258 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



sense, corresponding to such a destiny. If it is attempted to 

 bring about the result by a better education in matters of histo- 

 ry, general literature, political economy, and even religion, to the 

 neglect of the scientific principles concerned in his art, it will be 

 found, that no progress will ensue ; for the farmer, before every 

 other, is the " man," of whom it is the truest, as Humboldt has 

 said, that he "can make no use of nature, can appropriate 

 none of her powers, if he be not conversant with her laws, and 

 the relations of number and measure existing amid her pro- 

 cesses." 



But it is time to recur to the voice of experience, in relation 

 to the benefits of scientific knowledge in agriculture. The mod- 

 ern history of British husbandry furnishes all the testimony we 

 require on this point. In adducing the results on which I rely, 

 your attention will also be directed to some of those principles, 

 on which the experiments were based; and, in view of which, 

 the great changes in their f system of culture have been effected. 



We shall first notice what has followed, from the system of 

 thorough draining. In taking off the superfluous water by un- 

 derground drains at a depth of 2-| feet, and placed 8 or 10 

 yards asunder, they aimed at the following advantages : — 1st. 

 To impart to the soil a comparatively dry and porous state, 

 whereby it would be freely percolated by the warmer water 

 falling in showers ; and which brings down, from the atmosphere, 

 carbonic acid, nitric acid, and ammonia, — those essential ele- 

 ments of vegetable growth : 2d. To increase the temperature of 

 the soil still further, by freeing it from that constant presence of 

 water, which chills whatever is in contact with it from evap- 

 oration ; and, at the same time, to allow of the penetration of 

 atmospheric air among the pores of the soil, where it may min- 

 ister to those chemical changes indispensable to the nutrition of 

 plants : and 3dly, To lighten the labor of tillage, and to im- 

 prove the healthfulness of regions where fever and ague miasms 

 before abounded. All these advantages were quickly realized ; 

 and lands which had afforded only a pasture of the coarsest 

 kind, that yielded little beside the harsh sedges and the most 

 worthless aquatics, have repaid in the first crop the heavy cost 

 of draining, and given back more than the original value of the 



