244 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



should instruct the rising generations in the reason and philosophy of everything 

 on which agricultural labor, and capital, and mind are brought to operate and to 

 depend for prosperity and enjoyment. The solemn fact, however, is, that agri- 

 culturists are so spread over the whole country, that they can hardly be said to 

 constitute a class, for any efficient action useful to themselves, and hence there 

 is none of that personal sympathy for them, in public bodies, that there is for 

 those who constitute more distinct, well-defined and privileged classes and 

 branches of industry. Thus it is, will the reader believe it, that it was not until 

 comparatively very lately, that in Congress, or State Legislatures, any Commit- 

 tees have been appointed on the great business and concern of the nation .' And 

 even now their appointment is, in most cases, rather a matter of form and hitm- 

 buggery, than for any real service they are intended to do or actually do perform I 

 "Who can point us to any of their Reports on the condition and wants of this great 

 fountain of national wealth and power?. 



Propose a law that affects the navigation class, or the mercantile class, and 

 some Chamber of Commerce is perpetually sitting in its midst, like a great 

 spider in the center of his web. The least breath of harm reaches him, as 

 news is conveyed by the telegraph, and wakes him up in a spirit of deter- 

 mined resistance to the first approach or sign of aggression. So with the 

 Army and the Navy ; not a Member of Congress whose personal feelings may 

 not be enlisted through sympathy with some member or some influential con- 

 stituent nearly connected with some member of the profession. Every proposi- 

 tion which in any way affects particular classes becomes the personal concern 

 and commands the personal interposition of every member of that class. How 

 different with the great body of farmers, who are, in fact, the people ! Their 

 business, their welfare, their rights, as far as they are to be affected by the action 

 of Government, are left to the care of everybody and of nobody — the result 

 whereof need hardly be told. There is an old song which runs— 



" I care for nobody, no, not I, for nobody cares for me." 



Farmers, as a class, might with truth sing — " Nobody cares for us, no, not they, 

 foi we — don^t care for ourselves I " 



Not so will it be, may we not hope, when Farmers' Schools and Farmers' 

 Clubs shall come to be established wherever population is sufficiently dense to 

 admit of it, and when these, acting with sound understanding, and in concert, 

 for the good of the land, shall teach men in power that Agriculture, " the nursing 

 mother of all the arts," is, of all human concerns, that which should command 

 .their first and most anxious care and devotion. 



Here, for example, the following advertisement catches our eye, in a morning 

 paper, and even before they break their fast, will probably have been road by 

 thirty thousand, at least, of those for whose benefit these Institutes are gotten up: 



Season tickets $3 ; single Lectures 25 cents. To 

 members of the Institute free. 'I'crms of member- 

 shij), $1 initiKiion and $2 yearly dues. Kights and 

 privileges of a member : Ownership in all property. 



C^ MecbnnicM' Iiistitute Lectures —Pro- 

 fessor HuMKS iiilroductoiy Lecture to his Cour.te 

 on Kxperimenlal ('hemi.stry, as applied to Arts and 

 Manufactures, will l)e ijiven on Wednesday evenim;, 

 11th inst. at 8 o'clock, in the Institute Lecture Room, 

 City Hall. 



The Course will comprise one of the most usetul 

 and practical series of experiments in Chemical Sci- 

 ence ever presented to the pulilic. In connection 

 with this Course will be one on the Steam l<:ni:ine, 

 illustrated by one of the largest Didactic Models in 

 the country ; and also one on Astronomy suid Me- 

 chanical Philosophy. 



use of reading-rooms and library, free admission to 

 all lectures, and a discount from regular charges to 

 non-members, of 20 to IdO per cent, in the schools 

 and classes. -Minors under 18 cim have yearly 

 privileges for only §1. 



For season tickets or membership, apply at the 

 Institute ilooms. City Hall. 



By order of Lecture Committee. 



CILVKLKS L. BAKKITT, Actuary. 



Among the unread (for want of time) pamphlets on our table, is an Address 

 by Rev. Albert Gallatin Palmer, delivered before " The Mechariics' and Working' 



(532) 



