194 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



example of Cicero and Pliny, Bacon and Scott, 

 Washington and Madison, by retiring from the 

 great Baby Ions of the nation, and encouraging 

 Agriculture, by becoming its patrons — extend- 

 ing instruction by experiment — and exciting a 

 taste for Horticulture, by the introduction of 

 useful and ornamental trees, shrubs, and herb- 



aceous plants, and the picturesque and beautiful 

 embellishment of their grounds ; and thus ren- 

 der themselves the honored benefactors of the 

 present and all future generations. 

 With the highest respect. 



Your most ob't serv't, 



H. A. S. DEAliBORN. 

 John S. Skinner, Esq. 



JUDGE ROST ON THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL 



IMPROVEMENT. 



We have much pleasure in giving extracts 

 from a Letter of Judge Rost, though not quite 

 sure that it was written for publication. We 

 deem it fortunate to have so soon attracted the 

 regards and good-will of correspondents so well 

 qualified, notwithstanding tlieir self-distrust, to 

 take a leading part in the accomplishment of 

 the objects we have in view, as are those who 

 have already come, kindlj', to our assistance. 

 St. Chables. Aug. 23, 1845. 



Dear Sir — I received, long after its date, your 

 kind letter, and the first number of the Farmers' 

 Library, to which I request to be considered a 

 .gabscriber. I have no doubt that, under your 

 superintendence, that publication ■will be useful, 

 and it will aSbrd me pleasure to promote its cir- 

 culation. I have no copies of my previous com- 

 munications to the Agricultural Association of 

 Louisiana, and, its records being kept at Baton 

 Rouge, I caimot, at present, procure them. 



Your wish that I .should occasionally contrib- 

 ute to the pages of j'our periodical, presuppo.ses 

 in me abilities which I do not possess. The 

 more I feel the importance of communicating to 

 the Agriculturist the knowledge that should 

 guide his art, the greater the difficulty appears 

 to me of imparting that knowledge in the sim- 

 ple, concise, and exclusively practical mode 

 suited to his usual education, his habits of 

 thought, and his limited leisure. If it be grati- 

 fying to kno^v that, in the study of Agriculture, 

 the Schoolmaster is abroad, we must not forget 

 that men cannot be taught faster than tliey can 

 learn, and that the besetting sin of schoolmasters 

 is, teaching too much. 



Mr. Petzholdt's observation about the English 

 agriculturists — that to do as their fathers have 

 done, is deemed by them an unquestionable 

 proof of wisdom — is incorrect, and casts unmer- 

 ited censure on that sterling class of good men 

 and true. To learn all that their fathers knew 

 has been their constant practice, and that is an 

 unquestionable proof of wisdom. But they have 

 made, from time to time, important additions to 

 that knowledge. If they have not oftener 

 (398) 



availed themselves of the aid of Science, it is 

 because the votaries of Science have not, until 

 lately, applied it with success to the objects of 

 rural pursuit. 



Agriculture, left, in a great measure, to its 

 own resources, has continued to improve, and 

 has obtained great results. Whoever compares 

 with the England of the present day that which 

 Ca3sar invaded — a country covered with forests 

 and mar.shes, where the inhabitants sowed no 

 com, and princes dressed with skins — will 

 scarcely deny tliat Mind lias had something to 

 do with the change. The facts and the rules of 

 action by which the change has been effected, 

 form an important part of human knowledge ; it 

 is that knowledge which the agriculturist ac- 

 quires from his ancestors. Learned professors 

 may not call it Science, because it is not taught 

 in Universities ; it includes, notv^ithstanding, 

 not only the art, but also the science of Agri- 

 culture ; and it is vain to deny that both have, 

 of late, advanced rapidly. The sy.stem of inter- 

 change of crops — the use of green crops — the 

 improvements in the breeds of all domestic ani- 

 mals — thorough draining — subsoil plowing — the 

 use of many new manures — are all recent and 

 valuable improvements. At this stage of pro- 

 gress, experiments were being made in various 

 places, to di.scover the best mode of applying 

 manure, and the kind of manure best suited to 

 each particular plant. Gypsum had already 

 been found to be the food of clover — bone-dust 

 that of turnips ; and there is no reason to doubt 

 that European agriculturists would, without as- 

 sistance, ultimately have acquired the know- 

 ledge, which the Chinese are said to possess, of 

 feeding plants with the various sub.stances they 

 require at the different stages of their growth. 

 Liebig came, and gave direction to their re- 

 searches ; he told them what each plant is made 

 of, and what it feeds upon in the course of its 

 development, and also how the}- could procure 

 the food it requires. Valuable as that di.scovery 

 undoubtedly is, it forms no part of Agriculture, 

 and belongs exclusively to Chemistry. That 



