318 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
it. Here causes are ascertained,, and, being so ascer¬ 
tained, are relied upon to produce their natural effect, 
which effect is the result sought. 
The importance of this great subject is effectually 
arousing the attention of the literary and scientific men 
of the country, and the success already experienced is 
drawing to these researches minds qualified for the la¬ 
bor, and energies equal to its rapid advancement. The 
progress made is bringing together the unsettled mind 
of the country, and producing the very general impres¬ 
sion that the time has arrived when the foundations of 
a systematic, practical agricultural education should be 
laid, and the superstructure commenced. 
It is universally conceded that agriculture has shared 
but lightly in the fostering care and government patron¬ 
age which have been liberally extended to commerce 
and manufactures, nor is it believed that additional pub¬ 
lic expenditure is necessary to enable the State to do 
all that can reasonably be required of it, to accomplish 
this great object. Our educational funds are rich, and 
the colleges, academies and common schools of the 
State share liberally in the distributions from them? 
while a Normal School, for the education of teachers, 
instituted at the seat of government, is also mainly sup¬ 
ported from these funds. These institutions present the 
organization, through which, perhaps better than 
through any independent channel, this instruction can 
be universally disseminated among the agricultural pop¬ 
ulation of the State. The annual additions to the 
school district libraries may be made with reference to 
this branch of education, and thus place within the 
reach of all the discoveries as they progress, and the 
rules of husbandry deduced from them, as they shall be 
settled and given to the public from the pens of the 
competent professors engaged in pursuing the research¬ 
es. 
This society, and like associations, may, through appro¬ 
priate committees, their corresponding secretaries, pub¬ 
lic spirited commercial men, and otherwise, collect and 
embody in their transactions, facts and information re¬ 
specting the markets, foreign and domestic ; the present 
and probable supply of agricultural products ; the mode 
and manner of presenting the principal productions in 
the various markets in the most acceptable form ; the 
state and prospects of trade at home and abroad, and 
the changes present and prospective in the commercial 
policy of our own and other countries, with the proba¬ 
ble influences upon the agricultural market. The com¬ 
mercial and agricultural press will doubtless come pow¬ 
erfully to the aid of the associations, in all efforts of 
this character, and having these great objects in view. 
In this way the foundation may be gradually laid* 
and the materials collected for the commencement of 
those agricultural studies, which time and application, 
with the constant evidence of their utility in practice, 
would ripen into a system, to be engrafted upon the 
course of regular studies pursued in the colleges, acad¬ 
emies and common schools, and made a branch of the 
studies of the male classes in the Normal School, placed 
under the superintendence of an instructor selected for 
the purpose, and qualified to prepare his classes for 
teaching the studies in the common schools of the 
State. 
Thus a generation of farmers would soon come for¬ 
ward, well educated in the great and essential principles 
of agricultural production; in the true relations exist¬ 
ing between agriculture, commerce and manufactures, 
and in the adaptation and preparation of their products 
for the agricultural markets. Such farmers, with the 
continued aid of the schools in which they were taught, 
would become the best manual labor instructors for 
their successors. 
The passage of time reminds me that I am extend¬ 
ing these remarks beyond the proprieties of the occasion 
and the patience of my audience. A single reflection 
shall close them. 
However confidently the opinion may be entertained 
that other circumstances and relations might present a 
prospect for the agriculture of our state and country 
more stable, independent and flattering, certain it is, 
that the future here opened is full of cheering promise. 
We see in it the strongest possible security for our be¬ 
loved country, through an indefinite period, against the 
scourge of famine. Our varied soil and climate and 
agriculture double this security, as the disease and fai¬ 
lure of any one crop will not, as a necessary conse¬ 
quence, reduce any class of our population to an expo¬ 
sure to death from hunger. We see also, in addition to 
feeding ourselves, that our surplus is almost, if not al¬ 
together, sufficient, if faithfully and prudently applied, 
even now to drive famine from the length and breadth of 
Europe. And that it is in our power, by faithful men¬ 
tal and physical application, soon to make it equal to 
the expulsion of hunger from the commercial world. 
We see that, dependent upon the commercial markets, 
our agriculture may bring upon our country a high de¬ 
gree of prosperity, and enable us, when extraordinary 
occasions shall call for its exercise, to practice a na¬ 
tional benevolence as grateful to the hearts of the 
humane as to the wants of the destitute. And we see 
that by the wider diffusion and more secure establish¬ 
ment of a successful agriculture among our citizens, as a 
permanent employment, we are laying broader and 
deeper the foundations of our free institutions, the pride 
and glory of our country, and prized by its freemen as 
their richest earthly blessing ; the history of all civil 
government, confirmed by the experience of this repub¬ 
lic, furnishing demonstrative proof that a well educated, 
industrious, and independent yeomanry, are the safest 
repository of freedom and free institutions. 
ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES. 
Coal Ashes for Manure.—M., Allegany Co.. 
Pa. So far as our observation goes, coal ashes are not 
a very valuable manure; we think they do, however, 
generally produce some benefit. On heavy soils, their 
mechanical effect is favorable in making the soil more 
open. Sometimes they contain iron and sulphur in so 
large quantities as to render their application injurious 
to vegetatio'n. Mixing them with fresh lime or strong 
wood ashes, might in such cases be usefbl. 
' Cider Mill—Machine for Paring Fruit— 
Dry-House. —S., Lvnchburgh, Ya. Perhaps Boothe’s 
mill, for cut and description of which see Cultivator, 
vol. VII.. p. 109, might answer your purpose. For a 
paring-machine see an article in our last number, page 
289. For drying peaches, &c., Mr.THos. Bellanger, 
of Egg Harbor, New-Jersey, (according to the Am. 
Farmers’ Encyclopedia ,) has a small house provided 
wjth a stove, and drawers in the house lathed at their 
bottoms, with void intervals. “ The peaches,” it is 
said, “ should be ripe, and cut in two. not peeled, and 
laid in a single layer on the laths, with their skins 
downwards, to save the juice. On shoving in the 
drawer they are soon dried by the hot air produced by 
the stove. In this way great quantities may success¬ 
fully, in a single season, be prepared, with a very little 
expense, in the preparation of the building, and in 
fuel.” 
Hydraulic Ram. —Having noticed in the August 
Cultivator, some inquiries, made by E. H. Weeks, in 
relation to the durability and ability of our hydraulic 
ram, I answer—there need be no better situation for 
the well-performing of the ram, than 12 feet fall to 75 
feet rise; one-sixth of the water used can be raised to 
that elevation. Logs are never used, because lead 
pipe is in all cases considered much cheaper. The 
sizes of the pipes used are these: For ordinary pur¬ 
poses, 1-i inch driving pipe, 4 inch discharge; therefore, 
if logs can be bored so small and smooth as lead pipes 
are, they will answer the purpose, and not without. 
The rams are warranted to last, and operate as long 
as they are kept in order. Farnham & Brown. 
No. 1944 Market-St., Philadelphia. 
