No. 216.] 501 



not fear the result. Time was, when a new-fashioned plow was re- 

 garded as an invention of the devil; that time has passed. Heaven 

 is blessed. Pandemonium no longer plants on its horrid front the 

 gems gathered by science in the arcana of nature. 



Farmers of !^ew-York! do not suppose that you can array your- 

 selves in the ranks of those who are not " called by their situations 

 in life to assist in extending the bounds of science." Your profes- 

 sion, if you are true to it, demands that you shall assist in extend- 

 ing those bounds. If you are not true, loss of wealth, and shame 

 when you hear of the success of agriculturists in other countries, 

 who place a proper estimate on their noble pursuit, must be the re- 

 sult. Philosophy woos you with smiling face and beckoning hands; 

 she offers to lead you through her vast and splendid museums of 

 physical truths; she is ready to pour out on your plains her fructify- 

 ing spirit. Some who have already accepted her invitation, can wit- 

 ness that she is no vain promiser. Do you ask facts? They will 

 give them. An eminent writer says, " it is the duty of the chemist 

 to explain the composition of a fertile soil; but the discovery of its 

 proper physical state or condition belongs to the agriculturist." 

 Now, it is known that such discoveries, made by educated farmers, 

 have caused large tracts of land, which have been deemed worthless, 

 to yield most bountiful crops. Again, what vast benefits have ac- 

 crued to many, by a knowledge of " the necessity of alkalic bases to 

 vegetable life." That knowledge was the result of science. Those 

 who have obeyed the call, will place before you a large variety of 

 subjects whose mastery they can prove your interests demand. Do 

 you not see, almost by intuition, that you should know the constitu- 

 ent elements of plants, the origin and assimilation of carbon, the 

 origin and action of humus, the proper rotation of crops, the ra- 

 tionale of manures and fallow, the formation of arable land, the 

 causes which affect fermentation, decay and putrefaction; the causes 

 of contagions, poisons and miasms? See what two men have effect- 

 ed by mastering these subjects, and by being true to their profession. 

 The purse has always possessed an eloquent tongue, I here couch 

 my arguments in a style that cannot be too figurative for the most 

 fastidious taste. 



" Afttr some desultory conversation on various subjects, Mr. Meigs 

 read the report of the Committee of the Club, who, on the ih'irl inst, 

 visited the farm of Messrs. Cooper, near Bushwick, Long Island. It 

 may be interesting to our readers to note, as follows, what intelligent 

 and persevering practical farmers may cause the land of even a small 



