in its Relations to Chemistry and Geology. 
235 
important relations of light to vegetation, which the inquiries of 
Hunt, Draper, and Claudet, made in different directions, show to 
be extensive, important, and likely to reward those who more 
thoroughly investigate them ; — and I might mention also unex- 
plored fields of research in connexion with the feeding of stock, 
with dairy husbandry, with the growth of wool, &c., all of which 
it is desirable to enter upon with the united aid of the cultivators 
of the practical and scientific branches of knowledge which are 
fitted to throw light upon them. 
But who is to undertake the numerous inquiries I have already 
named? At whose expense ? When can they be begun ? Some 
may think that they lie within the province of an agricultural 
college, and that Cirencester should take them up. But the 
proper business of a college is to teach — not to investigate : to 
diffuse existing knowledge the first — to enlarge that knowledge 
only the second consideration. Or agricultural chemistry asso- 
ciations should embrace them ; and, no doubt, did locality, and 
convenience, and means admit, such bodies might very fitly 
attempt to overtake them. 
I do not enter, however, into the question of how the ends 
desired may be best attained ; my purpose is to suggest materials 
for after thought and consideration, rather than to lead you to 
the adoption of any plan of mine. I do not urge you to take up 
this analytical more than I have done the experimental branch. 
I indicate it to you as occupying a most prominent place among 
those measures which ought to be taken, with the view of carrying 
scientific agriculture straighter and more rapidly forward. 
One cannot help feeling a kind of regret in thus indicating to 
others trains of research it would be so interesting to follow out 
one's self. It is like discovering; to strangers the secret of a 
hidden treasure we had hoped ourselves to dig up. In this pro- 
gress of knowledge, and in helping forward and in some measure 
directing it, there is so great a charm and honour, that, were it 
possible, with the means and life of one, I should willingly myself 
attempt to carry forward all I have suggested ; and I should 
scarcely condescend to point out to you what I would myself, 
for the sake of science, so cheerfully perform. But the life of 
one man is too short, his means too limited, and his knowledge 
too confined, to allow of his hoping to see very much progress 
made by his own hands, under his own immediate direction, or 
even during his own lifetime. It is something better, therefore, 
and higher, while we do not cease to labour ourselves, that we 
should point out the way to others also — enlist the young and 
the ardent who are springing up around us — awaken the atten- 
tion and stimulate the labours of experimental philosophers in 
other countries as well as in our own — and urge upon all to bring 
a helping hand to the removal of obstacles which stand in the way 
