FLANDERS AND BELGIUM.-In Flanders, both Belgian and French, you are probably prepared for an admission on my part, of great agricultural skill and success. I am compelled, however, to confess my own impression to be, that a great portion of what has been written upon Flemish husbandry, partakes of the character of a romance. The cultivators of Belgian Flanders have the merit of raising fair crops from certain tracts of poor and sandy soil, of husbanding and applying manures so as to keep such land in culture, and of skillfully varying their crops so as to prevent a premature exhaustion. But no knowledge of the general principles of agriculture is widely diffused among thein. The improvement of wet and of heavy clay soils, except by open ditches, is almost unknown. Improved implements and thorough drainage, and modern modes of inanuring, and some small instruction at least in the elements of science as applied to agriculture, have still to be introduced among them, before they can rank in general knowledge or in skilful pracpractice with the farmers of Scotland or England.

And, indeed, in Belgium as in France, the progressive subdivision of property opposes a growing obstacle to that general amelioration of agricultural practice, which the wants of a numerous people, and the progress of knowledge demand. Where the average extent of properties and farms over a whole province is already reduced to about an English acre, we cannot look for the introduction of any of those improvements which demand the purchase of new or comparatively costly implements, the rearing and feeding of multitudes of stock, the employment of hired labor, or generally the application of capital to the land. As in Ireland, the subdivision or morcelling of the tillage farms, has already, in whole districts, been carried to the starvation limit. As into Ireland, the potato failure brought with it into Belgian Flanders, famine and disease, and large emigration, and notwithstanding all that wise governments can do, it is to be feared that on the recurrence of similar visitatious, similar social evils will in both countries again re-appear.

FRANCE.-In France I need hardly inform you that practical agriculture is far in arrear. In Normandy, the mixture of Teutonic blood has probably some connection with the superiority of the husbandry of this province as compared with most of the other parts of the kingdom. It is certain at least, that notwithstanding the many efforts made by persons in power to promote the introduction and adoption of better methods, the general farming of La Belle France advances with comparative slowness.

This country indeed presents another striking instance of the small connection which may exist between the existence of extensive means of agricultural instruction, provided by the central government, and the practical skill of the rural population.

In 1813 there existed in Frane one hundred and fifty-seven agricultural societies-six hundred and sixty-four agricultural committees -twenty-two model farms, some of which had schools attached to them-and fifteen schools and chairs of agriculture and agricultural penitentiaries. In the early part of 1849, under the auspices of the republican government, and as part of the plan of M. Fouret, then -Minister of Agriculture, twenty-one farming schools had already been opened-a national agricultural university was about to be established on the farms in the little park of Versailles, and a hundred and twenty-two agricultural societies, and three hundred minor institutions, had participated in the funds voted for the encouragement of Agriculture.

Though it is unquestionable that a country may attain a high rank in agriculture without the aid of formal agricultural schools-provided, as in Scotland, other early mental training is placed within the easy reach of the rural population-and that in spite of numerous schools, if other obstacles intervene, the cultivators of a country may lag far behind;-yet both common sense and experience show that of two nations of the same blood, placed otherwise in the same circumstances, the one which teaches the principles of agriculture in its schools, will exhibit the most productive harvests on its fields; and that as in England and Scotland now, a time will come in the agricultural history of every country, when old means and methods will fail to maintain the rural community in a flourishing condition, and when every new means of fertility which advancing knowledge can supply, must be made generally known, and become generally employed. Such are the simplest and most common sense arguments in favor of agricultural teaching-the inutility of which might be argued with some show of reason, from the comparatively small progress yet visible among the fields and farmers of France and Bava

ria.

The agricultural statistics of France, which the government has collected and published in great detail, would supply many interesting subjects of reflection, were I at liberty to dwell longer on this part of Europe. I thay only mention-as pregnant with thought and instruction in regard to the condition, the food, and the general mode of living of the rural classes of France-the fact, that the number of conscripts who are rejected on account of deficient health, strength and stature, is constantly on the increase; that forty per cent are turned back from this cause; and that though since 1789 the standard has been three times reduced, as large a proportion of the conscripts is below the required height, (now five feet two inches,) as ever.-Rubichon. Such facts as this show how closely the discussion of agriculture is connected with that of the most profound social evils. SWITZERLAND.To Switzerland, I only allude as one of those countries in which the influence of natural intelligence and a fair share of early instruction, has been brought to bear most successfully on the improvement of the soil, and especially of the breeds of stock which are best adapted to its peculiar dairy husbandry. Those advances which require the application of capital and science, such

Memorie sui Bonificamente delle Maremme Tuscane, by Fernando Tarlini, Florence, 1838.

L'Agriculture Pratique de la Flandre, par M. J. L. Van Aelbroeck, Paris, 1830; and Memoire sur L'Agriculture de la Flandre Francaise et sur l'Economie Rurale, par J. Cordier, Paris, 1823.

as thorough draining and special manuring, are there, however, still unmade; and it will probably be many years, before, in these respects, the cultivators of the Swiss valleys and mountain slopes, can closely imitate the present improved practices of the British Islands. SPAIN. The agricultural condition of Spain suggests melancholy reflections. The central table lands of this country are reckoned among the first wheat growing districts in the world. The culture is rude and imperfect. The soil is scratched with a primitive plow, and is seldom manured, yet the returns are said to be prodigious, and the quality of the grain excellent. But where nature does much, man too often contents himself with doing little. Amid all this plenty, the peasant is miserable. He lives in a cabin of baked mud, or in burrows scooped out from the friable hillocks, ignorant of the luxury of furniture, and barely possessing the necessaries of life. The want of roads and of means of easy transport, makes his produce almost worthless, so that a comparatively spare population exists, and much wretchedness in the centre of fertile fields and a land abundant in corn.

We sometimes think ourselves unfortunate to have been born, or to be doomed to live where clouded suns impart a lessened light and heat; or where the frosts of winter bind up for many months the hardened earth. Yet in such climes, man more really lives, and exercises a truer dominion over inanimate things, than where tropical skies appear to prepare for him an unceasing enjoyment. Where mind and mental energy are dormant, he only vegetates or exercises his brute passions. Where by perpetual struggles he subdues the adverse elements, bends circumstances to his will, forces a copious abundance from an unwilling soil and in spite of inclement seasons -there he most truly lives, and amidst his hardships enjoys life most; there refreshing sleep visits him with her balmiest breath, and in the power of mind over matter, which his success displays, he brings out more clearly the claim of man to a likeness with Him who is all mind, and to whose slightest intimation all matter bends.

GREAT BRITAIN.-In striking contrast to the case of Spain, is the agriculture of the Island in which I was born, and from which so many of your forefathers have come. I need not tell you of our uncertain climate our fickle sky, our frequent rains, our late frosts in spring, our early frosts in autumn, the cold winds and temperate suns of our most favoring summer, the mists and fogs that settle over us at every season of the year. I only remind you of these things, and ask you to contrast with them the large crops we can reap, the high rents we can pay, the poor lands we have enriched, the local climate we have ameliorated, the wide wastes we have subdued beneath the plow, the northern districts we have tamed down to the production of wheat, the large population we have reared, and in ordinary seasons are still able to feed, and--amid all the croakings and complaints of individuals and classes-the vast amount of material comfort and of intellectual elevation which the island exhibits. How much kinder, on the whole, the Deity has really been to us than to prolific and sunny Spain; how much better our fortunes as a people, how much happier our individual lot!

PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.-Among the greatest of these practical improvements in the treatment of the land, by means of which British agriculture has been advanced to its present condition, I may mention:

1st. The alternate husbandry-a judicious rotation of crops. In this walk Flanders was probably the earliest among modern European countries to make decided and important advances.

24. The introduction of thorough drainage.-To a certain extent and in a certain way, under drains have been made in almost every country of Europe, and are at least as old as the time of the Romans. But the necessity and almost universal profit of the system as it is now understood and practiced, was first demonstrated in Scotland, and owes its general introduction to Mr. Smith, of Deanston. 3d. As the complement of thorough drainage, the introduction of deep and sub-soil plowing. These practices have renovated shallow worn out soils, by bringing up new materials; have opened a passage for the roots to descend deeper in search of food; and have provided a more ready outlet of surface water into the drains below.

4th. The judicious and continued application of Lime-according to principles now beginning to be generally understood. When applied without the requisite knowledge, or without regard to future consequences, the use of lime has been, and will still be, one of the most ready means of exhausting the most fertile soils.

5th. The use of Bones-in various forms, as an application to land in various conditions, and for the growth of various crops. 6th. Generally, what is called high farming, comprehending: a. The culture of green crops extensively.

b. The making of rich home, and the purchase of valuable foreign manures of various kinds to a great extent.

c. The rearing and feeding of improved breeds of stock, for the conversion of one form of produce into another, which meets with a readier market, or is otherwise more profitable.

d. The custom of full feeding, both for plants and animals, from early youth to full maturity.

It is the characteristic of this kind of farming, that it spares no reasonable expense-in implements, in manures, in labor-as all experience has shown that a liberal treatment of the land, makes the land liberal in return; and that to the stingy farmer, the land is most niggard of her crops.

7th. The introduction of lighter and better contrived implements, of machines to economise labor, and of horses having a quicker step. Such are generally the practical methods or processes by which British agriculture has been advanced to its present condition.

The two elevated plains of New and Old Castile, and that of La Mancha, separated from each other by the granites and metamorphic rocks of the Sierra Nevada, are composed of a white limestone, occasionally covered with the drift of other rocks. These plains are burned up in summer, so as to yield no grass till the October rains fall, but they yield magnificent crops of wheat. (Sir E. Head.)

In connection with this improved condition of British agriculture, and the practices it involves, you will excuse me if I advert for a moment to one aspect in which British agriculture may be regarded, which at the present moment is most vitally connected with the interests of the English farmer, and may be neither uninteresting nor uninstructive to you.

Were an intellectual foreigner. previously unacquainted with Great Britain, with the character of its peopie, or with its social condition, to be informed regarding this country, that though occupying only a small and thickly peopled corner of Europe, shrouded for many months of the year in fogs and mists, seldom and briefly visited by the fervid sun-never, I may say, by such a sun as now shines upon us--and raising its own grain crops with cost and difficulty to feed its rapidly increasing inhabitants were he to be told that the Legislature of this country, in which the agricultural body is the predominating interest, had thrown open its island harbors to all comers, and trusting to superior energy, perseverance and skill, had invited even the most fertile and favored regions of the globe to a free competition in their own grain markets, fearless of the results;-apart from all fiscal theories or political views with which my profession and pursuits forbid me to intermeddle, I ask you, if such a foreigner, so instructed, could fail to admire the open boldness, to look with respect on the resoluteness of such a country, or to long for an opportunity to study, not only the character and habits of its people, but the modes of culture practiced by them, with so much success, in a region so unfavored by nature.

And were he actually to come among us, it would be easy for him having started from the Land's end, to proceed from one warm hearted and hospitable farmer to another, till the Pentland Firth arrested his course, and all his journey long he might converse with cultivators of ardent minds, full of practical and general knowledge, who in most unpromising circumstances refuse to despond, and while they see so much every where around them awaiting the hand of the improver, will not let slip the anchor of hope; who differing widely, perhaps, in politics, and as to the policy of certain fiscal regulations, yet feel alike that to resolute men the conquest of the stubBorn land is as sure as the dominion of the sea; that new difficulties only demand new exertions and that new energies are equal to meet new emergencies.

On quitting the British shores, after such a tour, that foreigner would carry with him a true impression of the flower of English and Scottish Agriculturists, and his first admiration of the resolute firmness, and his estimate of the skill of the island farmers, would be confirmed and strengthened by his actual survey.*

In other parts of the world I might fear lest my audience should accuse me of over exalting, by such language as this, the character of my own country and its people. You, who feel so just a pride in the noble land you possess, will know how to make allowance for my pride in mine. But indeed whatever can be truly said of British farmers, may, I begin to feel, already be said, with almost equal truth, of the farmers of your Northern states. Of the west and south, I cannot as yet, from personal observation, speak. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, two younger provinces, I have seen a picture of what Maine and New Hampshire, and Massachusetts especially, have been; and in the gradual conquest which persevering labor has in these states achieved over drifted rocks and hungry gravels, and sandy barrens and ungenial swamps, I discover the resolute spirit still living of those men who centuries ago, dared to cross a then wide and little known sea, in search of new and freer homes, and whose descendants now till alike the soils of the Old England and the New. Time has not impaired the energy and enterprise of either; I believe I may say it has left their hearts unchanged too.

And now you are ready to ask me, what those, who in Europe are most in advance in the practice of the rural arts, look forward to as likely to help on agriculture still further. In what especially, you will inquire, do we of Great Britain trust, who have thrown down the gauntlet to the farmers of the world? These questions I shall answer by drawing your attention briefly, to what may be regarded as the characteristic or living feature of the agriculture of our time -what you no doubt expect me briefly to speak of, the direct applications, namely, of natural science to the several branches of rural economy.

The main purposes for which natural science is applied to rural economy, are

First. To explain the reasons of practices already adopted, or of things already observed, and to supplant old and defective by new and better usages.

Second. To establish general principles, by means of which, a short cut is provided for the unlearned, to the knowledge, practical and theoretical, we already possess. A single principle explains and thus recommends or forbids many practices, according to the circumstances of the soil, place, or season.

Third. To enlarge our actual knowledge by new discoveries susceptible of practical application.

On these several objects of natural science, in its application to agriculture, it would be out of place at present to dilate. It will be sufficient if I briefly draw your attention to some of the general results, in reference to rural economy, at which science has already arrived.

With this view I might draw my illustrations from any one of the many different branches of natural knowledge. I might select for example:

1st. The general relations of Physical Geography to the art of culture-such as

For two recent estimates of the condition of Agriculture in Great Britain, seeWeccherlin. Ueber Englische Land-wirthschaft und deren Anwending auf Land-wirthschaftlihe Verhaltnisse insbesondere Deutchlands. Stuttgard and Tubingen, 1845. And

Colman's British Agriculture. London and Boston, 1948.

a. The influence of broad seas and of great lakes and rivers, of tides, of sea currents, and of prevailing winds, on the capabilities of a country, and the practices and profits of its cultivators." b. The influence of mountain elevations and depressions, of high table lands and of low level plains-or

2d. The general indications of Geology in regard to the fertility of a country, the branches of husbandry to which it is best adapted, and the means by which its fertility may be best promoted.

The Geological Map of this State, and the volumes of the Natural History Survey, afford abundant illustrations of this science to prac tical agriculture-or

3d. The relations of Meteorology and Botany conjoined-such as a. The adaptation of certain plants to certain climates-of sugar, cotton and rice to warmer; of buckwheat, and Indian corn and wheat, to warmer and drier; of rye, barley and oats, to colder and more uncertain climates.

b. The nature of rust, smut, mildew, the maize brand, &c., and the circumstances of local climate most favorable to their appearance 4th. The relations of Geology and Vegetable Structure conjoinedsuch as

-or

That certain plants and soils are mutually adapted to each other, because of the special structure and natural habits of the plants, and the physical characters only of the soils.

corn.

The valley of the Mohawk, for example, is remarkably prolific in Indian corn, and raises comparatively little wheat-while the district of Syracuse produces wheat abundantly, and is less favorable to So in Great Britain and Ireland, we have our turnep and barley soils, distinguishable readily by the practical man, from the wheat and clover soils. These differences are independent of chemical composition, and are not to be explained upon chemical principles. They are dependant upon the special relation which the structure and natural habits of the plants bear to the physical characters of the medium in which their roots are made to grow-or 5th. The general indications of Geology and Meteorology conjoined --such as

The relations of the nature of the rocks, of the soil, and of the fall of rain taken together

a. To the necessity for under drainage, and the means of effecting. b. To the necessity for artificial irrigation, and the easiest mode of obtaining a supply of water for the purpose-or

6th. The general relations of Zoology and Animal Physiology. a. To breeds of domestic animals, and to the preservation of their purity.

b. To the rearing, feeding and general tending of stock. e. To the agency of animal life in fertilizing the soil.

d. To the attacks of insects upon our cultivated crops-or 7th. The general indications of Chemistry-such as

a. That a fertile soil, in addition to various organic compounds, contains at least eleven different mineral substances.

b. That plants contain, usually, or in most of their parts, the greater number of the same mineral substances.

e. That the animal, as a whole, also contains them, but distributed throughout its several parts in a manner different from that in which they are found, either in the plant or in the soil.

d. That the plant standing, as it were, between the soil and the animal, prepares for the latter both its organic and its mineral food. e. That an intimate and beautiful relation exists between the soil, the plant and the animal-or between the living and the dead things of nature-or 8th. The general indications of Geology and Chemistry conjoined -such as

a. That certain Geological formations are especially rich in some of the mineral substances found in and required by plants, and produce soils which with special treatment will prove fertile and profitable to the cultivator.

b. That others are especially defective in some of these substances, and form soils which are naturally unproductive.

e. That some abound in all the kinds of mineral matter which plants require, and yet yield soils which are naturally unfertile. I. RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY TO AGRICULTURE.

From any one of these general topics, I might select beautiful examples of the close bearings of science upon profitable farming--but time does not permit me to illustrate in detail any one of the general relations to which I have referred. A few observations, however, in reference to the special applications of Geology and Chemistry, will neither detain us long, nor prove, I believe, generally uninteresting.

In reference to Geology, I could have wished to point out to you the very close economical connection which recent discoveries have established between practical geology and practical agriculturehow the manufacture and abundance of valuable manures, for example, is actually dependant on the progress of geological discovery. I must be content, however, with a brief allusion to the geology of

the United States.

There are few countries, indeed, which more clearly than your own, show the relations which geology bears to agriculture in all its branches. Your wide prairies are naturally distinguished from your vast forest lands, by the character of their soils, and these again by the geological structure of the regions over which they extend, and from which they are generally derived. The broad treeless zone of calcareous marl, or rotten limestone-called the prairie or cane brake country-which crosses Alabama in an east and west direction, owes its natural nakedness to the dry, waterless, chalky deposits, which for a depth of hundreds of feet form the uppermost rocks of with which the carriage wheels of travellers in that State, in wet the country; and the tenacious, soapy, unctuous quality of the soils, weather, become familiar, is owing to the same cause. So your zones of differing timber, as you ascend from the alluvial

Lyell's Second Visit to the United States, pp. 42, 89.

swamps of the shores in your southern states, across the eocene and cretaceous beds to the mica slate, gneiss and granite of the Appalachian chain, are the consequences and indications of diversities in geological structure. The swamp willow, the cypresses, (thyoides and disticha) the swamp hickory, the green palmetto, the tall magnolia, the red maple, and the cotton wood of the lowest swampy spot-the hickory, oak, magnolia, beech, walnut, tulip tree, and holly, of the dry, alluvial bluffs-the perpetual pines of the tertiary (eocene) sands-the naked prairie of the cretaceous marls-and the mixed oaks, hickory and pines which appear on the primary rocksall these zones of different timber indicate the natural connection of the vegetation of a district with the nature of the rocks on which it

rests.

Nor are these geological relations of vegetable life without their influence on the daily movements of your shifting population. I have elsewhere shown how directly the movements, the natural expansion I may call it, of our first class farmers in Scotland, is not only influ enced but actually, as it were, prescribed, by the geological character of the district in which they have been brought up and to which they intend to move. So it is among you. "Those who go southwards from Virginia to North and South Carolina, and thence to Georgia and Alabama follow, as by instinct, the corresponding zones of country. The inhabitants of the red soil of the granitic region keep to their oak and hickory; the crackers' of the tertiary pine barrens, to their light wood; and those who inhabit the newest geological formations in the sea islands, to their fish and oysters."

And to this illustration of a fact, which may be proved, I believe, by observtion in every country of the globe, Sir Charles Lyell, adds a sentence, from which I am sure you will at once draw an importtant, practical lesson. "On reaching Texas, all these different classes are at fault, because the cretaceous strata in that country consist of a hard, compact, siliceous limestone, which defies the decomposing action of the atmosphere, and forms table lands of bare rock, entirely unlike the marls, clay and sand, of the same age, in Alabama, 5

The tillers of the red land, of the pine barrens, of the marshy prairies, and of the sea island swamps, are equally at a loss when they migrate to a country of which the soils and surface differ from all they have left. And how is this? Because they have no familiarity with those general principles of chemical science on which all culture on all soils depends-because, if they wish to continue the same kind of tillage, and on soils similar to those they have left, they have not such a knowledge of the general principles of Geology as would enable them at once to say, to this or to that country, I must go, for there alone am I likely to find them.

In my own country, I have been accustomed to press upon the ag ricultural community the importance of such geological knowledge to them, because of the numerous colonies we possess in all parts of the world, and because of the swarms of emigrants we yearly send off to subdne and people them. But to you whom I now address, who already occupy, or in connection with kindred blood are destined to subdue and people nearly half a world-how much more important must such knowledge be! Your westward movement will continue for many generations, and how much surer will the way to wealth be to your hardy pioneers, if they have been taught in their early homes, not only only how to choose land, but where to look for the kind they wish to buy, and how to till it best, whatever it may be, when it has come into their possession.

I ought, perhaps, to apologise for saying so much on this subject. To you, who have expended so much public money and so large a measure of talent in developing the geological structure and natural resources of this and other states, it may appear presumptuous in me to urge further upon your attention, what you have shown that you already so fully appreciate. I may plead as an excuse, that in a country where all action originates, and all power centres in the masses, a brief discussion of the subject before a great meeting like this, may help new listeners towards a proper general estimation of the practical value of science-and that what I have said will not fail in being useful to scientific agriculture, if it convince a single undecided voter in this great commonwealth of the worth of those aids which science offers you, in developing the resources of the soil. IL RELATIONS OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTURE. Permit me now to say a few words on the subject of chemistry, in its relations to agriculture.

The special applications of this science, as many of you are already aware, are far too multiplied to admit even of enumeration. Of the practical ends which have been more or less perfectly attained by means of chemistry, I might mention such general ones as

these:

1st. In what general exhaustion consists, how it is produced, and how it may be repaired? 2d. In what special exhaustion consists, how it is brought about, either naturally or artificially, and how it is to be corrected?

3d. What plants, in general require to make them grow well? 4th. What manures ought to contain, to be generally serviceable; what, with a view to special purposes, they ought specially to con tain; and how they are to be artificially prepared?

But such topics are too general and indefinite to make a sure impression on the mind of the practical farmer, in the brief moments I have spent in enumerating them.

I mention further, therefore, such special points as the following:1st. How to bring crops to earlier ripeness in late and elevated districts.

2d. How to reduce the straw producing tendency of the land. 3d. How to hasten or promote, or to push forward laggard, yellow, and stunted vegetation.

See an article in the Edinburgh Review for March, 1849. Lyell's Second Visit to the United States, p. 110.

4th. How to strengthen the straw of your grass crops, where they are liable to be laid.

5th. How to fill the ear and make it larger, where long culture or natural poverty has reduced its size.

6th. How to improve the deficient feeding quality of turnep, and other root crops, when grown on mossy land."

7th. To quicken the organic matter in dead, deaf, or peaty soils, and make it available for the nourishment of plants.

Sth. To prepare artificial manures, which shall nourish any crop on any available soil.

9th. To promote growth on slow, and to retard it on quick soils. 10th. On newly brought up subsoils, and on trenched land, what manures ought to be used, and why.

11th. Why a rotation of manures, as it is called by practical men, is necessary, and where,

12th. That the use of lime to a certain extent, and In a prudent way, is necessary to the highest fertility.

13th. That saline and nearly all other manures, do more good upon light and open, than they do upon stiff and close soils, and why. 14th. How to economise the consumption of vegetable food, and to adapt it to the purpose for which an animal is fed. 16th. How to prevent the disease called fingers and toes in turneps and other roots, and how to render mildew and ague equally rare." To do these and many similar things economically, skilfully, and with more or less success, are among the practical ends to which chemical investigations have already led us.

They also supply answers to many practical questions, such as :-1st. Why cabbage crops so greatly exhaust the soil, and how such exhaustion is to be repaired?

2nd. Why tares cut green exhaust the land, and give inferior wheat?

3d. Why tares are seldom good after crops of clover? 4th. Why lime produces a more marked effect on one soil than it does upon another?

5th. Why one variety of lime is more useful generally, or in parti cular districts on particular farms and fields, than another?

Of special points and questions, I could enumerate many more, in regard to which chemistry may be said to have been, or to be capable of becoming, of obvious money value to the farmer. Even to such of you, however, as have not much attended to this subject, the above examples will sufficiently indicate both the kind of connection which exists between practical agriculture and practical chemistry; and the kind of uses to which such scientific knowledge may hereafter be put, in advancing the important art, which it is the first wish of this great Society, and the individual interest of many of its members most zealously to proinote.

LIMITS OF HUMAN SKILL-But in dwelling upon and illustrating what is already in the power of man, and what he hopes to attain in reference to agriculture through the aids of science, I would not forget to acknowledge how very limited his knowledge is, and how feeble his capacities after all.

A mysterious fungus attacks the potato, and for years spreads famine and misery, and discontent and depression, among millions of

industrious farmers.

A minute fly, season after season, hovers over our wheat fields, and from entire provinces and states almost banishes the cultivation of our most important grain.

A long continued drouth, such as half a century past has scarcely seen, dries up our meadows and pastures, and drives the farmer to his wits end, to obtain winter sustenance for his necessary stock.

Such things as these ought to prevent us from boasting of our knowledge, and to enforce upon us that piety and humbleness of spirit which rural occupations themselves so naturally foster-while at the same time they should not restrain us from any effort or inquiry by which the evils themselves may be mitigated or removed. It is possible-nay it is almost within the bounds of a reasonable expectation-that the same intellectual research which has given us dominion over the proud waves-has made cut the laws by which hurricanes are regulated-has already almost freed us from their most fierce influences-and has forced the fiery lightning to descend harmlessly from heaven-that the same research may finally free us from the visitations of the fungus and the insect, and may place the dreary drouths of summer under reasonable control. Such hopes we may entertain, not as sources of pride, but as stimulants to exertion-for in so greatly rewarding the past exercises of our intellectual powers, the Deity obviously intends still further to excite us to study and extract good from the living and dead things of nature, over which he has given us a general dominiou.

OBSTACLES TO PROGRESS.-There are, however, in every coun try, certain obstacles which oppose themselves to the progress of scientific agriculture, as a branch of knowledge, or to its practical application in the improvement of the soil,

I do not refer to those physical or local obstacles of climate, elevation above the sea, low prices, distance from markets, and so on; but to those social and class obstacles which, in so many places, and in so many ways, interfere not only with the rapid extension of our knowledge, but with the diffusion of what we already possess as to the application of science to the rural arts. I may enumerate as belonging to obstacles of this kind:

1st. The aversion to theory, as it is called, which is so generally professed by practical farmers in most countries of the world. Rash and hasty theorising in regard to agriculture, it is right to reject; the error lies in confounding with such theory every thing that does not appear to bear directly upon the more common operations of the farm-as if chemistry, or the chemist for example, could be of no use to the farmer, because he does not interfere with the handling of the plow-or with the shape and management of the drill machine, or the harrow.

class, and the estimation in which they are held-but it unfits them,