506 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



thy colleagues, Mr. Charles Meriwether, a more 

 youthl'ui but not less zealous votary of the cause 

 ol rural improvement, and wiio that knew them, 

 as 1 recollect them, in their ruined, exhausted, and 

 dilapidated condition, twenty- five years ago, 

 would recotrnize them as the same places now, 

 except by their unchaa<Ted geographical position ? 

 The wand ofthe magician, set in motion by this 

 society, has passed over them, and in the place 

 ofthe desolate nakedness of red galls and gullies, 

 or that still more dre .ry type of poverty and neg- 

 lect, the broom-straw wilderness, have succeeded 

 the golden abundance of the rich and waving 

 wheat field, or the bright verdure ol hills clad in 

 luxuriant clover and green-sward. Similar and 

 equal, if not greaier, changes have taken place 

 upon many oiher farms within the sphere ol this 

 society, which could be named ; and while their 

 exterior aspect has been thus magically transform- 

 ed, it would not be risking too much to say, that 

 within the same period, their actual marketatile 

 productions have been, at least, tripled. If any 

 should be inclined to set down these results to ihe 

 credit of the general spirit of improvemenf, which 

 has more or less pervaded the country at larae, 

 within some years past, rather than to any in- 

 fluence exeried by this society, I shall be pardon- 

 ed for relisrring then), in no invidious sense, to ihe 

 marked and acknowledged difference in the pro- 

 gress of agricultural improvement between this 

 and adjoining counties possessing similar natural 

 advantages, but not hitherto profiling, jn an equal 

 degree, of the stimulants an J aids derived hom 

 associations like ours. 



While the success of the past supplies us with 

 abundant moiives lor perseverance, ihe prospecis 

 ofthe future afi'ord a yet stronger incentive to in- 

 creased exertion and zeal. Agriculture, as a 

 science, may be said to be as yet in its inlfincy. 

 The researches of learned and inquisitive men, 

 within the last ten or fii'teen years, have thrown 

 a new light upon some of the most important pro- 

 cesses oiNatuie, concerned in the rearing and 

 bringing to maturity the productions of ihe earih. 

 Organic chemistry, which has done so nmch 

 lately towards revealing and explaining those pro- 

 cesses, has almost wholly had iis origin, as a dis- 

 tinct branch of science, v/ithin that period. Ei'ery 

 rational syplem of agriculture must be bottomed 

 on a knowledge and application of these principles. 

 In what manner plants carry on their nuiriiion and 

 growth — what substances contribute to their 

 nourishment and support, and in what form enter 

 into their constitution, — by what orgarizaiion they 

 appropriate and assimilate their lood — the struc- 

 ture and functions of their different organs, — the 

 sources from which their supplies of food are main- 

 ly derived, whether from the ear'h or from the 

 air, — the composition, ingredients, and influence 

 of the soils in which they grow,— the chemical 

 action of the various manures employed to pro- 

 mote their growth — all these are matters ot 

 which the agriculturist should possess a sound 

 and correct knowledge, if he would practise his 

 profession with intelligence and success. The 

 elementary principles of these mquiries, he de- 

 rives from the chemist, the vegetable physiologist, 

 the mineralogist, the geologist ; — but much re- 

 mains to be done by his own enlightened and dis- 

 criminating observation. The farmer, indeed, is 

 the fellow-laborer of the man of science in prose- 



cuting his researches into all the arcana ofthe ve- 

 getable economy. His true character is (hat of 

 an experimental i)hilosi)pher, whose operations in 

 the vast laboratory of Nature are the indispensa- 

 ble complement of those performed in the labora- 

 tory of the chemist. 



Here, then, is a new and important field for the 

 usefulness of agricultural societies. It is under 

 their encouragement and supervision that a well- 

 diges'ed series of accurate and skilful experimenta 

 can be most advantageously instituted and con- 

 ducted, to aid in the advancement of agricultural 

 science, and to test ihe theories on which some of 

 the most essential problems of practical agricul- 

 ture depend. The im|)ortance of this desideratum 

 has been longl'elt by men of science. Sir Hum- 

 -phry Davy, iii his well known lectures on agricul-- 

 lural chemistiy, remarks, '• that nothiiiij is more 

 warning in agriculiure tiian experiments, in which 

 all the circumstances are minutely and scientifi- 

 cally deiaileii, and ihai this art will advance, in 

 proportion as li becomes exact in iis methods." In 

 this most useful branch ol human knowledge, we 

 njay freely and without reproach indulge the pas- 

 sion of the day ibr mesmerising. We may com- 

 mune with Naiure in her sleep, interrogaie heron 

 her mysterious laws, elicit the secrets ot her 

 moit hidden processes, and turn ihe revelations 

 thus obtained lo the highest practical benefit of 

 our fcipecies. I will take the liberty, on another 

 occasion, of inviting the aitemion ol the society to 

 some suggestic^ns in deiaii lor extending our use- 

 fulness, in this respect. 



May we not hope that the professors of science, 

 in reiurn lor such services as we may be enabled 

 to render to the cause ol liberal knowledge by our 

 experimental operations in lesiing and illustrating 

 its princijiles, will cheerluHy come forward, from 

 lime to lime to aid and enlighten us by their theo- 

 retical and philosophical views of the phenomena 

 ol Nature, and ofthe true methods of invesiigation 

 and improvement. It is, I am sure, only necessa- 

 ry to make tlie appeal, to have it promptly and 

 zealously responded to. Nothing has more strik- 

 ingly disiiniifuislied the utilitarian age in which 

 we live, than Ihe honorable anxiety of men of 

 science to apply the results of their researches 

 and discoveries to the practical purposes of life, and 

 thus, in their day and generation, to add to the 

 hmounl ot actual, positive good \u the world. To 

 all who are animated with this noble spirit, there 

 can be no higher encouragement and reward, 

 than to find the aciive classes ol"socieiy appreciat- 

 ing, at their just v^due, the aids which science is 

 capable of atiurding lo their industrious |)ursuits. 

 The late accounts fiom England bring us inlor- 

 mation of Liebig, the great German chemist, 

 whose recent work on organic chemistry marks a 

 new and p.-ominent era in the history ol science, 

 mingling with the larmers of Yorkshire, at their 

 cattle shows and agricultural meetings, and ex- 

 pounding his theories in familiar pofular address- 

 es. The distinguished geologists of that country, 

 Buckland, IMurchison, De la Beche, it is well 

 known, have zealously complied with the calls 

 made upon them, by undertaking gratuitously, 

 geological surveys ofthe soils and subsoils of ex- 

 tensive agricultural districts. In our own country, 

 the labors of Prolessors Hitchcock, Dana, J ackson, 

 and others, attest the same sedulous and faithful 

 attention, on the part ol' men of science in repub- 



