354 



Agricultural Address. 



Vol. X. 



hence the necessity of another kind of crop. 

 A change, a regular rotation, is essential to 

 preserve the fertility of the soil, and the 

 consequent value of its productions. 



Probably there is no subject more talked 

 of among farmers than the successioii of 

 crops; and their experience differs, because 

 of the variety of soils they have to cultivate, 

 and other circumstances connected with their 

 particular localities. You may adopt almost 

 any system of rotation, it is true, and force 

 your lands to the utmost extent, in order to 

 act upon it, provided manure and money 

 enough are expended in the effort; but it is 

 not in such a way that the science of agri- 

 culture is to be advanced — if it were, it. 

 would be available to but few; it would be 

 pursued as an accomplishment, and an ex 

 periment, and would not repay the cost of 

 its management. To make it practical, use 

 ful, and profitable, a good system of rotation 

 should of course be adopted ; but it must be 

 founded, not upon the custom of a neigh- 

 bourhood, but upon the particular character 

 of the soil, and its adaptation to the growth 

 of certain plants. A soil in which one earth 

 greatly predominates over another, should 

 have an addition of the deficient material in 

 oi'der to restore a suitable composition. Ar 

 gillaceous or clayey lands, such as are usu 

 ally called sour, and wet, harden with the 

 heat of the sun, the dew evaporates from 

 their surface, instead of penetrating below 

 it, and it is incapable of profitable tillage, 

 without appropriate treatment. Apply lime, 

 the mortar of old buildings, or other calca 

 reous substances to such lands, and they will 

 absorb the moisture of the soil, and it will 

 become more friable by a chemical process, 

 which the study of agricultural chemistry 

 will reveal. The manures from the stable 

 or yard, mingled with it in a state of fer- 

 mentation., will impregnate the particles of 

 earth with the gases that escape from it, and 

 render the soil warmer and more nourishing 

 to vegetation. Take, however, a different 

 kind of land — so light and extremely porous, 

 owing to a superabundance of calcareous 

 earth, that it will readily absorb every par- 

 ticle of moisture, and it will require pre- 

 cisely an opposite course of culture. Clay 

 itself, mud from the banks of rivers, will 

 render it more cohesive, and it is evident 

 that to increase this property, the nutritive 

 manures should not, as in the other instance, 

 be applied in a state of fermentation, else 

 they would heat the soil too much, and 

 thwart the object of producing more stability 

 in its character. These observations, no 

 doubt, accord with the experience of every 

 practical farmer ; and they are made in or- 

 der to remind us of the importance of adapt- 



ing our crops to the varieties of soil, or of 

 altering the character of the land by appro- 

 priate manures to suit the habiis of plants 

 we may wish to cultivate : and in addition 

 to enhancing the value of our farms, and 

 reaping larger harvests, we have in such an 

 engagement the satisfaction of improving 

 the mind; which is a duty too much ne- 

 glected by the agricultural community. 

 There may be those present, who during 

 the hasty consideration which we have 

 given to the general structure of plants 

 and their physiological action in the process 

 of growth, have asked themselves the ques- 

 tion — of what use are such disquisitions 

 to the practical farmer ? is it not enough for 

 us, that by experience we have learned the 

 idnd of crops that are best adapted to our 

 lands, and the best time to sow and to reap "! 

 We have educated our sons in the field, and 

 pur daughters in the dairy; we work, rest, 

 and are satisfied : — but I trust the day is not 

 far off when such notions will be among the 

 things of the past, and that the members of 

 this and similar societies will prove by their 

 works, that the pursuit of scientific agricul- 

 ture is no.t only more elevating to the man, 

 but more productive to his purse, and more 

 honourable to his race and his country, than 

 the unphilosophical method which obtains 

 too generally among us. 



Would you make blacksmiths or wheel- 

 wrights of your sons, and not instruct them 

 in the laws of mechanics] Would you have 

 them enter upon the practice of medicine or 

 law, without being first acquainted with the 

 human organism, or the government of your 

 country or state? Would you send them 

 upon the wide ocean, to guide a vessel from 

 port to port, without first teaching them ge- 

 ography and the art of navigation 1 Would 

 you have them embark upon the uncertain 

 sea of mercantile speculation, without ac- 

 quainting them with the rules of commerce 

 and the laws of trade ? And can you train 

 them up as intelligent farmers, without in- 

 structing them in the laws of organic life 

 and in the nature of the soils they cultivate? 

 Our country abounds with the means of 

 learning — the doors of the common school 

 are not closed against the lowest and poor- 

 est citizen. The children of the mechanic, 

 both male and female, are instructed, not 

 only in what have been formerly consi- 

 dered the elementary branches of education, 

 but in mathematics, the geography and his- 

 tory of the globe, geology, physiology, natu- 

 ral philosophy, chemistry, and some of the 

 modern languages. There is growing up 

 around us a race of refined intelligence, and 

 it is to be hoped of more substantial morality 

 than has hitherto been known in our history : 



