486 The Claims of Agriculture, etc. [November, 



mechanic is protected in the inventions of his genius, and may be- 

 come a millionaire by an improvement in the mode of heading a 

 nail or pointing a pin, while the man who has discovered a principle 

 in vegetable economy, which will increase fourfold the products of 

 the soil, must forego all such immunities and be sneered at for his 

 meanness if he make not his discoveries common property. A 

 National Agricultural Society has been organized by the enterprise 

 of a few individuals ; but it is not as its name would imply, the ob- 

 ject of Government patronage. To sustain its exhibitions, a tax of 

 from ten to twenty thousand dollars has to be assessed upon the 

 liberality of the people of the cities where it is proposed to hold its 

 annual fairs. These instrumentalities are yielding essential service 

 to this o-reat pursuit, but not accomplishing at all what is claimed 

 for it in view of its importance. 



The opinion is almost universal, especially among professional men 



the very class who should know better, if they would make a proper 



•use of their reason — that nothing but bone and muscle are needed 

 for the farmer, and he is hence left to grope his way in the dark, ex- 

 cepting, from such aid as he may receive through the numerous peri- 

 odicals, on this subject, and the societies devoted to its interests. To 

 accomplish for Agriculture what is claimed for it, and remedy the 

 ills we deprecate, aid can alone come from science. If agricultural 

 science is never taught in the United States, and never properly 

 studied, how is it possible to experience any advance, without quali- 

 fied teachers, without text books, or apparatus or statistics, or 

 libraries, worthy the name; without popular sympathy how is a 

 change to be effected for the better. It is greatly to be feared that 

 so long as indefinite millions of acres of rich and virgin lands, over 

 which no plow has ever passed, is accessible to all, but little atten- 

 tion will be had to the study of the proper means of making resti- 

 tution to the soil of the elements abstracted; and that our railroads, 

 canals, and steamboats now freighted with the products of our rich 

 prairies will be most sedulously plied to enrich the present genera- 

 tion, and one or two succeeding ones, by creating a barren territory 

 for all that may come after them. 



The population in cities will continue to increase twice as fast as 

 in the farming districts, simply because the treasures of the land 

 will be transferred to commercial and manufacturing towns, there to 

 be consumed in extravagance and luxury. It must be evident that 



