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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,

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PRESENTED BY

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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SOME OF THE

HINDRANCES AND HELPS

TO THE

ADVANCEMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE

P— New York State Agricultural Society,

AT THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL FAIR, AT ELMIRA, 1869,

BY

GEORGE BUCKLAND,

PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,
TORONTO, AND SECRETARY OF THE
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
OF ONTARIO,

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.

ALBANY:
CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS’ PRINT.
1869.

Pew eis;

7o

Mr. President, and Members of the
New York State Agricultural Society :

GENTLEMEN :

Lesteem very highly the honor you have
done me, by inviting me to deliver the Address
usually given on the anniversary occasions of
your extensive, instructive and world-renowned
exhibitions. I have always been accustomed to
regard your Society with feelings of respect and
gratitude, as being the precursor of many simi-
lar institutions on this wide and fertile Conti-
nent; and I shall esteem the present occasion of
addressing the farmers, mechanics, and citizens
generally, of the old Empire State, among the
happiest of my life, if 1 can say anything that
shall, in however humble a degree, tend to
encourage you in prosecuting the important ob-
jects contemplated by the founders of this Society

more than a quarter of a century ago.

4

Orators and poets of all ages and countries
have extolled the importance of Agriculture, and
sung of the charms and beauties of rural life. As
the first want of man is food, and the only supply
being the produce of the soil, the cultivation of
the earth and the keeping of flocks and herds
must have been coéval with the first fixed forms
of human society, and the history of this neces-
sary art may be justly regarded as the history of
civilization itself. Not only do we depend on
the skill and industry of the husbandman for the
staff of life,

“our daily bread,’—but also, in a
great measure, for the raw material, as it is
termed, which the manufacturing and ornamental
arts of an ever-advancing civilization work up
into the necessaries and adornments of social and
domestic life.

If, therefore, agriculture be so ancient and
indispensable, not only to the general well-being
of society, but to the very physical existence of
man, removed but a degree from the savage state,
the question naturally arises in every reflective
mind, acquainted with its general or particular
history, How is it that this most valuable art has
not kept pace with the other industries of life,
but has generally been found lagging behind, and

frequently exhibiting svmptoms of a feeble and

5
sickly existence? There have been laws and
customs in most of the countries of the old world,
affecting the acquisition, distribution, and man-
agement of landed property, that have done much’
and unhappily in some cases yet continue, to
impede the progress of a national agriculture ;
causes from which we, of the new world, are in
great measure, or altogether, free. But the ques-
tion naturally occurs, whether, under favorable
circumstances, there is anything in the nature
of agricultural pursuits, per se, that tends to ren-
der its improvement and progress comparatively
slow? I think there is.

In the first place, in countries of the temper-
ate zone, at least, it requires a whole year for the
farmer to make a single experiment, and, as the
art advances, much longer periods, as rotations
of four, seven, or more years are involved, before
safe conclusions can be drawn from well estab-
lished data. If to this be added the differences
of soil, even on the same farm, the variable char-
acter of the seasons, and the many substances
now employed as manures, it will be at once
apparent that agricultural experiments are, in
their very nature, highly complicated, and the
number that comes within the experience of the

busiest and longest life, must be necessarily

6

restricted. In most other industrial arts, experi-
ments may be almost indefinitely multiplied
within ordinary limits of time, and subjected to
a series of rigid corrections, so that reliable
results may, in most cases, be readily obtained.
Again: The isolated character of the farmer’s
life must necessarily tend, in some measure, to
retard the progress of his art, as compared with
those carried on in the populous centres of human
industry. In cities and towns, merchants and
manufacturers come in daily contact with one
another ; inquiry hence becomes stimulated, infor-
mation rapidly and widely diffused, experiences
compared; and whatever may occur to affect the
interests of any particular branch of industry,
those who pursue it can meet without delay, and
take counsel in regard to their common welfare.
Farmers, from the nature of their pursuits, even
in this wonderful age of cheap and rapid inter-
communication, are necessarily cut off, more or
less, from each other, and can only come together
at infrequent intervals. It is noteworthy to re-
mark how comparatively rapid has been improve-
ment in agriculture, both in the old world and
the new, since the general introduction of the
railway, which, with other agencies, has been a

chief means of quickenivg the agricultural mind,

(/

not merely by cheapening transit, and in some
instances creating new markets, but chiefly by
enabling the tillers of the soil to extend the
sphere of their observations, of witnessing and
comparing different systems of culture, and of
obtaining valuable information of a reliable char-
acter from each other’s observations and different
modes of practice. I can remember the time
when large numbers of Enelish farmers seldom
went beyond the boundary of their own county ;
some even hardly passed the limits of their own
or adjoining parish. What a change has been
effected since the introduction of the railway!
Farmers may now be seen traveling hundreds
of miles to an Exhibition, or in company as mem-
bers of a Club, paying periodic visits to inspect
the practices of distinguished individuals of their
craft in different parts of the country. A little
perambulating of this sort has a most salutary
effect in enlarging the farmer’s circle of obser-
vation, enabling him to gain new ideas, to break
loose from traditional prejudices, and to improve
his practice by adapting it to the new lights
which science and enlarged experience throw
across his path. |

Among the causes that have retarded the pro-

gress of husbandry may be mentioned the absence

8

ofa healthy and efficient agricultural literature.
It is true, that a number of treatises on this
ancient and indispensable art were written by

distinguished men belonging to the two most cul-

tivated nations of antiquity—the Greeks and the

Romans

and in such of their works or fragments
as have come down to us, we find interspersed
not a little that is excellent and practical, from
which we might profit in the present day. These
writings, however, and even those of a much later
date, contain, as Lord Bacon said, ‘‘ no principles;”’
that is, they are, notwithstanding the many valu-
able and practical directions which they contain,
essentially empirical. Indeed, it could not pos-
sibly have been otherwise, as agriculture was
incapable of being reduced to anything approach-
ing the condition of a science, till chemistry and
and physiology, at least, assumed a definite form ;
a result that may be said to be quite recent.
Going back to the early part of the present cen-
tury, when Sir Humphrey Davy delivered his
celebrated lectures on agricultural chemistry to
the Board of Agriculture in England, and to the
report of Baron Liebig, on the same subject, to
the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, some thirty years ago, we discover the

cause of the mighty impulse that has in these

9

days been given to more earnest scientific re-
search, and wider and deeper investigations, so
as to put not only the laboratory, but also the
printing press into a more active and harmonious
operation. In all civilized countries science, of
late, has more or less been brought to bear on the
practice of agriculture with beneficial results,
and the Reports and Transactions of Agricultural
Societies in different parts of the world, to-
gether with a legion of periodical journals in this
great interest, unmistakably indicate the present
healthy state of progress, the future limits of
which it is quite impossible to define. J may
further observe, that America occupies a foremost
place in agricultural literature, as the valuable
Reports and Transactions of this and other Socie-
ties, with the documents that are annually issued
by the Federal and State governments, amply
testify. Your numerous weekly and monthly
periodicals, embracing such pursuits, works
mostly, I believe, of private enterprise, esti-
mated by their price, quality and circulation,
stand unquestionably ahead of any other similar
publications in the world. And here I shall be
only doing a simple act of justics by making a
passing reference to the last Report published by

your Society. The “getting up,” as it is tech-

9)

10

nically termed; its numerous and beautifully
executed illustrations; the seientific and prac-
tical papers on some of the most important and
difficult subjects that come within the range of
modern research, brought down to the present
state of knowledge, would be an honor to any
Society, older and wealthier than your own.
Instead, then, of croaking and finding fault on
account of the slow progress of our art, instances
such as these should inspire us with glowing
hopes for the future.

It has been remarked that, as a general rule,
whatever is must valuable and enduring is of
slow and progressive development. The globe
we live on—at least its crust—appears to have
been subjected to physical changes through untold
and even unimagined periods of duration. Its
vegetable productions, the trees of our own forests,
for instance,—some will endure for centuries ere
they become finally resolved into tne mineral
and organic constituents of which they are com-
posed. Our Christian civilization has a most
interesting and instructive history to tell; its
numerous vicissitudes, sometimes apparently sta-
tionary and even retrograding, at others marked
by decided if not rapid progress; and yet it has

taken nearly nineteen centuries to reach its pre-

e

bE

sent imperfect condition. So, again, as regards
civil government. What time, talent, states-
manship and philanthropy have been expended
in reducing to a practical form the best way of
ruling mankind, so as to obtain the legitimate
object of all sound legislation, ‘‘ the greatest hap-
piness of the greatest number.’ In these mat-
ters our knowledge has to be corrected and en-
larged by time and experience; and notwith-
standing the progress, particularly of late, that
has marked the history of many nations, who has
the temerity to affirm of any one of them, that
it has reached the ne plus ultra of perfection? So
it may be that the slow advance of agriculture
during the past centuries is in accordance with a
principle of nature, of a much wider application
than is generally perceived.

Whatever causes may have contributed to im-
pede the onward march of agriculture, some more
difficult to modify or remove than others, I have
long felt a strong conviction that the most formi-
dable obstacle to the general advancement of the
art in all ages and countries has been, and unfor-
tunately still is, the low estimation in which it
is held, not only by communities, but also by the
ereat mass of its followers themselves ;—by this

I mean, the little acquisition of an intellectual

12

character which has been regarded necessary to
a farmer. I believe, and rejoice in the convic-
tion, that a new era is commencing, or rather has
already commenced in earnestness, in several
countries of the Eastern hemisphere, and that to
us here of the West, especially, a high and import-
ant trust has been committed, which, if faithfully
executed, will be pregnant with untold blessings
to all coming generations. To thoughtful minds
the truth is beginning everywhere to be more or
less distinctly recognized, that it 1s not every
man can, by the old routine of mere muscular
toil, be made a prosperous and improving farmer,
but that a good general education in the first
place, supplemented by special study and train-
ing, with the acquisition of sound business habits,
are the essential elements of success. The fact
is, that farming, intelligently pursued, is quite
as much an affair of the mind as of the body.
Indeed, muscular force, as is well known in all
other matters, spends itself for naught when not
directed by mental power; and most assuredly
the practice of husbandry is no exception to this
great, general law; and he who successfully
labors to base the art of culture on the facts and
principles of science, dissipates the darkness and

uncertainties of empiricism, aud becomes, in the

13

highest sense, the improver and benefactor of his
race. Let us look at this matter for a few min-
utes ina familiar manner. Let us ask ourselves
the question, What is Agriculture? and try to
answer it as briefly and accurately as we can.
Agriculture, it may be said, is the art of cultivat-
ing the soil for raising crops for the sustentation
of man and animals. Now, who that reflects on
what is involved in this short answer, can come
to the conelusion that any man, provided he has
powerful muscles, can make a farmer ?

The first thing that might strike the attention
of a reflecting person, in the above definition, is
the little word “soi ;’? aterm expressing not a
simple, but an extremely complicated substance,
comprising a variety of materials, in different
chemical and mechanical conditions. In travel-
ing through any considerable area of country,
you pass over a diversified surface, composed of
different soils, from the disintegration and com-
mineling of the various underlying rocks, differ-
ing in some instances very widely from each
other in chemical composition, and mechanical
and lhygrometric properties. To acquire what
may be termed only a practical knowledge of
soils, a life of observation and farm-experience is

required ; and if we desire a minute and accurate

14

acquaintance with particulars, on which much of
success or loss in practice may depend, we are
compelled to invoke the aid of the chemist and
the geologist. The soil is a very complex thing,
susceptible at the hands of man of great improve-
ment, or, as is unhappily sometimes the case, of
great deterioration; and no cultivator, however
advanced his practice, or minute and extensive
his observation, can obtain the maximum of profit
and sustain the fertility of his land, without an
acquaintance with those facts and laws, in rela-
tion thereto, which science has investigated and
can alone explain.

Again: The soil, air, and water contain all the
constituents which the farmer by means of culfz-
vation elaborates into crops, and it is from the
former alone that they obtain their mineral or
inorganic portion. Now mark what is implied
by this smgle word, cultivation. It involves, of
course, the use of tools, implements and ma-
chines, the efficiency of which mainly depends
on their mechanical adaptation to the various
kinds of soils, as regards texture, density, and
relation to warmth and moisture, and also to
the habits and special requirements of different
crops. In addressing an American audience, a

people so distinguished for fertility of invention,

15

I need only say, that between implements and
machines constructed on the most approved prin-
ciples of modern mechanics, and successful and
profitable farming, there is an intimate and indis-
soluble connection. Take only that important
and primitive symbol of husbandry, the plough,
and without going back to Egypt, or the ancient
Romans, compare, or rather contrast the imple-
ments that were in general use in Hurope and on
this Continent less than fifty years ago, with
those of the present time, and you perceive at
once how much depends upon the employment of
such implements as are in their form and con-
struction in accordance with the laws and well-
ascertained formulas of mechanical philosophy.
Further: The farmer cultivates the soil for the
exclusive purpose, in the first instance, of rais-
ing crops; in other words, such vegetable pro-
ductions as are best suited to soil, climate and
markets. He ascends from the dead mineral
earth to the living organized plant. A tiny seed
is deposited in the earth, and under the influence
of warmth and moisture germinates, assimilating
materials from both the air and soil in the pro-
eress of growth, and after passing through a won-
derful cycle of changes, reaches the condition of

a perfect plant, ripens its seed, and thus secures

16

the perpetuity of its species. Here he is brought
directly in connection with the higher teachings
of Chemistry and Vegetable Physiology.

The farmer has yet a further and higher ob-
ject: he raises plants for the sustentation of ani-
mals. This is the great and ultimate end of all
agricultural operations. What a beautiful view
is here opened by the ordinary routine of the
farmer’s daily life, of the intimate connection
between what are termed the three great king-
doms of Nature! The animal could not exist
without the vegetable, which in its turn depends
upon the mineral. Thus he ascends from the
dead earth to the living plant, on which is nour-
ished the lving, moving and sentient animal!
In the breeding, feeding and general management
of his stock, the manner in which these opera-
tions are conducted may be regarded as an unerr-
ing index of the state and progress of agricul-
ture; and much of the success of the practical
man will depend on the extent and correctness
of his knowledge of the principles of Zoology and
Animal Physiology.

Now, will it be maintained that agriculture is
so simple a thing that any youth, however feeble
his mind and sluggish his mental habits, can

readily be made into a farmer, and that to engage

Lif

in this pursuit, but little special information or
training is needed, but simply a large expendi-
ture of muscular force in accordance with a certain
time-honored routine?) This, unhappily, has been
the prevalent feeling of the past, and it is still too
much so at present; and I repeat, that it is to
this low and fallacious estimate of the nature of
agriculture and the qualifications of its pursuers,
that much of its complained-of slow progress 1s
attributable. We must rouse ourselves so as to
take higher and wider views of this great art,
which, instead of being the simplest, is one of the
most difficult and complex, as it is unquestionably
the most valuable, of the various industries of this
brief and busy life.

I am aware that many fallacies have been com-
mitted by persons of sanguine temperament,
earnestly desirous of correcting this low and
degrading estimate of agricultural pursuits, by
too strictly comparing its actual progress with
that of some other arts. In order that compari-
sons may not be invidious, it 1s necessary they
should be correct. It should be borne in mind
that the marvelous progress made during the
present century, in the cheapness and increased
productions of textile manufactures, bleaching,

dyeing, calico printing

g, etc., is In great measure

3

18

due to the application of morganic chemistry and
improved machinery; the former science having
attained to extraordinary development and exact-
itude during the past fifty years. The aid which
chemistry renders the farmer, relates chiefly to
the nutrition and growth of vegetable and animal
life, termed organic, a department of the science
having as yet but a very brief history, and the
pursuit of which is beset with many and peculiar
difficulties, and is subjected to rapid changes as
in the progress of discovery, past errors become
corrected and new truths established. The man-
ufacturer, by availing himself of the certain aids
of a more simple and advanced department of
chemistry, and operating exclusively on dead
matter, under well-defined physical conditions of
temperature, light, moisture, etc., is placed ina
position almost absolutely to command whatever
results may be desired. How different is it in
these respects with the farmer, whose operations
are exposed to and influenced by the uncertainty
and variations of the weather, the changes in the
nature of soils, often within very limited areas,
and the complicated workings of that wonderful
and mysterious force denominated /zfe! In view,
then, of these simple facts of the case, it would

obviously be unreasonable, even under the most

19

favorable conditions, to expect agriculture to ad-
vance with the rapid speed that has of late years
characterized several of the manufacturing arts.
The apparent anomaly, however, only strength-
ens and illustrates what I am desirous of impress-
ing on this large and intelligent audience,— the
necessity and advantage of connecting practice with
sclence. The principles of the latter are as appli-
cable to the farm as they are to the manufactory,
and the many and peculiar difficulties which at
present beset the pursuits of farmers in relation
to the higher teachings and applications of sci-
ence, should induce them more earnestly than
ever to devote their lives to inquiry, patient
observation and unfaltering perseverance, wel-
coming with gratitude every ray of light which
science may throw across their path, in the full
assurance that, by degrees, present anomalies and
perplexities of practice will be explained, and
this noble art removed in great measure, if not
entirely, out of the dark recesses of empiricism,
into the cheering and health-inspiring light of a
progressive science.

Having thus spoken of the connection between
science and agriculture, and of the valuable aid
the former has of late years rendered the latter,

with a prospect of still greater benefits in time

20)

to come, I wish to guard myself against being
understood as countenancing the erroneous and
impracticable idea that an intelligent and improv-
ing farmer must, in the professional sense of the
term, be ‘‘a man of science.” Such an opinion
this audience need not to be told is quite utopian.
The progress of the natural and experimental
sciences of the present day is so marvelously
great that it requires the energies of a life to
keep pace with almost any one of them. If
youths, intended for farming, as a means of ob-
taining a livelihood, were placed in the labora-
tory to acquire and master the very delicate art
of manipulation in the higher branches of organ-
ic analysis, with a view of becoming accomphshed
chemists, the time occupied in such studies and
pursuits must preclude them from acquiring that
practical knowledge and those business habits,
apart from which farming must, commercially
at least, prove a disastrous failure. What is
really needed, and what is, I think, practicable,
is so to instruct our youth in the principles of
science, as to enable them to appreciate the
results obtained by scientific men, and advan-
tageously co-operate with them in effecting
practical improvements. The amount of scien-

tific knowledge which such a view assumes is no

21

contemptible modicum, and would demand years
of patient study and careful observation of an
active business hfe to acquire. The great ques-
tion is, how, in the present state of society and
its educational appliances, a knowledge of scien-
tific and practical agriculture can be best ob-
tained ?

It has often occurred to me that in this, as in
most other matters, the best plan is to begin at
the beginning, by imparting a knowledge to the
pupils of common country schools of the founda-
tion principles of good husbandry. The extent
of the information that could thus be given would
necessarily be restricted, but it need not on that
account be otherwise than sound and practical.
We have already several little text-books suited
for such a purpose, and teachers without the ex-
penditure of much time and money, might pre-
pare themselves for the work, which would cer-
tainly tend to raise their professional status in
the country, by increasing their respect and
usefulness. The matter contained in Johnston's
Catechism of Agricuitura! Chemistry and Geology,
and Stephens’ Catechism of Practical Agriculture,
modified and adapted to American wants, would,
if carefully gone through in a country school,

impart a considerable amount of sound and use-

99

_

ful instruction, and lay a firm foundation for
whatever subsequent additions the pupils might
acquire to erect thereon. It would be a pleasing
and instructive object to have country schools
provided with gardens for experimental and illus-
trative purposes. Such adjuncts would form
valuable auxiliaries of teaching, and also tend to
refine the taste and enlarge the minds of the
pupils. A school house, instead of being, as is
even yet too much the case in old and wealthy
districts, bald and uninviting in appearance, if
not positively repulsive, should be expressive
and in harmony with its primary objects, both in
its exterior and interior features, and a little or-
namental planting and fencing would, as in the
cases of churches and other buildings, public and
private, very much improve the landscape of the
country and add a new charm to rural life.
Agricultural Colleges have, of late years, at-
tracted no inconsiderable amount of attention,
both in Europe and America, and a number of
experiments have been made with very varying
degrees of success. The immense erants of the
public lands made a few years ago by the Federal
government for the establishment of agricultural
colleges, and the prompt action taken by many

of the State Legislatures to reduce the noble pro-

23

ject to practice, redound to the honor and intel-
ligence of this great nation. An old and distin-
guished member of this Society has immortalized
his name, and done imperishable honor to his
country by the princely munificence which
founded the Cornell University, in this State; an
institution which recognizes the true dignity of
human labor, both of the mind and of the hands,
and strives ina natural and beneficent manner
to combine both in harmonious relation. Every
true friend of his country and race must earnestly
desire that this and similar institutions may
realize the aspirations of their founders and pro-
moters, and impart untold blessings to posterity.

It would be impracticable to lay down, in all
cases, absolute rules for teaching agriculture,
theoretical or practical, in public institutions, as
much must depend on the varying circumstances
of each country or State. If elementary instruc-
tion were generally given in primary schools on
the leading principles of this art, a desire, no
doubt, would be increased, in many instances, for
more extensive and minute information, which
the higher order of colleges only could impart.
When it is found impracticable to establish and
sustain a pure and independent agricultural col-

lege the object might, to a great extent, be

24
accomplished by incorporating an Agricultural
Department with already existing educational
institutions, possessing a staff of teachers in the
various branches usually comprised in a Univer-
sity course of instruction. A farm of more or
less extent for experimental and illustrative pur-
poses would seein to be a necessary appendage,
where the teaching of the class room might re-
ceive a practical exemplification in the field or
the garden. And here I may observe that agri-
culture, or the other industrial arts, cannot be
thoroughly learnt in colleges or schools however
well adapted they may be for teaching their sei-
entific principles; the farm and the workshop
are the only places where a practical knowledge,
constituting an accomplished workman, can be
obtained. It is most desirable that youths, in-
tended for agriculture as a pursuit, should be
regularly trained to farm labor, and in all young
countries especially, such a condition is a neces-
sity. Work, both of the head and hands, consti-
tutes the basis of every sound system of agricul-
tural education. And after all, perhaps, to make
a thorough and accomplished agriculturist, one
whose acquirements will enable him to extend
the bounds of knowledge, and enable him to adapt

himself to the varying circumstances and condi-

25

—

tions of practical life, he must study in more
than one school, and become familiar with more
than one system of instruction. The facts and
laws of science he can learn in the college, and
observe their application to practice on the
experimental grounds; but he will further re-
quire a wider circle of observation only to be
acquired by travel, and thus make himself person-
ally acquainted with the different systems of
management pursued by distinguished cultivators
and breeders in various localities or countries.
Among the most efficient means of advancing
the agricultural and cognate arts, I feel no hesi-
tation in placing Societies, such as the one whose
annual exhibition many thousands will have wit-
nessed on these grounds during the present week.
Happily, Societies of this nature have been
formed in most civilized countries, and their suc-
cess, upon the whole, must be considered decid-
edly encouraging. Numbers, no doubt, attend on
these occasions for mere holiday pleasure, and
probably carry away but little information that
will benefit either themselves or others. It is to
be regretted that the great essential objects and
functions of these shows are not more clearly
and generally understood, and their teaching-
power more deeply and widely felt. To see and
4

26
to observe are too frequently very different
things. It is the facilities given to observation,
comparing one thing with another, and the draw-
ing of sound practical conclusions from a suffi-
cient number of well-observed facts, that give to
occasions like this their principal means of use-
fulness. The management of these shows, as
they increase in size and complexity, requires
continued modification, and is yet susceptible in
all instances of improvement. I observe that
you have adopted the plan of entering articles
some weeks previous to the holding of the show,
a practice which we in Canada (Ontario) have
pursued with much satisfaction for several years.
Now, we have only to take a step or two further;
so to limit the period for taking entries, and make
it absolute, that sufficient time may be afforded
for compiling a complete classified catalogue or
catalogues, and providing in the show-yard and
its buildings, ‘(a place for every thing, and have
everything in its place.” To this state of ad-
vancement most of the great National Societies
of Europe have already brought their exhibitions,
and we on this side of the Atlantic would greatly
consult the convenience and information of visit-
ors, and materially enhance the interest and

increase the usefulness of our exhibitions by fol-

27
lowing, as close and rapidly as circumstances

admit, so good an example. The management

of the Royal English Society’s show, last year,

at Leicester—the ease and harmony of its work-
ing—was to me a marvelous phenomenon. The
grand secret of all this consists simply in the
final closing of all entries in proper time to allow
of the necessary arrangements for the placing of
the articles in an orderly and systematic manner.
Further: It has appeared to me that a longer
time than is ordinarily given is required to bring
fully out the teaching-power of our exhibitions.
Live stock probably could not be kept longer
than it usually is, without incurring an amount
of inconvenience, risk and expense that might
discourage exhibitors. But, as regards mechan-
ical, manufacturing and fine arts productions,
and those of the farm and garden, that is, with
the exception only of animals, the same reasons
do not apply, or, at least, only in a very inferior
degree, while the addition of only one or two
days to the very contracted time usually allotted
the public to observe these departments, would
be both welcome and advantageous to all visitors.
I have often thought that we go to enormous
trouble and expense to get great crowds together

for a day or two, in which it is always difficult, and

28
sometimes impossible, for individuals desirous of
obtaining information, to inspect the articles with
any degree of care or comfort The suggestion
which I have ventured to make would, to a con-
siderable extent, at least, rectify this serious
defect.

It has often occurred to me that there is a
latent power of good in local agricultural socie-
ties that would be of great public benefit, if it
were properly developed. I refer to the advan-
tages that would follow the more frequent meet-
ing of their members, for the consideration and
discussion of subjects of a practical or scientific
character. Members of the majority of township
societies are commonly satisfied, I believe, with
an annual fair, and meeting for the yearly trans-
action of business and election of officers. Exhi-
bitions are very useful and excellent things, but
they are not everything. An agricultural society
should be, in the strict sense of the words, “a
mutual improvemnt society.” This valuable object
is, no doubt, largely obtained by bringing the
results of industry before public attention, for
inspection and competition. Such occasions
awaken thought and interest, inspire men with
higher aims, and more powerful motives to im-

provement. Periodical meetings during the re-

29

maincer of the year, especially the comparatively
leisure season to farmers—the winter—would
more effectually sustain and direct these impulses
into fresh and practical channels. In this way
the alleged sluggishness of the agricultural mind
would be quickened, practical men would com-
pare notes, and each would inspirit and improve
the other by the mutual interchange of thought
and the teachings of experience. Thus the foun-
dations of agricultural knowledge would become
broader and deeper, popular fallacies corrected, a
pleasing social interest strengthened, a taste for
reading and observation elicited, and the prof-
fered aids of science with increased earnestness
invoked. Iam not aware to what extent “ Far-
mers’ Clubs,’ as they are termed, exist in this
country ;—the one in the city of New York has
for many years had a wide reputation ; and I have
felt much pleasure and derived considerable profit
from reading the reports of meetings for discus-
sion during the exhibition-week of your Society,
and also of its winter-meetings in Albany. If
the smaller societies in the country woula gen-
erally follow out this principle, a fresh and most
salutary impulse would be given to agriculture,
and young men engaged in the pursuit would

take a greater and more rational interest in its

30
advancement, and better prepare themselves for
the discharge of the public duties of life. Refer-
ring to young men—how is it that so many aban-
don the rural pursuits of their fathers, and rush
into cities and towns, to intensify the already
severe competition generally existing in com-
merce and the professions ?

There are doubtless several causes which con-
spire to produce this social phenomenon; the
principal I believe to be, what has already been
referred to—the false and low estimate commonly
put upon farming as a pursuit. It is yet too
much regarded as a monotonous life of drudgery,
naturally inferior in social status to the more
dazzling occupations of city life, and utterly pow-
erless as a means of acquiring a fortune. Young
men of ardent imaginations and undisciplined
minds soon become dissatisfied with what to them
is one dull and dreary round of duty. How little
is done in many country homes, to make them
attractive to the young, and often still less on
the farm, to render its various seasonal opera-
tions a source of rational interest and agreeable
information! Give to youth such an education
and training as will enable them to comprehend
and appreciate the wonderful phenomena of their

daily life, and they will soon feel convinced that

a1
agriculture is an intellectual, agreeable and dig-
nified pursuit, alike favorable to health of body,
and strength and purity of mind. Practical farm-
ing of course implies a certain amount of manual
labor, but this, within proper bounds, is a bless-
ing, rather than a curse. Everybody knows that
physical exertion of some kind or other is an
essential condition of bodily health; and the
farmer has the pleasure and advantage of labor-
ing in a salubrious atmosphere, under the blue
vault of heaven, surrounded by the beauty and
charms of country scenery. Besides, if the
farmer has at particular times to work hard
through many a long day, we must not suppose
that city life is one of peculiar ease. It is, prob-
ably, on the whole, a harder life than that of the
country. Men, asa rule, do not make fortunes
in trade, or rise to eminence and opulence in the
professions, without powerful and continuous ex-
ertions of the mind, and sometimes, too, of the
body. Multitudes in every large city labor hard
day by day, for little more than a bare subsist-
ence, enjoying but few intellectual resources, or
the amenities of social life. In a country like
yours, where class distinctions are not sharply
drawn, and honest labor in any department of

industry need not be ashamed to raise its head,

96
32

what a pity it is to see the youth from the coun-
try, the strength and hope of the State, flocking
into the cities to intensify, as I have already
said, the competition that even now is, in many
cases, overdone. As to the making of a fortune,
if by this is meant the securing of a competence
after an honest, industrious business life, agricul-
ture holds out inducements generally, when in-
telligently pursued, equal at least to those of
commerce or the professions. It may be a some-
what slower way of making money, and devoid
of the few dazzling prizes belonging to the lot-
tery of trade, but its gains, if smaller and slower,
are in the long run surer. I have a strong mis-
giving that our modern systems of education,
vastly improved and enlarged as they have been
of late, are yet in some important things much
wanting; and that they indispose our youth to
enter with hearty good will on those particular
pursuits which necessarily involve the perform-
ance of manual labor—pursuits, we should re-
member, that constitute the very foundation and
framework of society. Now, this pernicious ob-
jection can only be removed by enlightening
public opinion and reforming educational sys-
tems, so that youth will be taught, not merely

in theory, but in practice also, to comprehend

and appreciate the worth and dignity of labor,
whether of the head or hands, or, what should
always be the case, of both conjoined. I cannot
regard our position as farmers to be hopeless, as

the fact is truly encouraging that every improve-

ment made in agricultural mechanics—and such
improvements in this mechanical age are great
and rapid—as this and similar exhibitions tes-
tify, necessarily tends to diminish the severity
and monotony of manual labor. Ploughing, for
example, with our modern and improved imple-
ments, is quite a different thing from what it was
with the heavy and ill-constructed ones of thirty
or forty years ago; and the threshing, reaping
and mowing machines, in the perfection to which
they have already been brought, reduce human
labor, as it were, to a minimum, and in great
measure relieve the husbandman of some of the
hitherto most laborious of his operations.

The agricultural world seems certainly, if not
rapidly, adopting a new power in the cultivation
of the soil, and for diminishing manual and ani-
mal labor, that will form a new and _ striking
epoch in the history of the art. I refer to the
application of steam to farm work. The steam
plough has already obtained a firm footing in the

British Islands, and several European countries,

5

34
in Egypt and India, in Austraha and New Zea-
land. From what I saw last year of its working
both in England and Scotland, and the severe
and extensive trials to which it was subjected at
the Royal Show at Leicester, the few misgivings
I might have had relative to its practical and ex-
tensive adaptation were certainly removed. Not
only is steam culture cheaper than horse, but it
ean be made deeper and more thorough than it is
possible to do by the ordinary methods. It has
been said that the age of the plough, the old
characteristic symbol of husbandry, is gradually
drawing to a close, and that. this ancient imple-
ment will be superseded by the cultivator or
erubber. Without endorsing this opinion in its
entirety, there is no doubt some reason in its
favor. For many purposes, and in particular
conditions of the soil, the action of the grubber
is far more advantageous than that of the plough,
as a more perfect disintegration and commingling
of the whole mass is thereby effected ; and there
seems a growing tendency in an advancing agri-
culture to produce this thoroughly breaking up
and mixing the soil in preference to the simply
turning of it over, as is done in ordinary plough-
ing. There is, besides, an increasing conviction

among those that have adopted steam cultivation

39

that better crops are thereby produced; and
from the opportunities I have had for observation
on this matter, Iam constrained to agree with
the conclusion. I could not help remarking last
summer on the farms of the Messrs. Howard, of
Bedford, the renowned agricultural implement
makers, as also in other parts of England, that
the growing crops appeared more luxuriant and
promising where steam culture had been adopted,
all other conditions, soil, manure, &c., being ap-
parently equal, than when, sometimes in the
same field, what was considered good horse-power
cultivation had been practiced. The difference
in favor of the former was explained by the facts,
that steam power effects a deeper, more thorough
and uniform moving and intermixing of the soil,
without subjecting it to the tramping of horses,
which in wet weather and on heavy land, every
practical man knows is very detrimental. The
steam plough has, as yet, been only introduced
for experimental purposes, I believe, in this
country. Various causes have combined hitherto
to prevent its general introduction.
Notwithstanding, I feel it is a moral certainty
that on this continent, particularly on the im-
mense prairies of the great West, the steam

plough will one day achieve its proudest triumphs.

36

The richest soils, after the exhaustive cropping
to which they are commonly subjected, will
require deeper and more perfect cultivation in
order to sustain their wonted fertility, and there
can, I think, be little doubt that in, it may be a
few years, these improved modern appliances
will renovate many of your already deteriorated
soils, and impart a fresh impetus and give a new
and much improved character to American agri-
culture.

In a new and extensive country, possessing
various degrees of natural fertility, where the
price of Jabor is high, and that of produce com-
paratively low,the farmer is strongly tempted to
adopt a system of tillage that will surely,
although at first almost imperceptibly, diminish
the productive power of the soil. This gradual
deterioration is sometimes allowed to proceed to
such an extent that cultivation ceases to be pro-
fitable, and the land may be abandoned and re-
vert back to its original wild condition. In an
immense continent like this of North America,
where there are yet many millions of acres of
untouched virgin soil. of great natural productive-
ness, it would be unreasonable to expect the adop-
tion of systems of culture which have long been

profitably practiced in the older, smaller, and

|
more populous countries of the Eastern hemis-
phere. Still it must be obvious, ona little reflec-
tion, that even in America some limit will have
to be put to the operation of this principle cf
deterioration, or the period will be reached when
farming will cease to be remunerative, or the
land to yield sufficient food to meet the growing
wants of a rapidly increasing population. The
great problem to be solved by the American
farmer is how best to sustain the equilibrium be-
tween waste and supply. Every crop he raises
abstracts from the soil a certain amount of min-
eral ingredients, constituting the essential food
of plants. If this waste be suffered to go on
without repair, the ultimate result will surely
be sooner or later reached, the exhaustion of the
soil; or, in other words, a soil so weakened by
over-cropping and non-manuring that its cultiva-
tion ceases to be profitable. Amidst the too
general tendency of diminished productiveness,
it is encouraging to be assured that in most
instances exhaustion of the soil is relative rather
than absolute. A farm absolutely exhausted, that
is, the tillable soil deprived of all, or nearly all,
the ingredients necessary to feed healthy crops,
would, in a country where land is plentiful and

cheap, be dear as a gift, unless it possessed some

38

intrinsic value arising from situation, or other
local circumstances. It is commonly found that
what is termed exhausted, or worn out land, is
only in that condition a few inches deep, such
soils having usually been cultivated in a shallow,
and imperfect manner ; and below the four or five
inches to which the plough has penetrated, there
is frequently locked up a considerable stcere of
plant-food. In such cases deeper cultivation,
and a more intimate mixing of the soil will some-
times, without extra appliances, restore its lost
fertility. Cultivation, of course, dees not create
matter, but simply changes its mechanical and
chemical condition. It frequently happens that
soils considered infertile contain a_ sufficient
amount of plant-food in a dormant state, and all
that is required to bring it into a condition to
enter into the circulation of growing crops is to
admit freely air, warmth and moisture by means
of deeper cultivation.

There are, however, too many instances of
land being worn out by over-cropping, that deep-
er tillage alone will not be found sufficient, but
extra substances must be apphed to the soi! be-
fore its lost productiveness can be restored, hence
the necessity and value of what are termed ma-

nures. It is in this department of husbandry

i hie

39
that modern chemistry has rendered the greatest
service, not merely by analyzing the products
yielded by the decomposition of plants, and
therefore defining the nature and relative amounts
of the various constituents of their food, but also
by so treating a number of substances which oth-
erwise would remain useless, or positively inju-
rious, as to work them up into special manures
adapted to the requirements of particular crops.
In Europe the manufacture of artificial manures,
as they are termed, has for some time assumed
eigantic proportions; and it is encouraging to find
that in several of the larger cities of this Conti-
nent, similar manufactures have already made a
successful commencement. Many English farm-
ers annually expend as much money in purchas-
ing artificial manures and cattle food, as the
amounts of their respective rents. This, with a
thorough and clean system of cultivation, will
account for their high average produce; fifty or
sixty bushels of wheat peracre being now grown
on land which a quarter of a century ago only
produced twenty-five or thirty. We sometimes
read with feelings bordering on incredulity, of
the enormously large crops raised under the sys-
tem designated “ high jarming ;” but there can be

no doubt that in a country like England, an ex-

4()

penditure that appears to us enormous, if not
utopian, is, when directed by sound judgment
and experience, productive of a maximum profit.
It has been said “that the soil is always grateful,
but it will have so.nething to be grateful for.”
Tenant-farmers in Britain may generally be said
to have a working capital of from eight to ten
pounds sterling per acre, the amount depending
ereatly on the system pursued. I was told last
year, by an English tenant-farmer pursuing the
mixed husbandry, that he had sixteen pounds an
acre, and he felt confident that his business could
be made more profitable by increasing his cap-
ital. Yet, even in England, one constantlv hears
the complaint that too lttle capital is invested
in the management of land, and practical men
generally endorse the sentiment. Certainly on
this side the Atlantic our farming capital gener-
ally is miserably deficient, and farmers, as a rule,
could make no investment of their savings so safe
and profitable, as to use them for the further de-
velopment of their own freeholds.

We must be careful, however, in drawing
practical conclusions from analogical reasoning
founded on the conditions and practices of British
agriculture, as applying to our own, under differ-

ent circumstances. What might pay well to do

41

in England, might, if attempted in the same man-
ner, entail an actual loss in this country. True,
the principles of agriculture are the same all over
the world, but it requires both caution and local
experience in properly modifying their applica-
tion to meet the varying conditions of soil, cli-
mate, and markets. In old populous countries,
where land is high in price and in constant de-
mand, it may pay well to incur a very heavy
expenditure in restoring absolutely exhausted
farms; but in America, where land is plentiful
and cheap, and the appliances for restoring a lost
fertility, scarce and dear the operation would
likely prove a heavy loss, the market value of
the improvements falling below their cost.
There is an old adage of a very wide applica-
tion, which comprises the case under considera-
tion: “ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure.’ It is certainly much cheaper, and in
some respects even easier, to keep the soil in
good heart, when we have it in that condition,
than to suffer its productiveness to decline, and
restore it afterwards.. This, no doubt, would be
the practical sentiment of farmers generally, if
they took a broad and prospective view of the
case, and felt a permanent interest in the land. But

it has been too much the fashion to look too ex-

6

42

clusively for zmmediate results, and to adopt a sys-
tem of management which, while it enriched the
fathers, must inevitably impoverish the sons. The
vast fertile and unoccupied areas of the West,
yielding for a while bountiful crops with little
care and expenditure, have, doubtless, tended to
retard the healthy development of agriculture in
the Eastern and Central States, and this cause
will continue to be felt, more or less, till that
immense region,—of the extent and resources of
which we are beginning now to form some defi-
nite conception,—becomes peopled with an indus-
trious and thriving population. When that period
shall have arrived, and the progress is assuming
immense rapidity and proportions, the motives
to exhaust land here, remove and commence a
similar operation on new and fertile soils there,
will be reduced to a minimum, and American
agriculture, as a whole, will assume a high and
homogeneous character, ultimately working out
for itself a position, whether for magnitude or
excellence, that will be unsurpassed by any por-
tion of the habitable world.

From a pretty intimate acquaintance which I
may be supposed to have of Canadian agricul-
ture, which in its leading features must resemble,

more or less, that of these Northern States, there

Py TE

i A Ye RA Sey ae me

43
are a few important points on which I am accus-
tomed to insist, and which may not be devoid of
some interest and relevancy on this side of the
lines. I say to our people, cultivate less, and culti-
vate better. It is the slovenly and superficial cul-
ture, so widely practiced, that keeps the average
of our crops so low. Really, when we consider
how little the soil receives, and how much is
taken from it, the wonder is, not that it produces
so little per acre, but that it grows so much. I
feel morally certain that much of the land in the
old world, if it received no better treatment than
we are accustomed to give ours, would be inferior
in production even to our own. Cultivating
less, does not necessarily imply growing less.
Every practical man knows full well that one
acre of land properly prepared for a given crop,
will produce as much as double the quantity
imperfectly and negligently prepared. If, there-
fore, by adepting an improved system of hus-
bandry suited to our specific wants, we can pro-
duce as much grain, roots, etc., from a less
surface, the remainder can be made profitable in
another way, that is, in pasture, whereby we
give the land “rest,” and enable it to sustain a
larger number of live stock. Between “corn

and horn,” to use an old phrase, there is an inti-

44
mate connection and a mutual dependence. By
keeping more stock of improved and suitable
breeds, we get larger and quicker money returns,
make more manure, which is the farmer’s sheet
anchor, after he has diminished the often great
natural fertility of his virgin soil.

I can see no other method, alike practicable
and profitable, of restoring and sustaining the
fertility of the soil. As the population of the
country increases, particularly in the great cen-
tres of manufacturing and commercial industry,
the demand for food of improved quality propor-
tionately increases. Prices advance for grain
and meat, and a fresh impetus is given to both
departments. The more cattle and sheep the
farmer keeps, the more grain he grows, as ani-
mals are the manufacturers of manure, that is,
the food of crops. And here let us pause a mo-
ment, and reflect on the lamentable waste o%
productive power, arising from the most culpable
neglect of the precious article of farm-yard ma-
nure. I don’t exactly know how this matter
stands with you on this side the boundary, but I
never meet a body of our farmers without remind-
ing them of the fact, that from unneces.ary ex-
posure, barn-yard manure is frequently reduced

in value forty or fifty per cent; a loss that might

NN ee eee

—— <<

45

generally be prevented by the exercise of a little
forethought and care, involving no heavy pecun-
iary expenditure. In old-settled sections such
waste is unpardonable, and would be considered
inhuman, if plants were regarded as possessing a
sensitive organization. I can remember when
this kind of manure was similarly neglected in
the more backward districts of England, and felt
puzzled to determine which inflicted the greater
evil on his country, the tenant-farmer who neg-
lected his manure to develop his crops, or the
game-preserving landlord, who caused them to
be eaten up. The possession of land is a sacred
trust, and society sanctions by law the right of
private ownership on the understood condition
that it be used in such a manner as to confer the
greatest benefit, not merely on the individual
owner or occupier, but on the community at
large.

Among the most efficient means of agricultural
improvement in the temperate zone, at least, is
Draining, an artifice that has been attended by
the most beneficial results, particularly on wet
and heavy soils. I will say a few words both of
caution and encouragement on this subject. I
have found newly arrived settlers in the newer

parts of Canada, who had been accustomed to the

46

use of draining tools, quite cast down in spirits,
because they found themselves unable to carry
out in practice the refined, elaborate, and expen-
sive systems of draining to which they had been
accustomed in the parent country. The difficulty
in some instances of getting a sufficient outfall,
and no draining tools, or pipes being accessible,
the operation was looked upon with feelings bor-
dering on despair. I have spoken words of en-
couragement to such people, and shown them
how they might make a commencement, at least,
with success. In anew country especially, we
must be guided in the character and extent of
our operations by the main physical conditions
of the surface ; in other words, aid and improve
nature’s drainage. The clearing out of streams
and creeks where they are obstructed by mud,
fallen trees, and aquatic plants, is the first lesson
to learn in practical draining. In this way an
outfall can be generally obtained; but in very
level districts to accomplish this primary and es-
sential object, the co-operation of several owners
of land, through considerable distances, is some-
times necessary. Few can fully understand,
apart from personal experience or observation,
what an advantage it is to improve the natural

water channels of a wet and level district. This

A7
preliminary being accomplished, the making of
open or covered drains, as circumstances require,
may be advantageously proceeded with. In the
older cultivated districts of this country the
more thorough and refined British systems of
draining may be profitably followed, subjected to
such modifications as differences in soil and cli-
mate naturally suggest. In a new country, how-
ever, draining must be, as a rule, differently com-
menced and executed, to what ean be done in
such as are older and wealthier. A ditch dug
out as narrow at the bottom as the tool will
allow, and partly filled with old rails or the
boughs of trees, closely trodden down with a por-
tion of the moved earth, will often answer an
excellent purpose for several years. I observed
in England last summer a few drains in a field
two or three of which had not wholly lost their
functions, which [assisted in making when a boy,
near half a century ago. The land is in perma-
nent pasture, exceedingly tenacious, the drains
were dug three feet deep (considered in those
days “deep draining”), and the width gradually
diminishing to about two inches at the bottom,
in which was placed heath (heather) and the soil
returned thereon, closely tramped down. The

durability of such draining in clay soils, when

48

carefully executed, and with which cultivation
or wild animals do not interfere, is almost incred -
ible. I mention these facts to encourage settlers
in new districts to commence and persevere in
the prosecution of such an efficient method of
agricultural and sanitary improvement. The
ditching plough, which has recently received im-
portant structural modifications, promises to
become a very valuable implement in cheapening
and extending draining processes. Before, how-
ever, dismissing this subject it 1s important to
observe that the cheap system of draining (if
what has been suggested can be so designated) is
intended simply as introductory and provisional,
as the best suited to the wants and circumstances
of new settlers. There is no other agricultural
operation that calls for the exercise of more
judgment and care; and when means and appli-
ances admit, no reasonable amount of expense
should be spared in making the work as effective
and permanent as possible.

I cannot conclude without again very briefly
adverting to the immense progress made of late
years by the exhibitions of this Society, and the
improvements in agriculture and other industrial
arts that must have resulted therefrom. Froma

humble commencement, not much more, I be-

~

49)

lieve, than a quarter of a century ago, the course
of this Society has been constantly onward, and
its influence for good has been widely felt, not
only in this and neighboring States, but through-
out the Union and the Dominion of Canada.
Indeed its fame has extended to every country of
the civilized world. Its contributions to our
common agricultural literature, the researches it
has instituted into the nature and treatment of
new and mysterious forms of disease of a most
malignant character among the domesticated
animals, and the thorough, systematic trials of
farm implements and machines which it has on
several public occasions made, impart to your So-
ciety a very high character for energy and
usefulness.

What a magnificent theatre does this great
country present for the working out of the en-
lightenment, freedom and happiness of our com-
mon humanity? Extending east and west from
one ocean to another, and from the great lakes
in the north to the gulf of Mexico in the south,
comprising almost every climate, traversed by
rivers of unrivaled magnitude, and richly en-
dowed by nature with the means of agricultural,
manufacturing and mineral wealth, it offers homes

of plenty and comfort to the many thousands of

7

50)

the sons of toil who annually land upon its
shores. I well remember, now more than half a
century ago, a mechanic with his family emigrat-
ing from my little picturesque native village in
the south of England, to the western portion of
the State of Ilinois, which at that day was
regarded as the ‘far west.” It took him more
time and trouble to get from New York to his
destination than the whole ocean voyage, which
at that period wasa much more formidable under-
taking than it is now. How stupendous the
changes in the means of locomotion, as In many
other things since then, supplied by the steam-
boat and the railroad, the latter now connecting
the Atlantic with the Pacific! These are truly
marvelous changes occurring within living mem-
ory, and their benefits, with yet still further
developments, will be transmitted from sire to
son, through all future generations.

It is now upwards of twenty years since I
first had the pleasure of attending the New York
State Agricultural Show, and I have observed
with much gratification and benefit the astonish-
ing progress you have made. Many of the earlier
members of this Society, who took a prominent
part in its management, among whom I had the

honor of including several esteemed personal

51

friends, have been removed from this earthly
scene. And I cannot allow the present opportu-
nity to pass, without expressing my deepest sym-
pathy with the members of this Society, for the
recent loss of its late venerable, respected, and
most efficient Secretary. Col. Jonson was no
ordinary man, and he was known and esteemed
far beyond the Society, which he so long and
honorably served. He certainly had a British, if
not a European reputation, and we, over in Can-
ada, were accustomed to look upon him as one of
ourselves. In common with you, we mourn his
loss; many of his acts of kindly and courteous
attention will be long and gratefully remembered
by not a few of the members of our “ Provincial

>

Association ;” and now, that so good and true a
man, full of years and honors, has been taken
from us by the relentless hand of death, all I
will further say is, what Iam sure will honestly
express the most sacred feelings of all your
hearts: “ Requiescat in pace.”

Only another word, and I have done. We
meet on this occasion to promcte the arts of
peace and good will, the wealth, inteliigence and
happiness of Nations. Asa British Canadian, I
wish to express to you, and through you to the

citizens of the United States generally, the cor-

52
dial feeling of my people on the other side of the
Lakes, not only towards this Society, but for the
peace and prosperity of your common country.
We live, it is true, under different forms of gov-
ernment, but we speak a common language, and
are proud of a common ancestry; and in fact we
have so much in common that we regard as good
and permanent, as will, I most devoutly trust,
under the guidance and blessing of Divine Provi-
dence, lead to earnest and harmonious action in
promoting the material development of our res-
pective soils, and the peace, liberty, and happi-

ness of the toiling millions of this vast Continent.

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