384 [Senate 



at liberty to enter upon the higher branches usually allotted to the 

 academy and high schools. Already, in a very large and constantly 

 increasing portion of our schools, the higher mathematics, the more 

 abstruse branches of natural philosophy, chemistry, mineralogy, ge- 

 ology and astronomy, form a portion of the course of instruction ; and 

 in proportion as improved methods of teaching, and a higher grade 

 of qualifications in teachers are demanded by the public sentiment, 

 this advancement in the quantity and quality of elementary education 

 will continue to progress ; and it is difficult to assign any other limits 

 to its extent than those arising from the pecuniary means of the in- 

 habitants of the different districts, and their ideas of the necessity or 

 expediency of a division of labor in the department of education by 

 which institutions of different grades shall continue as at present to 

 exist. But whether the various branches referred to, are taught in 

 the common or in the higher school, the academy or the college, they 

 may each and all be applied to the improvement and advancement of 

 agricultural science ; and this end should be assiduously and syste- 

 matically kept in view. The fundamental principles of chemistry in 

 general, and of organic chemistry in particular, in its application to 

 agriculture and veg'etable physiology, may be communicated at an 

 early age, and should form an indispensable part of elementary in- 

 struction. The nature of soils is known to be, to a very great ex- 

 tent, dependent upon that of the rocks from which they are derived. 

 The various minerals, therefore, should be known — their constituent 

 particles analyzed — and their distinctive features clearly ascertained. 

 A proper mixture of earths is found by experience to be of the great- 

 est importance to the fertility of the soil. Neither pure clay, nor 

 sand, nor chalk, separate from all other mineral or vegetable ingredi- 

 ents, can constitute a productive soil. A judicious mixture of all 

 these ingredients, having reference to the peculiar nature and circum- 

 stances of the locality, is essential to its profitable culture. In what 

 proportions these ingredients should be supplied, the effective force 

 of each, and the peculiar properties which enable it to exert this ef- 

 fective force, are facts which come within the range of elementary 

 science. The materials therefore for enabling the future agricultu- 

 rist to give to his land the highest culture of which it is susceptible, 

 should be furnished by the teacher, and general principles for their 

 application laid down. 



A knowledge of the constituents of the soil, and its peculiar cha- 

 racteristics, whether aluminous or clayey, and consequently liable to 

 the retention of too much moisture, or silicious or sandy, and absorb- 

 ing with too great rapidity the water which it receives, is necessary 

 in order to determine when and to what extent the process of drain- 

 ing on the one hand, and that of irrigation on the other, may be ex- 

 pedient. There are cases, too, of not infrequent occurrence, when 

 the latent sources of infertility can only be arrived at by a scientific 

 knowledge of the peculiar formation and geological development of 

 the strata of an entire district ; where, for instance, a series of forma- 

 tions, one above the other, to a great depth, may consist of rich, fer- 

 tile soil, reposing, however, upon a substratum either too retentive or 



