SCHOOL OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY. 291 



much less diseased than the late planted. Only those last planted rotted in the ground. — 

 Some of the early showed signs of decay in three or four days after digging them. I put 

 some, as soon as dug, into charcoal bins, but it did not save them ; and I have come to the 

 conclusion that the disease is atmospheric, and, like the cholera, will work its course, and 

 after a year or two we shall be able to raise good crops again. Next year I shall plant fewer 

 potatoes, and more beets, carrots and parsnips, 



From all I can leai-n, our potato crop in New-Jersey will not be a half-crop, and I think it 

 will be safe for you to estimate the crop tlu'oughout the country at that rate ; and it is said 

 that the rot has extended to sweet totatoes. I mean to go largely into Jerusalem ai'tichokes 

 for hogs the next year. 



THE " SCHOOL OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY " AT NEW-HAVEN. 



ITS CONNECTION WITH PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



" Providence would only initiate mankind into the useful knowledge of 

 Earth's treasures, leaving the rest to employ our industry, that we might 

 not live like loiterers." 



It i.s with no ordinary pleasure that we announce the opening of this School, 

 and hail its establishment as another and a decisive step in the forward march 

 of public sentiment, demandins^, more and more emphatically, express education 

 for Agriculture, as for other arts and pursuits. 



This School is attached to the Department of Philosophy and the Arts in Yale 

 College, with B. Silliman, Jr., as Professor of Chemistry and the kindred sci- 

 ences applied to the arts; while J. P. Norton is the Professor of Agricultural 

 Chemistry. 



The instruction in the Professorship of Agricultural Chemistry, about which 

 we feel most immediate concern, 

 " Is intended to unite, as much as possible, 

 practical views with theoiy ; to give the un- 

 taught fanner an opportunity to become ac- 

 quainted with so much of Science as shall 

 enable him to reason upon his daily pui'suits, 

 and to understand the great principles upon 

 which good cultivation must depend. A 

 course of Lectures will be delivered in the 

 winter of each year, commencing in January 

 and continuing about two months, there being 

 four Lectures in each week. The subjects 

 of the course will be : the composition and 



nature of the soil, the plant, and the animal — 

 theories of rotation of crops, and of feeding — 

 modes of drauiing — the different kinds of ma- 

 nm-es, their value and how beneficial — the 

 improvement of waste lands. &c. &c. 



" In connection with the Lectures will be 

 a short course of Elementary Chemistry, for 

 such as wish to study somewhat more of 

 Chemistry than is given in the course, and to 

 qualify themselves for making ordinary test- 

 ings and qualitative examinations of soils, 

 manures, &c." 



The introduction of this new branch of instruction is an experiment which 

 appeared to be called for by the juster views which begin to prevail as to the 

 true nature and dignity of this pursuit. It remains now to see whether farmers 

 will give due encouragement to an enterprise which looks directly to the eleva- 

 tion and improvement of their character and position in the circle of national 

 employments, and we rejoice to learn that already the signs are favorable. 



We feel authorized to say that it will be the aim of Professor Norton to make 

 his Lectures as practical as possible, to the end that farmers shall be divested of 

 the too prevalent idea that to understand and profit by them, they must devote 

 themselves to the regular study of Chen)istry. On the contrary, the design, as 

 we understand it, will be to give them a plain, comprehensive course — not to 

 puzzle them with hard words or to confuse them with theories requiring a sci- 

 entific education to understand them. In a word, the purpose is to explain the 

 great principles on which all proper cultivation depends, in such a manner that 



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