116 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



carpenter, and architect, sink together into inactivity. No fee 

 could tempt the lawyer's tongue. Considerations of a momentous 

 future would prompt no pulpitieal discourse; the surgeon's glit- 

 tering knife would rust; the pen of novelist or accountant would 

 not be plucked from its original wing, the marble would tarry 

 in its unquan-ied bed; and eloquence, poesy and music, flee to 

 their native heaven. 



Successful agriculture calls for something more than the mere 

 application of sinew. It is not. enough to plant and hoe. Intel- 

 lectual must mingle with physical toil; a good head, as well as a 

 strong arm, is required. In the development of the best modes 

 of agricultural cultivation, observation, study, and experiment, 

 are as necessary, as in the progress of natural philosophy. It is 

 not only in itself a science, but other sciences contribute, and 

 are indispensable to its success. The study of soils — the best 

 mode of em-iching them — the proper alternation of crops — the 

 adaptation of ground to wheat or corn, oats or hemp, root crops 

 and vines, or clover and the grasses; the application of chemical 

 principles to the treatment of the ground — the exhausting powers 

 of certain productions — the best system of irrigation — the re- 

 clamation of swamp land — the true time for sowing or harvesting, 

 or felling of timber — the introduction of labor-saving machinery, 

 or of ncAV grains, plants or gi-afts — how provisions may be pre- 

 served — ^how cattle may be fattened, and breeds improved, and 

 a hundred other kindred topics, are subjects, it may be readily 

 seen, requu-ing something more than superficial examination; 

 calling rather for the highest efforts of scientific industry. 



McCormick has sent off hundreds of his reapers, to gather foreign 

 harvests; some prostrating their sheaves in England, some in Ger- 

 many, and some in El Dorado. There was head work as well as 

 hand work in the invention of this implement. The idea would 

 never have dawned upon stupidity. Mere manual labor would 

 not have called it forth. It was an efiort of genius, and the oldest 

 husbandman of Europe acknowledged its superiority, and gladly 

 welcomed it to revolutionize their modes of labor. And now, 

 Manny, in the same department, has borne off the honors on the 

 fields of France. Surely there is room for the play of intellect 

 in the pursuit of agriculture The real farmer cannot allow many 

 cells of liis brain to remain inactive. The study of vegetable and 

 animal physiology, of agricultural geology, of entomology, of 

 chemistry and meteorology, might well divide his time with the 

 labors of the spade. It is supposed by many, that if a man can 



