14 [Senate 



hand is now almost unnecessary in the fabrication of cloths. Animal 

 power is beginning to be dispensed w^ith in locomotion on the landj 

 and the intercourse between nations separated by seas, heretofore so 

 ^lifficult and uncertain, is rendered speedy and regular by the use of 

 steam. But agriculture is regarded as involving no laws of nature, 

 requiring no aids, and capable of no improvement. Physical power 

 is considered the only suitable agent, and that power is most waste- 

 fully expended. Admitting the beneficent effects of the cotton gin, 

 the improved plow, the cultivator, the threshing machine, and other 

 implements which have been instrumental in effecting a slow ad- 

 vancement in agriculture, it must still be confessed that while other 

 arts are more rapidly improving, this, of human arts, the first and last, 

 whose cultivation leads to plenty, and is cheered by health and con- 

 tentment, remains comparatively unassisted and stationary. 



But independently of the aid which mechanical science owes to 

 agriculture, if the principles of economical geology, of agricultural 

 chemistry, and of animal physiology, which have been laid open by 

 Lyell, by Priestly, by Davy, Liebig, Johnson, and Dana, and our own 

 Buel, were universally known and applied, the productiveness of the 

 soil would be incalculably increased. Regarding the education of 

 the agricultural class, then, only in the light of economy, its impor- 

 tance cannot be over estimated. But this is its least interesting as- 

 pect. Education is necessary to elevate the agricultural masses to 

 their just eminence, and to secure their enlightened action in the con- 

 duct of government, and of the various interests of social life. Prais- 

 es of agriculture, and acknowledgments of the purity, patriotism and 

 wisdom, of those who pursue that most peaceful calling, are the ne- 

 ver failing themes of all who court their suffrages. Yet it is a sad 

 truth, that the interests of agriculture, and of those who subsist by it, 

 are often considered subordinate, and sometimes injuriously neglect- 

 ed. The avenues to preferment are open to all, but they are seldom 

 traveled by the farmer. Questions of peace and war, of revenue, of 

 commerce, of currency, of manufactures, of physical improvement, 

 of free and foreign labor, of education, are too often discussed and 

 decided without just consideration of their bearing upon the interests 

 of agriculture. The reason is obvious. The art of agriculture is 

 learned by imitation and habit. Those who are destined to that 

 pursuit, are not early instructed in the principles of the government, 



or its relations to other States, in their own legal rights, their civil du- 



