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TO THE 



PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS : 



An application having been made to your representatives in Con- 

 gress, to vote a sum equal to five cents from each individual in the 

 United States, or about a million dollars of your resources, to the 

 promotion of an improved system of " Terra-culture^ as described in 

 Senate, document No 23, of the third session of the 25th Congress, I 

 hereby direct your attention to a few extracts taken from the applicant's 

 preamble; copies of which have been forwarded to each member of the 

 2Gth Congress, in session, November 30, 1839. 



From the Poughkeepsie Eagle, Saturday Morning, January 25, 1849. 



PRESERVATION OF FRUIT TREES, PLANTS, &c 

 GREAT DISCOVERY. 



To the Hon. Perry Smith, chairman of the United States Senate 

 Committee on Agriculture of the 25th Congress. "With the consent 

 and by the advice on the 23d inst., of the chairman of the Unite I States 

 Senate Committee on Agriculture of the 25th Congress, I forward to 

 each member of the 26th Congress, the accompanying document dated 

 the 14th inst; the object is tj show you sotrf of the proof that a di-covery 

 of vital importance to civilized man has been made, which in several 

 letters from different members of the present and last Congress, is valued 



at HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DAYs' LABOUR, AND WORTH MORE THAN ALL 

 THE DISCOVERIES OF THE PRESENT AGE COMBINED — THE APPLICATION OF 

 STEAM NOT EXCEPTED " 



" For what purpose would all the owners of the public lands more 

 freely or gratefully consent to give one hundreth part of those lands, or 

 the proceeds thereof/ Would they not be grateful to those members of 

 Congress, who assist in giving the owners of the public domain the 

 desired information, and reverence them as benefactors of human kind. 1 ' 



" For the honour of the republic, for the honour of the age, and for 

 the interest and comfort of the living, as well as the unborn, let not that 

 discovery which may cause two seeds to ripen where one now does, 

 which prevents the premature death of all cultivated trees, which has 

 been searched for in vain during the history of all civilized society, die 

 with the discoverer for want of the action of the United States Congress. 1 ' 



Our patriot c dl-covorer " claims the following five discovi ries as his. 

 besides other discoveries which are stated in his memorial t) the 25th 

 Congress:' 1 — 



1st. "That various diseases, universally supposed to be destructive to 

 plants, are only symptoms that a particular error in cultivation has been 

 committed; and that many other injurious effects have been produced 

 by the same error, which are attributed to other causes." 



2d. " That the error is universally committed, to a greater or less 

 extent, throughout the States, and that he has seen an excess of it 

 wherever he has been, which is in the Atlantic States, from Georgia to 

 Massachusetts inclusive.'' 



3d. " That the Peach and Nectarine are more easily injured by the 

 error than most other Fruit Trees, and the cause of their being more 

 easily injured by it; and that this error causes them to be barren, or 

 short-lived." 



4th. " That the applicationof two known laws in Nature demonstrate 

 the reality of his discovery and its application to the whole vegetable 

 kingdom; and that by them, his discovery, (if publicly known,) must be 



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