M. P. WILDER'S REMARKS. 251 



because they require the exercise of the utmost energy of the 

 mind, and this exercise is precisely what youth demand • the 

 want of it drives them into all kinds of foolish excesses- for 

 the desire for it is invincibly strong, and will be gratified. Now, 

 is it not possible to divert these energies of the mind to the suc- 

 cessful pursuit of agriculture? The experience of other nations 

 answers, yes, but only by the preparation of a previous, suita- 

 ble education, of the first order. Young men generally consider 

 a farmer as a mere machine, a plough, a cart, or a hoe, with 

 nothing to do but what their fathers did before them. Will 

 these ideas apply to any other industrial pursuit, or any other 

 profession? Had they been so applied, the railroad, the steam- 

 boat, the electric telegraph, had still been unknown— and, as 

 long as these ideas exist amongst them, so long will the best of 

 our agricultural population flock to the cities, and many a fme 

 mind be irretrievably lost. 



Remarks by M. P. Wilder. 



[At the same meetings of the Legislative Society, at which Mr. Teschema- 

 cher made the foregoing remarks, Hon. M. P. Wilder, the President, made 

 the subjoined statement of his own experience, in the making and applying of 

 manures.] 



Mr. Wilder said that he was no chemist, and made no pre- 

 tensions to farming, except, as it is connected with gardening 

 and the horticultural art. 



He had made some experiments with manures, some of which 

 he would relate : — He did not wish it to be understood, that he 

 undervalued stable or barnyard manure ; but such as was pur- 

 chased from the stables of the city, by the cord, when deprived 

 of straw, or decomposed, was, in reality, only half or three- 

 fourths of a cord. To obtain a real solid cord of manure, equal 

 in quality, and at less price, had, with him, been a great desid- 

 eratum, and he believed he had succeeded, by making a com- 

 post of meadow muck, crushed bones, and leached ashes, in the 

 following proportions : — 



