£l)c JTcumcr's ittcmtl)In Visitor. 



61 



Agricultural Address. 

 We are glad to be able to record ibe fact that the 

 fine agricultural county ofLenawee, Michigan, lias 

 at last wiped off that reproach of having no agri- 

 cultural society — a reproach under which several 

 of our oldest and most populous counties still 

 rest.— How long will they suffer this reproach ? 

 The following is an extract from the interesting 

 address of John Gibbons, Esq , delivered on the 

 occasion of the organization of the above named 

 society. We shall give more of it in our next: 



" One farmer believes, (and I am sorry to say 

 that so far from this being a mere imaginary 

 case, there appear to be many such men, that he 

 has arrived at the ' ne plus ultra ' of agricultural 

 knowledge — that ' no man can leach him much 

 about fanning — he was brought up to it and has 

 followed it all his life — he would not give a cent 

 for all 'the book knowledge' contained in all the 

 agricultural papers in the country.' Another by 

 careful observation and enquiry into the natural 

 history and habits of the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms, by making himself acquainted with 

 the experiments and facts ascertained by others, 

 and by investigating the laws of chemical analy- 

 sis, and ascertaining the constituent principles 

 that compose the various kinds of plants and 

 vegetable productions of the earth, and the soil 

 that produces them, together with the relation 

 and effects of light, he^it, electricity, air, water, 

 &c, upon them, and discovering by the re- 

 searches of geologists in relation to organic re- 

 mains, that the earth has at some former period 

 of its existence, produced plants of immensely 

 larger growth than any of the same species to 

 be found at the present time, and knowing from 

 the fixed and established laws of nature that ex- 

 actly similar circumstances would necessarily pro- 

 duce similar results now, he concludes like the 

 great Newton, that so far from having nothing 

 more to learn in relation to agriculture, he is but 

 'as a child playing on the sea shore and gather- 

 ing a few trilling pebbles, while the whole ocean 

 of truth lays unexplored before him !' That man, 

 then, has the best right to his opinions, who has 

 taken the most pains to investigate, and the best 

 means to arrive at a just conclusion in relation 

 to any proposition. But few, if any of us, have 

 a very good right to think we know much about 

 farming yet; that is, we so understand the true 

 scientific principles of Agriculture and Horticul- 

 ture, as to reduce them to the greatest practical 

 benefit, and therefore, that in forming our opin- 

 ions we should not only pay a due and proper 

 regard to the views of those who have given 

 greater attention to the subject, but in addition 

 to their investigation and experiments, we should 

 make, use of the best means within our power 

 to arrive at the just and correct conclusions, 

 founded on experiment to lest theories, establish 

 facts, &c. No doubt but many a self-conceited 

 professed practical farmer would ridicule such 

 sentiments as some of the preceding, calling 

 them 'stuff, mere theory, book farming.' Sup- 

 pose we should set such an one to work side by 

 side with a ' hook farmer,' a real full-blooded, tho- 

 ,i, s io» «i urough-going book farmer, such as that eminent 



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iFrench Chemist, Lavoisier, (who, although he 

 lj>robably never performed a day's manual labor 

 |at farming in bis life, so instructed those who 

 labored for him, that from his farm of two hun- 

 dred and forty acres, he is said to have obtained 

 Idouble the produce of his neighbors on the same 

 quantity of land,) or as the late Judge Buel, or 

 Javid Thomas, or Lewis F. Allen, or Doctor 



Lee, or very many others that might he mention- 

 ed in our own country, all ' book farmers,' 

 (though to confess the truth, I do not know that 

 I should call them, or that any of them would 

 claim to be thorough bred book farmers, as that, 

 in my estimation, would require in addition to 

 the facts and experiments of practical farmers, a 

 knowledge of almost the whole range of natural 

 sciences, among which geology, chemistry, and 

 vegetable physiology would claim very prominent 

 places.) But I seem to hear some one say, 

 'what! is he so simple and visionary ns to sup- 

 pose that every farmer must thoroughly under- 

 stand chemistry, and botany, and geology, mine- 

 ralogy, ornithology ; entomology, physiology, and 

 all other ologiesT Not by any means; for great 

 as the pleasure and advantage of such knowledge 

 would be to him, I very well know that every 

 farmer has not the time, or means, or even the 

 capacity, for acquiring such knowledge. But 

 some farmers should understand them and apply 

 them to practical use, and we should be willing 

 to avail ourselves of the benefit of their know- 

 ledge, and pay due respect to their suggestions 

 in making experiments to test the truth and 

 availability of principles they have discovered, 

 and in obtaining through their agency, the analy- 

 sis of our soils, &c. In this way we might com- 

 mence a set of rational experiments that would 

 probably lead to very great improvements in 

 your agricultural operations; for is there not just 

 ground to believe from well authenticated tacts 

 that are constantly reaching our ears, that such 

 improvements may be made ? Some of us have 

 repeatedly seen in this county, on some of the 

 lightest soil in the vicinity, more than one hun- 

 dred, even as high as one hundred and thirteen 

 bushels of corn grown to the acre, by our highly 

 respected and much lament friend and fellow 

 citizen, the late Darius Comstock, (another ' book 

 farmer;') and he assured me in the strongest 

 terms, that it was a great mistake in any one to 

 suppose that the increased trouble and expense, 

 were in proportion to the increased yield — one 

 hundred and thirteen bushels of such a crop 

 probably not costing more than two-thirds as 

 much as they would have done raised in the 

 same way, on three acies of bind, which I think 

 would be a full average yield in this county. 

 Now, the probability is, that, were we fully ac- 

 quainted with the principles of chemistry, geolo- 

 gy, vegetable physiology, and other branches of 

 science that relate to, or have some connection 

 with agriculture, so as to adopt a proper system 

 of rotation, and to give to every crop only those 

 manures or substances necessary for its full de- 

 velopment, reserving those not necessary for 

 other crops of a different nature, we might in- 

 crease them all in at least a two-fold proportion, 

 which you readily admit woidd be as great a 

 change as any that has been going on in the pub- 

 lic mind within the last year, or two. Not only 

 so, hut while making these improvements in our 

 agricultural operations, we should be very likely 

 to make corresponding improvements in our 

 buildings, our orchards, our gardens, &c, con- 

 verting our country into a second Eden, a real 

 Paradise, if we were equally careful at the same 

 time, that the improvement in our minds and 

 manners should keep pace with our other im- 

 provements. 



" But as our book and anti-book farmers a;-e 

 all this time waiting to he at work, let us give 

 them farms of the same quality side by side, and 

 watch their operations awhile. B. being a che- 

 mist, and acquainted with the elementary princi- 



ples that constitute the different crops he wishes 

 to cultivate, and knowing that no organic body 

 can be formed in perfection without a due pro- 

 portion of ull the constituent principles that en- 

 ter into its composition, he thinks a careful anal- 

 ysis of the soil of his farm is necessary before 

 he can go to work understandingly and econom- 

 ically. Perhaps he finds it sufficiently supplied 

 with all the organic and inorganic substances 

 necessary to produce thirty-five or forty bushels 

 of wheat to the acre, except phosphate of lime, 

 silicate of potash, or some other material of 

 which it requires hut an exceedingly small quan- 

 tity, and yet without which he knows that he 

 could no more obtain a good crop of wheat than 

 he could make soap without oil, or egg shells 

 without lime. Now suppose the soil is so defi- 

 cient in phosphate of lime as to be incapable of 

 producing more than ten or fifteen bushels of 

 wheat to the acre — instead of incurring much 

 trouble and expense in giving the land a heavy 

 coating of manure that might add but little if 

 any thing more than such materials as were al- 

 ready in the soil, he knows that about fifteen 

 pounds of old bones dissolved in a little diluted 

 sulphuric acid, (and that he might find in some 

 corner of his neighbor's fields, left there by a 

 valuable horse or cow that had died of the bolts 

 or murrain, or some other disorder, because its 

 owner had not read in some agricultural paper 

 how he might have prevented or cured the dis- 

 ease,) would furnish all that is lacking so far as 

 the soil is concerned, to produce forty bushels to 

 the acre. Will any man of observation at the 

 present time, pretend to say that it is impos- 

 sible for fifteen pounds of hone-dust, or any other 

 substance, to increase a crop from fifteen to forty 

 bushels to the acre? Which of us have not had 

 ocular demonstration that from a peck to half a 

 bushel of gypsum will add at least a ton of clov- 

 er hay to the acre? And it appears, (if I re- 

 member right,) by experiments recently made in 

 France, that one quart of sulphuric acid, diluted 

 in a large quantity of water, and sprinkled over 

 an acre, has produced as great an effect. Nor is 

 this at all strange when we understand that all 

 plants ' require certain salts for the sustenance 

 of their vital functions, the acid of which salts 

 either exist in the soil, (such as the silicic, phos- 

 phoric or sulphuric acids.) or are generated from 

 nutriment derived from the atmosphere ; thence 

 if these salts are not contained in the soil, or if 

 the bases necessary for their production be ab- 

 sent, they cannot be formed, or in other words, 

 plants cannot grow in such soil — and as different 

 plants require different salts, and in different 

 quantities, the aptitude of a soil to produce one, 

 but not another kind of plant, is due to the pre- 

 sence of a base which the former requires, and 

 the absence of that, indispensable for the devel- 

 opment of the latter;' therefore it is evident that 

 upon the correct knowledge of the bases and 

 salts requisite for the sustenance of each plant, 

 and of the composition of the soil upon which 

 it is grown, depends the whole system of a ra- 

 tional theory of agriculture. By understanding 

 these, then, our thorough-bred scientific ' hook 

 farmer,' with the leust possible expense, may go 

 on as Lavoisier did, increasing the products of his 

 farm, orchard, or garden, until they are double 

 or treble those of his anti-book farming neighbor, 

 who we will suppose is a good, industrious tho- 

 rough-going ' practical farmer,' knowing well 

 how to plough and sow, harrow and hoe, reap 

 and mow, and perform all the manual operations 



relating to his occupation, well ; and having 



