worse he is off. What you do, do well, and never do anything that it does not pay to do well. The defects which are left in nature, and the abundance of supplies which it furnishes, are two features in which we can distinctly trace the workings of that Divine Wisdom which has adapted this earth to be the abode of man. In the abundance of her supplies provision is made for satisfying our wants; in the deficiencies provision is made for the exercise of our faculties. Comparatively few of the earth's spontaneous productions, can be used by man in their primal conditions. In the ordering of God's providential economy toil both of brain and muscle is requisite for the production of many things alike necessary and desirable for human use. The sun may pour forth his effulgent beams, and fertilizing showers may descend, and genial breezes blow over richest soils, but man, if he put forth no effort, will starve on the vestibule of nature's granary. And it is well that this is the case; if the surface of the earth had been formed of matter fit for human food without any process of preparation, this world would be a much less eligible residence for us than it is. This would be a jolly world for a savage, if he had only to go out every morning to the door of his hut and dig up a spadeful of food for the day, but in such a condition of things the race would all be savages. The higher faculties, never exercised, would never be developed. Our Heavenly Father has planned more wisely for His children; He has made us fellow-workers with himself in extracting our food from the earth; and this co-partnership elevates our race. Such is the fertility of the earth and the benignity of the climate in some portions of the world, that abundant food for man and beast grows almost spontaneously, but the inhabitants of those regions do not advance beyond the first rudiments of civilization. Neither within the tropics, nor near the poles, does the human race attain to the highest perfection. In the one case labor is scarcely necessary, in the other it yields almost no remun

eration. Both extremes generate a savage idleness. It is in the temperate zones, lying between those extremes, the region where you can get no food without labor, and where skilled labor is rewarded with an ample return, that our faculties, moral and physical, grow to their full stature.

I know of no branch of human industry that is better adapted to the proper development of all our powers than farming if it be rightly engaged in. If you engage in farming in a way that is but too common, you will never realize the truth of this. If you do things in a particular way, just because your fathers did them so, and run along in the old ruts, then you will find farming a drudgery in which the hands do almost everything, and the head almost nothing. I know the impression is by far too prevalent that farming is an employment less worthy of an intelligent and enterprising young man than almost any other calling, and to a large extent farmers are themselves to blame for this. Generally, if they have a son a little smarter than the rest, they educate him with a view to putting him in some other occupation, thus, in a very practical way, holding forth the idea that farming is not a suitable occupation for a man of smartness and culture. Now, this is a great and most mischievous blunder. The application of the principles and discoveries of science to farming is one of the grand progressive features of the age. It furnishes a field of opportunity for cultured minds, such as has been rarely equaled in the history of the race. But the educated only can enter this grand temple of nature, and compel her to tell those secrets that are to benefit mankind. The successful agriculturist of the future must be a man educated specially for his business, and a man of observation, who will make the most of his learning and experience to meet the exigencies that arise, and under whose magic touch the wilderness shall blossom as a garden of the Lord.

Let me relate an incident which shows how Nature reveals

The late Prof.

her secrets to the educated and observing. Henslow was spending a holiday. Strolling along the beach, he noticed that the stones were singularly light. He sent a specimen to London to a chemical friend, requesting him to analyze it; but, as no fee accompanied the request, the specimen was thrown aside; next summer, however, returning to the coast, the professor was so struck with these stones that he made analysis himself, and then proclaimed to the farmers. of Suffolk that whole quarries of fossil guano could be found at their very doors. I presume they used to smile when they saw the professor poking among the rocks and shingle, but I presume they smiled a good deal more when they found that his discovery put two hundred thousand pounds in their pockets, although he did not put any in his own.

Let me say to you in closing: Honor your occupation as farmers; teach others to respect it by making it worthy of their respect; educate your sons thoroughly to it; do not let it be supposed that any dolt can make a farmer. If you have a son that is deficient in brains, do not say that you will make a farmer of that one,—a thousand times better that he should go to the Legislature, for there, in the multiplicity of counsel, there will be some wisdom. He may succeed as a doctor while so many people admire quacks; or, if he has just brass enough, he may succeed as a lawyer; and while gaping crowds like noise better than thought, he may do for a preacher; but do not make him a farmer, for in the general aspect of unthriftiness and mismanagement which his premises will continually present, everybody will see his folly. Had this address been extemporized after looking around your exhibition to day, I should probably have been drawn off into another, and very different train of remark. I might, perhaps, have left unsaid some of the criticisms that I have made, as they refer to an aspect of farming that is not put on exhibition at fairs, but is seen too plainly by driving through the country. However,

you have reason to be proud of this fair, the choice specimens of grain, vegetables, and stock you have put on exhibition, show that you are fully abreast of the times. The specimens of needle-work and other evidences of the taste, refinement, and industry of the fair sex, are such as may justly make you proud of your wives and daughters.

SHOEING HORSES.

Horse-shoeing is a subject which seldom receives the careful consideration that its importance demands, for, in all of our management and treatment of the horse, there is perhaps nothing which deserves so much and receives so little attention as that of shoeing. The comfort and usefulness of this our best servant depends on the protection of his feet, in some places all the time, and in all places some of the time; and yet, as a general rule, the horse's owner knows little and cares less about how the animal ought to be shod, and lets the nearest blacksmith, more ignorant and careless than himself, have the entire control of the shoeing, being content if the shoes stay on long enough, and the horse does not limp. Should either of these things happen he berates the blacksmith or his horse, but takes no pains to find out the cause of the trouble.

It is wonderful the amount of ignorance displayed by the owners of horses, and especially by blacksmiths, and what ideas they do have on the subject are many of them wrong. But there is some excuse for this in the fact that many false theories have been taught by men who claimed eminence in the veterinary art.

It is well for us to look into these things, for there is nothing that will tend more towards improving the condition of this most valuable animal. This is plainly shown in the fact that investigation into cases of cruelty to animals shows that a great majority refer to the horse, and the most of these to working-horses, suffering from lameness which can be readily traced to faulty shoeing.