20 MR. braman's address, 



could be divided into farms of a moderate size, and cultivated 

 by the lords of the soil, might we not predict that their rapid- 

 ly advancing agriculture would take still more swift steps to- 

 wards the goal of its perfection. 



4. Another circumstance which has retarded the advance 

 of agriculture has been a want of chemical knowledge. It is 

 only about a hundred years since the foundation of the science 

 of modern chemistry was laid by Dr. Black of Edinburgh. 

 Previous to that time this branch of natural philosophy, was 

 in no condition to render any service to the tillage of the 

 ground. And indeed it was not till a considerable period sub- 

 sequent that application was made of its newly discovered 

 principles to that art in which it is destined to effect so won- 

 derful a revolution. Within fifty years the science has assum- 

 ed an exactness and made a progress, and taken a prominence, 

 to which nothing in its previous history, bears any comparison, 

 and upon which are founded the highest expectations of its 

 future development, and the immense benefit which it will 

 confer on mankind. Probably no important interest of hu- 

 manity will receive greater advantage from this department of 

 research then agriculture. The composition of soils, the ele- 

 ments which are combined in vegetables, the requisite ingredi- 

 ents for fertilizing agents, the presence or deficiency of par- 

 ticular qualities in the earths, which rendered them adapted or 

 unadapted to the production of certain descriptions of plants, 

 and whose very existence was unknown for thousands of 

 years, seem so essential to a successful tillage, that it is a mat- 

 ter of wonder how observation was so well able to remedy 

 the want which chemical investigation is destined to supply. 

 It has already rendered vast benefit to the cultivation of the 

 earth ; and yet agricultural chemistry is still in its infancy. It 

 is just laying the foundations of a mighty superstructure. What 

 then will it not effect when it has advanced to the full maturi- 

 ty of improvement ? A hundred or fifty years more of pro- 

 gress with the increased activity of the human mind, and the 

 increased facilities for discovery proportionate to that which 

 the last century or half century, has witnessed, will renovate 



