252 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



[Translated by H. Meigs, October 1, 1859.] 

 SERVICE RENDERED TO AGRICULTURE BY WOMEN. 



From the discourse of Mons. Cubier, the elder, to the Society of Agri- 

 culture in Versailles, France, June 18, 1809, I extract the following : 



" Through the misty dawn of early ages woman, the flower of the human 

 race, has taken the earliest steps, and the most direct, in agriculture. Lift- 

 ing the veil of fiction, Lo ! Isis, Queen of Egypt, gave precious lessons on 

 agriculture to her people, while her husband, Osiris, gave them law. Isis 

 assumed the ox as the grand symbol of the farm, thus apis became an 

 Egyptian god. ( Oh ! the roast beef of our day ! !) Tlien comes the fer- 

 tile, lovely island cf Sicily, where Ceres was queen, and was deemed to be 

 the mother of Flutus, the god of gold, because agricultural crops were 

 worth it all. Ceres dwelt in Euna, one of the then finest cities of Sicily. 

 Cicero describes it in glowing terms. Strabo (who wrote 1,800 years ago,) 

 speaks of its delightful fields, meadows, &c. Diodorus Sieulus, before 

 that, praises it. Homer, long before, says, " this beautiful country was 

 the first that produced wheat." 



The Minerva of Athens, the Parthenon virgin queen, raised olives. 

 Flora took care of the flowers. Pomona of the fruit. Semiramis gained 

 renown by her lovely gardens. Woman has taken care of the garden and 

 farm while man was hunting or fighting or lazing. Early Eome did all 

 that. An empress of China introduced mulberry and silk. laahella, sis- 

 ter of the European Charles V., married Christiern, King of Denmark, 

 and first taught him how to raise good vegetables. The ladies of the 

 court of the Emperor Rodolph, in the sixteenth century, studied botany 

 and imported foreign plants. Mademoiselle Linnceus, the daughter of the 

 great botanist, aided him, and so did Mademoiselle Pommereuil, for which 

 Linnasus gave her name to a fine plant, the Pomeruella. Madame de 

 Genlis wrote strongly in favor of the science. Rousseau enforces them in 

 his " Emile." 



A princess of Wales made a beautiful Chinese garden at Kew. Women 

 often make the garden and farm flourish while their husbands are otherwise 

 employed. 



LIEBIG ON AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



The technical part of an industrial pursuit can he learned. The prin- 

 ciples only can he taught. 



I had a school at Gicssen for practical chemistry, analysis, kc. Thirty 

 years' experience has taught me that nothing is to be gained by the com- 

 bination of theoretical with practical instruction. 



[Note by H. Meigs.] — The above is about the amount of the experience 

 of the last half century in agricultural schools. The Institute of France 

 caused an examination to be made some ten years ago, of the working of 

 such schools throughout Europe. The report constituted an octavo volume, 

 and fully confirms the remarks above by Liebig. The great school of Von 

 Thayer only flourished while he presided. 



