No. 172.] 13 
Your committee are well assured that the forthcoming work on 
agriculture will be such as to merit a high place in the estimation of 
the farming interests of our country, and low indeed is the philanthro- 
py of that individual who is not anxious to improve the husbandry of 
our State, and call forth all the vast resources, of which our soils are 
capable. The day has arrived when the farmer is about to take the 
high and elevated stand to which he is entitled, by the relation he sus- 
tains to other and subordinate interests. The day has gone past when 
the learned professions are regarded as a higher order in the column 
of society. Scientific and mechanical avocations, have their proper 
estimate, and due deference is paid to them by the community. 'J'he 
commercial world has had all the respect paid it that is its due, and 
the over anxious solicitude of parents to place their sons in mercantile 
houses is abating, the various and rapid changes of trade rendering it 
a most uncertain source of wealth, and the chances of failure through 
the excess of competition, renders the life of the merchant one of con- 
stant care, toil and vexation. Whilst upon the contrary the avocation 
of ihe agriculturist is void of all those exciting hopes and and fears, 
and in its almost certain returns for labor bestowed, makes it one of 
the most agreeable as well as one of the most honorable occupations 
in which individuals can engage. It is needless for your committee 
further to enlarge upon the necessity of fostering in every way con- 
sistent with the rights and privileges of other interests that of the 
farmer. 
Agriculture is beyond all question now reduced to one of the exact 
sciences, and, by the labors of the agricultural chemist, a knowledge 
of all the various elements entering into the composition and quality of 
his soil is clearly and unequivocally demonstrated. With the knowledge 
thus afforded, the farmer can as surely draw his own deductions from 
given and fixed data, as any other scientific experiment fixed and made 
certain by the laws of chemical combination and affinity. The appli- 
cation of these principles will not only add to the dignity of the agri- 
cull urist, but will render his gains more certain and his business more 
lucrative, thus largely benefitting the human family by cheapening the 
necessary means of subsistence, thus conferring permanent benefits 
upon the age in which he lives by dispensing blessings to all around 
him. 
Upon the foregoing considerations, your committee have come to 
the conclusion that it is entirely practicable to furnish a large edi- 
