DIFFUSION OF INTELLIGENCE. 61 



dairy-farming, drainage, and, in fact, npon subjects covering 

 the Avliole range of fiirni economy, many of them of unex- 

 ceptionable literary merit in point of style, finish and per- 

 fection, and the results of accurate scientific research. 



To bring the facilities for improvement within the easy 

 reach of the largest number of people, the system of town- 

 ship and district libraries was first initiated by the State of 

 New York, in 1837, with an appropriation of $200,000 a 

 year for three years, and subsequent grants of $50,000. 

 This example was followed by Massachusetts in 1839, and 

 more recently Michigan gave each township the sum of $50 

 annually for this purpose. Indiana adopted the same policy 

 in 1854, Ohio in 1857, the former appropriating $300,000 a 

 year for two years, the latter $80,000 annually. Illinois and 

 other Western States adopted a similar course, and it was 

 properly regarded as admirably adapted to promote agricul- 

 tural improvement, as well as the general welfare of the 

 community. At the same time most of the states early 

 adopted the plan of publishing and distributing large num- 

 bers of documents upon agriculture, gratuitously, among the 

 people. These documents are, many of them, of high merit, 

 containing the most recent scientitic investigations, reports of 

 experiments, and the observations of the most experienced 

 practical men. Probably about two hundred thousand volumes 

 are thus freely distributed through the farming community 

 every year, with the addition of about as many more issued 

 by the Department of Agriculture at Washington. These 

 and various similar instrumentalities, all now in constant 

 activity, are exerting a vast influence in developing our 

 material resources. 



WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE. 



The contributions of science to the progress of practical 

 agriculture are by no means small or unimportant. Agricul- 

 tural chemistry, itself in a state of transition and rapid 

 growth, was never so helpful or so available to the farmer as 

 at the present day. Though Sir Humphry Davy may be said 

 to have opened the door to progress and improvement in this 

 direction, in the early part of the present century, the accu- 

 mulation of scientific facts was so slow that it was not till 



