CHEMISTRY. 341 



ter, and various materials, manufactures the very staff of life — will he be the 

 first to degrade his own enipluyiiient, lo disown its connection with science, to 

 stultify himself, and place on the same level of brute force the occupation of his 

 sons and his oxen ? 



The views which present themselves to illustrate the immense auxiliary power 

 of science in the prosecution of agricultural industry, and the obligation of those 

 who represent the landed interest to provide for the instruction of the sons of 

 their constituents in a better knowledge of the principles on which all material 

 advancement in Agriculture must depend, are really so obvious, and we might 

 say innumerable, that one hardly knows which lo select by way of argument — 

 if, indeed, it be practicable to bring oneself to recognize the necessity of adduc- 

 ing any argument in such a case. It is not, we apprehend, that public men- 

 legislators — representatives, so called, of the landed interest, but really more at- 

 tentive and alive to all others than to that — it is not, we apprehend, that they 

 do not see how nmch the whole country would be elevated in character, and Ag- 

 riculture be made to prosper, by express instruction in all the sciences that ap- 

 pertain to it. The difficulty, it may be feared, is rather with the farmers 

 themselves. Their representatives perceive their lukewarmness, in the fact that 

 they never call them lo account for the enormous sums levied on the country for 

 protection and instruction to other classes, while they and theirs are utterly neg- 

 lected. What inference can they draw Avhen they see the Legislature of one 

 State refusing lo expend a few hundred dollars, byway of commencing a system 

 of agricultural instruction, as in this case of Mr. INaill's proposition for a course 

 of lectures on Agricultural Chemisiry ; while sister and contiguous Stales, 

 equally sensitive and slow in matters of expenditure for agricultural purposes, 

 will yet by unanimous vote give many thousand dollars to lit out a General Gov- 

 ernment regiment for warlike service in a far distant country ! While men betray 

 insensibility to their own welfare, iiow can they expect their representatives lo be 

 mindful of it ? But are there not hopeful signs of a change in public sentiment? 

 If farmers possessed the same benefit of the poivcr of the press which is enjoyed 

 by merchants and the town classes, that change would now come over the coun- 

 try almost as fast as one of Espy's great storms. Then we should have educated 

 every year, at the public expense, men prepared for difl'using a knowledge of the 

 principles of animal and vegetable chemistry, of mineralogy, botany, road-mak- 

 ing and bridge-building, and agricultural engineering; and architecture — in num- 

 ber at least equal to the number that are fed, clothed, and educated, and com- 

 missioned, and paid for life, at the expense principally of farmers, for practicing 

 with more deadly efliciency all the arts of war. Look at the advantages, the 

 power, that science has conferred on the civilized, over the savage warrior ! — 

 When has the former appeared that the latter has not given way, as snow melts 

 away under the meridian sun ? And can it be within the scheme of a beneficent 

 God that science, the crowning glory of man's nature, should do less to push 

 forward the great conservative art of cultivation, the source of every blessing, 

 than it does for the bloody art of human slaughter ? No ! the very thought is 

 impious ! 



But who can hope that this glorious direction will ever be given to any portion 

 of the public means, until the holders and the cultivators of the soil shall make 

 such demonstrations as will convince legislators that they know their rights, and, 

 '* knowing, dare maintain them " ? 



We have spoken of the want of sympathy on the part of the press (which so 



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