31 



far less perfect opportunities of observation, great 

 pleasure; and he left the country more than thirty 

 years ago, with a strong admiration for the extraor- 

 dinary improvements and advances made in this great 

 art, in that active, populous, and intelligent com- 

 munity. 



The British nation had long since arrived at the 

 conviction, which experience and further inquiry had 

 served only to confirm and strengthen, that science 

 in all its influences might lend a most substantial aid 

 to agriculture. They therefore have largely availed 

 themselves of its aid in the chemical examination of 

 soils and manures, with a view to ascertain their uses 

 and correctives. 



The popular impressions formerly entertained, 

 that little was to be gained in agriculture by the ap- 

 plication of science, are, in a great measure remov- 

 ed. Nothing could have less foundation in reason 

 or fact. The advantages of the judicious applica- 

 tion of knowledge to art, are every where obvious. 

 All the arts of life have their foundation in knowl- 

 edge ; and all the improvements of mechanism, from 

 a wheelbarrow to a chronometer, are due to science 

 and mechanical philosophy. It will be fouud true in 

 relation to every thing connected with human im- 

 provement and comfort, even in the commonest de- 

 partments of life, the more knowledge the better. 



Inquiries into the nature of soils are of great im- 

 portance ; and in respect to many soils now either 

 wholly unproductive or uncongenial to certain crops, 

 science may enable us to apply the necessary altera- 

 tives or correctives. x\lthough we cannot fabricate 



