278 ADDRESS. 



years in the principles of law and medicine, before we 

 permit the pupil to practise in these professions. We 

 require a like preliminary study in our military and naval 

 schools, in the sciences of war and navigation, ere the 

 student is deemed quahfied to command. And yet, in 

 Agriculture, by which, under the blessing of Providence, 

 we virtually " live, and move, and have our being," and 

 which truly embraces a wider range of useful science than 

 either law, medicine, war, or navigation, we have no 

 schools, we give no instruction, we bestow no govern- 

 mental patronage. Scientific knowledge is deemed indis- 

 pensable in many minor employments of life ; but in this 

 great business, in which its influence would be most potent 

 and useful, we consider it, judging from our practice, of 

 less consequence than the fictions of the novelist. We 

 regard mind as the efficient power in most other pursuits ; 

 while we forget, that in Agriculture, it is the Archimedean 

 lever, which, though It does noimove^ tends to fill a world 

 with plenty, with moral health, and human happiness. 

 Can it excite surprise, that under these circumstances of 

 gross neglect. Agriculture should have become among us, 

 in popular estimation, a clownish and ignoble employ- 

 ment ? 



In the absence of Agricultural professional schools, 

 could we not do much to enlighten and raise the charac- 

 ter of American husbandry, by making its principles a 

 branch of study in our district schools ? This knowledge 

 would seldom come amiss, and It would often prove a 

 ready help under misfortune, to those who had failed in 

 other business. What man is there, who may not ex- 

 pect, at some time of life, to profit directly by a knowl- 

 edge of these principles ? Who does not hope to become 

 the owner, or cultivator, of a garden, or a farm ? And 

 what man, enjoying the blessing of health, would be at a 

 loss for the means of an honest livelihood, whose mind 

 had been early imbued with the philosophy of rural cul- 

 ture — and who would rather work than beg ? 



An early acquaintance with natural science is calculated 

 to beget a taste for rural life and rural labors, as a source 

 of pleasure, profit, and honor. It will stinmlate to the 



