474 THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY’S 
prove the resources of his country, and concluded by proposing 
as a sentiment — “ England, the sun of civilization ; may she long 
continue, like her own Eddystone, a light in the ocean. May 
her light shine, not to burn, but cherish — not to render the 
world desolate, but happy. May her energies be concentrated on 
those high objects — the diffusion of knowledge and the exten- 
sion of civilization, liberty, and peace.” 
The Chairman next proposed the health of the members of 
the local committee, coupling with it the name of Mr. Charles 
Colville. Mr. Colville said that he should never cease to rejoice 
that he had been the means of procuring for the farmers of 
Derbyshire the splendid exhibition which they had witnessed. 
The health of the President of the Society was then proposed 
by the Earl of Yarborough. 
The Earl of Hardwicke replied, that he would not detain 
the meeting long, but he trusted he might be permitted to 
state that, in his opinion, agriculture would be best followed by 
adopting the practised rules of science ; but there was, in many 
places, quite enough to do to the land before science could be 
brought to bear upon it. He knew that, by proper cultivation, 
the produce of land might be doubled. He knew it by his own 
experience, because he had land which had doubled its produce in 
fifteen years. This had been mainly effected by dibbling, by deep- 
ening the ditches and draining the land, by using the straw of the 
farm-yard for manure, and, in fact, the farmers of England had 
as yet but little idea of what might be done by those simple 
means. If they but looked back for a few years, in what a 
wretched state did they find agriculture? The rich and the 
thinking — those who had the ability and the means — had, how- 
ever, since come to its aid. He would call their attention to a 
work written one hundred years since, shewing that even then 
the application of science to agriculture was thought of. 
The noble earl then read a passage from Mr. Pusey’s paper, 
which spoke of agriculture as in itself a science, and as re- 
quiring the aid of chemistry to bring it to perfection. There 
was, it stated, one great obstacle to experiments in agriculture, 
that the time required to ascertain their results rendered them 
