2A2 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



FEB. 7, 1844. 



From the Nalioiial Irilelli Jencer. 



A NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL INSTI- 

 TUTK. 



Believing that a Notional Afrriculfural Institute 

 nnd Pallern Farm in the neighborhood of VVash- 

 inylon, if so organized and conducted as to teacli 

 alike the science, the practice, nnd the profits of 

 good husbandry, would be productive of incalcula- 

 ble benefits to the whole country, I trust the edi- 

 tors of the National Intelligencer will give pub- 

 licity to the following suggestions, designed to ad- 

 vance the most important branch of productive 

 industry in the United States. 



It may be snt'ely assumed that there is now ex- 

 tant a large amount of useful knowledge apper- 

 taining to every department of rural economy, 

 which unfortunately, is confined to a very few, 

 and therefore comparatively of very little value to 

 the great mass of those engaged in rural pursuits. 

 If a fair portion of this truly practical knowledge 

 were generally diffused among all the tillers of 

 the earth, it would double the profits, if not the 

 products of American agriculture. Increase the 

 annual returns from the land and labor now devo- 

 ted to rural employments, but ten per cent, and 

 you will add over one hundred millions of dollars 

 to the annual income of the American people. Aug- 

 ment the yield of the winter wheat now on the 

 ground only ten per cent., by giving to the plant a 

 cheap but full supply of those elements which im- 

 part strength to its body and a large developement 

 to its seed, and you will double our surplus bread- 

 Bluffs for the cvport of the next season. The 

 transportation of this surplus to market will add 

 injmediately to the business and much-needed rev- 

 enue of all our intenal improvements, and give an 

 auspicious impulse to our manufacturing, mercan- 

 tile, and commercial enterprise. Teach the corn- 

 growers of this land of maize how to harvest only 

 twenty per cent, more — which can easily be done 

 — than they now do from the same land and labor, 

 and you will secure to them and to the community 

 a clear gain of 80,000,000 busliols of corn. 



It is well known to bo practicable so to change 

 the organic structure and functions of the pig, of 

 which there are millions in the country, that one 

 animal will, from a given amount of food, yield to 

 its owner twice as much flesh and fat as another. 

 Transform, to the best advantage, the above named 

 80,000,000 bushels of corn into pork, beef, lard, 

 oil, stearine, &c., and it will load thousands of 

 railroad cars, canal boats, and vessels 

 to foreign consumers. 



According to the census returns of 1840, our 

 twenty millions of sheep gave less than two pounds 

 of wool per head. If we make, as we can, all the 

 other functions of this aniftial co-op.;rate withtlio.ie 

 organs that elaborate wool — if we stimulate the 

 latter to the active secretion of this important pro- 

 duct, by giving the sheep such food as contains a 

 large portion of the elements of wool, it has heen 

 found practicable to clip eight or ten pounds as 

 the return from the same value of raw material, 

 which, under other circumstances, would give only 

 two pounds. It requires, however, several genera- 

 tions to effoct these important organic changes, al- 

 though much can be done in the way of improve- 

 ment during the lifetime of each individual. 



How few practical farmers know how to make 

 or to perpetuate these organic changes in the 

 structure and functions of their domestic animals, 

 which arc alike practicable in all their cultivated 



on Its way 



plants. Not knowing by what circumstances and 

 elements tliese favorable changes are produced, 

 the great mass of American agriculturists are 

 equally incapable of preventing deterioration, to 

 which the highly artificial condition of both their 

 plants and animals render theui extremely prone. 

 Hence is deduced the momentous truth, that prac- 

 tical science, universally diffused among all our 

 rural population, is indispensable to maintain the 

 improvements in any branch of Iiiisbandry which 

 science has already achieved. The knowledge of 

 the few, no matter liow profound, con never com- 

 pensate for the ignorance of the many. The im- 

 portant fiict is too little heeded, that all men have 

 minds which need intellectual food and develope- 

 ment, as well as physical wants which must be 

 provided for. As a people, we lack not capital, 

 but knowledge — sound, practical knowledge — that 

 we may avail ourselves of all the legitimate and 

 abundant advantages placed within our reach by 

 the benevolent Author of our being. 



Nothing is more common, even in this new and 

 sparsely settled country, than to see fields badly 

 exhausted by improper tillage. Unless the food 

 of vegetables derived from the soil be dissolved in 

 water, it can hardly enter the minute pores of their 

 roots, and form a portion of their circulating nour- 

 ishment. If this food, however, be at all times 

 soluble in water, every rain that falls will dissolve 

 it, and wasli it away into rivulets, or carry it deep 

 into the earth beyond the roots of growing, if not 

 starving plants. The needless loss from the pre- 

 mature solution of ill-prepared manures, and the 

 leaching or the soil when stirred up and made light 

 by the use of the plow or the lioe, is many millions 

 a year. Vegetable food' should be so prepared, as 

 far as practicable, as to encounter both the frosts 

 and snows of winter and the heat and rain of sum- 

 mer without loss, and yet yield readily to the de- 

 composing influence of vegetable life. Nothing 

 short of this can maintain the fertility of all culti- 

 vated lands. It is to practical science that our 

 farmers, and all others w!io happen to have mouths 

 that require three meals in every twentyfour hours, 

 and backs that need to be clad in wool and cotton, 

 must look for a remedy for this increasing sterility 

 of the soil, and a thousand other evils to which no 

 allusion can be made. 



In what way can this invaluable knowledge be 

 brought home to the fireside and understanding of 

 every husbandman in this broad republic ? I an- 

 swer, in part by tlie efficient aid of a National Ag- 

 ricultural Institute and Pattern Farm, near the 

 capital of the nation. The plan of that at Brig- 

 non, near Paris, {whicli has been eminently suc- 

 cessful,) with slight variations, might be adopted 

 with advantage. Tlio French Institute was estab- 

 lished in 182'J, on a domain of over fourteen hun- 

 dred acres, and by using on old palace for college 

 buildings. Since it was founded, the crop of 

 wheat annually grown in the kingdom, has been 

 increased, according to official reports, over one 

 hundred million bushels. It is under the direc- 

 tion of 11 company of business men, and so managed 

 OS to be profitable slock. 



A National Institute should have several young 

 gentlemen as pupils from every Coni^ressional dis- 

 trict in the Union. '1 hose once thoroughly edu- 

 cated, would return and engraft, as far as desira- 

 ble, the science of rural economy upon every lite- 

 rary institution in the country. By the aid of 

 model farms in every county, public lectures, and 

 the cordial support of the whole intelligence and 



virtue of the community, these public benefactoi 

 would be able to scatter broadcast the good see 

 of a sound practical knowledge of the iinniutab' 

 laws of Nature over the whole length and breadt 

 of the nation. 



What belter use can be made of the ampl 

 funds given to the Federal Government by th 

 Smithsonian bequest than to qualify six hundred ( 

 a thousand young genlleuien, every three years, I 

 carry home to every man's door in this great a^r 

 cultural republic, a knowledge of all the improvi 

 ments made in practical husbandry by the exper 

 cnce and study of the whole world .' The cult) 

 valors of the soil have this matter in their ow 

 hands. If they will only speak to their public se 

 vants in Congress, this iniportant object can b 

 promptly secured. The gam to the whole countr 

 will be not only incalculable in amount, but as un 

 versal as the first wants of our common natun 

 and as enduring as the immortal mind. 



Will not the friends of human elevation, th 

 friends of agricultural improvement, unite with mi 

 and send up hundreds of petitions to Congress 

 asking the representatives of a rural population t 

 establish an Agricultural Institute and Patter 

 Farm, near the capital of the nation, and thereb 

 open a perennial lountain of knowledge, whos 

 thousand rills shall fertilize at once and forevc 

 the whole intellect and the whole cultivated soil c 

 this young and rising republic.' How many mi 

 lions have been expended from the National trea 

 sury, or otherwise taken from the pockets of th 

 people, for the benefit of commerce and manufac 

 tures ? Is the great interest of agriculture alon 

 unworthy of public regard ? Will not the keen 

 sighted and patriotic press of the whole countr 

 speak out upon a question of equal benefit to a 

 parties, and therefore alike worthy of their earnes 

 support.' DANIEL LEE. 



Buff-alo, Dec. 14, 1843. 



DANA'S PRIZE ESSAY ON MANURES. 

 Section Fourth. 

 Of the Action of Mould- in Cattle Dung. 

 Here, then, we have cattle dung with its severa 

 ingredients spread out before us. 



We have now to study its action. We neec 

 here consider only the salts and mould. The wa 

 ter is only water, and has no other action than wa 

 ter. The mould includes the hay, for that has, bi 

 chewing, and the action of the beast's stomach 

 lost so much of its character, that, mingled witi 

 the slime and bile, &c., it more rapidly decays thai 

 ay would, placed in similar circumstances 



fresh 



During this act of decay, as you have already 

 learned, the volatile parts of the mould are given 

 off in part. These escape as in burning wood, at 

 water or steam, carbonic acid, and ammonia. Ir 

 consequence of this slow mouldering fire or decay 

 the manure heats. Here, then, we have three very 

 decided and important actions (iroduced by the 

 vegetable part, or mould of cattle dung. First 

 carbonic acid is given off; second, ammonia is 

 formed ; third, heat is produced. Let us now con- 

 sider each of those, and their efl^ects. 



First, the great action of the carbonic acid is 

 upon the soil, its earthy parts. It has the same 

 action on these, that air, rain, frost, have ; it di- 

 vides and reduces them. It not only reduces 

 them to powder, but it extracts from the earth pot- 

 ash and the alkalies. This is a very important act, 



