165 



TO THE PEOPLE 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS : 



An application having been made to your Representatives in Congress to 

 vote a sum equal to five cents from each individual in the United States, 

 or about a million dollars of your resources, to the promotion of an 

 improved system of " Terra-culture," as described in Senate, Document 

 No. 23, of the third session of the 25th Congress, I hereby direct your 

 attention to a few extracts taken from the applicant's preamble ; copies of 

 which were forwarded to each member of the 26th Congress, in session, 

 November 30, 1839, by Russell Comstock. 



From the Poughkeepsie Eagle, of January 25, 1840. 



PRESERVATION OF FRUIT TREES, PLANTS, &c. 

 GREAT DISCOVERY. 

 " To the Hon. Perry Smith, Chairman of the United States Senate Com- 

 mittee on Agriculture of the 25th Congress. " With the consent and by 

 the advice on the 23d inst, of the chairman of the United States Senate 

 Committee on Agriculture of the 25th Congress, I forward to each member 

 of the 26th Congress the accompanying document dated the 14th inst; the 

 object is to show you some of the proof that a discovery of vital importance 

 to civilized man has been made, which in several letters from different 

 members of the present and last Congress is valued at hundreds of mil- 

 lions of days' labour, and worth more than all the discove- 

 ries OF THE PRESENT AGE COMBINED THE APPLICATION OF STEAM 



NOT EXCEPTED. 



" For what purpose would all the owners of the public lands more freely 

 or gratefully consent to give one hundreth jart of those lands, or the pro- 

 ceeds thereof! Would they not be grateful to those members of Congress, 

 who assist in giving the owners of the public domain the desired informa- 

 tion, and reverence them as benefactors of human kind. 



"For the honour of the Republic, for the honour of the age, and for the 

 interest and comfort of the living, as well as the unborn, let not that disco- 

 very which may cause two seeds to ripen where one now does, which pre- 

 vents the premature death of all cultivated trees, which has been searched 

 for in vain during the history of all civilized society, die with the discoverer 

 for want of the action of the United States Congress." 



Our patriotic discoverer " claims the following five discoveries as his, 

 besides other discoveries which are stated in his memorial to the 25th Con- 

 gress: 



