INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 
637 
regulated by commercial principles. The battle of freedom 
and liberty against oppression and slavery is being fought 
in his person. He has therefore to raise from the soil, for 
the supply of the home market against foreign competition, 
the largest amount possible of produce at the least expen- 
diture of time or money consistent with the amount of return. 
To do this, all ready means of cultivating his land by 
machinery, so as to bring it quickly into a fitting state for the 
reception of the seed, to hasten the growth of the plants, and 
to gather them in when ripe, have to be put into requisition, 
at a heavy and permanent cost. His land must not be idle, 
and therefore his employment of manual labour also, at 
certain periods, has to be unrestricted, while he must be ever 
on the watch to direct it into that channel where it will yield 
the quickest return. The immediate result of all this is the 
production of a greater quantity of corn and other produce as 
food, both for man and animals. Man is thus directly 
supplied with the raw materials for his bread and beer, but he 
wants also both meat and clothing. To furnish these the 
manufacturer, or agriculturist if you like, must either rear or 
keep large numbers of sheep and cattle. These have like- 
wise to be of the kind which will come soonest to maturity, 
or accumulate flesh and fat quickly ; so that there may be 
neither waste of time, nor of provender in bringing meat 
at once into the market, and also the raw material for 
clothing. Thus we see that the raising of a large produce 
necessitates the keeping of a corresponding quantity of stock, 
and these in their turn, by the consumption of the hay, the 
straw, and the root-crops of the farm, give back to the land an 
increased quantity of manure. Good cultivation and the 
feeding of animals having a mutual dependence or reciprocity, 
thus go on hand in hand together, acting and reacting on 
each other. But experience has shown the absolute necessity 
of recourse being had to means which lie extern to those 
immediately at the command of the agriculturist to secure 
the desired end. It requires little discrimination to see that 
ah initio , one scale of the balance must preponderate, it 
matters not which, and therefore he has either to give heed to 
the purchase of artificial manure for his land, or artificial food 
for his stock ; and this primary essential once begun, to 
secure all its advantages it must be continued. To what 
extent he can safely go in the use of such manures, is the 
great problem that has now to be solved. It is only by dear- 
bought experience that a solution of it can be acquired by the 
agriculturist. To save him this cost individually, and to 
secure wealth to the nation collectively, the agricultural 
