Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1885 — A Noted Agriculturist. [ARTICLE]

A Noted Agriculturist.

Sir John Sinclair, of Scotland—the friend of Washington should be known and respected by every cultivator of the soil oa both sides of. the Altantic Ocean. He saw the agriculture of his country, tho great source of human subsistence and human effort, in a wretched condition. Ho saw that from the little intercourse the farmers had with other countries and other districts from which thev could draw instruction, little improvement was to 'be - expected, except through the united exertions of influential individuals, aided by the liberal patronage of the government. Impressed with these convictions, ho printed and circulated, in 1793, his plan for establishing a board of agricu tnre; and in a few days afterwards he moved, in his place at Parliament, an address to the Crown in favor of the proposed establishment, which Avas carried, 101 to twenty-six, the board organized and he made president. In a speech which he made Avhile the subject was under discussion in Parliament, he pointed out the obvious advantages which would result from the establishment. In the first placed, according to his biographer, he regarded it as a general magazine of agricultural knowledge and a society of reference, to which any question might be sent connected Avith the improvement of tho country. In the second place he showed that, by agricultural surveys carried on under the auspices of such a board, every fact or observation known in that, country, connected Avitli the improvement of the soil or the stock it maintained, would be collected. In the third place, that by establishing an extensive foreign correspondence, the discoveries and improvements appertaining to other lands would be much sooner and more widely rendered available than if dependent wholly on private exertions. In the fourth place, that it was only through the means of such a board that any general improvement of stock could be looked for; and that, in the last place, it might be the instrument of-obtaining a statistical account of England. Five thousand pounds, $25,000, Avas the annual grant, and, the priviige of franking was given to the board. ~ The two great primary objects of tbo board Avere to ascertain flic general agricultural state of the country, and the means ol improving that State. As the most effectual way of accomplis ing these objects, agricultural surveys were made, and “in the course of a little more than a year,” a 3 stated by a distinguished writer on husbandry, “the board of agriculture had printed a body of authentic facts respecting the agricultural and internal economy of the country greater than was ever obtained by any other nation since the beginning of time.” But these works, amounting to about eighty vo umes, were too voluminous for general use, and the next object of the Avortliy president was to condense, and bring witiiin the compass of a volume, all the most material facts thus collected, in order to render them available to the practical farmer arid more conductive to general improvement. Ho laid it down as a maxim in literature, that “knowledge, previous to its being brought into a condensed state, may be compared to a small portion of gold dispersed through a great quantity of oar. In that rude condition the strongest man cannot sustain its weight, nor convey it tp a distance, but when the pure metal is separated from The dross, a child may carry it without difficulty.” He published a “Code of Agriculture,” which raised the cultivation of the soil to the dignity of a science, and embodies a vast amount of useful information. He was also instrumental in promulgating the knowledge of Elkinson’s system of draining, and its being extensively adopted; in inducing Davy to undertake his valuable work upon agricultural chemistry; in instituting and giving efficacy to tho Highland Agricultural Society, and in introducing to public notice MoAdam’s improved system of road making. Ho also published, after his "Code of Agriculture” had passed through ttie press, a “Code of Statistical Philosophy,” a “Code of Finance,” and had nearly prepared for publication a “Code or Digest of Religion.” "What a pity it is that we could not have a few such men in this country, who would turn their backs on politics and politicians, and would seek, as Sir John Sinclair did, to improve the cultivation of the soil. —American Cultivator.