ANNUAL MEETING. 
525 
the ancient aristocracy. Agriculture, manufactures, and com- 
merce — these tend to unite the scattered branches of the human 
family, to join nation and nation, clime and clime, man and 
man in one cemented bond. They soften the asperities of inter- 
national jealousies, and calm the savage tendencies to strife and 
to murderous war. 
Lord Hatherton said, that the sentiment he had to propose 
embraced in two words the primary and important object of this 
meeting, the union of practice with science. It afforded the 
practical farmer the opportunity which he so much desired, of 
meeting those scientific instructors to whose lessons they were 
so much indebted. The mechanist, the chemist, the geologist, 
the botanist, the hydraulic engineer, the meteorologist, all in their 
several departments contributed much to the advancement and 
prosperity of agriculture. He referred, in especial terms, to the 
benefits derived from the labours of men like Professors Playfair, 
Buckland, Henslow, and Daubeny. 
Professor Playfair observed, that it was not to be expected 
that the accumulated experience of centuries could derive great 
immediate advantage from its connexion with science ; but, ulti- 
mately, all would be realized that was expected and promised. 
Practice must, for some period, lead Science by the hand, and not 
permit her to part company until she has trimmed her lamp, and 
thrown a radiant light on the treasured stores of information she 
had accumulated, and taught us how to turn them to lasting ad- 
vantage. It may, perhaps, be long before science would over- 
take their practice, or the great mass of facts that had been 
accumulated be thoroughly weighed and sifted. It may like- 
wise be true, that many of the theories of learned men are some- 
what vague and useless ; but, nevertheless, these theories are 
the leaves of the tree of science — the means of affording nutri- 
ment to the limbs and to the trunk, and of circulating the healthy 
current of the sap throughout the whole system ; and even when 
they fell to the ground they were not entirely useless, for they 
served to fertilize and to shade it. 
Several appropriate toasts were afterwards proposed and drunk. 
The reply of the noble chairman to the proposition of his health 
did him the highest credit. He stated that all doubt of the 
