Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-10-06
ADDRESS OF DIR. GEO. B. LORING.
81 OF MASsACHUSETTS
delivered before the Rutland Coun-
~ Agricultural society. October
list. 1864.
reported for the Rutland Herald. ]

reported lOr the hNlldllu htEdiosl
NJ. President and Gentlemen of the So
eiety IL have accepted the invitation TO
address your Society, on this anniversa-
ry, with more than usual pleasure. We
are living in an age of almost superhu-
human endeayor. Never before has the
mind of man been 50 reused TO action, in
all the strange and eventful history of
his efforts to elevate himself to the high
est standard of material prosperity, and
of moral and intellectual cultivation.
Everywhere, by fearless devotion to
every great work, in the workshop, in
the studio, on the land and on the sea,
by steam and wind and the electric cur
rents, in the sunny and silent cornields,
and on the wild and stormy battlefield
men is engaged in subduing all-power-
full natural forces to his own purpose,
and in enlarging all the faculties which
God has given him for the divine service
which he is destined to perform on
earth
Irejoice that this restless and vigor-
ous activity has reached that great oc-
cupation which is your admiration, your
study, your livelihood. The vast ocean
moves, and heaves, and losses, with its
deep, sonorous cadences--the mingling
of the myriad voices striving to be
heard; and from out the mighty bosom
the wave rolls ON and on, until its rip
pie dies peacefully here at our feet. This
quiet spot, with its beautiful repose, has
not escaped the influence Of the storm
and struggle raging witheut and be-
yond. Each remote extremity feels its
pulsation. And there is not farm nor
a workshop which is not reused from
its lethargy of deepest seclusion, by this
striving spirit of inquiry, and by this
renewed, aud widespread, and resistless.
and feverish desire to eat the fruit Of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. Elk
hausted, as it were, with exploring Other
fields; important, as it were, of the in
dependent march which Agriculture has
hitherto pursued along the path Of ex-
pertinent and practice alone, the daring
and defiant mind of man has turned to
exploring the hidden processes Of ma
ture and has resolved to advance into
that closed and mysterious volume
wherein is written that great law Of
life which maketh the grass to grow for
cattle and beef for the service of man.
Liebig and Voelcker, not satisfied with
the confidence and faith and trust with
which the farmer relies upon the great
laboratory of earth and sky, for the pre-
paration of his fertilizers, the germina-
ton of his seed, and the development Of
hisharvests, would explore the secret vital
force of the soil, and record its capacity
and necessity, with the clearness OF
written law. Not content with leaving
the production Of animals for specific
purposes, where BakewelPs calling left
it. the profound Agassiz neglects for a
moment his task of unfolding the mys-
teries of the dark and gloomy glacial
period, and Of opening leaf by leaf the
history of animal and vegetable life as
written on the stratifed formation OF
the earth, and turns with sudden and
renewed zeal to exploring the great
laws of reproduction, and the causes
which adap. to every varying want Of
man. the birds of the air and the beasts
of the fields. And inspired by this same
desire for knowledge, for that practical
wisdom, without which the farmer falls
in his occupation, we have met here to
discharge the duty which belongs to an
Agricultural Society-not as mere
holiday pastime, but as the important
and valuable service of those who
would study and teach the art OF Agi1-
culture.
This gentlemen, is the business of an
Agricultural Society. The annual ex-
hibition is and should be not only a
gathering of the choicest of our fiocks
and herds and products, but a jubilee
for our agricultural people. But there
is higher service still to perform. In
the hands of these associations rests
thus far all the experimental science OF
farming-that science which, without
exercising undue curiosity with regard
to the laws of nature observes and col
lects all the facts which may guide us
in such an observance of those laws as
will secure our prosperity and success
in farming And this is the science
which we most need" a science found
ed upon the accumulation of facts and
the accumulation Of experiments For,
as the Duke of Argyle said at the last
meeting of the Highland Agricultural
Society in Scotland, tive can never
have Agricultural science unless we
know the facts with which we have to
deal. So long as we want sys-
TEN Of agricultural statistics, we are
deficient in one of the very bases upon
which an agricultural science can be
founded"
OF the value of this kind of science to
the farmer, the most enterprising of our
profession have long been aware Ag-
ricultural Societies have constituted
the most useful agricultural schools, for
the last century They have appealed
10 the practical agriculturist in the
most direct and forcible manner, and