396 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



writer of these lines distributed gratuitously two barrels of guano, sent to hita 

 for that purpose all the way from the Pacific, by Commodore Ridgely ; but, un- 

 til its value was lately promulgated in England, no effort was made to extend 

 the use of it ; and now, after so great a lapse of time, and after the English have 

 removed entire islands of it, we see a Senator very judiciously moving to have 

 an inspection oi guano established by law ! 



But, among the most encouraging proofs we have that the truth of Professor 

 Liebig's declaration — to wit, that for all permanent and material improvement 

 we must hereafter look to the application of the sciences to Agriculture — is mak- 

 ing its way to public conviction, is the one to which we have before referred — 

 the spontaneous and unassisted establishment of agricultural schools in various 

 parts of the country, and in advance of a more enlightened legislation by which, 

 in a few ye&rs, the public will require and compel them to be upheld and placed, 

 as they should be, in possession of all those advantages of emolument and dis- 

 tinction which can beget confidence and respect in the eyes of the good and the 

 wise — on a footing, in a word, somewhat approaching at least to that which has 

 been for years past provided, at the public expense, for military schools, where 

 large salaries and most ample free quarters are furnished for Professors in mili- 

 tary and civil engineering, in chemistry, mineralogy, botany, French, drawing, 

 &c., for the better instruction of paid students destined for the Army and Navy. 



Another token, not to be mistaken, that the public mind, no longer content 

 with mere isolated facts(which thirty years ago it was useful to accumulate,)and 

 the exhibition of extraordinary fruits, is now disposed rather to enter into the 

 philosophy of this great department of national industry, may be found in that 

 change which is going on in the objects designated as proper subjects for pre- 

 mium. There is evidently an increasing impatience at the sight of stereotype 

 offers of premiums for the biggest crop of corn on an acre, the heaviest year-old 

 pig, the best-gaited gelding, the fattest yearling calf, and the largest mule. Time 

 was, in the infancy of associated efforts, when we had just entered on the thresh- 

 old of agricultural inquiry, that the cause of improvement demanded actual ex- 

 hibitions of mammoth pumpkins, and large potatoes, and turnips, and cabbages ; 

 and more especially when it was useful to stimulate experiments with mangel- 

 wurzel and Swedish turnips, and other vegetables theretofore untried or but par- 

 tially known — as it might be now to test more extensively the suitableness of the 

 soil, climate and circumstances of our country to the cultivation of madder, and 

 woad, and silk, and Lucern, and rye-grass, and Jerusalem artichoke, the citron 

 and the olive, &c. It was well, in the infancy of associations for improvement, 

 to test the weight, activity and strength of animals employed or used for various 

 purposes ; and even yet it is highly beneficial to keep up such exhibitions. But 

 why? Not to draw a crowd by the impulse of an idle and vulgar curiosity, 

 which finds its highest gratification in the sight of monstrous products of Nature 

 and of art. All such men of such minds had better at once be directed, for light 

 and momentary gratification, to the museum and the circus. Such displays of 

 monstrous products are only useful to rational minds, when exhibited in a way 

 to illustrate the principles of their production, and to enable us to judge how far 

 the materials and processes made use of in procuring them are to be sought out and 

 imitated, or rejected and shimned. 



Hence the wisdom of the law of New- York relating to Agricultural Societies. 

 Foreseeing, apparently, that the Trustees of Societies could not be relied on to 

 exact such statements from competitors for premiums, the law has expressly pro- 



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