282 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCEITY. 
when you could leave your home in New Jersey, and come there 
in 36 hours, and^find a city of 300,000 inhabitants. “ Well,” said 
he, “I should of course have told him he was a fool and in all 
human probability, and to all appearances, he would have been 
justified in thus speaking. Suppose that fifty years ago some % 
man had stood upon the summit of this park, and proclaimed to 
the world the great improvements of the next fifty years, only 
.such ones as have actually been accomplished, what would have 
been thought of him ? His friends, if he had any, would have 
cared for him as a lunatic. The world would have said he was 
half knave, the other half fool. And yet the actual results of the 
last half century have changed the condition of society through¬ 
out the entire civilized world. 
And thus it is in almost every branch of the arts and sciences, 
*J • 
every year, and almost every day in the year, brings us some new 
discovery in the sciences, or some farther development in those 
long known, and something that will eventually add to the gen¬ 
eral happiness of civilized man wherever he is found. And now 
comes the question, are the cultivators of the soil keeping pace in 
the science of agriculture, with the other arts and sciences? Is 
the science of agriculture, to-day, as far in advance of fifty years 
ago as the other sciences are ? I think that you will agree with 
me that it is not. If this is so, why is it, and what is to be our 
remedy in the future? Let us spend a few minutes in looking at 
this matter fairly, and if we are behind in the great work of our 
life let us know it, and then we shall be better able to point out 
the remedy necessary for a more rapid advance in the future. 
Ffty years ago scarcely one man in a million would have admitted 
that there was such a thing as science in agriculture, or that it 
was necessary for a man to have any scientific knowledge what¬ 
ever, and in fact but very little knowledge of any other kind to 
be a farmer. If a man had brains, he must be educated for a 
lawyer, a doctor, or a minister. If he was active of body, and 
skillful with the work of his hands, he must be a mechanic. If 
he was good looking, and had a pleasing address, he was fit for a 
dry goods merchant. If he could play a few tunes upon a violin, 
and was nimble with his feet, he might make a dancing master. 
But if he had none of these accomplishments, and in fact no 
