LECTURE I. 



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iportance of Agriculture— Relation of the growth of food to the population of Great Britain-- 

 Recent progress and prospects of English Agriculture— Application of Chemical and Geo- 

 logical Science to the art of culture— to the improvementof soils— the rotation of crops— 

 the application of manures, «&c.— Outline of the Course of Lectures— Number and nature 

  of the elementary bodies— The organic elements Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitro 

 gen, their properties and their relations to vegetable life. 



Were I about to address you in a single or detached Lecture only, I 

 should think it my duty to select some one branch of the art of culture 

 for special illustration, and without much introductory matter to pro- 

 ceed at once to the exposition of the principle or principles on which it 

 depended. As the present, however, is only the first of a Series of Lec- 

 tures I hope to have the honor of delivering to you, I may be permitted 

 to introduce my subject with a few prefatory remarks, which will here 

 find their appropriate place. 



la regard to the importance of Agriculture it may appear superfluous 

 in me to address you. That art on which a thousand millions of men 

 are dependent for their very sustenance — in the prosecution of which 

 nine-tenths of the fixed capital of all civilized nations is embarked — and 

 probably two hundred millions of men expend their daily toil — that art 

 must confessedly be the most important of all ; the parent and precursor 

 of all other arts. In every country then, and at every period, the in- 

 vestigation of the principles on which the rational practice of this art is 

 founded, ought to have commanded the principal attention of the great- 

 est minds. To what other object could they have been more benefi- 

 cially directed ? 



But there are periods in the history of every country when the study 

 of Agriculture becomes more urgent, and in that country acquires a 

 vastly superior importance. When a tract of land is thinly peopled, 

 like the newly settled districts of North America, New Holland, or 

 New Zealand, a very defective system of culture will produce food 

 enough not only for the wants of the inhabitants, but for the partial sup- 

 ply of other countries also. But when the population becomes more 

 dense, the same imperfect or sluggish system will no longer suffice. 

 The land must be better tilled, its special qualities and defects must be 

 studied, and means must gradually be adopted for extracting the maxi- 

 mum produce from every portion susceptible of cultivation. 



The British islands are in this latter condition. Agriculture now is 

 of vastly more importance to us as a nation, than it was towards the 

 close even of the last century. In 1780, the island of Great Britain 

 contained about 9 millions of inhabitants ; it now contains nearly 20. 

 The land has not increased in quantity, but the consumption of food has 

 probably more than doubled. The importation from abroad has not in- 

 creased to any important extent; by improved management, therefore, 

 the same area of land has been caused to yield a double produce. 



But the population will continue to increase ; can we expect that the 

 food raised from the land will continue to increase in the same ratio? 



