1846.] Duties of Agricultural Societies, etc. 47 



less we know the nature of such variation, the extent to which it 

 may be carried, and the degree of perfection to which the plant 

 arrives, at each step in the progress of the variation. It is true 

 that we may find scattered through the agricultural literature of 

 the present day, many facts in regard to the composition of soih 

 and vegetables, and many tables showing the results of analysis 

 by able chemists. But it is equally trae that w^e are still destitute 

 of that careful, exact and connected series of experiments, in re- 

 gard to all the varieties of soils and farm produce, in the varied 

 conditions of the former and the different periods of growth of 

 the latter, which the best interests of agriculture imperiously re- 

 quire. Neither can so desirable a result be gained by the labors 

 of a single individual, or a single school of individuals. The 

 very nature and extent of the inquiry requires a division of labor, 

 and the investigations to be carried on in different localities, and 

 under the direction of minds of various education. For such is 

 the universal tendency of the human mind to see what it most de- 

 sires to see, or in other words, to bend facts to the support of pre- 

 conceived theories, that we are seldom if ever safe in drawing 

 conclusions on any subject, until we have carefully compared the 

 results of the labors of different investigators thereon. 



These observations lead us again to the inquiry how our farmers 

 and their sons are to gain all desirable information concerning 

 the nature, composition and growth of the soils and vegetables 

 which they cultivate? Something can be done for the latter, by 

 the introduction of agriculture as a study into our academies and 

 among the oldest classes in our district schools, and by the addi- 

 tion of agricultural books to our district school libraries. But it 

 seemed to us that our state and county agricultural societies con- 

 stitute the most direct and appropriate media, both for obtaining 

 knowledge by well conducted experiments, and diffusing that 

 knowledge through the whole community. That these societies 

 have done, and are doing much to promote the interests of agricul- 

 ture, there can be no doubt. But are they, to the full extent, fulfil- 

 ling the object of their formation? In other words, are they doing as 

 much as they might do, for the real advancement of agricultural 



