198 



Christmas Gift to the young Jlgriculturists of the U. S. Vol. VI. 



Institution," the whole animal and vegetable king- 

 doms will be open before you, pouring in through every 

 sense and faculty both wisdom and deliglit. And this 

 brings me again to the leading purpose of this address 



to solicit your support, in the manner pointed out in 



its constitution, to the agricultural society now formed 

 at the seat of government, for the wliole United States. 

 Among the early fruits of such an association we may 

 hope for the establishment of an extensive agricultural 

 library and model farm, where new grains, and grasses, 

 and plants, and fruits, sent in from abroad, may be 

 propagated, and, if found valuable and adapted to our 

 climate, their roots and seeds may be collected and gra- 

 tuitously distributed through all the States of the Union. 

 A great agricultural school will of course form a part 

 of the plan of such an association. To that our young 

 men may come, as to the great schools of science in 

 Paris, to be freely taught and qualified to deliver lec- 

 tures in State colleges and elsewhere, on agriculture, 

 chemistry, botany, horticulture, mineralogy, natural 

 history, and comparative anatomy. Is it unreasonable 

 to hope that such an association, countenanced as it 

 will he by men of just weight of character in the seve- 

 ral States, will possess an influence that will ensure to 

 it a portion of that liberal fund bestowed by the muni- 

 ficence of Mr. Smithson, for the " diffusion of useful 

 knowledge among men ?"— for what knowledge so use- 

 ful p.s that which leads, as it advances, directly to aug 

 ment the means of human subsistence and comfort ? 

 Though necessity is the mother of invention, the body 

 must be fed before the mind can philosophize. If ani- 

 mated by that sense of duty and pride of understand- 

 ing which becomes those whom God hath emphatically 

 enjoined to " replenish and subdue the earth," will they 

 not naturally desire, by more thorough knowledge of 

 their nature and properties, to extend their appointed 

 dominion "over every living thing that moveth upon 

 the earth ; and every herb bearing seed which is upon 

 the face of the earth, and every tree in the which is the 

 fruit of a tree bearing seed ?" In all these you may be 

 instructed by the fields, the experiments, and the lec- 

 tures of the United States Agricultural Society, and 

 through its annals you may learn in what temperature 

 various seeds will germinate and ripen, and, hence, to 

 what latitudes they are adapted. Among other advan- 

 tages to American agriculture, through its correspond- 

 ing members, or branch societies in all the States, it 

 may be expected to obtain information and give month- 

 ly reports as to the state of the crops. Such reports 

 will serve as a sort of agricultural thermometer, by 

 which to indicate the points of demand and supply, 

 and thus assist in regulating prices. 



What, let me ask you, is steam doing for agriculture ? 

 What but the want of associated capital and enter- 

 prise has prevented the husbandman from making this 

 magic power subservient to his uses, as it has been 

 made, and is every day made, more and more obedient 

 to the purposes of commerce, of manufactures, and of 

 war? Behold how clearly the application by ditferent 

 classes of this greatest of all substitutes for manual la- 

 bour serves to illustrate the effect of combined wealth 

 and science, applied to useful objects. Do you see 

 steam employed to turn the furrow, to sow the seed, to 

 drag the harrow, to reap the harvest, or to thresh the 

 grain ? To none of these has it been applied. Now 

 mark the contrast, the moment the grain passes from 

 the hand of the farmer to that of the navigator, the mer- 

 chant-miller, and the millwright, behold steam be- 

 comes the agent to take it from his landing, and bear 

 it to the wharves of the crowded city. There this won- 

 derful agent again takes it from the hold of the vessel, 

 and, as by some power of necromancy, for exercise of 

 which in times past a man would have been burned 

 for a witch, steam bears it aloft unseen to the hopper, 

 and you see it no more until it is i)acked to be exported 

 by steam, atrain, to all parts of the world I Is there any 

 branch in the whole circle of human industry which 

 Buffers more for want of capital, or in which improve- 

 ment is more retarded by the high price of labour, than 

 agriculture, and which ne^ds more the benefit of all la- 

 hour-saving contrivances ? Would these applications 

 of steam to the agricultural purposes I have indicated 

 be more in advance of what it has already achieved 

 than that which has been accomplished since Darwin 

 was deemed an enthusiast fur predicting the time when 

 it would "drive the rapid car?" That in vapour there 

 is a tremendous power, which science can make sub- 

 Eervient to human wants, is no longer a problem; but 



"ear hath not heard nor eye seen, neither hath it en- 

 tered into the heart of man to conceive" the viiriety of 

 uses, ^reut and saiall, t$ trhich it. vill yet be applied! 

 Why not, then, I repeal, have it felling our limber and 

 digging our ditches, and sowing and reaping and thresh- 

 ing, as well as grinding our grain and transporting our 

 flour? 



Look, again, at our exploring expeditions, to extend 

 the boundaries of nautical discovery and astronomical 

 science 1 Who pays for these? The husbanduian ! 

 But who asks the government to send out corjis of mine- 

 ralogists and botanists into our own fields, and moun- 

 tains, and valleys, to explore for new substances to fer- 

 tilize the earth, and new vegetables and plants to fur- 

 nish more elements of subsistence to the poor, or 

 greater variety to the luxuries of the rich man's table ? 

 Who shall gainsay, that as American forests abound 

 beyond all comparison in the richness and variety of 

 their growth, so may our valleys and fields contain va- 

 rious vegetables, yet uncultivated, which may prove 

 equal to that insignificant-looking root which, though 

 not even known in Europe until the close of the Hith 

 century, nor planted in Ireland until the commence- 

 ment of the JTth, has yet long since furnished to that 

 gallant and ill-governed people from three to four-ffihi 

 of their evtire food! 



Unprompted by the same necessities, or by the hope 

 of ofli'red premiums for their discovery, who shall say 

 how many remain unknown or neglected in the vast 

 range of our climate and territory ? — plants which, like 

 the humble potato, cultivation would bring into great 

 excellence and usefulness! — flowers that, like the gor- 

 geous and stately dahlia, a few years since blooaiiug 

 unnoticed in the desert, has been nurtured into am- 

 l)le fulness of expansion and infinite variety of co- 

 lours. 



But vain would be my effort to give an outline of the 

 information x\ hich may be collected and the benefits to 

 be ditliised by this Society, if well supported ; but then 

 you want, and fortunately you have, men full of zeal, 

 full of industry, and full of ambition to be useful. Let 

 me exhort you, then, youBg agriculturists throughout 

 the country, with a voice which has cried aloud and 

 ceased not in your behalf, for a quarter of a century, as 

 you covet an equal share of honour, and illumination, 

 and influence, for your class, to come forward in sup- 

 port of this " United States Agricultural Society," 

 and contend, in union and harmony wilh tlie " Na- 

 tional Institution," for that splendid donation of a 

 munificent foreigner, with which to establish a great 

 school and library of agricultural science and experi- 

 ment, with a garden that shall bear and be worthy of 

 the name of Smithson ! Here shall the good and the 

 wise rival each other in diffusing " useful knowledge 

 among men." 



Laying Land to Grass. 



To the question, What course would yon advise to 

 reclaim a worn-out meadow, so as to bring it acain 

 into permanent pasture in the shortest possible time? 

 we would answer, plough up immediately the sward 

 by a deep and small furrow, and let it lie all winter. 

 On this ploughed surface, carry on a very heavy cover- 

 ing of street-dirt during the frosts, spreading it imme- 

 diately, if practicable, and in spring— say by February, 

 if the season will admit of such early cultivation — 

 take the first opportunity of sowing oats without fur- 

 ther ploughing, four bushels to the acre, and harrow in 

 heavily. The crop will be ready for .soiling in May; 

 feed it to milch cows by cutting and carrying to the 

 stalls; and when the land is cleared, plough, harrow, 

 roll and clean it by collecting the weeds and burning 

 them, repiatini: the operation in about three weeks or 

 a month, by which time the seed-weeds will have veee- 

 taled. F'lllow this course until the time for wheat- 

 sowing, when plough carefully, throwing the land level, 

 and sow the crop without grass-seeds. Then in the 

 spring, sow a mixture of white clover, green and 

 orchard grass, sprinkling the surface with a top-dress- 

 ing of street dirt, or compost well fermented and de- 

 composed; and during the next winter, spread on the 

 young grass SO bushels of lime per acre, calculating on 

 a cuttinc of hay, with a certainty of repayment for 

 capital invested— Ed. 



To T. K. Esq., Dec. 16, I84L 



