural operations. 
The increase or progress of this knowledge ought to be no less 
a care and concern, therefore, than its diffusion should be, to the 
friends of rural improvement. Especially it ought to be a matter 
of moment to a great Society like this, and an exact acquaintance 
with the state of that progress not uninteresting to the more intel- 
ligent and instructed of its members. 
Instead, therefore, of addressing you in the present lecture 
upon the elementary scientific principles which bear upon some 
question of practice, or occupying your time by discussing the 
details of some more or less important branch of the rural art, I 
believe I shall consult more the importance and dignity of this 
national meeting by endeavouring to set before you a brief outline 
of the actual condition of scientific agriculture, and especially of 
the present state of rural economy in its relations to chemistry ; 
and this I hope to do so plainly, that while it shall be generally 
interesting to such as take wider views, it will at the same time 
be as intelligible and instructive to all as a more elementary and 
common-place address would have been. 
Now in regard to this sul)ject there are three distinct questions 
which will naturally arise in your minds : — 
First. What has been the progress, in amount and in kind, 
which scientific agriculture has made among ourselves during the 
last ten years? 
Second. What is the actual condition of this advancing know- 
ledge ? And 
Third. What should now be specially done to further or make 
easy its advance ? 
