52 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 
position of the vegetable matter in it. That which 
was applied to the cotton-field without admixture 
with lime, will require more time to display its 
good effects. We presume these will be fully ap¬ 
parent another year, although if lime could have 
been added, it would unquestionably have increas¬ 
ed its value. Will our correspondent note the dif¬ 
ference between the crops on the muck and marl¬ 
ed fields another year without adding any more to 
them this season, and give us the result? We 
presume ere this that C. McD. is in possession 
of the last number of our second Volume, where 
he will find a capital article, page 367, on the 
value of muck as manure. 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 
The 19th century presents the singular anomaly, 
of an age, skilful to a degree beyond any that has 
preceded it, in all the arts that minister to the com¬ 
forts and luxuries of man, with the single exception 
of that art, which is alone the base and support 
of all others—the art of an enlightened agriculture. 
All the elegancies of life too, and the refinements 
of intellectual culture, the useful and recondite 
sciences, literature, poetry, music, painting, and 
sculpture, have been patronised, illustrated, and 
studied, under every advantage, and have thus 
been pushed far toward their maximum of im¬ 
provement; yet is the foundation of this varied 
and beautiful superstructure, the only portion of 
the edifice which is destitute of strength, order, 
symmetry, or design. And if we look back through 
the history of the ancients, reaching, according to 
the most approved chronology, much farther than 
6,000 years, we find no record from which we can 
learn that any branch of the world’s ancestry has 
been wiser, in this respect, than their descendants 
of the present day. 
We shall not attempt to account for this gross 
and most inexcusable neglect, beyond the effect of 
that principle, which may almost be taken as an 
axiom in human conduct, that man’s exertions are 
withheld, just in the ratio of the Deity’s munificence. 
Supreme Benevolence has wisely provided for the 
success of the humblest efforts of unenlightened 
reason, in its struggles to procure from the earth 
the elements of subsistence; and on the very 
threshold of this success, have all human efforts 
been arrested. Content with having achieved the 
bare means of existence, the human mind has 
been stayed in this vast field of inquiry; and has 
turned away from it, if not with loathing, at least 
with indifference, and with a keen and delighted 
relish to other and less important and less praise¬ 
worthy objects of ambition. Whence comes this 
lack of reason, this short-sightedness to our own 
best interests? We must acknowledge ourselves 
incompetent to give the answer, and we gladly as¬ 
sign the solution of this difficult problem to our 
modern philosophers, who are so worthily busying 
themselves with “ the law of progressfrom 
whom alone must light come, if it come at all. 
Whatever the cause may be, certain it is, that 
the world has hitherto taken but the initiatory 
steps in the art of agriculture; and this broad land, 
like the western hemisphere in the days of Colum¬ 
bus, remains a terra incognita, an unexplored con¬ 
tinent, inviting the most intelligent research, and 
ready to repay its explorers, with the highest re¬ 
wards. It may be true, indeed, that portions of 
this goodly land have been heretofore discovered 
by the Northmen of preceding times; and even 
inhabited by a refined race of Aztelans possessing 
a high degree of culture ; yet to the present race 
of man, no chart or history has been bequeathed, 
to point out its location or well-defined boundaries. 
Whatever discoveries may have been ma k de in this 
great art in the early ages of the world, hy the 
Egyptians, or other early civilized nations, who 
possibly, may have inherited from the antediluyi- 
ans, a science and practice far beyond any thus far 
reached by successive generations—it is certain, 
that modern inquirers must re-discover it for them¬ 
selves, if they wish now to have it in possession. 
We would not be ungrateful for the worthy and 
efficient service, rendered, since the commence¬ 
ment of the present century, by the devoted sons 
of genius, who have given a portion of their time 
to the elucidation of the principles of agriculture, 
and who have begun a systematic investigation of 
the laws of nature, that needs only to be followed 
up, rigidly and unremittingly, to result in all the 
benefits which may be fairly demanded at their 
hands. But, we ask, what has been the success 
in this all-important pursuit, that will compare 
with the improvements in the mechanic arts, as 
shown in the application of steam, machinery for 
the manufacture of the different fabrics from wool, 
cotton, silk, the metals; and the various other new 
and important aids rendered to the useful occupa¬ 
tions of the present day ? With the facilities af¬ 
forded by the above inventions, one person can 
now do as much, as could have been accomplished 
by twenty, without them, only 40 years ago. Can 
any approximation to such improvement be shown 
in the cultivation of the soil ? We speak not of the 
mechanical instruments of the farm, which have 
measurably, and perhaps to the extent which could 
reasonably have been expected, participated in the 
modern progress of improvement. 
Our meaning is much broader and deeper, and 
includes the whole science of agriculture, in all its 
varied phases and relations. We look to, and de¬ 
mand for agriculture, that enlarged and liberal 
measure of discovery, which will enable the hu¬ 
man race to provide sustenance for its thousand 
millions of inhabitants, now covering the face of 
the earth, destined, probably, hereafter, to be in¬ 
definitely augmented; with an approximation to 
that certainty and success, that attends human la¬ 
bor in the other departments of life. We prepare 
our land and sow it to wheat, or plant it in corn; 
and after much doubt and uncertainty, reap from 
the first an average, in these United States, proba¬ 
bly, not exceeding 14 bushels; and gather from the 
last, not more than 20 bushels per acre. Yet we 
have seen under favorable circumstances, that the 
former has yielded 80 bushels, and the latter oyer 
180 bushels per acre. We claim, that abating 
