THE FARMER. 49 



wc may note one great benefit of our agricultural exhibitions. 

 Science, too, has lent most important aid in this behalf. Chem- 

 istry has been made tributary to gcoponics ; and although every 

 farmer cannot have his laboratory and analyze for himself, yet 

 the results of such analyses by others arc within his reach, and 

 he has begun to avail himself of them. With the practical 

 helps furnished by such men as Liebig and Mapes, soils, hereto- 

 fore regarded as worthless, have been made to wear the garb of 

 Eden, and a method developed whereby the fertilizing properties 

 of various substances maybe indefinitely increased. Millions 

 of actual value have thus been added of late to our national 

 wealth, and the necessity of emigration from the older States to 

 the more productive West, in a great measure obviated. 



I am no believer in the efficacy of theory, or of practice, 

 operating independently of each other. Book-knowledge alone 

 will never produce bread and butter ; and manual labor, undi- 

 rected by knowledge, is blind and lame. It is Hercules with 

 his lion-skin and club ; his brawny arms and sinewy limbs ; but 

 Hercules an idiot. It is Prometheus, with the proportions of 

 a giant — but Prometheus bound. Only the union of both, 

 giving to each its proper bearing, will accomplish the desidera- 

 tum. Let Science furnish the mind and Labor the muscle ; 

 let the latter hold the plough which the former drives, and 

 wonders may be witnessed. These two mutual helps should 

 never be dissevered, or the position of either underrated. In 

 practical operation, each needs the checks and corrections sug- 

 gested by the other. They are mutual debtors, and a dissolution 

 of copartnership would bankrupt both. 



A proper appreciation of this fact has prompted the move- 

 ments made in various States of our Union, toward the estab- 

 lishment of agricultural schools, in which the farmer-student 

 may be educated as thoroughly and specifically for his avocation, 

 as is the aspirant of law, physic, or divinity, for his. The utility 

 of such projects it remains for the next generation to prove ; 

 but from our stand-point, the eye of faith can easily foresee it ; 

 the farmer that is-to-be will realize it. But the scattered grains 

 of knowledge which have fallen for the last few years upon 

 some furrows of genial mind, have already sprung up, and are 

 blossoming for a hopeful maturity. * * * . * * 

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