26 
have the promise of a noble superstructure. We are indebted to France for the 
first impulse given to this pursuit, and it appears, from the late able report of Pro¬ 
fessor Bache, that Prussia and other Germanic States have established institutions 
for teaching Technology. The only college in the United States in which courses 
of lectures on this branch are given, is, I believe, that of Cambridge, in Massachu¬ 
setts. These have been continued nearly twenty years under a bequest of the late 
Count Rumford. In the Franklin Institute, also, valuable lectures have been de¬ 
livered ; still but little, comparatively, has been effected towards diffusing this 
knowledge among the working classes of this country.” 
******* 
, “ This Institution has allotted one entire division to Agriculture. This must be 
considered the most important, as it is the most necessary of the useful arts, as 
' well as the most essential to our existence in a state of civilization.” 
* * * * * * * _ 
“ One of the greatest improvements of farming in modern times, so fruitful in 
improvements of every kind, is the free use of mineral manures. Lime, in some 
form or other, must enter into the composition of every soil, to render it fertile 
and where the chemist fails to detect it in the land, he supplies it artificially. A 
knowledge of the analysis of soils is therefore necessary to every good fanner. The 
use of mineral manures is beginning to be well understood, and to be generally 
practised in our country ; but there are two things that appear either not to be fully 
comprehended, or not to be sufficiently brought into successful operation ; the one 
is to make a given quantity of land yield, for a series of years, the maximum 
amount of produce it is capable of by high culture and a judicious rotation of crops, 
and the other is the art of irrigation.” 
******* 
“ As a thorough knowledge of this art would more than double our agricultural 
products with the same labor, this Institution will confer a benefit on their fellow- 
citizens, by instructing them in the best methods of watering and draining their 
fields. In the south of Europe canals of irrigation have been constructed by the 
ablest engineers of the age, and I cannot but think that our own civil engineers 
would find their account in becoming acquainted with this art, while at the same 
time they might render an invaluable service to their country.” 
******* 
“ It will be the duty of this Institution, likewise, to use its best endeavors to 
introduce into our country new varieties of wholesome, nutritious, and pleasant 
articles of food. With our extended commerce, this duty may be readily perform¬ 
ed ; and here let me remark, that Agriculture has attained a high degree of perfec¬ 
tion only among great commercial nations.. The two arts depend mutually upon 
each other, and the cultivation of the one leads to the extension and advancement 
of the other. 
“ In Astronomy, Geology, Minerology, and the various other branches of Natu¬ 
ral History and sections into which our Institution is divided, our labors must bear 
a near resemblance to those of similar societies elsewhere. But the duties that de« 
