ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
51 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
BY nON. OASSIUS M. CLAY, 0 V KENTUCKY. 
DELIVERED AT MADISON, OCT. 8, 1858. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 
In the remarks which I shall make to-day I shall attempt 
practical hints, drawn from a life-pursuit of agriculture, with 
an argument in favor of agricultural literature and agricultu¬ 
ral colleges. 
Agricultural literature is to be found in the general history 
of our race ; in periodical journals ; the transactions of socie¬ 
ties ; and special treatises upon culture, plants, and animals ; 
to which may be added horticulture and landscape gardening. 
All of which may be embraced under the cant phrase of “ book 
farming Some good practical farmers altogether decry 
“book farming!” They have seen certain things recom¬ 
mended in books, or farm journals, wdiich when tried, were 
failures ; and therefore they ignore all such sources of knowl¬ 
edge. The cause of failure was not in knowing too much, 
but too little. Here, as elsewhere, 
“ A little learning'is a dangerous thing, 
Drink deep , or taste not the Pierian spring.” 
What would we think of the man who would refuse to come to 
this Fair, in the conceit that he could see nothing new, or wor¬ 
thy of being seen? Would he be less a quack than the phy¬ 
sician, who in all cases of disease trusts to one remedy, re¬ 
jecting the experience of other men and all other remedies ? 
“ Book farming ” is nothing more nor less than adding all the 
experience of all men and all the ages to your own. The man 
who imagines himself wiser than all the men of all the ages 
combined, is a fool! Let every farmer then avail himself of all 
