74 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
March. 
by fluctuations in temperature, moisture, and by 
many other causes, all in the open air, where sub¬ 
stances,slowly and imperceptibly evolved, are grad¬ 
ually dissipated unseen, and many of which are be¬ 
yond the reach of the most powerful microscopes— 
this great laboratory is totally unlike the chemist’s 
artificial laboratory, where changes are generally 
wrought in a few minutes or even seconds, and 
where scales, test-glasses, and receivers preserve 
and measure everything with the utmost precision, 
and controlling influences are entirely at the ope- 
! rater’s command. It is no wonder, therefore, that 
| even chemists themselves should greatly differ on 
| the action of single substances upon plants, as 
; they have done, for example in the case of lime 
I and of gypsum, in the latter of which about a 
dozen different theories have been presented to 
! the world. 
Notwithstanding these difficulties, science is con- 
] stantly offering to art the most valuable sugges¬ 
tions, and serves as a guiding light to accurate 
experiment. It is in this way alone that its tri- 
i umphs are to be effected, although not with that 
i rapid and brilliant progress that has distingushed 
j the mechanic arts. The great obstructing cause, 
at the present moment, in the way of scientific ag¬ 
riculture, is looseness and inaccuracy in experi¬ 
ment. Very precise theories are applied without 
any precision whatever in practice. For example, 
the absorption of ammonia by the soil from rain, 
dew, and snow-water, is over and over again urged 
upon the attention of cultivators, as an eminent 
source of fertility; but the ordinary average 
amount of ammonia contained in rain or dew, ab¬ 
sorbed by the soil, and appropriated by plants, has 
never been communicated to the practical farmer, 
and he has no means of guessing whether it may 
be equal to a ton or only a pound of good horse 
manure per aore. Stirring the soil is said to pro¬ 
mote the absorption of the elements of fertility 
from the atmosphere; and again, stirring the soil, 
(as in a summer fallow) is said to promote the 
evaporation of the elements from the soil. Are 
both correct? and if so, how can the farmer ever 
ascertain on which side the balance lies, unless the 
quantity absorbed, and the quantity escaping, are 
both determined? We might give many other ex¬ 
amples showing the little value of practical reason¬ 
ing, or even of ascertained facts, without the deter¬ 
minations of quantities. 
There is no^doubt that the practice of agricul¬ 
ture is destined yet to outstrip everything known 
at present, but it will not be through any long and 
sudden strides. It has already, in the last fifty 
years, doubled the effective results of labor, by 
improvements in mechanical means and chemical 
| influences. Plows, cultivators, sub soilers, sowing 
machines, horse rakes, reapers, threshing ma¬ 
chines; draining, pulverization, management of 
manures, systems of tillage, rotation, improve¬ 
ments in seeds, improvements in animals—all have 
placed the farmer on a very different footing from 
that of the close of the last century. What will 
fifty years more disclose? This is a most interest¬ 
ing question, and must be answered very much in 
accordance with the labor intelligently expended 
in accurate trials of the promptings of theory; and 
Ja to this we wish to invite the attention of all who 
have public spirit, enterprise, and knowledge, to 
JxN induce them to undertake the task. 
An Agricultural College. 
By degrees, the idea that farmers’ sons need 
a peculiar education to fit them properly for the 
duties arid labors of an agricultural life, has been 
gaining ground. There has, hitherto, been just 
light enough on the subject of improved and scienti¬ 
fic farming, to make the darkness visible; and calls 
for some institution, where the theory and practice 
of agriculture should be thoroughly taught, have 
been loud and frequent. Not a few plans have 
been presented to the public through the press, 
and urged upon the Legislatures of our states, in 
the shape of bills of incorporation, praying for 
large appropriations; but none of them have 
seemed to satisfy even a majority of farmers them¬ 
selves, or to answer the purposes of such an in¬ 
stitution. / s a general things these bills have 
contemplated the expenditure of a large sum of 
money in the erection of buildings, the purchase of 
a model farm and the stocking it, the salaries of an 
indefinite number of teachers and professors, and 
large provision for the support of students. The 
projectors have failed to make equally evident 
the practical results of the plan proposed, and 
have been betrayed into a detail as cumbersome 
as it is unnecessary. There has been a seeming de¬ 
sire to found an institution to rival all similar ones 
in the world, rather than to adopt a system, which, 
by its simplicity and inexpensiveness, would re¬ 
commend itself to the good sense and sound judg¬ 
ment of the age. These efforts, inasmuch as they 
have been unsuccessful, have thrown odium upon 
the name of an agricultural college, and awakened 
a distrust in many minds whether any such thing 
is practicable. 
We believe there is a more simple and feasible 
way of securing the benefits of such instruction as 
the agriculturist needs,—a way perfectly conso¬ 
nant with the present system of education, and 
which would soon place agriculture on its proper 
footing as a science and an art. . It requires only 
a glance to see that the farmer needs a course of 
study in many respects different from the one usu¬ 
ally pursued at our academies and colleges, and 
that this course should be fundamental and tho¬ 
rough. It is for this reason that the agricultural 
college should be a distinct organization, and de¬ 
voted enclusively to branches of study which have 
immediately to do with the profession of agricul¬ 
ture. The importance of separate institutions 
for the advancement of any science or art, is very 
generally acknowledged. The divine, the lawyer, 
and the physician, all go from a preparatory course 
of study in the academy or college, to one spe¬ 
cially organized for the purpose of teaching the pro¬ 
fession they are to follow. A Normal School is 
considered necessary to fit teachers for the proper 
discharge of their duties, and government claims 
the right to educate students for the United States 
service, in its own way. It is a rule, without an 
exception, that an education should have as direct 
a bearing as possible on the course of life for which 
the student is destined. The more the student 
