16 



habitants have ever been distinguished, and which arc not less 

 necessary to individual and social happiness, than to national 

 prosperity, we shall pause before we quit the soil of our an- 

 cestors for an imaginary paradise in the south or the west. 



In order to prosecute agricultural improvements with suc- 

 cess, theory and experience, science and practice must be united. 

 We must avail ourselves of the discoveries in science, and the 

 inventions and improvements in the arts. No employ- 

 ment has a more intimate connexion with the most important 

 sciences, and the most useful arts, and there is none which ad- 

 mits of a greater variety of interesting experiments. In some 

 countries of Europe, the study of agriculture is an essential 

 part of a liberal education. Several distinguished Universities 

 have a professorship to teach both the theory and practice of 

 agriculture. In the countries where it has been most success- 

 fully cultivated, it is one of the most popular employments, 

 and most interesting subjects of conversation, among men of the 

 highest rank and attainments. The mo t distinguished chemist 

 in England delivered a course of Lectures annually for many 

 years, on this subject before the \grlcultural Society. Indeed 

 no art so well deserves the national patronage, as none is so 

 essential to national security, prosperity and power. No 

 employment is on the whole so favorable to good morals, social 

 order, and to the promotion of those objects in which the true 

 interest of a nation consists. It is not expected that all far- 

 mers should be philosophers, or men of science, but it is desi- 

 rable that they should have some knowledge of those sciences 

 nnd arts which have a close connexion with the cultivation of 

 the soil, and have contributed so much to its improvement. 

 Such an acquaintance with chemistry, mineralogy and botany, 

 as would render a man able to analyze the different soils and 

 ascertain their constituent parts, and the nature and properties 

 of the plants commonly met with, might often be highly 

 beneficial. Wealthy farmers might give their sons an oppor- 

 tunity of acquiring this knowledge w^ithout any sensible incon- 

 venience, and thus at once promote the welfare of their fami- 

 lies, and advance the interests of their country. 



