TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-47. 401 



of new modes and instruments of culture, and to deter- 

 mine whether new fruits, plants, and vegetables may be 

 cultivated to advantage in the United States." These pro- 

 visions comprehend all which relates to the great agricul- 

 tural interest. No one, I presume, will question the prob- 

 able usefulness of these provisions to aid and benefit bv far 

 the largest number of our citizens who employ the greatest 

 amount of capital, and whose productions are the very basis 

 of our prosperity, wealth, and happiness. I regret, sir, that 

 in connection with this arrangement there is no express 

 provision for a professor of chemistry ; but as a chemical 

 laboratory is provided for, and as the professors are re- 

 quired to be of the most useful sciences and arts, I presume 

 this professorship would be considered first in importance, 

 and would by no possibility be omitted. 



In some parts of the country, it is not unusual to hear 

 objections against the application of science to agriculture. 

 I have heard it questioned even here, wdiether experiments 

 and investigations conducted in Washington city, can be of 

 any use in other latitudes, soils, and climates, throughout 

 our extended countr}-. I maintain, sir, that science in agri- 

 culture is practicable, and that its cultivation even here, at 

 the seat of government, may be made to contribute most 

 important benefits to all parts of the Union. For let it be 

 remembered, science is but the classification of facts ex- 

 pressed in the shape of general rules or laws. If any im- 

 portant fact be omitted in the process of induction, the 

 result will be erroneous, and calculated to mislead. But 

 continued experiment and investigation will eventually 

 point out the omitted or misplaced fact, and gradually a 

 true science will grow up, rising from the first rude at- 

 tempts, through various gradations of improvement, up to 

 its highest and most perfect form. Results predicted from 

 certain operations, without due consideration and experi- 

 ence of all attending facts and circumstances, changes of 

 soil and climate, would not be verified, except by the merest 

 accident. But it is not plain that the experiments here, 

 disseminated throughout the country by appropriate means, 

 and illuminated by all existing knowledge as to the influ- 

 ence of varied circumstances, will be seized upon by the 

 intelligent and skillful agriculturist in all quarters, and sub- 

 mitted to still further tests, in order to eliminate the ulti- 

 mate truth — the most general law — divested of all extra- 

 neous facts ? The experiments made abroad will be reflected 

 back again to the central institution, and they will enable it 

 to correct its conclusions, whenever these may have proved 

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