THE CULTIVATOR, 
165 
will cut off at the fountain the large fortunes which now flow into 
the hands of men who really produce less than they consume. 
These educated farmers will demand, it is feared, an equal share 
of the honors that accrue to our executive, judicial and legislative 
officers, and hence the light of science must be shut out from their 
understandings. 
It is now twenty-six years since the friends of agricultural im¬ 
provement first made a serious effort to establish an agricultural col¬ 
lege in this State. Your committee have before them an essay pub¬ 
lished in this city, in 1819, of forty-two pages, advocating such an in¬ 
stitution with unanswerable arguments. 
At a later period the lamented J udge Buel succeeded in procuring 
a naked charter for such a school; but not a single dollar could be 
obtained to aid private enterprise in teaching the unerring laws of 
nature to the young men who are to pursue the modern art of trans¬ 
forming solid rocks into fertile soils, and these again into human food 
and raiment. 
Wise legislators conferred unlimited authority on a few Canal 
Commissioners to expend indefinite millions in cutting and beautify¬ 
ing inanimate stone along the line of the enlarged canal; but the law 
making power refused to grant one dollar to teach the science of ru¬ 
ral economy to the sons and daughters of practical farmers. With¬ 
in the last twenty-six years there has been taken from the public 
treasury about $200,000 to prepare the candidates for legal honors to 
study successfully the science of law. We have also four well en¬ 
dowed medical colleges, now drawing from the public funds $5,500 
a year, besides $200,000 before received. 
We have so long paid a large bounty on all branches of unproduc¬ 
tive industry that no young man, of any honorable ambition, will 
consent to toil, and sweat, and bum in the sun on a farm, for $10 a 
month, when as a clerk in a store, a bank, a broker’s office, or as 
the student in a doctor’s or lawyer’s office, he can expect, in the 
course of twenty years, to command five dollars to one, and at one- 
fifth of the severe bodily labor exacted of the practical agriculturist. 
But can all our ambitious young men become professional gentle¬ 
men, without rendering these professional pursuits utterly valueless ? 
If learning and science are the great highways to honorable distinc¬ 
tion and public favor, why deny these advantages to those that do 
more than all others to feed and clothe the whole community ? 
It is true that science is the greatest leveler in the world, but, un¬ 
like the leveling of ignorance and brute force, it ever levels upward. 
It takes the highest point of mental attainment already achieved for 
its standard ; and then wisely and humanely attempts to elevate all 
below up to that standard. 
The object of this effort is to make the triumph of mind over mat¬ 
ter universal and complete. All men, blessed with a common share 
of common sense, should have, in their every day business opera¬ 
tions, the full benefit of the best lights of modern science. Science 
gives to the poor man unknown and ever increasing power over 
heat, light, electricity, chemical attraction, air, water, and the solid 
substances which form the surface of the globe. 
All these elements are brought into requisition by nature, in chang¬ 
ing crude mineral matter into living, organized beings—into the cul¬ 
tivated plants and domestic animals, produced by the labor of the 
husbandman. To increase the knowledge of the producing classes 
does not detract, in the least, from the attainments of any class that 
may stand, or think they stand, above the common average of the 
community in which they live. 
Why shall We refuse to do as much to make skillful and scientific 
farmers as we do to make skillful doctors and lawyers ? 
There are 11,000,000 acres under cultivation in this State, yielding 
an average product worth $7 per acre. Communicate to the half 
million of men who cultivate these lands a knowledge of the laws of 
nature which govern all the results of rural industry, and instead of 
exhausting the soil of its bread-forming elements at the rate of mil¬ 
lions a year, they will improve the land and harvest, at the same cost 
in labor, three dollars per acre more than they now do. This will 
add to the productive value of our agricultural industry $33,000,000 
a year, and to the revenue of our canals more than one million of 
dollars. For a large portion of this will go to the cities on the sea¬ 
board, and be paid for in goods to be returned through our canals to 
the consumers. Thus the property dug from the earth will contri¬ 
bute a double toll to the State. 
Who cannot see that commerce, manufactures, and all other pur¬ 
suits in civilized society will be largely benefitted by increasing the 
productiveness of rural labor ? Hence, whatever we give to agri¬ 
culture is truly given to all classes. By unwise cultivation we have 
all consumed much of the constituents of human food and clothing 
that a bountiful Providence spread over the virgin earth in the Em¬ 
pire State. Science now comes to our aid, and teaches us how to 
change a cold, compact subsoil, into a loose, friable and most pro¬ 
ductive surface soil. It reveals to us why it is that a good soil will 
produce 100 pounds of ripe wheat plants, and yet lose only 15 pounds 
of its weight and substance by the operation, eighty-five pounds 
coming from the atmosphere. 
In combustion, respiration, and by fermenting and rotting, an im¬ 
mense amount of organized matter is decomposed, and dissipated 
through the air. These gases are all soluble in water Hence, all 
the carbonic acid expelled from the lungs of all animals, and the am¬ 
monia formed by decomposing organized substances, are dissolved 
in the rains, snows, and dews in the atmosphere, which fall to the 
earth, and pass into the roots and circulation of cultivated plants. 
The leaves also imbibe from the air a very considerable amount of 
vegetable food. 
There are a thousand reasons why the laws of nature should be 
carefully studied, and as carefully obeyed by our whole rural popu¬ 
lation. It is by this means «!one that they can largely increase the 
products of their honest toil, and keep for the benefit of themselves, 
and their helpless offspring, those surplus earnings which now go to 
form the immense fortunes of capitalists. England and Wales have 
a million and a half of public paupers. Ho we desire an equal ratio, 
as compared with our population ? If not, then some power must 
protect the inalienable rights of labor and humanity. 
To make a beginning in this great enterprise of universal educa¬ 
tion which aims to unite science with labor, your committee beg 
leave to introduce a bill, appropriating five thousand dollars a year, 
for three years, to the Fairfield Medical College, on condition that 
the institution shall be connected with a model and experimental 
farm, for the purpose of teaching both the science and the practice 
of agriculture. This college was chartered in 1811, and has peculiar 
and strong claims to the favorable consideration ©f the Legislature. 
It has about $15,000 invested in college buildings, which are worth¬ 
less for any other than educational purposes. The experiment then, 
if any choose so to regard it, can be tried at this institution cheaper 
than to erect a new establishment. The trustees are eminently 
practical men, and will be under the strongest inducements to give 
success to the undertaking. The college has a library and chemi¬ 
cal apparatus worth about $2,000, and many conveniences which 
will be valuable to an agricultural school. 
THE AMERICAN HERD BOOK. 
■ O accommodate such Short Horn breeders as wish to insert pe 
digrees of the increase of their herds this spring, in the pages 
of this work, it will be kept open till the first of July next; by which 
time it is hoped that all who wish to register their cattle, will for¬ 
ward their respective pedigrees. The lists are fast coming in, and 
it will be a source of pleasure to the subscriber to make them as nu¬ 
merous as possible, that the array of American Short Horns shall at 
least show some sort of respectability to their friends on the other 
side of the Atlantic. L. F. ALLEN. 
Black Rock, N. Y., April 1845. 
EXOTIC, NURSERY, AND HORTICULTURAL 
GARDENS, 
Flushing , L. I., near New- York. 
r F ! HE subscribers having established a Nursery with the above ti 
jL tie, with the determination of conducting it in the very best man 
ner in all its departments, offer for sale, at reasonable prices, a selca 
variety of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Hardy Shrubs, Herba 
ceous Plants, Grape Vines of all the best kinds, superior Strawber¬ 
ries, Fastolf Raspberry, Gooseberries, &c. Bulbs and Tubers, su¬ 
perb Carnations, Dahlias, &c., and a most extensive and choice 
collection of Green-House and Stove Plants, embracing every 
thing new and beautiful in that department, personally selected in 
Europe during the past summer, of Roses and Camellias. 
We have a very choice collection of the former, full 1,000 varie 
ties, and of the latter nearly 300, all in fine order. 
Catalogues of the above will be sent gratis to all applicants, post 
paid , and every order promptly executed. From unknown corres 
pondents, a remittance, draft, or satisfactory reference expected. 
May 1, 1845—eom. YALK & Co. 
TO LAWYERS. MERCHANTS, MECHANICS, FAR 
MERS, PUBLIC OFFICERS, &c. 
AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY, WASHINGTON. 
/ \N retiring from his official station as Assistant Post Master Ge- 
v t neral, JOHN S. SKINNER, devotes himself to the transaction 
of GENERAL AGENCY BUSINESS, particularly in connection 
with the various Departments of the National Government—business 
in which he is henceforth associated with HENRY O’REILLY, of 
the State of New-York. 
Persons in any part of the United States, who have business to 
transact with either Department of the General Government at 
Washington, or with any of the State Governments, or who require 
researches to be made in the Public Records any where in the Un¬ 
ion, can nave their requests promptly attended to, by addressing the 
undersigned. 
Extensive acquaintance throughout the Union, consequent on the 
long continued connection of both the undersigned with the News¬ 
paper Press, with the Post Office and other Public Organizations, 
will greatly facilitate the prosecution of inquiries and transaction of 
business through their Agency. 
Lawyers, Public Officers, Contractors, and others having business 
arising under contracts, or under the Pension, Post Office, or Patent 
Laws—MERCHANTS desiring remission of duties, &c.—MECHA¬ 
NICS or Inventors requiring Patents—and FARMERS having bu¬ 
siness with the General Land Office—may find this Agency condu¬ 
cive to their interest in the way of promptness and economy. 
Claims under treaties with the Indian Nations or Foreign Govern 
ments also attended to. 
Special attention will be paid to those who wish to buy or sell 
LANDS in Virginia and other Southern States; and inquirers from 
the North or South, are respectfully referred to our Circular con¬ 
cerning “ Agricultural Improvement in the Southern States,” lately 
published in the Globe, Intelligencer, and other Journals. 
K7- Letters must be post-free, to insure attention; and may be 
addressed to the subscribers, either at Albany, New-York, or Wash¬ 
ington —particularly at the latter place. JOHN S. SKINNER. 
HENRY O’REILLY. 
O 3 " Sensible of the manifold courtesies with Which he has been 
honored by editors of all parties, from the time when he established 
the first Agricultural Journal in America more than a quarter centu¬ 
ry ago, JOHN S. SKINNER adds this note for the purpose of say¬ 
ing that it will afford him great pleasure to maintain the intercourse 
thus long continued, and to reciprocate the services of editorial 
friends who may now favor him with a few insertions of this notice 
May 1, 1845. 
