372 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ways have been one of progi-ession ; more or 

 less simple in its practice at the first, obser\-a- 

 Kon and cxpeiience season after season sug- 

 gesting new plans of operation, new means 

 of improving or maintaining the fertility of 

 the soil, and of gnarding against those casu- 

 alties that in every country and climate nifect 

 the productiveness of the crop. The success 

 — sometimes, perhaps, rather fancied than 

 leal — of one experiment led to the in.slitution 

 of others, and thus the pursuits of the hus- 

 bandm;m, originally followed without rule, 

 and j)recai-ious in their results, were by de- 

 grees brought to a state of perfection and 

 lixity of purpose that elevated the art to the 

 science, the mere laborer to the philosopher. 

 Such has been its progress in all ages among 

 :dl nations. But to advance beyond a certain 

 point, the cultivator of the earth must extend 

 his sphere of infomiation. must seek the aid 

 of other sciences, possibly of those which, 

 from imperfect acquaintajice with their ob- 

 jects, he has hitherto regarded as completely 

 isolated fi-om his own. So mutually depend- 

 ent are the laws and operations of Nature 

 upon each other, such her unity of action, 

 that to confine ourselves to any branch of 

 knowledge abstractedly is folly, willful blind- 

 ness : learn all you can, and you will not 

 keep it seven yeai-s without turning it to 

 some usefid pui-pose. We are advancing in 

 our estimation of these things daily ; and you 

 whom I now addre.s8 will stride, I trust, "not 

 one, but many steps, beyond your fathers in 

 the gi-eat work of improvement, whatever 

 may be the duties of jour after life. A liigh- 

 class fanner of the past generation would 

 have ridiculed the idea of his son and intend- 

 ed successor being taught at school the rudi- 

 ments of chemisti-y and natural philosophy : 

 they might, indeed, be veiy usefid to a man- 

 ufacturer, but quite supertluous in his case. 

 As to Botany, he would regard it as down- 

 right nonsense. Not thirty years back, I 

 knew a gentleman, residhig in one of the best 

 cultivated districts in England, who had the 

 reput<ijion among his poorer neighbors and 

 ■dependents of dabbling in magic, and among 

 those of his own giade, even the best ui- 

 fonned, was looked ui)on with a sort of pity as 

 a monomaniac — shnply because, being a man 

 of some scientific acquirements, he was labor- 

 ing by rational means to enhance the value 

 ■of his own property, and suggest im])rove- 

 anents to tiiose around iiim ; had written a 

 ibook on the natural hi.-itory of his native 

 county, employed his leisure fron> other 

 pur.-iuits in analyzing, in a small, well-fiir- 

 nished laboratory, the subsoil of his own 

 and his neighbors' fields ; occasionally cul- 

 tivated ]>atchcs of all sorts of weeds, e.\- 

 otic and British grass(>s, &c., with a view to 

 the best means of extenninating the fonner 

 and ascertaining the value of the latter, in a 

 plot of ground set apart iiirthi; jiurpose ; and, 

 more wondei'fid than all, sought to discour- 

 age poaching by taming away iiis gamekeep- 

 er and neglecting liis preserves. The preju- 

 (756) 



dices against new methods of cultivation are 

 now quickly subsiiling, in proportion to the 

 diffusion of general knowledge ; the numer- 

 ous Agiicultural and Horticultural Societies 

 that have successively started into existence 

 in this country, the increasing numbers of 

 their members, and interesting cliaracter of 

 their meetings, all evince that a spirit of in- 

 quiry is extending its influence among our 

 rural population, no less than among our 

 mamd'aclurers and merchants, the resiita of 

 which it is at present difficult to speculate 

 upon, but the general cry is, " Foi-ward, for- 

 ward." In Great Britain every movement of 

 the kind has been hitherto due to the energy 

 of private individuals and the ready resjionse 

 of an industrious and enterprising people ; 

 baton the Continent — in Fnmce, Prussia, and 

 most of the German States — public schools, 

 under the auspices of the Governments, and 

 established by them, are open for the educa- 

 tion of youth in this important department of 

 human economy, fimnt.lied with professors 

 in the auxiliary branches of science, as chem- 

 istiy, botany, geolog}', &.C., and with all the 

 essentials requisite tor combining theoiy with 

 I^ractice. The advantages already derived 

 to the States in question trom these establish- 

 ments have been sufficient to prove the value 

 of the extended system of education they 

 have afforded ; and old prejudices are miiver- 

 sally disappearing as their pupils become dis- 

 tributed tlirongh the Provinces, carrying with 

 them the most unbiased views and openness 

 to conviction which are the natural results of 

 a liberal course of instruction. 



The value of Botiiny, as a j^ractical ssience. 

 is not so well appreciated in this countiy as it 

 is abroad ; and this simply because the atten- 

 tion of our practical men has not been liith- 

 erto sufficiently directed to it, nay, has even 

 been averted in consequence of the very gen- 

 eral jirejudice that it is better fitted for a 

 plaything than a tool ; a notion — I will not 

 call it ;m oj>inion — that originated very natu- 

 rally, from the su[)erfici;d m;uiner* in which 

 its study was followed in this country by 

 most of those who aspired to rank mnong its 

 votaries, even so recently as twenty years 

 ago. It was then little more than the ail of 

 distinguishing one plant from miother, of al- 

 lotting to each its learned name and place in 

 an aibitraiy system of an~angcment, and, 

 sometimes, of adding to these cajiabilities a 

 remembrance of the (jualities of those used 

 as food or medicine. Now, to use the woitis 

 of a modern writer, one of its most able and 

 industrious professors, " it comprehends a 

 knowledge not only of the names :uid uses of 

 plants, but of tlieir external iuid internal or- 

 ganization, and ol their anatomy imd i)hysio- 

 Idgical plifiinmena ; it embraces a considen^- 

 tion of the plan upon which those multitudes 

 of vegetable fonns that clothe the earth have 

 bi-on created, of the skillful combinaliims out 

 of which so many various organs have em- 

 anated, of the laws that regulate the disper- 

 sion and location of species, and of the influ- 



