Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 20, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 October 1851 — Page 1

THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL

WILLIAM J. DROWN, Editor. .1 WEEKLY. WEEKLY, Per Annan, l.OO DAILY, 5.00 AUSTIN II. BROWN, Publisher VOL. XI. INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1851. NO. 20,

Proa the Detroit Free Press Extra." Address by Hon. Lewi Cass. DELIVERED BEFORE THE MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT ITS THIRD ANNUAL FAIR, HELD AT DETROIT, SEP-

I LiHOtiK 4. ZO, ARU 2b. ISO! That the lines had fallen to him in pleasant places. id that be had a goodly heritage, were subjects of congratulation witn tnc royal psalmist ol Israel, gratefully acknowledged end beautifully expressed in one of thofe otftponrings of the imagination which have come down to us in the pages of the Scripture, nnd whose hold unon the human affections is as nowerli.l now as in Sm i . l m .t , 1 . - - T orijjiuest days ol the ehosen people o God. And where is the American who does not feel that his conntry offers goodly heritages and pleasant places and equally, too to all who seek them from the shores where our fathers first commenced their stern contest with Nature, to that distant ocean which their descendants have reached by like trials and exertions, and which separates as from the islands and continent of Asia And no where are higher rewards offered to human industry and enterprise, as well by the physical as by the moral and political advantages within our reach, than met us at every step of our progress upon our Own beautiful peninsula. Around us is one of those I PLEASANT PLACES, One of those GOODLY HERITAGES. ! Few positions present more obj cts of agreeable con- . temptation than docs the very spot where this assem-

blage is now convened, in peace and prosperity, not to plain views, where we have now but imperfect glimpses j the most valuable, analysis showing that one-fourth of it and sails for snips, anil for dwellings a wondcrlul illuscelebrate a victory nor to extol a conqueror ' but to i " Jehovah's kingdom. All tiiis is. however, wisely j may be considered as nutritive matter. The carrot, tho tration of the power ol Nature to evolve substances so

mune together upon one of the most interesting subjects that engage the human attention. Aliove us and below us are vast internal seas, unequaled on the face of the globe, stretching awa t other regions, and dis. tr i'Uling their bounties far and w ide, and alrcadv bearing rich products, "corn as the sand of the sea," from ! the granary of the Northwest, to supply the wants of other portions of the world less favored by more harshly ruled by man. Nature or The first want of man is food, and his first care is to supply it. The rude modes ol" agriculture originally prevailing have gradually given way to improved systems, combining sound theoretical principles with enlarged experience and observation. In the dispensation of Nature, an increasing population always presses upon the means of subsistence ; and if the tapply does not augment with the demand, famine, and the terrible evils it brings in its train, will soon come to teach an ignorant, or oppressed, or improvident community that it is the province of Nature to minister to the wants of man by aiding his exertions, and not to minister to his indolence by rendering them unnecessary. For wise purposes, no doubt, there are regions of exuberant fertility, where articles of food may Ii obtained without culture, as there are others of irreclaimable sterility, where no industry can conquer the obstacles of soil and climate, and render these stricken portions of the earth desirable residences fur the human family. But in the natural as ia the moral world the system of creation is one of compensations good and evil go hand-in-hand together. Where man lives without exertion or industry, lie lives without virtue or intelligence, and dies as indifferent to the future as he has been to the past. But where necessity his real friend, though sometimes apparently a stern one requires him to labor, be attains his true position, and fulfils his tme destiny by the proper employment of bis faculties, physical and moral, and bv thir nobler development, which is sure to follow. Experience has shown that in the temperate zones of the earth. where industry is essential to nbsistence. and where its rewards arc ample, there only the human race have attained their true position, anil have advanced in the career of intelligence and improvement marked out by the Creator, and the limits of which are known to Him alone. The great deeds, the great names, the gre:tt discoveries of the world, aro there, telling, in language not to he misunderstood, that there is an intimate connexion Itetwoen the progress of the human faculties and the motives f r their exertion. To increase the quantity and to improve tbe quality of agricultural products suited to the subsistence of man. and with as little labor as is compatible with tbe object, should be the great effort of intelligent agriculturists Tbe progress of tillage is one of the most interesting chapters ia the whle record of human society. Its origin is lost in the obscurity- of time, and fable has usurped tbe place of authentic history. That the food of man in his primitive state was the spontaneous products of the earth we are equally assured by Scripture and by reason. It would be a enrioas subjectrof inquiry to ascertain, if the means were in our power, the various steps by which the acorn yielded its place to more pala table and succulent food, and finally to the cereal grains, and to bread, their best form, the great staple of human support. But the arts of destruction have always exerted so much more pr.wer over the imagination than those of preservation that while battles and battle-fields and conquerors crowd every page of history, till they have become almost as undistinguished as their victims, we are compelled 0 grope our way amid the mit of fable and tradition in vain search after the progress of the human intellect in these discoveries nnd improvements which make an essential p.irt of civilization l'.self. and many of which must have been as early in their introduction as they have proved general in t'aeir ose. The mora!it and the philosopher have equally exposed the tendency and the folly of this love of military glory ; but it is deeply inrooted in human nature, and operates as powerfully at this day as in the earliest times, when a plastic mythol;gy gave to the victorious destroyer a niche, a statue, and an altar in the Pantheon of the goIs. It were a rash attempt to undertake to set limits to the productive powers of the earth. It has been greatly increased by human knowledge and labor; and the discoveries of modern science, and especially of chemistry. have still further enlarged its sphere, and promises yet more beneficial results for the future. We know but little of the agriculture of the ancients. The scattered notices of it which have survived the lapse of time, are meagre and unsatisfactory, and certainly inspire but little respect for tbe practice or practical philosophy of the cultivators of the soil. The twelve yoke of oxen that Elisha left in the furrow when called to a higher duty furnish a very unfavorable commentary upon the quality of the Jewish stock, as well as upon the instruments of tillage, which required such a prodigious waste of animal labor. For ages agriculture was stationary, and probably advanced but little from the time Virgil wrote his Georgics till the last century. We are told hy the best authority that in Scotland, within one hundred years, "there was no rotation of crops; fallows verc unknown, except in one or two counties; the processes and implements of j L. I 1 . 1. . 1 1 L ........ ..... . . . husbandry were alike wretch-d; the occupiers were in extreme poverty, and famines were every now and then occurring, that sometimes laid waste extensive districts." That "'the retuns were about three times the seed," and that, so late as 1727, ' a field of wheat of eight acres in the vicinity of Edinburgh w.is considered so great a curiosity that it excited the attention of the whole neighborhood, and that numbers of persons came from a great distance to sec it." And if such was the condition of one or the most enlightened countries in Europe, we may j . 1 1 l i i . ...i.i l r . . i. . . i 1. i weil oejievp, wnai muvru was wie met, inai Eirewnni" the state of agriculture was equally deplorable and degrading; and well it is for the cause of humanity that improved systems of tillage have been adopted, and the quantity of fiaod greatly increased to meet the augmenting demand of an enlarged population, and thus spare ns from famines like those which were the scoarge of the world in ancient and madireval times. The eanse which led to the rapid improvement of agneulture in poi-ions ot Europe a iter n nan oecn stationary iur ccniuov. i nimu nuv nmmi ?hi hj uiicniiiiiiii. They are connected with the general progress of opinion, the melioration of political institutions, and wonderful advance in all tbe arts and sciences, and especially in those which relate to husbandry, and with the new spirit of intercourse which has brought the nations of the earth much closer together, and made them much more useful than at any former period in their history. Time and reason have banished, not all, indeed, bnt many of the idle and superstitious notions which once prevailed, and which impeded both the theory and the practice of hör '.andry. Men trust more to their own observation, and to the deduction of enlightened science, and less to (hose legacies of a dark period which so long held in bondage the cultivators of t he soil The moon is left to perform the proper functions assigned to her by -t - . i. a ..r i I j ne creator in me iirnraniciii w iicbtt-h. nun icimcu from that supremacy over the vegetable kingdom which made her tbe great calendar of the farmer, and gave to her rarions phases more power over the world of vegetation than elimafe. soil, or cultivation. Intimately connected wrth the increase of agricultural irrtd'iets is the imnortant oocjtion of their relative adaptation to the porposea of human snbsistenee; and both of these interesting ofiieet of imnirv have reeently

engaged th? attention of able and serentine observers, J ter by which, in fact, the Almighty Will docs its werk; and the progress of tha investigation has len equally why, (or example, there ia a tendency in all bodies toboaovabie to tbnaa, and satisfactory to all who take an . wards one another, agreeably to a law we have discov-

interest in this great department of human concern. Researches into the truo principles of vegetable physiology have been pursued with admirable judgement and success, and have opened to us new and enlarged iews

of the stnn tmv and organization of plants, ami of the experiments he can make in the narrow circle that ensupplies necessary to their growth and subsistence, as , compass him, sink into uiter insignificance lefVre the

we" as f those they furnish for the support of man. And it is here that chemistrv, especially by the improvcu proeess 01 analysis, nas snown useii nie cim-ieui handmaid of agriculture. It has taught us that the incombustible or inorganic portion of plants the ashes, small indeed, not exceeding two per cent, in weight, but essential m the economy ot vegetation is derived from .L -l i i - . i . I. I meson, wuuc me organic portion, tue carnon, me iiy- ; drogen, the oxygen, and the nitrogen are imbibed by the j roots and leaves, and conveyed by the proper vessels in j a manner unknown to us to every part of the nlant, and incorporated bv assimilation with the new body into which they enter. How far these inquiries may be extended, and to what hidden operations of Nature they may ultimately conduct us in the progress of human knowledge, it were I m . - T- i - rasii io undertake even to coniecture. inat we nave not reached the boundary which divides what may lie known from what must be unknown, is evident from all that is dailv passing around us in the world of matter. The limit may be far distant, and no douht'important developments will hereafter icward the zeal and in dustry of philosophical inquircres. and perhaps give us concealed from us, that presumption and despondency may le equally rep'essed. But we may salely assume that many of the final causes, and of the secondary agencies also, which govern the vast creation of God. and preserve that wonderful harmony in his works by vhich the elements of destruction are forever pressing "Pon n' preservation, hut can never pass tue limits prescribed to them by Him who lias asMsned to each us : ( proper functions in the economy of Nature, and has made ! these hostile principles to eotitiiliute to universal order, it ever made known, will probably only be made known in another and a higher state of existence. In the whole range of the visible creation there is no brighter spot than thi for the eye of man to rest upon, nor one where the wisdom of ihe Creator is more wonderfully displayed. The original impulsive ttower and the power of gray. itation are so combined as to retain the planetary bodies j ! in their orbits, and to conduct them along their track less paths in the heavens with unerring precision. Thorc I they have been and are. and there thev will li till their great work is ended. And vet how admirable the adaption bv which these mighty masses are guided anil controlled, and the agencies in opera' ion balanced and restrained ! The predominance of one would bring these worlds together, involving in tneir contract the utter destruction of our system, while that of the other would release them from the bonds of mutual dependence, and send them to wander in the boundless region of space, where even the human imagination could not follow them ! . 1 tl . 1 ! in meir enuicss career. And the same wisnoin is it is. plaved in the natural operations aronnoTns, ami in the midst of which our life is passing. A change in the con-I stitucnt principles of the atmosphere, an undue superi- i oritv of one of its elements, would render it unfit for res piration, and incapable of perfoiming the functions assigned to it. Fire, water, animals, plants the whole economy of Nature, indeed would feel the effects of

such a modification, and of the revolution it would bring j of the principles of vegetable organization which regnwith it. The ocean and the atmosphere are kept with- I late the germination, the growth, and the decay of plants.

in their respective limits: rain and sunshine follow each j other in b-viuti.ul neeesion - and the whole order of the universe is maintained bv this combination of antagonistic principles, thus harmonionsly blended, and made to work in unison together. It is not the wisdom of man. but the ordination of God, which sets hounds to the fecundity of insect life, and spares us from the inflictions like those which visited Egypt, when ii"r proud monarch hardened his heart against the Divine command. What would avail human might if the barriers against indefinite multiplication were broken down, and if the locust" should rorrr the fire of thr rarth. to that there hould remain no preen thing? In such a warfare, powerless would be human strength against an enemy whose HNnv hers would mock to scorn the efforts of man. And tints the hail, or the wind, or the rain, if not held in check by a superior power, wonld rule the ascendant , and scatter destruction over tbe fair face of Nature. But a far mightier than they has set lounds to their destroying agencies, and each furnishes its contribution of good to the great work of all. The impressive language of reproof addressed by the Almighty to Job may be addressed to every soon of Adam ; "Where was thou when I laid the foundations of tbe earth? Deblare, if thou hast understanding.'' "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" The human faculties arc bewildered in tbe contemplation of the wonderful ower of tho Creator ; and still the more it is made known to us hy a knowledge of His Works by the knowledge that there are worlds of animated beings around us. forever j : : 1. 1 . a . 1 1 1 1 . i ! : t.: . n . .... 1 ! invisible to the naked eve. but each emoying his allotted share of happiness; while far beyond us, in the regions ofspace, arc those shining orbs, whose objects, to ortr vision is only to deck the sky with glittering points, but which reason and analogy equally teach us arc destined to far nobler ends to the performance of important functions in the great scheme of creation, and probably peopled with intelligent beings, perhaps better fitted than we are to comprehend these miracles of creative power a power fe't in the regions of illimitahle rpace. equally inaccessible to human vision and to the efforts of the human comprehension. " Wf eannnt eo "Where universal lov not milr arcund. Sustain 11 nil yon or nd alt their sunt, From ermine evil siilt eilurins eood. And better ihenrr in. and better still. In infinite profusion." The researches of modern chemistry have been successfully directed to two objects of inquiry equally essential to a just and rational view of the true theory and practice of agriculture. One of the elements which furnish proper nutriment to the animal system, and the other the plants in which this pabulum of life is most abundantly found. Experiments, skilfully directed and steadily pursued, have already conducted us far in this interesting field of investigation; and strange is it that it has been but recently explored in the real spirit of inductive philosophy. Scarcely a century has elapsed since much has been known of the true structure of plants, and many important points of vegetable physiology, even among those most accessible to daily obser vation, are yet involved in doubt and dispute. Chemistry ha oon far 1)en( ,c sister sciences, and it is only with the commencement ol the present century mat commences that era ol its advancement when tho labors of analysis and tho principles of induction rescued it from the hands of the alchemists, and have given it the dignity of a science, contributing not less to the comfort of man than to a true knowledge of innny of the most interesting operations of Nature; and it is by no other process that we can expect to obtain jii' t conceptions of the nature and properties ol the tin Jecom posed sub,tanccs wbi, l,, in the present state of our knowledge i i ... . mav be called elementary principles, and by whose means all living organized bodies are constituted and perform their functions. The boldness the blind rashness, rather of man leads him to reject the slow process of following Nature step by step, and adding fact after fact to his store of knowledge, and then combining these together and deducing such general laws as it may be given to him to develop and comprehend. For centuries the theory came nrsi. ana then tacts were M1lt t0 sPport it. But though this scientific empi ricisro is not yet wholly banished.it is yielding to a more rational spirit of investigation; and the reward has been fonnd in that wonderful advance of knowledge ! in the natural sciences which has made the age in which I we live eminently a practical one. Our first business is i with the operations of Nnture, and after that with their causes and effects. And it is obvious that it is far easier to penetrate the former than the latter, and that now I the functions of organized matter go on is a problem of easier solution than ehw they go on. The general process of vegetation meets ua at every step of life, and observation and experience have revealed many of its principles. Wc know that seeds germinate, that the sap circulates, and that the body of the plant is gradu ally developed by assimilation, and we have ascertained m-nT hoth of the laws and of the orirans bv which these j - - - . - j . opcrations are conducted, and it is in this great and uselul field of inquiry that our labors can be most successfully exerted. All beyond it is a subject of speculation of deeply interesting speculation, indeed, in its pursuit, bnt too doubtful in its result to encourage us in the task of exploring it. What are the means by which the 2 rent operations of Nature are conducted through the vast domain of creation, and by which the principle of vitality, animal and vegetable, 1 infused info organic mat

ed nnd denominated gravitation, but whose mode of ac -

tion we cannot even conjecture these are the inquiries which, in the present state of our knowledge, wc have no encouragement to investigate. Man, ami the little j overpowering considerations that force themselves upon hs in the contcmplaiion of these manifestations and mo- : uiumuina m iiimuiy rower, one nee uecomcs wisdom. But whatever revelations the future has in store for us. it needs none to tell us that the clearer becomes j our vision of the wondeiful scheme of creation, the greater will be oor admiration of the wisdom and good.1.-. J : I : I - r . i . l i .i , nc mm ucsigneu n, uuu oi me power mat maue anu i preserves it. j But we mnst return from this digression to that branch of our subject more immediately before us. I have alreadv said that practical chemistry had been investigating the proper nutriment ol animal hie, and the plants which most abundantly supply it, and that important dis- ! coveries had followed these investigations, peculiarly ' valuable to the farmer, who desires to conduct his opeI - I A 1 I . .11" " , . ; rations not oniy proruaoiy mu tntciiigioiv. u is aseer 1 tained that among the edible plants there is a great difference in their capacity to provide for the subsistence of man. They yield the principles of nutriment in very different proportions; ami this consideration is a most im portant on-i in the choice ol their culture. (Jl the bul ho us roois naturalized in our country, the potato is by far ! parsnip, the bact. and the turnip are less valuable, but

still important oujecis 01 cultivation. cumun, irum incsame alimentary matter wnicn everyBut the family of the cereal grains is that which is ! where furnishes the nutriment of plant. The applicahest adapted to the use of man, as it is by far the richest j tion of the principles deduced from the researches of

; in nutritive qualities, and has constituted the principal article of human food among the emliaM nations of the world. Analytical chemistry thus wines to mid itstcstim.my to general experience, and to make known to us one m the causes or the preference. At the head ot this family is wheat, whose introduction into Greece was rewarded by the divine honors conlerrcd on the benelactor.

Like the horse and the ox, it is the universal companion j functions they have to perform, and that this organizaof civilized man. and has accompanied him in his migra- j tion is not merely mechanical, operating by chemical aflions around the globe. It possesses a greater proportion ! Unities and laws, but physiological, embracing a princiof the nutritive principle than either of its congenors, or P'e of vitality, low indeed in the scale of living being, than any other vegetable production known to us. Care-I hut mighty in its extent these facts, now well estab

ful experiments have been made with a view to practical results, and tables prepared showing the nutritive properti s of plants used as food cither for man or for the do. mestic animals. It is a curious as well as interesting subject of inquiry, and one which should engage the attention of every intelligent farmer. It lies at the very foundation of agricultural improvement. The knowledge we have gained of the food of plants exhibits one of the happiest applications of chemistry to vegetable physiology, and its investigations have opened new views in that great departmert of creation, leading, with other recent discoveries, to the conclusion that there is a striking analogy existing between the two living kingdoms of Nature and that simnlicilv is no less an attribute than wisdom in the works of Almighty power, That some soils are more favorable than others to the production of plan's, and that their growth may be stimulated bv adventitious substances, are facts that expe rience must have taught in the very earliest stages of husbandry. But it was reserved for a late period for our own indeed to give hs a reasonable insight into some and which enable us to understand how we may best aid the operations of Nature. We know there are organs performing their assigned functions, common to all vegetation, and essential to its growth and development. Having ascertained that plants require food, and that thev possess proper organs to prepare it and to convey it to its destined work, where it is incorporated, by some process inserutihle to us, into a new liody, we have a wav openod4r an inquiry into the nature and properties of this nutrimental matter, and of the practica, "application of the principles evolved to the purposes of the farmer. The functions of vegetable life are admirable and admirably performed, and are forever in operation, unchanged and successfully, upon a world at vegetation, whi h, in its vast extent and variety, and in the countless subjects it contains, beyond the faculties of man to conceive, is among the most wonderlul displays of creative power. Within tho range of personal vision, how vaiu the effort to conjecture even the numlter of plants tbat start into life and then disappear to give place to their successors in this ceaseless round of creative organization1 But who shall count who shall even dare to imagine how many individuals compose that mighty mass of vegetation which covers the face of tho earth, and penetrates far into the recesses of the sea? It is not given to man to enter even the threshold of such a work. It is before us and within our reach, but forever inaccessible to us. By observation of tho differences appreciable in the structure and properties of plants, botanists have sue coeod arranging them into separate classes, by which m 1 . . . J they are brought, in some measure, williin our grasp, .however, artificial, though These classifications nre, founded on natural phenomena, and are designed to introduce order into the consideration of a vast subject, and thereby to facilitate our acquaintance with it. The roots, the body, the bark, and the leaves of the plants, and the flowers and fruits in the season of fructification, arc vegetable productions with which we arc all Tamilliar. Much of the internal structure the wood, the pith, the sap. and the tubes arc equally well known, and some of their functions have been long acertained, or rather conjectured with reasonable certainty. But It is only recently that much progress has been made in this branch of nat'iral history, nnd that we arc now beginning to understand, not, indeed, the organic laws of vegetable life, but many of the functions of vegetable organization, and the process hy which the great work of production goes on. The ascent and descent of the sap, analogous to the circulation of tho blood in the human system ; the vessels through which it passes; the functions of the leaves, resembling those of the lungs, by which tbe vital fluid is divided between two seta ol vessels, one transpiratory to exhale its watery parts, and tbe other secretory to conduct the reridue, after having undergone the necessary change through the proper vessels to continue its prescribed operations in the economy of Nature; the presence of extraneous matter, of silicious substance, (or example, in the epidermis of plants all these and other discoveries have enlarged the sphere of our knowledge, and have given us satisfactory conceptions, instead of vain conjectures, of many operations in the progress of vegetation. They promise yet brighter rewards for future exertions. The elaboration by plants of different substances contained in the sap, and possessed of various properties, is truly a wonderful process. We have no conception how the several vessels select from the same materials the proper alimentary matter, and reject what is unfit, nor how these elemonts enter into the new body, and finally offer their services to man in a new form. Investigations into the cellular structure of plants hold out the prospect of important accessions to our present knowledge of vegetable physiology, connected as they are with some of tbe most difficult questions concerning the organization and growth of vegetation. The cells, it is now conceded, form the basis of all plants. Their minntencss aud the rapidity of their development are equally beyond our comprehension ; for it is estimated that they average but l-500th part of an inch in diameter, giving more than one hundred millions to every cubic inch, and that in some of the fungi they arc generated at tho rate of fifty-six millions in a minute. Such estimates are fur beyond the grasp of the human faculties, producing shadowy impressions rather than adequate conceptions; but, vaguely conjectural as they must be, they are yet sufficient to satisfy us that we move in a world of miracles from the cradle to the grave, not one of which perhaps it is given to man fully to comprehend, and that tbe wonderful processes by which this mass of vegetation exists and is maintained are governed by laws that lie far beyond the present boundary of our knowledge. And these minute vesicles are membraneous, each shut out from all others, and in plants of the lower order, both absorbing and assimilating, while in those of superior structure some of the cells ahsorbtbe nutriment, while others incorporate it into the body of the plant. The mind is lost in the effort to conceive the number of these microscopic agencies, even in a single herb, and yet they are the materials of which the whole vegetable creation is constructed. Ard each of these ministers of Almighty power, invisible to the naked eye, has a kind of independent lif. with its proper functions, the whole forming together, in some mode inscrutable to ns, the life of the plant and giving to it its ligneous substance ; and thns, while it is constituted a single body, it contains within itself an infinite number of separate agents, efficient ly bnt mysteriously operating together. Countless are the sands npon the sea shore, swept by the advancing andreeeding tides, bnt ever barren and indestructible ; bnt what are they to this wonderous multitude of living organs, hundreds of which a

! grain of sand woald cover, swept by a tide that ebbs not,

the onward progress of creative power, coming into ex istence and passing from it. to be forever re-placed bykindred tribes, thus calling death from life, and arresting destruction by never-ending rc-produetion? And thus is the earth covered with mir green thing, and with this uniformity of structure all the diversified forms of vegetable organization, almost infinitely various, are brought into being and made subservient to the purposes of man. Among these gifts of Nature is our sugar maple, and elsewhere is the caoutchouc tree, yielding that most useful substance, India rubber; the poppy, whose concrete juice is opiom, an : . I - . i i , i . ; imoi mm .much- in our rnnreria mcuicn; me ajuapnr, whose sap furnishes an active poison, used to impreg- ' nate the rivers in order to obtain the fish the Bambusa i Guadua s. which sometimes reaches the height of one j hundred feet, and whose stem is hollow nnd divided by joints at snort intervals, each ol winch contains pure j limpid water, invaluable to the traveller in hot and and regions; and the cow tree, a remarkable production, which supplies a miuy juice similar in its properties the milk of animals, and extensively used by the inho to nhabi- , tants where this beneficent production abounds. But the whole vegetable world offers no subject more worthy of contemplation than the Coeos Mauritia a tree fount! in the tropical regions of South America. Its green shoots serve as aliment, and it furnishes bread and wine, j and oil aod fruit, and materials for clothing, mats, hats, , numerous and so various, by the ordinary process of vegi scientific observers is not less important to the purposes I t the practical farmer, than is tbe increased knowledge ! of the beautiful system of vegetable life to his intellecti uai advancement. I hat plants require proper lood lor their growth, and lor the ultimate development of their i properties, and that this food is recrcted and sent on to 'ts work hv vessels vanouMy constituted lor the different lished, nnd daily opening more and more to us, are intimately connected with the whole process of cultivation. " Stones grow,'' says Linnrcus, in his gradation of inorganic 1 Jid organic forms, 11 plants grow and live, and animals grow, live and feel." We know that where the nutrimental principle is most abundant, and judiciously applied, there it will produce a corresponding effect upon the body that imbibes it. Wo are thus brought to a consideration of the nature and condition of the soil and of the properties and preparation of the materials for manure the most important part of practical agriculture It is a subject into which I have no time to enter. I touch but the most general outline. The system of creation is one of life and death, following each other in never-ending succession a system of production, of destruction, and of reproduction. It were idle to speculate upon the final cause of '.his ordination of Nature, and worse than idle to endeavor to investigate the ourpose of the Creator in his infinite multiplication of organic beings, performing certain assigned operations, and then disappearing to give place to their successors. From the flower that blooms but to die. to tbe giant of vegetation, the monument of ages that have swept over it; from the insect which sports its brief hour in the sunshine, fulfilling the duty imposed upon it, and then vanishes from existence, to " that sea-beast. Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hu;est, that awinia the ocean stream, and to man, tbe visible head of this wonderful creation, to whom was assigned "dominion over it all. all proclaim the universal decree, that as tiiet came from Dt'ST, THEY Ml' ST RETURN TO PHST when, WC know not; but we know it will be soon, for brief is the interval, even when most extended, which separates us from this momentous change, ordained by Almighty Wisdom. But the most stipei lieial observation shows us that a principle looking to the greatest share of enjoyabent hv sentient beings, rational and irrational, compatible wifh their condition and to its greatest diffusion, by the multiplication of individuals, pervades the system of Nature; and a beautiful manifestation it is of tho power and goodness of God. If death comes to all, it is but to give place to renewed life, thus fulfilling the great law of existence. We know but little next to nothing, indeed of the true elements of matter. These arc termed such which baflle all our efforts at decomposition. At the commencement of the present century there were twenty. nine of these elementary bodies, and now there are sixty-three, showing the great progress of practical chemistry. Their number changes with our chemical knowledge , but wc must avoid the error of supposing that their enumeration makes known to us tbe true primordial substances which constitute the basis of the material world. It is a knowledge we may never reach. But, however, this may be, and whatever is the principle of vegetable nutriment, experience shows that it is exhausted by the supplies it furnishes, and then becomes useless, and must be replaced by substances in which it abounds. And we have thus the theory of soil and manure ;and every agricnltnral observer should keep it in view in the preparation of his ground, in the application of fertilizing matter, and in the various operations connected with '.ho growth of the crop. It is by combining observations together that we give them their true value, and learn the more general laws that control the phenomena of nature. I have already said that tho field of agricultural improvement has no prescribed limits that human vision can rest upon, and we are thus encouraged to extend our researches with rational prospects of success. And as an example of the effect of cultivation, it is stated by Bousingault that a beet seed weighing but the fraction of a grain has produced a beet weighing one hundred and sixty-two thousand gr?:ns. or twenty-eight pounds. But tho.igh we know not how far we can go, we know where wo cannot go. We know that we can increase the size and improve the properties of plants by judicious culture, but that we cannot so change their essential nature as to confound the established order of creation and to destroy the boundary that divides the various species by new families, called into existence by man. Reason and analogy, and universal experience from the earliest periods, teach ns that our efforts at amelioration should be confined within their legitimate limits the attempt to improve tbe qualities of existing plants and animals, and not to iuvade the province of the Creator by rash endeavors to multiply, with the faculty of reproduction, the forms of mater, endowed by Him with life. If we have reason to be pioud of the advance of modern knowedge we have reason to be humble when we see the presumption with which it is to often applied. Not content with tho proofs of an intelligent Creative power, which accompany us from the cradle to the grave, and which revelation and experience equally announce, we are seeking with blind rashness to reject the true origin of this great scheme of Almighty Wisdom this union of mind and matter and 0 find some kind of fortuitous creation some shadowy plan of progression by which the most imperfect organization gradually rises in the scale of being, and step by step, spontaneously and by its own inherent force, ultimately assumes the most perfect forms of animal life. There is a tendency not to be misunderstood towards a cold and heartless materialism in many physical investigations of the present day, and there is a tendency, equally obvious in moral investigations, to be carried away "by new and strange doctrines, one of which teaches us, as its Hierophant announces in a work captivating for its boldness and novelty, tbat all distinction bttvxen the physical and moral is annulled; that " grades of mind, like forms of body, are mere stages of development ;" and that there ts no essential difference between man and beast. And anfortunately, tbe restraining, power of the Christian religion upon the hearts and minds of men has been weakened by a similar spirit of presumptuous research, neither directed by wisdom nor conducting to truth. From tbe great storehouse of German metaphysical theologv where dialectic dexterity has more votaries than a simple and earnest spirit of inquiry, strange words have issued rationalism and super-rationalism, naturalis m and snper-naturalism, sutr-naiural rationalism ana rational super-naturalism, transcendentalism, and many a kindred weapon of controversy, well calculated to impose upon the human judgment, and to lead captive the human imagination by the assumption of learning and by puerile logomachies.- all these and similar verbal subtleties, worthy of the disciples of the Stagyrite, belong to the varions schools of theology, which convert the gospel of Jeans to their own views, rejecting the true scheme of salvation, or accommodating it to the corrupt heart of man. Th Christian religion becomes a myth or fable, and its Divine author a fanntic or nn impostor, who healed the sick by interposing at a favorablc crisis of tbe disorder, when Natura had herself

commenced the cure, and who raised the dead by calling them to life at the very moment of recovery from the effect of a cataleptic attack, and whose other miracles were performed hy similar coincidences, or not performed at all. And our faith is to be shaken in the life and death and merits of the Saviour, and the hopes of his promises to the living anJ their consolation to the dying are to lie sacrificed to these dreams of a morbid imagination, which lielong to a world of peculiar ideas,

and not to our world of action, and which have no sym- ( pathy with human nature, and no prospect beyond the j narrow boundary of physical existence. Let no man delude himself with the notion that when I he has once mastered, if master he can, these Shiblioj leths of a barren controversial theology, he is bettrr fitt- ' ed in head or in heart to study the history of the IV1 deemer's mission, or that these and other " great swell ing words "- " For all thia tedious talk ia but vain boast, Or subtle shirta conviction to evade " nave enabled him to gain one step forward in tho path of Christian knowledge. The human mind is strangely constituted ; forever : . . 1 1 r - m. . . looming in me neius 01 inquiry, it is loo oitcn disposed to push its investigations beyond the boundaries assigned to man, and to believe nothing it does not comprehend. It has been well said of the disciples of this school, that " to be defied to the face by any stiff-necked problem which this poor universe can produce, is a humiliation to which they arc not accustomed to submit.' As the nature and tributes of the Deity are beyond their understanding. His existence ia beyond their belief. They belong to the class so well described by Pope, " Who boldly takes the high piiori road. And reason downward till they doubt of Gcd." A theory of 'developments," as it is called, not less bold than startling, has been advanced in a work recently published, and entitled "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," and which, according to an eminent Scotch review, has been received with a "sudden run of favor," while an English review of equal authority considers this book "the best adapted of all the productions cd' modern literature to give a right direction to the philosophical investigations of the highest subjects of human interest. This theory authoritatively announces that -'the whole train of animated beings, from the simplest and oldest forms up to the highest and most recent, are then to lie regarded as a series of advances of the principle of development which have depended upon external physienl circumstances to which the resulting animals nre appropriate." And thus the mysteries of the universe are unfoldvd by the mystifications of a false philosophy, and men who cannot believe in a Creator believe in such a creation as this in spontaneous generation, and in the transmutation of species. Verily, scepticism and credulity are very near neighbors in these mortal frames of ours, and the o'd Latin saw "Credo quia impossibilis est1' I believe because it is impossible is as true now as it was twenty centuries ago. Wc have to judge between tha Redeemer of man, who tells us that the rry hairs of our head are all numbered, and that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of our Heavenly Father, nnd the prophets and neophytes of this new faith, who assert that '"the creation of a lower animal is an inconceivably paltry exercise of Almighty power." And we are called upon to believe that our progenitors were monkeys, and that our posterity will be angels, or something higher in the order of Nature, by successive transformations, the result of "a creation by law," by which "organic life presses in" (or, in other words, creates itself) "vherrrer it has room and etieovrasement , and accommodates its formt to suit the circumstances," (this is no less clear than satisfactory.) and "a superadrquacy in the measure of this undc-adequacy" would enable the goose to eice to his progeny Ihe body of a rat, and thns "one species gavi birth to another, till the second highest gave birth to man." And we arc also told th.-t our horses were vast Packy dcrata, (names arc things, says Mirabean; and when they are not. they are too often their substitutes.) huge, half-formed, living monsters, stretcl ing. like the fallen archangel of Milton, "many a rood," with three toes and no claws, eating herbs as strange ns themselves, nnd that ihrj will march steadily onward in the scale of being, perhaps, till they become nblc, like the winged horse of tho ancient mythology, to carry us throng!; the fields of air, instead of the fields of earth, with improved powers and enlarged faculties, suited to a higher sphere of action: nnd that wheat was once a fern or a sea-weed, and will in time become an ambrosia-bearing plant, as far exceeding its present condition as it is now advanced beyond its original prototype, fitting food, it may be, for the human race when it has taken its higher position in that ascending series of progression and development, to which it is destined by this consolatory system of psychology. Till that era arrives, thus foretold by this new faith, and foreseen by these new prophets, our agriculture will be guided by the true principles of observation and induction, and without the vain and impious effort to break down the barriers established hv the Creator, and to usurp His province in the government of creation. Reason and revelation equally assure us that the Great First Cause is everywhere, nnd everywhere and always in operation, either primarily and by its own agency, or secondarily by the agency of laws it has established. And it is not given to man te comprehend where the one ends or the other begins, or how the system of causation commenced its work, or still goes onward in its task: ' Earth, on wbn?e aa a thousand nntions tread And Ocean brooding Iii prolific bed. Right's chanceful orbs, bright stars and ailyery cones, Where other worlds encirrle other mns. One mind inhabits, one diffusive soul Wields the large limbs aud mingles with the whols." The fossil bones of antediluvian monsters in rocky strata, and their footmarks upon indurated clay, strange hieroglyphics upon the monuments of Nature, written in a language which man is striving to decipher, have been resorted to in proof or in illustration of this scheme of creation, equally contradicted by the Book of God's Word, and by tho Book of His Works. There are far better "vestiges of creation" in His footmarks around us, in His footsteps npon the ocean and tho land, impressed upon the whole organization of Nature, than these researches, too often merely conjectural, into the remote condition of the globe, can furnish. Tbey are interesting, as are all the facts connected with the natural history of the planet we inhabit, bnt worse than worthless when nsed to shake our faith in the rcvelutions of Christianity, or in the attributes of its Divine founder. I have presented for your consideration for your cooperation, indeed voiious suggestions connected with the advancement of agriculture; bul far beyond these in influence and importance is the advancement of the agriculturist the education, sound, practical, and enlarged, of that vast body of our youth who form, and are to form, the farming interest of our country an interest that embraces more than one-half of our population, and a still greater'proportion of the permanent influence to which our social and political institutions must look for snpport in those periods of theii trial which have berebifore come upon other nations and have come upon us. The cultivator of the soil is engaged in one of the noblest occupations tbat belongs to the whole circle of human employmcnt in replenishing the earth and subduing it, and in multiplying every herb-bearing seed, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, all of which wero given to man "fer meat" before be left bis primitive residence where God first planted him. Ho deals with organic life, with its production, its improvement, its multiplication, with the means, of subsistence for that great family of rational r responsible beings which " has dominion " over all that the earth brings forth, as well as orer errry Itrt'nir thing that moncth upon it. His existence does not pass in crowded cities, the works of man, surrounded with the physical and moral ills which a dense population is sure 1 ) bring with it. He walks abroad among the works ol God, reading the great book of Nature, whose every pape is filled with lesssons of wisdom written in characters thai no man an misunderstand but the fool that said in hxt heart there is no God. The light that shires, the w nd that blows, the rain that falls, the phenomena of Nnture are the companions of his daily walks and work, not mare objects of curiosity or even of contemplation, indifferent or interesting, as he neglects or observes them, bot ever active agents in the progress of production, co-laborers with himself in the domain of Nature, performing the functions assigned to them, "in seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night," which we are told 1 y Him who knoweth and ordaineth it, shall not cease while the earth, remaineth. The work-shop of the farmer is not a narrow and heated room, shnt out from light and air, but broad fields and an open sky are the witnesses of his labors; and it is not more inert matter that he deals with, calling into exertion his mechanical powers only, but one of the great kingdoms of living nature, fiirntsbinf subjects of ceaseless ub 1 1 tion and wonder to the highest intellect, nnd forever inviting the researches of man, as well by the enUrged view it present aof groat natural opeiationt, as by

the effect of fliis increased knowledge npon the heart and the understanding, and hy the rewards which are sire W follow the exertions of the enlightened cultivator. From the hyssop I hat springcth out of the wall to the cedar of Lebanon, from the lowliest plant that creeps into life, to flic giant of the forest that rears its bead alrove a sea of vegetation, resisting the winds of Hcavgrf for centuries, there is :i mighty mass of organized forms endowed with a principle of vitality which proclaim the power of God and invite tho researches of man. Wondrons are its extent, its variety, tlifi laws of its being, the purposes it fulfils, the mode of its production, its existence, and its reproduction, and the admirable organization by which its functions are to be performed, and" inorganic matter converted into its beautiful foliage, which covers the face of the earth, rejoicing the eye and the heart, and ministering to the wants of sentient

creation. And the life of the farmer passes in the midst of this great family of nature. It is his daily care to cultivate, to increase, to improve those branches of it which are the most necessary for human comfort and subsistence ; and it should be his daily pleasure, as it is his duty, t observe the process of vegetable life, the habits of plants and the laws regulating their organization, that he may know how to make the earth bring forth by handfulls. like the seven plcnteons years of Egypt, nnd still ameliorate his practice as he extends his knowledge. Who docs not see that here is scope enough for the most powerful intellect, the most enlarged understanding? the practical study of the works of creation, admitting the application of advanced science, as well as the highest powers of personal observation. And yet since the earliest period indeed, since the acorn gave place to wheat as the principal article of subsistence a delusion has beer propagated not universal indeed for there are honorable exceptions lioth in ancient and in modern days but far too general, nnd so firmly maintained that even now it exerts a powerful influence, and is but slowly yielding1 to the into'lectual progress which marks the ago in which we live. The Book of Ecclcsiastcs, though excluded as apocryphal from the canon of Scriptures, is of ancient origin, nnd no doubt depicts truly the customs' and opinions of the Jewish people. It ministers to this" muchicvous prejudice, and presents a melancholy picture of the intellectual condition oftl.J Hebrew hut,Land-' men: " How cr.n he get wisdom that lioldeth the plough, and that glorieth in tbe goad; that drivcth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bullocks?" " lie givcth his mind to make furrows, and is diligent to give the kino fodder." And so because a man is brought by bis daily occipations into contact with the world of Nature around him with organic life, animate and inanimate the noblest works of the Creator it is asked emphatically' " How can he yet wisdom'.'' as though the best school for its acquisition were not an enlarged sphere of observation and reflection. It is not difficult to discover, in the progr ss of social and political institutions through the World, the true source of this deplorable error. Labor is dishonored and discredited when it brings degradation legal or conventional when the mark of contempt is upon tho forehead of the laborer, and he feels, and all feel, that his place is considered the lowest in tbe scale of human employment. Thank God, this state of things is -unknown in our country ; but it has extended beyend its immediate circle by the prejudice respecting the education of those engaged in ngi iculture, which it has created and fostered. Where the owner of the soil and the tiller of the soil are separa'e classes, divided hy legal or social barriers where the institutions of r country operate to accumulate land into masses, still augmenting as wealth increases, and repress all tendency to distribution by laws of primogeniture, and by the other legaf" machinery by which the strong are made stronger and the weak weaker where the innny sow without reaping, and the lew reap without sowing who can woiu'cr that the intellect is without cultivation, as industry fs without encouragement ? The wretched institution- 1 I the middle ages by which power and property were wrested from the mass of the people (from alun st the whole people, indeed) and coneen;rated in the bauds of the feudfi! nobility, nnd were guarded by the iron hand and hy the sterner rule of legal exactions and penalties made nmt, nn essential one, too, of the political condition of the European nations, and yet survive in full force in some of them, while in others they have yielded to the. march of events; but in all, their impress is mnikcd upon the constitution of society, and exerts a powerful influx ence upon the whole social system. And thus was degradation brought upon the laborer, and disgrace uponr his occupation, and the impression was left as a legacy, which time alone can remove, that he who tills the soil pursues an employment which, if not totally inconsistent with any advanced state of mental improvement, ia better without it, and should content himself with holding the plough and talking of bullocks " Strong aa his ox, and ignorant as atrocg." Many deep-rooted prejudices have passed away in thiy country, and many others are destined to follow them. There is no miracle like that of old to turn the shadow backward which marks the progress of these events. This prejudice against the necessity of education of an enlarged education for the agricultural class of society though it hag not wholly disappeared, has waned before the light of knowledge, and will, ere long, be remembered but among the perversions of the human intellect. In no country on the face of the globe are there such motives as here for the early diffusion of information among this great body of our fellow-citizens. Land is open to all. There arc no barriers vibicb guard it against the approach of honest labor. He who docs not acquire it is prevented only by himself; he either does not desire to live the life of a farmer, or he is wanting in that industry and good conduct which open all the avenues of property to all who seek them. The relation of landlord and tenant in tbe cultivation of the soil, if not unknown, is so limited that it creates no social castes, divided by those conditions, and almost necessarily antagonistic to each other. Our boundless public domain invites induktry by the facility of acquisition, and rewards it by such advantages as were never before offered to those who seek a moderate competence with personal independence. But there are still graver considcrafioas which are connected with this subject, and which force themselves? upon our attention with peculiar interest nt the present time. I need not tell an American audience that tbe signs ol the political atmosphere aro portentous and alarming. The cloud that was no bigger than a man's hand, like that seen by the prophet from Mount Carmcl, has over spread the heavens, and threatens to burst in ruin upon our country. I am dealing with great nation-' al facts, and not with questions of party with the dangers that encompass us, and not with the causes that produced them. That the attachment of the Union is weakened almost broken, indeed in large portions of the confederal ion, he who runs may read 1 aH thai passes around him. Our day of trial is come, as theira came to our fathers. If we meet it as they met it, in a spirit of patriotism and conciliation, we may strengthen their work by our own, and transmit our great and good' ly heritage, our hope and the world's example, to th sc who are to follow us the most magnificent legacy, after tho religion of God, that was ever bequeathed by one generation to its successors since human governments were instituted. And upon the intelligence and virtue of the countryand especially of the farming interest, which constitutes so large a portion af it must we rely for that aclive and ardent patriotism which is the more devoted the more perilous tho crisis; which looks to fbs claims of all while maintaining the rights of each, stead, ily seeking in the constitution the true principles of action and forltearanee. and tempering its judgment with (hat "brotherly affection" to use the laagaage of Washington without which it weie idle to expect to hope, indeed that tbe bonds that unite us can retain na together. Withdraw this power of attraction, and our system M ill soon be broken up, leaving its members towander m nncertain space, or to form new combinationswith then- own elements of destruction, and with a similar fate before them. God grant that wc may be wise in time, and that for ages hereafter the American farmers, from the St. Croix to the Pacific, wherever situated, or whatever the products of their agriculture, may come together as we kavo come to-day, assembling, not upon battle-grounds, but npon fields of husbandry not to contend in blood for political supremacy, aided by improvements in the art of death, but to compete together in a spirit of emulation, and not of enmity, for the advancement of the art of life the production of human subsistence that, in the werds of the Patriarch of Israel, " we may live, and not die!" Ovra Exf.ktion. Tn Philadelphia a well dressed youug man was attacked by paralvsia while walkrnr ur Chesnut street, and npon lieing taken to ih'i hospital pice of "original poetry' was found in bis necket. Whether this caused his attack the doctors bad ßot-ees-cluded.