10 



knowledge, and, what is of equal importance, afford them the means of communi 

 cating what they have learnt to their countrymen. 



&quot; I scarcely think that any government can be properly constituted without such 

 an establishment. As mere individuals, four things are necessary: 1, food; 2, 

 clothing; 3, shelter; 4, mental improvement. As members of a large community, 

 four other particulars seem to be essential; namely: 1, property; 2, marriage; 3. 

 laws for our direction in this world; and, 4, religion to prepare us for another. 

 But the foundation of the whole is food, and that country must be the happiest 

 where that sine qua non can be most easily obtained. The surest means of securing 

 abundance of food, however, is by ascertaining the best mode of raising it, and 

 rousing a spirit of improvement for that purpose, for both of which the countenance 

 and protection of the government of a country, through the medium of some public 

 establishment, is essential. The trifling expense for which such an institution might 

 be supported is another argument in its favour. 



&quot; I am induced more particularly to dwell upon this circumstance, as it might be 

 in my power, on various occasions, to give useful hints to America, were I satisfied 

 that they would be duly weighed, and if approved of, acted upon. For instance, you 

 will herewith receive some Egyptian wheat, which produces at the rate of one 

 hundred and eighty bushels per English acre. Indeed, without such a grain, so 

 narrow a country as Egypt could never have fed such multitudes of people as it 

 did in ancient times. I have no doubt of its thriving in America equally well. It 

 also recently occurred to me, that in the southern states, other plants, as the New 

 Zealand kind of hemp, might be raised in great perfection. But to introduce any 

 new article of produce, the countenance, and in some cases the assistance, of the 



