280 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



tricity, we must confess our confidence, that the researches 

 of science will hereafter detect some principles of its opera- 

 tion, which may be of immense value to the interests of 

 agriculture. 



Electricity is probably the principal, and perhaps the sole 

 agent in producing all chemical changes in inert matter ; 

 nor is it improbable, its agency is equally paramount in the 

 changes of vegetable, and to a certain extent also, of animal 

 life. Independent of human agency or control, it forms 

 nitric acid in the atmosphere during thunder showers, which 

 is brought down by the rain, and contributes greatly to the 

 growth of vegetables. It is also efficient in the deposit of 

 dews, and in numberless unseen ways, it silently aids in 

 those beneficent results, which gladden the heart, by fulfil- 

 ling the hopes of the careful and diligent husbandman. But 

 until something is more definitely established in relation to 

 its principles and effects, the prudent agriculturist may 

 omit any attention to the subject of electro culture. 



EXPERIMENTS AMONG FARMERS. 



A great advantage would result to agriculture, if every 

 intelligent farmer would pursue some systematic course of 

 experiments, on such a scale, and with such variety as his 

 circumstances justified, and give the results if successful, to 

 the community. It is with experiments in farming, as was 

 said by Franklin, of a young man's owning wild lands ; " it 

 is well for every one to have some, if he don't have too 

 many'' They should be his servants, not his masters ; and 

 if intelligently managed and kept within due bounds, they 

 may be made to subserve his own interest, and by their pro- 

 mulgation, eminently promotive of the general good. It is 

 fully in accordance with another maxim of that wise head, 

 that when it is not within our power to return a favor to 

 our benefactor, it is our duty to confer one on the first ne- 

 cessitous person we meet, and thus the circle of good offices 

 will pass round. 



The mutual communication of improvements of any kind 

 in agriculture, has the effect of benefiting not only the com- 

 munity generally, but even the authors themselves ; as they 

 frequently elicit corrections and modifications which mate 

 rially enhance the value of the discovery. These experi 

 ments should embrace the whole subject of American agri- 

 culture ; soils and their amelioration ; manures of every 

 kind, alkaline, vegetable and putrescent, and their effects on 



