ANNUAL MEETING. 
465 
tenfold. They were not now content to tread in the steps of their 
fathers and grandfathers, fearful of diverging beyond the line of 
path which had been followed for so many years. Improve- 
ments had taken place, by the union of science, in the arts, in 
manufactures, in navigation, and in the appliances of war. And 
w hy should not the same results follow from its application to agri- 
culture? There was another important branch of science — that 
of the physiology of animals — and on this subject they had been 
enlightened by the important discoveries of Dr. Playfair, whose 
able lecture, published in the last number of their journal, had 
doubtless been read by most of them. The chemistry of agricul- 
ture was intimately interwoven with, and subsidiary to, the breed- 
ing of animals, and that important lecture on physiology was 
before them. In Dr. Playfair’s presence he should better consult 
his feelings by not dwelling on his abilities than by any eulogy 
which, however merited, might offend. There was another emi- 
nent professor present — he alluded to Professor Owen, professor of 
comparative anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons — an indi- 
vidual whose zeal and ability had been rewarded by the Govern- 
ment with a pension. He also, as a physiologist, was desirous to 
co-operate with the agriculturist, by recommending the scientific 
application of the most approved methods of rearing and fatten- 
ing cattle. This was especially a time when they hungered and 
thirsted, as it were, for experiment, that farmers might know 
sorAething of the nature of the component parts of some of their 
most common crops. The attention of the Society, therefore, 
could not be too speedily turned to this important subject. By a 
due attention to the admixture and transposition of soils, we shall 
find that we want not the aid of artificial and foreign manures, if 
the produce of the farm-yard is properly applied and husbanded; 
and if the constituents of our soils and their products are properly 
examined and understood by the labours of the chemist for the 
next five years, and of the geologist for the five years succeeding 
that, they will be enabled to point out with accuracy the consti- 
tuent ingredients of which they are made up. He hoped yet to 
live to see the day when manure and good management would 
almost double or treble the produce of our soils : and by draining 
