THE CULTIVATOR. 
249 
was very active in the organization of the firs^ Slate Ag 
ricultural Society, of which he was for several years the 
corresponding secretary. He was called upon (o deliver 
the inaugural address, at the organization of the society 
in 1791, and we find it full of scientific and practical in¬ 
formation. Indeed it was so well received by those who 
heard it, (among whom was his preceptor Dr. Samuel 
Bard,) that it caused him to be appointed Professor of 
Chemistry and Agriculture, in Columbia college, New- 
York, of which Dr. Bard was a trustee. Before pro¬ 
ceeding to examine his addresses and agricultural essays 
we will give a sketch of his life. 
Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill was an extraordinary man. He 
was the maker of his own fortune and reputation. He be¬ 
gan the world with impaired health, no money, and few or 
no influential friends. When he returned from Europe in 
1787, his fortune consisted in his medical education, but 
he was unable to commence the practice of that learned 
profession in consequence of (hemoptysis) bleeding from 
the lungs, which occurred in London a short time previ¬ 
ous to his return to his native country. He accordingly 
retired to the family residence on Cow-neck, in the town¬ 
ship of North Hempsted, Queens county, and state of 
New-York, where he joined his father and brethren in 
agricultural pursuits. There he put theory into practice, 
and as far as his health and strength would permit, unit¬ 
ed with them in renovating the farm, which had been 
impaired by the British troops who had encamped upon 
it, and committed depredations without restraint. 
This farm is still in possession of the family, and 
is owned by Judge Mitchill, the Doctor’s only surviving 
brother, who has been long known as an able practical 
farmer, and who has cultivated it from his youth. It was 
devised to the family by Dr. Samuel Latham, (the ma¬ 
ternal uncle of the Judge) who died in 1781. The Bri¬ 
tish obtained possession of Long Island in 1776, and held 
it in military subjection the entire period of the revolu¬ 
tionary war, and a part of the time their troops occupied 
Dr. Latham's farm. The Hessian soldiers under Col. 
Wormzer encamped on it, and the adjoining one of Ben¬ 
jamin Akerly, both of whom were revolutionary whigs, 
and were obliged to entertain their enemies, who occu¬ 
pied their houses and lands, and destroyed their trees and 
fences. Other friends of the country suffered in the 
same manner, and were probably designated by the to- 
ries of those days, who took delight in seeing the Bri¬ 
tish despoil the fair possessions of the advocates of the 
revolution and of civil liberty. It was on that farm that 
Dr. Mitchell, after the war, became a practical agricultu¬ 
rist, and hence we shall find in examining his writings 
in relation to husbandry, that they are not merely theo¬ 
retical. 
Previous to the completion of his medical studies at 
the celebrated school in the capital of Scotland, Dr. 
Mitchill wrote a letter to his father Robert Mitchill, on 
the industry of the Scotch, their employments and agri¬ 
cultural skill. This letter we have been permitted to 
read, and make the following extract, which will com¬ 
mend it to the perusal of «very industrious farmer. 
The letter is dated at 
Edinburgh, June 1st, 1786. 
“ A spirit of industrious enterprise prevails much in 
this country at present; for in order to incite the people 
to industry and excellence, rewards are offered for al¬ 
most everything. Premiums are distributed to those 
who embark in the whale-fishery, and to such as employ 
themselves in the capture of herrings, and to such as spin 
the best and finest thread, and to others who are most ex¬ 
pert in plowing land, and even to musicians who can play 
most completely on the Highland bag-pipe. The good 
effects of such liberal offers are very manifest; for they 
promote ship building, employ carpenters and sailors, 
procure fish and oil, advance manufactures, improve ag¬ 
riculture, and reward labour. By such means, Scotland, 
notwithstanding its natural disadvantages, is advancing 
rapidly to improvement, and this is conspicuous as well 
in the advancement of arts and sciences, as in the refine¬ 
ment of manners among the inhabitants. Distinctions 
between people are here very great and striking, for 
they who have fortunes and estates live in elegance and 
splendor; they who have neither, dwell in dependence. 
poverty, filth, and apparent wretchedness; but in spite of 
all this, half an acre of land here answers a better pur¬ 
pose, and produces more than ten times as much as u’ith 
you, because every inch of it is manured and cultivated 
to the best advantage. The Americans are in general 
bad farmers; they either are not industrious, or if they 
are diligent, they want contrivance and economy, to em¬ 
ploy their labor and exertions to the best advantage. 
They seem not to know how to combine “ art with 
strength ,” to unite “ contrivance with industry ,” to associ¬ 
ate “ labor xcith convenience ,” or to blend “ convenience 
with elegance .’ These you have yet to learn.” 
In this letter, Mr. Editor, written by a young Ameri¬ 
can in Scotland, fifty-eight years ago, we have some re¬ 
marks which are applicable at the present time. 
Staten Island, April 24, 1845. Richmond. 
Number II. 
In our former communication it was stated that Dr. 
Mitchell delivered two addresses before the old Agricul¬ 
tural Society. It is now intended to notice them more 
particularly. The first was delivered before the Society 
and members of the Legislature in the old City Hall of 
the city of New-York, then situated at the corner of Wall 
and Nassau streets, on the 10th January 1792, soon after 
the organization of the Society. 
After some prefaratory remarks and reference to the 
Idills of Theocritus, the Georgies of Virgil, among the 
ancients, and the pastoral essays of Gessner and Haller in 
later times among the Germans, and of Pope and Phil¬ 
lips in England, he comes down from the lofty flights of 
these fanciful writers to matters of fact, to the “dull pur¬ 
suits of civil life,” and he first points out those things for 
which w r eshould be thankful: 
“ For among the numberless favors which Divine 
bounty has bestowed upon this fortunate land, that which 
in the first place claims our grateful acknowledgments, is 
the abundant harvest which rewards the industry of the 
farmer: since to a healthful climate anil a fruitful soil, 
there is annually added the genial influence of a season 
that beautifies spring with blossoms, and loads autumn 
with fruit.” p. 17. 
Then he points out the condition of the land of this 
country, when first subjected to the plow: 
“Hitherto, the American husbandman has cultivated a 
soil, enriched for ages by the yearly addition of a fresh 
stratum of mould. From the first existence of vegetation 
upon the dry land, decayed plants have continually fur¬ 
nished a supply of manure, which the winds and rain 
have liberally spread abroad. As the supply was annu¬ 
ally greater than the consumption, the earth, unexhausted 
by its productions, increased in fertility. The thick layer 
of vegetable mould which covered the face of the earth 
was a store-house of food for plants, and this quantity was 
greatly increased by the conversion of wood into ashes 
by clearing. It is not wonderful, then, that for some 
years newly-cleared settlements should abound in pro¬ 
duce, and require little more labor than that of plowing 
and reaping. During this period the provision is was¬ 
ting, which for centuries had been accumulating. But 
the time will come, and indeed in many places now 
is, when the land, repeatedly wounded by the plow¬ 
share, and exhausted of its richness, shall be too weak of 
itself, to make plants grow with their former luxuriance. 
This may be called the era of systematic agriculture, 
when man, faking the earth from nature's hand, bare of 
manure, is so to manage and dispose, it artificially, that it 
shall yield him first a subsistence, and then an overplus 
to grow wealthy upon. How far art may go in this spe¬ 
cies of improvement is yet unknown, as the ultimatum of 
fertility has never yet been reached.” p. 20. 
Proceeding in the perusal of the address we find that 
Dr. Mitchill then (1792) a young man, understood the 
nature of exhausted lands and the means of renovating 
them as well as we do at this day, (1844.) 
“ But how (says he) are fields to be artificially fertil¬ 
ized ? By manure. This ts the great hinge upon which 
the whole system of agriculture turns. In procuring 
this needful substance, we are first to imitate nature in 
collecting all the vegetable matter we can find, suffering 
nothing to be lost. As however, if a field, yielding 
