1857.] The Agricultural Department of our Government. 



other, with soil totally different, is highly incensed at this, for he 

 has tried the same mode, and utterly failed. He therefore sits down, 

 and with a caustic pen, contradicts him. Now the strife might <'-o 

 on forever, unless science stepped in and settled the question, just 

 as she has done in former astronomical and other speculations. She 

 tells us soils are different in their composition, one requiring for 

 instance, lime to produce a wheat crop, and another not needing any 

 such application. She takes into view all attending circumstances, 

 and estimates their bearing. Two farms can not, under ordinary 

 circumstances, be cultivated exactly alike. The only way is to es- 

 tablish general principles by the aid of science, and not trust to in- 

 dividual experience. By an article in our last number, we must have 

 discovered that science had not yet told us where a seed should be 

 placed to produce best, under all circumstances ; and that after six 

 thousand years of the world's history, we have an uncertain practice 

 recommending from two to six inches in the sowing of our great 

 cereal— wheat — which every farmer cultivates, and about which ev- 

 ery farmer is very wise. 



It is astonishing, after the boasted light of the nineteenth century, 

 that the combined wisdom of the world can not tell where a seed is 

 to be lodged ! or even how a tree is to be set, that he can not find 

 equally good practice opposing him. Yet as remarkable as the fact 

 may appear, it is nevertheless true. Without science, without prop- 

 er system, all the expenditures of our government will bo of little 

 avail. To secure in any good degree the results aimed at, we must 

 have an entirely different arrangement— the plan, or something like, 

 which was proposed by the Committee on Agriculture, near the close 

 of the last session of Congress. The bill introduced, proposes the 

 organization of a distinct Department of Agriculture, officered and 

 conducted by the general government ; claiming that its importance 

 is sufficient to justify all the outlay necessary to carry out its va- 

 rious salutary provisions. Upon the discussion of its various pro- 

 visions, we shall not here enter. But the utility and necessity of 

 something more efficient tha* we have at present, must be appar- 

 ent to all. It has appeared evident to us, that our present arrange- 

 ment might be greatly improved, by encouraging those agricultural 

 institutions already in existence in the different States, by making 

 them agents in reducing to proper tests the seeds distributed, and 

 requiring of them reports upon their experiments, at least annually. 

 If this department did not deem it expedient to embrace in their 



