1852.1 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 227 



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^cultivators upon whose exertions depends the supply of food for mil- nJ 

 lions of the human family, not only within the bounds of our own ter- ^ 

 ritory, but even in foreign countries. Satisfied no doubt with the pro- \ 

 gress already made in the art, the necessity for educating the farmer i 

 is questioned; it is a matter of doubt with some, whether special pro- 

 vision should be made for his instruction in the principles on which 

 *he success of his operations depend. Will not the soil yield its pro- 

 duce without any scientific knowledge being applied by the operator 1 ? 

 It has done so heretofore — why will it not continue so to dot Such 

 a deduction is by no means clear or correct. Were the natural laws, 

 which must be observed before success can attend the exertions of the 

 farmer, so clear and apparent that even the most superficially educated 

 peasant might read and understand without effort or study, then it 

 might be considered as a matter of indifference whether or not any 

 means were provided for putting the information required within the 

 reach of those concerned. On the contrary, when it is a well known 

 fact that the principles on which successful cultivation is based are by 

 no means perspicuous or obvious, then those whose duty it is to watch 

 over the vital though less clamorous interests of the commonwealth, 

 should take care that the means of obtaining a knowledge of the more 

 important and fundamental laws of matter in relation to the tillage of 

 the soil, be placed within the reach of every citizen desirous to obtain 

 it, from youth to age. 



Few citizens of this Republic can be found unable to read and 

 write. Trained under its efficient school system the majority of them 

 have had the benefit of a useful elementary course of education; most, 

 if not all of our farmers can read ; but how few have by reading been 

 made acquainted with the component parts of soils, with the compo- 

 sition and decomposition of the bodies used by them in their daily 

 operations — with the different agents, active and passive, brought into 

 combination to produce what appears a simple result, the absence of 

 any one of which would affect materially the success of the operation. 

 Yet such acquaintance with a few principles as would render these 

 farm operations intelligible and reasonable to themselves and satisfac- 

 tory to others, might be easily imparted, and would, we are certain, 

 improve the social and moral position of this most important section 

 of our fellow laborers. It may be argued that farmers are opposed to 

 any attempt to spread information amongst them, affecting their an- 

 cient methods of tillage ; that they are more disposed to follow out 

 erroneous systems because well established, than to adopt novel me- 

 thods recommended to them by experimentalists, that the advices of- 

 I fered them by means of agricultural journals is rejected and sneered at. 

 jfc We cannot blame the farmer when he refuses to follow out a new 

 (i practise which he cannot clearly comprehend; isolated statements 



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