CuAPiN''8 Address. 
375 
ments of the soil, and finally resulted in the application of the sci¬ 
ence of chemistry to the improvement of agriculture. Tilling the 
ground as hand-work—as guess-work — as my-father-told-rne-so, 
began at the very beginning of the 19th century to surrender to 
book farming,” hand-work began to surrender to brain-work, man- 
work to horse-work and machine-work, and to-day we are in the 
enjoyment of the full fruition of agriculture as a science. We hail 
the day with joy and gladness. It is the glad tidings to us all in this 
centennial year of our great republic. It is a component part of 
our grand civilization. There is not an intelligent farmer within 
the sound of my voice but can give the book theory and practical 
knowledge of the fertilization of soil, tillage, rotation of crops, drain¬ 
age, nutrition and fattening of stock, production of wool, butter 
and cheese, the breeding, rearing and use of horses, cattle, sheep, 
swine and other domestic animals, pastures and meadows, kind and 
quality of grains and roots, and their economic uses, planting, sow¬ 
ing, harvesting and marketing. Why? Because agriculture has 
been reduced to a science. We have to-day all the opportunities 
for the successful management and culture of farms. 
THE PRESS. 
We have the press. We can not do without it, whether we be 
farmers, lawyers, teachers, doctors or mechanics. The agricultural 
newspapers or journals are a power in the land. We have to-day 
over 100 agricultural and horticultural newspapers and journals, with 
an aggregate annual issue of nearly 22,000,000 copies, and this does 
not include the many columns devoted to “ field and farm ” in each 
issue of the thousands of the weekly newspapers in our country. 
There are doubtless many in my hearing who can recollect the time 
when there was but one agricultural journal published in the United 
States, The Cultivator. It was good in its day. Compare some 
one of the early numbers of that old pioneer journal with the enter¬ 
prising agricultural newspapers of to-day, the Live Stock Journal 
for this month for instance, which contained over twenty cuts of 
animals, including a very correct and faithful picture and history 
■of ,r. I. Case’s celebrated Gov. Sprague, the $27,500 horse. 
'WORTHLESS AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. 
The other day an intelligent farmer remarked to me that the farm- 
