STATE AGRICULTURAL CHEMIST. 319 



120,000; and it is an exhilarating symptom, in connection 

 with the slavery question, that not less than sixteen large 

 free schools have been built in different parts of the city, 

 and are maintained at the public expense. The progress 

 of general education, the increase of a willingly labour 

 ing free population, and, above all, the growing unpro 

 fitableness of slave labour in cultivating worn-out land, 

 must gradually loosen the hold which slavery has hitherto 

 maintained upon the public mind of this State. 



There is no State agricultural society in Maryland 

 aided or supported by the public funds. An attempt was 

 making at the time of my visit to form a general society 

 for the three small States of New Jersey, Delaware, and 

 Maryland, which, if liberally supported, would possess a 

 strength and power not to be looked for or to be attained 

 by the exertions of the friends of agriculture in either of 

 these States separately. 



Still the Legislature of Maryland has not been unmoved 

 by the recent contributions of science to the progress of 

 agriculture, and has been among the first to recognise 

 the especial usefulness of chemistry by creating the office 

 of &quot; State Agricultural Chemist,&quot; and nominating Dr 

 Higgins to the appointment, with the salary of 1500 

 dollars a-year. Part of the duties of this officer is to visit 

 the different counties of the State, to give private advice 

 and public lectures to the farmers, to collect soils, marls, 

 and other substances, which it may be desirable to analyse, 

 and to analyse them on the spot. The last of these duties 

 is the only one to which any serious objection can be 

 made. A peripatetic laboratory is inconsistent with 

 correct analytical research. Besides yielding very im 

 perfect results, it must also involve a great loss of the 

 chemist s time to the State, and an unnecessary expendi 

 ture of money to himself, in securing rooms to work in 

 in every different locality. This arrangement indicates 

 a very juvenile knowledge of the nature and requirements 



