W. C. GOLDTHWAIT'S ADDRESS. 371 



ture, as powerfully as it already has done upon the mechanic 

 arts, and results as wonderful and startling would appear in the 

 former, as have appeared in the latter. The slumbering genius 

 of our farmers would be kindled into a flame ; their barn-yards 

 and swine-yards would become so many laboratories, where, 

 with all the zeal of the ancient alchymists. they would seek, 

 and, with better success, they would find, the true philosopher's 

 stone, that will transmute the various earths into rich and ge- 

 nial soil ; that will increase the quality and quantity of the 

 various products of the farm, an hundred fold, and make the 

 barren hills smile, and the sandy plains bud and blossom like 

 the rose. To this end, let farmers encourage the dissemination 

 of knowledge among themselves and the rising generation. 

 Let them favor the introduction and pursuit, in our common 

 schools, of those branches of science that serve to unfold the 

 philosophy of nature, and afford the youthful mind an opportu- 

 ty to acquire those principles and ideas, which shall be of prac- 

 tical use to them as farmers. 



The Application of Science to Farming. 



[Extracts from an Address, delivered at the last Fair of the Hampden County Ag- 

 ricultural Society, by W. C. Goldthwait, Principal of Westfield Academy.'] 



One obvious suggestion of science is with regard to reclaim- 

 ing our sandy soils. Most of our cultivated lands consist of 

 sand and clay, mixed in widely differing proportions. The use 

 of the clay is to give adhesiveness and retentiveness to the soil ; 

 without this the ground would be quite too porous to retain 

 either moisture or manure. The use of the sand is to give por- 

 ousness and friability to the soil. Now when the proportion 

 of clay falls below say ten parts in a hundred upon an upland 

 soil, we may suspect that the specimen was brought from some 

 of those plains that have been sacredly devoted to white beans, 

 ever shice the memory of the oldest inhabitant. These plains 

 were once covered with a noble forest of pines ; but the avarice 

 of the owners has long since shorn them of their green honors, 

 and successively diminishing crops of rye and slim corn have 



