Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1870 [PAGE 352]

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nature. The cultivation of the soil, the operations of the dairy, and the feeding of animals, were all dependent for their success on chemical principles. He said the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms held relations intimate and wonderful, and that these could not be well understood but through the medium of science, which he defined to be philosophical knowledge. Elementary truth founded on well arranged and established principles, on which results could be predicated with certainty. He said that knowledge was not necessarily science, neither were facts principles. Agriculture was progressing towards a science, but as yet had more facts and observations than well settled scientific principles. He spoke at some length of the hindrances and helps, and hopes of agriculture, and said that past progress gave ample assurance of future advancement. Science'enlightening industry, would lead to agricultural abundance and social eminence. Washington, who preferred the plow to the sceptre, and sheathed his sword in a sheaf of the harvest, said in his message to Congress, that an agricultural establishment by the government would prove " a very cheap instrument of immense national lenejit." The old notion that a farmer needs no education is exploded. If a young man was to be qualified for the pulpit, the bar, or the profession of medicine, he must first receive a good, general education, and then a special one, while the young farmer had been neglected in both; a degredation which had caused many a farmer's son to leave his home for a business which would secure him a higher intellectual education. Increasing educational facilities he hoped would make such a course unnecessary. Farmers should send their sons to the University, where with suitable studies, experimental farms, model gardens, and thousand acre grounds, they might learn to unite science and industry, and enjoy the best opportunities for improvement.

The remainder of the evening was occupied by Dr. Gregory with his lecture on ornamentation of grounds. Among the persons present and participating in discussions were the following: G. B. Alverson, Eockford ; John Andrews, Kockford ; Elmer Baldwin, Farm Eidge; Asa Baley, Beaconwood; E. W. Blaisdell, Jr., Eockford ; John Cahoon, Belvidere; O. S. Gaboon, Belvidere; Samuel Church, Selden M. Church. O. J. Cummings, Sherman Cummings, Saml. Cunningham, Edward Dorr, Wm, Durno, John Fitch, Charles Fletcher, Eockford; D. W. Gates, Belvidere; E. H. Griggs, Jas. Hinckley, E. Hobart, G. O. Holmes, C. I. Horsman, H. P. Kimball, Eockford ; J. G. Knapp,Madison, Wis.; J. J. Lake, Eockford; L. "W. Lawrence, Belvidere; Dudley Lyford, Eoscoe; A. Martin, Maurice Martin, M. Martin, EeubenMartin, J. B. Miles, A. S.Miller, G. C. Miller, Eockford;