The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-07-18
MR.. MARSH'S ADDRESS,
Delirered before the Agricultural Society Of
Rutland County, September 80, 1917.
Continued

ItuttutN OOuHtJ1 OfItC"tOc' ~ Of'
(Continued.)
What then are the present condition and
future prospects of the profession of Agricul-
.ure ; how far is 1t to be regarded rs a libcral
art, and what part is it destined TO play here
after in the organization of the social fabric
The primary and immediate object of agricul-
ture is the cultivation ofvegetables, and in This
sense it embraces the care of the forest and
the propagation of Undertakes, the rearing of
fruits, Of the roots and herbs and seeds Of our
gardens, and of medicinal plants, as we'll as the
growing of our ordinary farm crops. 1t may
be stated as a general rule, subject TO no
clearly ascertained exceptions, that animated
creatures are incapable of deriving any nutri-
ment directly from mineral or unorganized
matter. 1t is the great office Of vegetable life
to convert the ultimate elements of inorganic
matter into secondary forms, sometimes called
prorimdie or immediate principles, which eth
or Immediately, or as constituents of moro
complicated combinations, (as roots, barks,
leaves, fruits and seeds supply food, shelter,
and clothing to man and the lower animals.
In many instances, again this process is repeat
ed, the brute or insect being the agent OF a
second elaboration, and converting, by organ
ic chemistry, vegetables unnutrItious to high
er creatures into animal fibre or other tissue
capable Of yielding them alimcnt, or subserv-
inc their other uses. And herein careful Ma
ture has by no means left improvident man
dependent upon the fruits of his own foresight
and industry for not only does he, reaplng
where he has not sown, derive supplies for his
various wants from spontaneous vegetation, and
from wild animals fed by that wild growth, but
even in those uncounted ages of vital exist
encc, which biologists tell us preceded his
birthday, she was busy in preparing and furn-
ishing the future home of her noblest offspring.
The preadamite world was clothed with a lux
uriant growth of vegetable life, which fed and
sheltered a swarming host of beast and bird
and fish and creeping thing. But these were
all tribes unsuited to human use, and among
the remains of primeval life, which lie sepul-
chred in the carth's crust, we find no plant or
animal belonging to genera that yield food or
clothing to man, no pleasant fruit, or nutrl-
tious seed or healthful root, no fowl or quad
ruped allied to our domestic animals, but rank
ferns, unfruitful shrubs and barren evergreens,
fishes ofcoarse and bony structure, huge, thick
skinned q~uadrupeds, and monstrous reptiles.
And when, in the fulness of time appointed
by the CREATOR, man was about to be sum-
moned to assume dominion over the earth and
all things upon il, the existing organic forms
were swept away by the agency Of some sud-
den catastrophe, or some unknown cause of
Gradual extinction, and succeeded by a more
fruitful world of vegetable and animal life adj
apted to the convenience of him who was now
called to reign over it. But though these ex-
tinct organizations were not in their original
forms, suited to human uses, they are yet, in
their miucralized condition, of the highest val
ue, and even oil almost indispensable import