Vol. XIV. 



ROCHESTER, K Y., NOVEMBER, 1853. 



No. XL 



i) 



£a^ 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURAL 



SCIENCK 



If tliere is any value in a knowledge of the true principles of agriculture, and if this 

 knowledge is worthy of cultivation by American farmers, we respectfully submit the 

 question to them, Whether it is not best to make an organized effort in behalf of agri- 

 cultural science ? 



Every observing, intelligent member of our present agricultural societies, knows that 

 they do next to nothing to encourage scientific investigations , of any kind. Their 

 annual shows bring the masses together once a year to see the bull Apis, as the Egyp- 

 tians brought their children to smell his breath, believing that the breath of the sacred 

 animal would inspire them with all useful knowledge, extending even to the foretelling 

 of future events. For this and other kindred practices, the ancient Egyptians are some- 

 times pitied for their idolatry and blind superstitions ; but when we compare their very 

 limited advantages with ours, the cattle exhibitions of this age appear less instructive 

 than the Apis festivals of the Egyptian husbandmen, which lasted seven days in each 

 year, and were conducted by the priests with vastly more pomp, care, and unction, than 

 characterize our poor imitations. Long before the time of Abraham, the valley of the 

 Nile was well cultivated, so that Joseph found no difficulty in laying up grain enough 

 to feed the indefinite millions seven years, without an intervening harvest. This his- 

 torical incident communicates a volume of instruction. Such extraordinary providence 

 could be possible only among a people of wonderful industry, self-denial, the greatest of 

 all virtues, and far-reaching intelligence. Not only the improvident Hebrews, but all 

 the neighboring tribes and nations, were often forced to beg their bread of the more 

 educated and civilized farmers of Egypt. The latter were the first land surveyors, and 

 the earliest cultivators of astronomy among mankind. Their farms were frequently, and 

 for months together, under water, by the annual overflow of the Nile ; and they set up 

 " land-marks," looking to the stars for cardinal points, and thus united the rudiments 

 of tillage, surveying, engineering, and astronomy, prompted by that necessity which is 

 the mother of invention. In every thing that pertains to irrigation and drainage, the 

 Egyptians were far in advance of us. We, short-sighted impoverishers of a virgin soil, 

 employ canals for commercial purposes alone ; they used them not only to convey their 

 crops to Thebes, and other great markets, but to bring all needful manure from their 

 populous cities, and distribute it equally in every cubic foot, cubic inch, and cubic line 

 of soil, dissolved in water. Thus fertilized, their lands never required rest from the 

 production of wheat a single year, for indefinite centuries. 



At this time, the State of New York has a thousand miles of canals, and two thous- 

 and one hundred miles of railways, in successful operation. Science would double the 



"rrS 



m 



