162 
Annual Report of the 
the present, in the varied departments of these productive indus¬ 
tries? ^ 
The horticulturist, to meet the advancing demands of the hour, 
has not only to draw upon the experiences of the past and the pres¬ 
ent. but by mastering the laws of vegetable physiology, must strike 
out into new fields of physical control and development. 
And the farmer has not only to do ail this, but in addition, has 
to command an intelligent mastery of all the intricate problems of 
animal physiology, as modified by all other physical laws. He, 
more than all other producers, needs the experiences of the past and 
the present to make even a ripple of control on the great fountain 
of knowledge, from which all germs of his products are nourished. 
He makes no movement in sunshine, shade, or shower upon the 
farm without encountering physical or organic law. The first gleam 
of light that in the morning penetrates his dwelling, comes in obe¬ 
dience to law, demanding obedience to law. In normal conditions 
it comes an unmitigated good; in diseased conditions it comes an 
approximate evil. The first ray of sunshine that trembles in the 
dew-drop is the creature of law and law in itself, requiring obe¬ 
dience with sterner exactitude than ever distinguished the Medes 
or the Persians. The farmer in feeding his pigs or his poultry does 
it in obedience or disobedience to law. Be the food of sugar, starch, 
oil, fibrin or glutin, its proportions must be adapted to the age, de¬ 
velopment and organic structure of the animal as influenced by 
temperature and moisture. But it is when he comes to the repro¬ 
duction of animals according to a given outline for a fixed purpose, 
that the farmer finds himself impelled to bow gracefully to the 
stubborn yet harmonious relationship of fixed laws. In the pig, he 
must take the lowest temperature and moisture of his locality, and 
starting off with proper indications of appetite and assimilation, 
look well to the breeding and nursing powers, allowing no more 
vitality than will meet the cold of winter, and then adjust the size 
to the demands of the market. The nicest adjustment in the pro¬ 
duction of the pig is to secure enough, but not too much vitality. 
An additional amount of food is the penalty for too much; disease 
is the penalty for too little, either of which is too costly for the 
farmer to tolerate. 
But breeding takes a still more extended range in organic law, 
when the farmer attempts for a given purpose to produce that prince 
