26 



have the promise of a noble superstructure. We are indebted to France for the 

 first impulse given to this pursuit, and it appears, from the late able report of Pro- 

 fessor Bache, that Prussia and other Germanic States have established institutions 

 for teaching Technology. The only college in the United States in which courses 

 of lectures on this branch are given, is, I believe, lliat of Cambridge, in Massachu- 

 setts. These have been continued nearly twenty years under a bequest of the late 

 Count Rumford. In the Franklin Institute, also, valuable lectures have been de- 

 livered ; still but little, comparatively, has been effected towards diffusing this 



knowledge among the working classes of this country." 



******* 



" This Institution has allotted one entire division to Agriculture. This must be 

 considered the most important, as it is the most necessary of the useful arts, as 



well as the most essential to our existence in a slate of civilization." 



* » * • » * ' • 



" One of the greatest improvements of farming in njodern times, so fruitful in 

 improvements of every kind, is the free use o<" mineral manures. Lime, in some 

 form or other, must enter into the composition of every soil, to render it fertile 

 and where the chemist fails to detect it in the land, he supplies it artificially. A 

 knowledge of the analysis of soils is therefore necessary to every good farmer. The 

 use of mineral manures is beginning to be well understood, and to be generally 

 practised in our country ; but there are two things that appear either not to be fully 

 comprehended, or not to be sufficiently brou|?ht into successful operation ; the one 

 is to make a given quantity of land yield, tor a series of years, the maximum 

 amount of produce it is capable of by high culture and a judicious rotation of crops, 



and the other is the art of irrigation." 



******* 



" As a thorough knowledge of this art would more than double our agricultural 

 products with the same labor, this Institution will confer a benefit on their fellow- 

 citizens, by instructing them in the best methods of watering and draining their 

 fields. In the south of Europe canals of irrigation h.ave been constructed by the 

 ablest engineers of the age, and I cannot but think that our own civil engineers 

 would find their account in becoming acquainted with this art, while at the same 



tnue they might render an invaluable service to their country." 



******* 



" It will bu the duty of this Institution, likewise, to use its best endeavors to 

 introduce into our country new varieties of wholesome, nutritious, and pleasant 

 articles of food. With our extended commerce, this duly may be readily perform- 

 ed ; and here let me remark, that Agriculture has attained a high degree of perfec- 

 tion onlv among great commercial nations. The two arts depend mutually upon 

 each other, and the cultivation of the one leads to the extension and advancement 

 of the other. 



" In Astronomy, Geology, Minerology, and the various other branches of IVelu- 

 ral History and sections into which our Institution is divided, our labors must bear 

 a ne«r resemblance to ihoie of similar societies elsewhere. But the dutiea that de- 



