No. 108.J 19 



odicals of the countries named, are aware that they contain the 

 essence of all modern improvements and discoveries. Arrangements 

 will be made to translate the most important facts of those publica- 

 tions which are printed in foreign languages, that they may early 

 become available to our inquiring, ingenious and inventive fellow-citi- 

 zens. It is the desire also to procure drawings and models of useful 

 labor-saving machines, that our country may not fall behind in the 

 race of improvements. The native ingenuity and aptitude of our 

 citizens for applying new discovered principles, and constructing and 

 working labor-saving machines by the powers of nature, whereby not 

 only the heavy drudgery of labor is performed without hands, but 

 even the finest work is accomplished. These peculiar qualifications, 

 when fully brought to bear on the varied, rich and boundless mate- 

 rials which are in our possession, united with the knowledge it is 

 in our power to obtain, cannot fail to make our triumph complete 

 in the competition of nations. " Get knowledge," the watchword 

 of our great competitor (England) must be the watchword of Ame- 

 rica. Millions (in the countries referred to) are expended in expe- 

 riments. The results of all these costly trials may be ready for pe- 

 rusal as soon as steam can bring them across the Atlantic. 



Would that the American Institute could reach, with England's 

 watchword, " Get knowledge," the ear of every farmer in the 

 country, and in a tone that would not be forgotten. They might, a 

 very few years since, within a few hours' sail from this city, have 

 found barren land, which the owner would readily have sold for five 

 dollars per acre, which now cannot be bought for one hundred. The 

 transforming influence of marl has done this, which had been for 

 centuries just as near as it is now, but viewed as useless; the benefits 

 of which might have been enjoyed by those who have gone before 

 us, generation after generation, had there been a single man possess- 

 ing the merest smattering of chemistry to have pointed it out. 



One-half the team employed by our forefathers is now dispensed 

 with by the modern improved plow. 



The early inhabitants of Massachusetts required a stipulation from 

 the master mechanics' not to feed their apprentices with potatoes, 

 because they deemed them noxious; knowledge has proved them 



