No, 124. J , 169 



sistence in this latter country. It is a great stimulus to know that 

 •we have yet much to learn, and hence it is unquestionable that if a 

 man presses forward in agriculture, particularly in this country, he 

 cannot fail to signalize and advance himself, as well as to benefit the 

 land of his choice or of his birth. It would be unjust as well as 

 impossible for me to deliver an address on agriculture, without paying 

 a passing tribute to the man who has in our day given rise to the 

 more intimate union of agriculture and science ; I mean Professor 

 Liebig^ It is at this moment rather the fashion amongst some, to 

 decry his works— but although many of his minor positions which 

 when he wrote were considered generally as axioms of the day are 

 now found to be unsound — and although from the small period of 

 twelve months which was given him to prepare on a subject for which 

 ten years would hardly have sufficed, his works are therefore not 

 written with the necessary precision it required — yet his main prin- 

 ciples of the absorption by vegetables of ammonia and carbonic acid 

 from the atmosphere, as also most of his broad assertions, must and 

 will remain true. As well might they attempt to rob Milton of his 

 fame, or Washington of his glory, as to take from Liebig the honor 

 and merit of having by sound views and original investigation, de- 

 termined the action of science towards the improvement of the most 

 important occupation of man, Agriculture, with an impulse which 

 in its effects will be felt for ages to come. 



The time allotted to an address will not permit me to enter into 

 the subject of other substances proposed as manures, such as nitrate 

 of soda, poudrette, ground bones, lime, charcoal, &c,, on which I 

 have experimented for the last two or three years, although not on a 

 very extensive scale. I have learned from these sufficient, however, 

 to assure the farmer that there is scarcely a soil existing, from the 

 almost pure land to the stiffest clay, which cannot, by proper appli- 

 cation, be made to become fertile, and richly to repay the labor ex- 

 pended thereon, but there must be mental as well as bodily labor — 

 each farm demands its own separate study- — some spots require the 

 assistance of drainage, others are improved by irrigation. In all, the 

 intelligence as well as the industry of its owner must be called into 

 active play. Nor can I at all enter into the question of the value of 

 different grasses — a subject of much interest to the farmer, and in 

 which something has yet to be done in this country. 



But one other subject remains which I wish to mention ere I con- 

 clude. I have spokei! of guano and of lime. I have lately seen an 

 implement invented this year by Mr. Isaac Clapp, of Dorchester, 

 Mass., which he calls, properly, a pulverizer. It is certainly an im- 

 plement of much merit, and has given great satisfaction at the meet- 

 ings where it has been exhibited, as well as to individuals who have 

 seen it operate, ard in whose judgment I have the highest confidence. 

 It is a roller, loaded as heavily as is judged proper ; behind this is 

 a moveable frame, of a simple construction, managed with the hand 

 by means of two handles. This frame is armed below with a num- 

 ber of strong knives, about four or five inches long. As the roller 

 passes along, the knives are pressed into the soil by the hand, the 



[Senate No. 124.] W 



