THE CULTIVATOR. 
67 
new mulberry orchards will be planted. The breed¬ 
ers will provide more house-room to protect their 
horses, cattle, and sheep from the inclemency of win¬ 
ter. There will probably be about twenty new agri¬ 
cultural societies organized, and a greater spirit of 
emulation manifested between the various societies, 
and the farmers themselves; and their sons will catch 
the same spirit, and lay the foundation for their future 
prosperity, in the enlightenment and information they 
will derive from the action of these societies. The 
house-wives too, will improve their domestic econo¬ 
my; the dairies will groan beneath the increased 
weight of butter and cheese ; and the flocks of fowls 
in the barn-yard, will be doubled. The manure of the 
farms will be more carefully husbanded, and spread 
over the fields, instead of being wasted. We shall 
import no breadstuff's ; but send abroad larger droves 
of live stock, and export greater quantities of corn, 
wheat, flour, tobacco, pickled pork, and beef, and bag¬ 
ging, and rope. And this acceleration of the agricul¬ 
tural pursuits, brought about by the joint influence of 
an increased spirit of improvement, with the belief that 
it is this interest which will disembarrass the country 
of its present pecuniary troubles, will also stimulate 
all the other branches of state industry. A higher 
moral influence will be attached to the labors of agri¬ 
culture, and its salutary blessings will reach the whole 
community. The farmer will seek for more scientific 
knowledge ; the standard of agricultural improvement 
will be elevated ; practical truths, the ascertained re¬ 
sults of well conducted experiments, will be applied 
in aid of their operations; they will read more, think 
more, write more, and in short, several thousand more 
of their names will be added to the subscription list 
of the Franklin Farmer. 
Young Men’s Department. 
Hints to Young Farmers— No. VII. 
INDOLENCE. 
Beware of habits of indolence. They are the bane 
of happiness. Action is the first law of nature to ani¬ 
mal creation, and even to some of the primary ele¬ 
ments. Water, when long at rest, becomes putrid, 
and deleterious to animals and vegetables. Air is on¬ 
ly fit for respiration while it is kept in motion. Most 
of the metals lose their lustre, and become corroded 
with rust, if not kept in constant use. So the human 
body, and noble mind, by inaction, become stagnant 
and corroded, and too often taint the moral atmos¬ 
phere. Action—constant useful action, is the first re¬ 
quisite to health and usefulness. What matter of sur¬ 
prise should it be, then, to hear men—young men— 
whom fortune, honor, and happiness invite to action 
—to hear them complain that they have nothing to do! 
—and to see them dragging out lives of sloth and in¬ 
dolence, or hastening their termination, by intempe¬ 
rate indulgencies. 
There is a strong propensity in young men to in¬ 
dulge in indolence, as soon as they feel confident they 
can live without labor, which should be met and con¬ 
quered at the threshhold of manhood ; for if then left 
unsubdued, it will take root, and, like the young oak, 
grow in strength with increase of years. The acorn 
is easily destroyed ; but when the acorn has become 
a tree, it is difficult to uproot it. The propensity to 
indolence once mastered, and habits of industry well 
established, be they manual or mental—both are best 
conjoined—the current course of life is comparatively 
serene and prosperous. Systematic habits of industry 
and moral rectitude, are a far better portion to a 
young man, in the outfit of life, than a large fortune 
without these habits. The first seldom fail to elevate 
the possessor ,to wealth and respectability ; the latter 
to sink him in both. There are more men of wealth 
and standing in society, who have become wholly so 
by their personal exertions, than there are that enjoy 
these distinctions by hereditary descent. There is 
perhaps no circumstance so propitious to success in 
life, as a resolute determination in the outset, to rely 
solely, under Providence, upon one’s personal exer¬ 
tions—upon his industry and integrity—for fortune, 
fame and happiness. Such a resolution is oftener the 
result of necessity than of choice ; but where, from 
either cause, it becomes the governing principle, it 
imparts a dignity and an independent bearing worthy 
of all praise, and impels to the most worthy actions. 
Who that has resolved, that he can and will provide 
for himself, would become the sycophant of power, 
1 the pander of vice, or the dependant upon the liberali¬ 
ty or charity of others'? The scramble for office, 
which annually distracts and demoralizes our country, 
owes more of its violence to the desire of men to live 
: at the public expense, than from any cardinal diffe¬ 
rence in principle in the great body of the American 
people. 
We will close this article with the following ex¬ 
tract from Addison’s Spectator, upon the subject which 
we have been discussing:— 
“ Indolence is a stream which flows slowly on, but yet 
undermines the foundation of every virtue. A vice of 
a more lively nature were a more desirable tyrant than 
this rust of the mind, which gives a tincture of its na¬ 
ture to every action of one’s life. It were as little ha¬ 
zard to be lost in a storm, as to lie thus perpetually be¬ 
calmed ; and it is to no purpose to have within one the 
seeds of a thousand good qualities, if we want the vigor 
and resolution necessary for the exerting them. Death 
brings all persons back to an equality; and this image 
of it, this slumber of the mind, leaves no difference be¬ 
tween the greatest genius and the meanest understand¬ 
ing. A faculty of doing things remarkably praise-wor¬ 
thy, thus concealed, is of no more use to the owner, 
than a heap of gold to the man who dares not use it. 
“ The time we live ought not to be computed by the 
number of years, but by the use that has been made of 
it; thus, it is not the extent of ground, but the yearly 
rent, winch gives the value to the estate. Wretched 
and thoughtless creatures, in the only place where co¬ 
vetousness were a virtue, we turn prodigals ! Nothing 
lies upon our hands with such uneasiness, nor have 
there been so may devices for any one thing, as to make 
it slide away imperceptibly and to no purpose. A shil¬ 
ling shall be hoarded up with care, whilst that which is 
above the price of an estate, is flung away with disre¬ 
gard and contempt.” 
Chemical Catechism. 
We wish to infuse into the minds of our young readers, 
and we would hope to infuse into the minds, too, of 
those who do not claim to be young, so much taste 
for chemical knowledge, as shall induce them to stu¬ 
dy it, in hours of leisure, as a means of affording 
them a high intellectual gratification, and of con¬ 
tributing largely to their prosperity and usefulness 
in life. 
Chemistry has become so essential in the successful 
management of all the arts of productive labor, em¬ 
bracing even the household arts, that its study is now 
made a branch of education in the common schools 
of France and of many of the German states. Judg¬ 
ing from our own experience, a knowledge of many 
of its leading and more important principles, may be 
readily acquired by persons of common capacity; 
and the further one progresses in his knowledge of 
this science, the more it delights the mind, and the 
more it becomes subservient to the useful purposes 
of life. In the view of its great importance to socie¬ 
ty at large, we propose to publish in the Cultivator 
such parts of Parkes’ Catechism of Chemistry, as 
we shall consider particularly beneficial to the gene¬ 
rality of our readers. We extract the following from 
the author’s essay on the utility of the study of che¬ 
mistry, particularly to illustrate the advantages of 
this science in the business of agriculture. 
“From the present state of chemical knowledge,” 
says Parkes, “and the rapid improvements which 
have been made in our arts and manufactures, by the 
judicious application of its principles, it is become 
very desirable that every youth should be acquainted 
with its rudiments, and that chemistry should be 
made a regular branch of education in every semi¬ 
nary where the sciences are professedly taught and 
explained. 
I have, therefore, imagined that I should render an 
acceptable service to society by showing the advan¬ 
tages which would arise from the acquisition of this 
kind of knowledge; especially as a large proportion 
of the community is not apprised of its real value. 
The well informed people of France are so fully 
convinced of the importance of chemical knowledge, 
that chemistry has already become an essential part 
of education in their public schools. It shall be my 
business in this place to endeavor to demonstrate it 
to be of equal importance to the various classes of our 
countrymen, that the science should be cultivated 
with the same ardour in these kingdoms. The 
branch of education we recommend to your regard, 
has for its object every substance of the material 
world, and, therefore, is equally interesting to every 
civilized nation upon the earth. 
Is your son born to opulence,—is he the heir to an 
extensive domain ? make him an analytical chemist, 
and you enable him to appreciate the real value of his 
estate, and to turn every acre of it to the best ac¬ 
count. 
Chemistry will teach him also how to improve the 
cultivated parts of his estate; and by transporting 
and transposing the different soils, how each may be 
rendered more productive. The analysis of the soils 
will be followed by that of the waters which rise up¬ 
on, or flow through, them ; by which means he will 
discover those proper for irrigation ; a practice, the 
value of which is sufficiently known to every good 
agriculturist. 
Should he occupy his own estate, and become the 
cultivator of his own land, he must of necessity be a 
chemist, before he can be an economical farmer. It 
will be his concern not only to analyse the soils on 
the different parts of his farm, but the peat, the marl, 
the lime, and the other manures must be subjected 
to experiment, before he can avail himself of the ad¬ 
vantages which might be derived from them, or be¬ 
fore he can be certain of producing any particular ef¬ 
fect. Besides, a knowledge of the first principles of 
chemistry will teach him when to use lime hot from 
the kiln, and when slaked; how to promote the pu¬ 
trefactive process in his composts, and at what pe¬ 
riod to check it, so as to prevent the fertilizing parti¬ 
cles becoming effete, and of little value. A know¬ 
ledge of the chemical properties of bodies will thus 
give a new character to the agriculturist, and render 
his employment rational and respectable.* 
The various operations of nature, and the changes 
which take place in the several substances around 
us, are so much better understood by an attention to 
the laws of chemistry, that in every walk in life the 
chemist has a manifest advantage over his illiterate 
neighbor. And it may be remarked, that in case of 
failure or disappointment in any particular line of 
commercial manufacture, the scientific chemist has 
resources as various, as the productions of the coun¬ 
try in which he lives, to which the uneducated man 
has no access. 
Were parents awrnre of this truth, that sordid max¬ 
im, primo vivere , deinde philosophari, would not be 
heard : but every youth would be instructed in the 
first principles of natural philosophy and chemistry, 
and as the means for qualifying him for managing 
with advantage the concerns ivith which he might 
be entrusted. If “knowledge is power,” surely the 
love of knowledge, and a taste for accurate investi¬ 
gation, are the most likely means of conducing him 
into that path which leads to opulence, respectability 
and rational enjoyment. 
Moreover, it is the necessary consequence of an 
attention to this science, that it gives the habit of in¬ 
vestigation, and lays the foundation of an ardent and 
inquiring mind. If a youth has been taught to re¬ 
ceive nothing as true, but what is the result of expe¬ 
riment, he will be in little danger of ever being led 
away by the insidious arts of sophistry, or of having 
his mind bewildered by fanaticism or superstition. 
The knowledge of facts is what he has been taught 
to esteem ; and no reasoning, however specious, will 
ever induce him to receive as true what appears in¬ 
congruous, or cannot be recommended by demonstra¬ 
tion or anology. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY AND MISCELLANEOUS. 
What is chemistry 1 
Chemistry is the science which enables us to dis¬ 
cover the peculiar properties of all natural bodies, 
either in their simple or compound state.f 
How do chemists examine the properties of bodies l 
The chemical examination of bodies is in general 
effected by producing a change in the nature or state 
of the body under examination.! 
By what means do chemists affect a change in the 
qualities or states of natural bodies'! 
This is generally effected by means of heat,\ or by 
the mixture of some other matter with the matter in¬ 
tended to be examined. 
How does the application of heat and mixture enable 
chemists to examine the properties of bodies ? 
By these means we effect the decomposition of a 
compound body, and thus acquire a knowledge of the 
nature of its ingredients. 
What is meant by decomposition ? 
In chemical language, decomposition means the 
art of dividing a body into its simple elements. Thus 
water may become decomposed, and reduced into 
* Lavoisier cultivated 240 acres of land in La Vendee, on 
chemical principles, in order to set a good example to the 
farmers ; and his mode of culture was attended with so much 
success, that he obtained a third more of crop than was pro¬ 
cured by the usual method, and in nine years his annual 
produce was doubled.— Lalavde’s Life of Lavoisier. 
f “ Chemistry is that science which examines the consti¬ 
tuent parts of bodies, with reference to their nature, propor¬ 
tions, and method of combination.”— Bergman’s Essay on 
the usefulness of Chemistry, dj-c. p-. 4. 
f To the eye many substances appear similar to other sub¬ 
stances, though they possess different, and perhaps opposite, 
qualities; it therefore became necessary to discover the means 
of analysing these substances, and of ascer'aining wherein 
their difference consists. These we find in chemical re¬ 
agents. 
It may, with few exceptions, be considered as an axiom in 
the science of which we are treating, that, whenever chemical 
action takes place, a real change is produced in the substajice 
operated upon, and. that its identity is destroyed. An example 
will place this in a clear point of view. If a little carbonate 
of lime (powdered chalk) be put into a glass of water, the 
chalk will sink to the bottom of the vessel. Though it 
should be mixed with the water, if left at rest it will soon 
subside. No chemical action has taken place, therefore the 
water and the carbonate of lime both remain unaltered. But 
if a small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid be added to a 
glass of chalk and water, a violent effervescence will take 
place the moment they come in contact with each other ; a 
chemical union of the two substances will be the consequence 
of this chemical action ; the identity of each substance will 
be destroyed ; and sulphate of lime (a body entirely different 
from either of the substances employed) will be produced. 
.§ Heat has a tendency to separate the particles of all bo¬ 
dies from each other. Hence nothing is more necessary to 
effect the decomposition of many bodies than to apply heat, 
and collect the substances which are separated by that 
means. The mixture of two or more compounds, often pro¬ 
duces a decomposition in each by means of chemical affinity, 
a property of bodies which will be more fully explained here 
after. 
