ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. 15 



neglected. ' Scientific men have had no inducement lo devote their 

 time and talents to a subject which held out no promise of reward, 

 either in the shape of actual emolument or of honorary distinction. 

 And thus has arisen the second of those circumstances, by which I con- 

 sider the approach of a better state of things to have been retarded — 

 namely, the want of an Agricultural Literature. 



With the exception of a small number of periodical publications, 

 none of these even too well supported, by which attempts have been 

 zealously made to difflise important information among the practical 

 farmers — it cannot be denied that the press has not been encouraged to 

 do its utmost on behalf of agricultural knowledge in general — while the 

 single work of Sir Humphry Davy is nearly all that chemical science 

 has, in this country, been induced to contribute to the advancement of 

 agricultural theory during the last forty years.* 



Many of you have probably read this work of Sir Humphry Davy, 

 and are prepared to acknowledge its value. Yet how many things 

 does he pass over entirely, how many things leave unexplained ! Since 

 his time, not only have numerous practical observations and discoveries 

 been made, but the entire science of animal and vegetable chemistry 

 has been regenerated. We are not, therefore, to expect in his work a 

 view of the present state, either of our theoretical knowledge, or of our 

 practical agriculture. It belongs rather to the history of the progress oi 

 knowledge, than to the condition of existing information. Hence the 

 merits of the agricultural chemistry of Davy are not to be tried by its 

 accordance with actual knowledge, but with what was known in 1812, 

 when its distinguished author read his course of lectures for the last 

 time before the Board of Agriculture. 



We may with certainty predict, hov/ever, that neither the practice 

 nor the theory of agriculture will be permitted to experience in future 

 that want of general encouragement under which during the last half 



his early life, his unacquaintance with the rudiments of agriculture — liis ignorance of bota- 

 ny and geology." — (See also a note to the Review of these Letters in the Quarterly Review 

 for December, 1840.) 



For this state of things we shall soon have at least a partial remedy. It is a remarkable 

 fact that nearly all the new educational institutions of the higher class, on the Continent of 

 Europe, of which so many have been founded within the present century, and all those 

 which have been established in America, I believe, without exception, have incorporated 

 into their course of general study one or more of the newer sciences. Can we have a more 

 consentaneous and universal testimony to their value and importance than this 7 The Uni- 

 versity of London has been induced, by the same public demand for this species of instruc- 

 tion, to include Chemistry and Botany in its course of arts ; and circumstances only have 

 caused Geology to be omitted for a time. Its numerous affiliated institutions have followed 

 its steps; and hence the Catholic College of St. Cuthbert, at Ushaw, has in this respect an- 

 ticipated its Protestant neighbor at Durham. 



But should the agricultural interest rest satisfied with this introduction of one or two 

 branches, suppose it generally done, into the University course of study? Many are of 

 opinion that it ought not, and that the general interests of practical agriculture would be 

 manifestly promoted, among other means, by the establishment of agricultural colleges, in 

 which all the branches necessary to be known by enlightened agriculturists of every class 

 should be specially and distinctly taught. Whether such Colleges might be beneficially 

 annexed to the existing Universities, is a question deserving of serious consideration. 



* The latest edition of Lord Dundonald's "Treatise on the intimate connection between 

 Chemistry and Agriculture," which I have seen, is dated London, 1803. 



I should be doing injustice to a good chemist and a zealous agriculturist, were 1 not to 

 direct the attention of my readers to a series of excellent articles on chemical agriculture 

 by Dr. Madden, inserted in the numbers of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for the last 

 two years. 



Since the above went to press. Three Lectures on Agriculture have appeared from the 

 pen of Dr. Daubeny, of Oxford, whose name will secure''.hem an extended circulation. 



