14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AJ£ERICAK INSTITUTE. 



labors of fresh developments in science applicable to agriculture 

 and the mechanic arts — there is need of a position in the very 

 centre of greatest activity. 



The collections in science and art would soon form an instruc- 

 tive museum. The number of farmers and mechanics habitually 

 visiting the city would form a large and willing audience in every 

 week of the year. And the frequent expositions of some specialty 

 in science or invention would call for the habitual use of a great 

 lecture-room, where both of the clubs and a general audience 

 would render their discussions highly instructive to themselves, 

 and widely useful through reports in the daily and weekly papers. 



Within the future home of the Institute there should, if possi- 

 ble, be a chemical laboratory, where analyses should be made for 

 farmers and mechanics ; and why not for miners, merchants and 

 the courts ? Why should not the Institute aspire to maintain a 

 laboratory for at least two constant investigators ? There are 

 rich men among us who would gladly connect their names with a 

 permanent endowment for this purpose. 



The field of original investigation is the mine of our future 

 wealth. The openings already made indicate the sure rewards 

 of future labor. The future economies in the preparation of 

 manures, in the consumption of fuel, in the reduction of metals, 

 and in the generation of power, are measures of the numbers of 

 the human family, and of the comfort and leisure they shall enjoy. 

 Schools which aim only to educate successors for those who die, 

 bring on a stationary state, like that of China, and prepare the 

 nation, sooner or later, to fall under the encroachment of pro- 

 gressive nations. 



In this connection is it not possible for the institution to 

 qualify and send out a class of agricultural missionaries — men, 

 who might occupy a part of the time and attention now bestowed 

 on barren sensation lectures ; men, able and willing to give im- 

 portant practical directions to individual farmers, who, without 

 such aid, are likely to repeat the errors of their fathers ? The 

 want of such a service is manifest, and ought to be supplied by 

 men duly qualified. 



The judgments given by any committee or club of the Insti- 

 tute, especially in cases between competitors, should, by all pos- 

 sible means, be such as to deserve the confidence of the public, 

 and the acquiescence of the disappointed. 



At the great fairs in Europe, it is an advantage that the judges 



