NEW 
« TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND.” 
SERIES. 
VOL. III. 
ALBANY, OCTOBER, 1846. 
No. 10. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Is published on the first of each month , at Albany , N. Y. , by 
LUTHER TUCKERj EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
Seven copies for $5 —Fifteen copies for $10,00—all payments 
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OFFICE IN NEW-YORK CITY, AT 
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where single numbers, or complete sets of the back volumes, can 
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gineering, which calculation enables us to obtain, be¬ 
fore trial, is of the greatest importance. The mathe¬ 
matician, who knows the force of gravity, may sit in 
his closet and tell us, without error, the velocity of a 
falling body, and the precise increase in its rate of de¬ 
scent; or he may determine, by calculation, from a 
knowledge of this velocity, the exact length of a pendu¬ 
lum to beat seconds. The engineer may ascertain, be¬ 
fore he erects his work, the best form of an arch, to 
afford the greatest strength against the pressure of a 
superincumbent weight; or he may calculate accurately, 
the angle at which the lock gates of a canal should 
meet, to give the greatest security against the pressure 
of the head of water upon them, before a single trial 
has ever been made. 
|£7” “ The Cultivator” is subject to newspaper postage only. 
SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. 
[In 1845, the New-York State Agricultural Society, 
offered a premium of one hundred dollars for the best 
essay on the Connexion of Science with Agriculture. 
At the January meeting of the Society for 1846, a com¬ 
mittee consisting of Ebenezer Emmons, Anthony 
Van Bergen, and Amos Dean, to whom the essays 
offered under this head had been referred for considera¬ 
tion, reported that they awarded the premium to the 
following, of which John J. Thomas, of Macedon, is 
the author. It appears to have been the design of the 
writer of this essay to show the connection of Science 
with Agriculture in a strictly practical light—to show 
in what particular department science has already ren¬ 
dered the greatest aid, and in what direction the great¬ 
est assistance is still to be expected. This design has 
been carried out in a manner which can hardly fail to 
be satisfactory and beneficial.] 
The past fifty years have been remarkably distin¬ 
guished by numerous and extraordinary improvements 
in the useful arts. A great portion of these have re¬ 
sulted from the direct application of scientific princi¬ 
ples. The wonderful advancement in nearly all branches 
of manufacture, which so eminently distinguishes the 
present century from the past,* is largely indebted to 
science. It was a thorough knowledge of chemistry 
and mechanical philosophy, that enabled James Watt 
to place the steam engine at once before the public as a 
powerful and efficient machine—a machine which has 
within the memory of middle-aged men, almost changed 
the face of civilized countries; and has spread towns, 
villages, and cultivated fields, in regions where, but for 
this invention, nothing would be seen but unbroken 
forests. 
Very great advantages have resulted from the pre¬ 
cision with which the principles of mathematics and 
mechanical philosophy, may be applied in arriving at 
practical results. The accurate knowledge of pressure 
and force, in constructing machinery, and in civil en- 
* A single instance of this advancement is mentioned by ,T. F. 
Herschei, in the fact that a man can now produce about two hun¬ 
dred times as much cotton goods, in a given time, from the raw 
material j as he could seventy or eighty years ago. 
Interesting and important practical results are also ob¬ 
tained in the manufacture of various articles of commerce, 
by the application of the principles of chemistry. Geolo¬ 
gy has rendered great aid in the art of mining, in all its de¬ 
partments. Not only in explorations for the more valu¬ 
able metals, but for the coarser, but not less important 
articles, salt and coal, tens of thousands might often 
have been saved, by a knowledge of the relations and 
character of the rocky strata at the surface of the 
earth.* 
The precision with which the principles of natural 
philosophy have been variously applied in machinery 
and engineering,—and chemistry and geology in manu¬ 
factures and mining,—has led to the apparently plausi¬ 
ble conclusion, that not less important results might be 
at once obtained by the application of science to agri¬ 
culture. From the rapid advancement of science within 
the present age, the opinion seems to be gainingground, 
that some great and extraordinary results are about to 
take place; that the slow progress in agriculture which 
practice and experience have effected, will soon com¬ 
mence taking more rapid and powerful strides; that we 
are about to remove the veil of obscurity and uncer¬ 
tainty, which hangs over so many operations in culture, 
understand every process, and so completely control 
the growth of plants, as almost to set man free from the 
labor of tilling the earth by the sweat of his brow; or 
in other words, that the agricultural millenium is near 
at hand. But a more thorough examination, will 
clearly show that we have no reasons for drawing such 
a conclusion; that the other sciences, have as yet, ac¬ 
complished directly, but little for agriculture; and that 
years of slow and patient experiment must yet deter¬ 
mine many points, which are already by many persons 
taken for granted. The same precision with which 
conclusions have been arrived at in other arts, is entire¬ 
ly out of the question here. A great deal of uncertainty 
must, for a long time yet to come, attend the applica- 
* Some years ago, twenty thousand pounds were expended in 
England, in a useless search for coal in Hastings sand. Allhough 
there were some apparent indications, a geologist could at once 
have p " dieted failure. “ All are familiar,” says James Hall, “with 
the mining enterprizes, now less frequent, in search of coal along 
the valley of the Hudson; in which there have been expended more 
than half a million of dollars within the last fifty years.” And 
Murchison, in his treatises on the geology of Wales, remarks, that 
more wealth has been expended in the useless search for coal in 
that part of the country, than all the geological investigations of 
the whole world have cost. 
