No. \0. 



J. S. Skinne7'^s Address. 



315 



you, are your sons, who are going to follow 

 your pursuit, educated in the knowledge of 

 the nutritive properties of the various kinds 

 of food, and their positive or comparative 

 effect on the animal constitution, and the 

 circumstances and conditions on which de- 

 pend their growth and their health, either of 

 the beasts themselves or the plants on which 

 they live ■? Why the pursuit in which you 

 propose your sons to embark, is in its very 

 nature an art as Well as a science. The 

 farm is in fact a great manufactory; the 

 basis of the machinery is the land, requiring 

 to be repaired, and oiled, and kept in order, 

 with seed, and manure, and air, and water, 

 and the various elements that earth and air 

 contain, with labourers for operatives, and 

 all to be directed with more or less effect, 

 according to the experience and skill of the 

 watchful and accomjilished superintendent 

 over all. The difference between it and 

 other great chemical, or other complicated 

 machinery and laboratories is, that some turn 

 out soap, some oil, some glass, some linen 

 or woollen cloth, some nauseous drugs, while 

 yours turns out the staff of life, without 

 which all others would starve. In behalf, 

 then, of your own sons, I appeal to you if it 

 be fair in those who can afford it, to with- 

 hold, at least from such of them as are to 

 live by this most beneficial of all arts, a 

 knowledge of the chemical elements to be 

 found in the soil, in the air, in the water, 

 and in the animal and vegetable and mine- 

 ral kingdoms, with all which they have every 

 day to deal? If it be easy to find, even in 

 time of profound peace, for the last quarter 

 of a century, some fifteen millions annually, 

 for the warlike use and machinery of this 

 Republican Government, cannot one million, 

 at least, be found for the construction, at the 

 seats of all the State Governments, — or as 

 an appendage to the Smithsonian Institute 

 at Washington — of laboratories where prac- 

 tical instruction might be given to men who, 

 after a few years, might go forth into every 

 county in every State of this Union, and 

 teach practically to the rising generation of 

 farmers the various methods of analyzing 

 minej-als, and manures, and soils, and the 

 methods of detecting the materials taken 

 from the soils by the removal of the crops. 

 Are you aware of what is doing in our mo- 

 ther country on this subject — that country 

 from which we have derived our knowledge 

 of the principles of liberty and our advance- 

 ment in the arts — that country whose won- 

 derful progress in agriculture and manufac- 

 tures is based on her proficiency in the 

 sciences I have been so feebly recommend- 

 ing to be taught in all our schools'? Why, 

 such has been of late years the movement 



made in sciences connected with and con- 

 tributory to the progress of agriculture, that 

 Professor Johnston, the great agricultural 

 chemist, in a recent lecture, refers to a par- 

 ticular field of 100 acres of land which had, 

 to use his own language, by application of 

 an improved system of farming and the 

 proper application of manures^ been brought 

 in twelve years from an average product of 

 50 bushels of oats up to 85 bushels per acre; 

 and in Norfolk, England, according to one 

 of those masterly prize essays elicited lately 

 by the wise measures of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society, and which are transferred to 

 the Farmers' Library, a large district of fen 

 or boggy land, has been recently so im- 

 mensely improved, that some parts which 

 not many years ago were considered worth 

 not more than $35 an acre, have been sold 

 within the last five years at $225; while 

 others which, says the author of this elabo- 

 rate essay on Norfolk agriculture, were ofier- 

 ed for a gallon of beer, have sold for nearly 

 $200 an acre. 



Again, then, I repeat, you must overhaul 

 and amend your systenis of education. Why 

 should they remain stationary, while every- 

 thing around is advancing with railroad ve- 

 locity] Let us worship knowledge as we 

 now worship po'.vcr, until knowledge and 

 power become truly, as they ought to be, 

 synonymous. Pay to benefactors of indus- 

 trial pursuits the court you now pay to party 

 demagogues; exalt inventors in the useful 

 arts as you now exalt small men into high 

 places; pay and glorify thorough-bred scien- 

 tific instructors as you now pay and glorify 

 the military, and you will see the whole 

 mass of agricultural population rising from 

 the ground with increased vigor of intellect, 

 as the languishing fields revive after a ge- 

 nial shower, and with an understanding of 

 their rights, which will impart a strength to 

 maintain them beyond the strength of ten 

 thousand, armies, and with a capacity to pro- 

 secute their business and augment the pro- 

 ducts of tlie earth as much above the mere 

 efficacy of strong arms or brute force, as 

 mind is above matter, and all other powers 

 short of the powers of the Supreme Being. 

 But remember the species of education, the 

 sort of embellishment which is now need- 

 ed to keep your interests and pursuits in a 

 line with the advancement of every class 

 and every interest around you, does not con- 

 sist — and I cannot too often repeat it — in 

 learning merely to read, write, and cypher, 

 justly as all New England has a right to 

 boast of imparting that to all her children, 

 but with which it is apprehended they are 

 too generally contented. These are to bo 

 valued only as a means to an end— as step- 



