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be best adapted, in his judgment, to the soil he has to deal with, and the position of his farm with respect to market and to carry along such collateral objects of culture as may prevent the exhaustion of the soil, and fill up his time by furnishing business for every season of the year,

By this course of policy, the advantages of the division of labor may be secured to agriculture, precisely as far as it would be profitable to carry it; improvements would be more likely to be introduced; and greater skill and economy would accrue to the executive processes,

In new and sparsely settled sections of the country where land is abundant, and labor greatly in defect, there exists, from the nature of the case, a strong tendency to spread cultivation over a large surface, overtaxing the superficial powers of the soil, in order to give the greatest immediate effect to the limited amount of human agency.

Looking to immediate results, the settler, no doubt, accomplishes his purposer but the habit of slovenly and unthrifty farming thus acquired, is apt to be persevered in, long after the necessity which seemed, at first, to justify it, has passed away. The soil, robbed of its apparent productive elements, refuses to yield its increase, and through the discouragement and impoverishment of the farmer, is condemned to years of sterility-when under a different treatment, it would have steadily improved in productive power, and have made a more and more grateful return for the good husbandry bestowed upon it.

The importance of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the THEORY, as well as practice of Agriculture, cannot, therefore, be urged too early or too forcibly on the farmers of Wisconsin. The education of the American farmer does not now terminate in a mere knowledge of the routine of sowing and cropping, and in a dutiful adherence to the practice of his father and his grandfather.

There is scarcely a branch of natural and physical science, which has not now, its known and acknowledged bearings on Agriculture,

The construction and the working of agricultural implements of every class, call into daily operation the principles of Mechanism. Hydrostatics and Hydraulics have their manifest uses, on, and about the farm. It were vain to assume that the practice of stock raising has nothing to ask from the truths of Animal Physiology. And as man and the entire animal kingdom, seek their sustenance, ultimately, from the herbage of the ground, vegetable physiology has still more important aid to render to every form of practical agriculture-determining the functions of the root, as imbibing the food of the plant, in watery solution; of the stem, with its organs of circulation; of the leaf, which retains and assimilates what is necessary to the structure of the whole and the character of the fruit, discharging into the atmosphere the superfluous matter in the shape of gases and vapor.

The philosophy of each of the imponderable agents, light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, has relations to vegetable life and health of an interesting and important character.

But of all the sciences, chemistry is the most fruitful in the aids it is destined to render to agriculture, By the analyses of the laboratory, we are put in posses sion of all the chemical elements of the vegetable kingdom, both those that are common to all plants, and those that distinguish one species from another. We are thus enabled to infer the composition of soil adapted to each plant; and by the analyses of a given soil, we ascertain the given elements in defect, which it is the office of good husbandry to supply.

This leads us to the doctrine of specific manures-the basis of extensive im. provements made, and to be made, in practical agriculture.

Farmers have observed that some crops exhaust a given soil more rapidly than others. Chemistry detects the elements abstracted from the soil by the an nual crop, and directs to the specific manures which will replace these elements, and keep the land in heart. Without the science, the land may be condemned to lie fallow, or to be recovered by the empirical and wasteful application of manures, in the grosser forms.

For example, tobacco, the vine, the pea, and clover, require lime in large quantities, and as the supply comes to the plant through the root, a succession of crops will soon exhaust the soil, unless that element be replaced by the hand of the farmer.

It cannot be doubted that every physical element found in the plant must have had its previous existence in the soil, or the atmosphere. "It is upon the clear understanding of this fact," as an English writer well remarks, "that the success

ful business of the farmer depends. It is calculated to raise the operations of the agriculturist to a level with those of the inanufacturer; and instead of committing the cultivation of the soil to accident, as if nothing were understood respecting it more than the mechanical preparation of it for the seed, it will serve to explain upon what causes growth and production, and consequently their opposites, abor tion, and non-production, fundamentally depend, and of course, will enable him to provide against both." All this is well said, and presents the valuable thought very clearly to the apprehension of the farmer.

While on the subject of the specific food of plants, it falls in my way to say, that a large portion of the organic matter of the vegetable kingdom, exists in the atmosphere, in the gaseous form, and is largely soluble in water. It is the office of rain and snow to bring down these elements, and to saturate with them that portion of the soil that has been mellowed by the plough-and the deeper the ploughing, the larger is the fund of these elements, subject to the draft of the root during a period of drought.

I might go on to mention the agricultural bearings of physical Geography, of Geology and Minerology, the philosophy of subsoil ploughing, and other considerations connected with the character of natural soils, and their permanent improvement. But time fails.

I close this part of the subject by a single additional allusion to the successful efforts which modern science is making to grapple with the uncertainties of the weather-to subject the hitherto hopeless caprices of the elements to known laws; and if not to hand over to the farmer the winds and the storms, the cloud and the sunshine, sealed up in a bag, at least to forewarn him of their alternations, and to enable him, by a prudent forecast, to press them into his service, and, measurably, to control their results.

And now, gentlemen, in this hasty summing up of the sciences, comprising what is essential to the theory of agriculture, I would ask whether anything is included, which the farmer is not interested to know?—is anything included, which, if known by the farmers generally, would not contribute to elevate practical agriculture to an economical and social position eminently honorable and profitable to itself, and singularly auspicious of good to man?

I am uttering not the mere aspiration of hope, but the decision of sober judgment, when I say, that the day is not distant, when it shall be shame to the young farmer to commence the practice, without first having acquired the theory, of his profession.

I say of his profession, because, let it once be understood, that the industrial employments are to be approached through a course of scientific preparation, then the middle wall of partition between the liberal and the useful arts is broken down-let it be understood that Agriculture has its theory and its philosophy, then it rises at once to the dignity of a profession.

The sneer at the scientific farmer, which once disfigured the countenance of a self-satisfied "practical Agriculture," has already passed away, and given place to an expression of admiration at the taste, the economy, and the thrift of a better, because a scientific cultivation.

The sneer at the scientific farmer, if it ever meant anything, when done into plain English, could have meant nothing less, than that a certain amount of igrorance was necessary to qualify a man for a sound practical farmer--a sentiment which falls strangely on the ear of the agriculturist of the present day.

The eminent success of model and experimental farms, and the labors of the agricultural press, have brought the mind of the entire community to a just appreciation of the value of the sciences, in their practical applications to Agriculture and the Arts, and the importance of their universal dissemination.

The conviction is taking fast hold of the mind of Europe and of the older States of this Union, that for the thorough acquisition of this valuable agricultural knowledge, it will not do to depend on the ephemeral influences of popular lectures and addresses; nor yet on the mass of information placed before the farmer through the agency of the periodical press. Agricultural seminaries are beginning to be constituted, where the science may be acquired, and in connexion with model farms, its application may be made familiar to the professional pupil, in preparation for the successful and profitable discharge of the maturer duties of the practical farmer.

These views are rational and just. Agricultural science, like all other science, is to be acquired by study and research. The discipline and the instruc

tions of the school, are essential to its seasonable and thorough acquisition. Without it, the farming processes fall to the low level of routine and drudgery. With it, Agriculture vindicates its undoubted claim to stand, not only in the first rank of the experimental arts, but to take its position, side by side, with the learned professions, in dignity and honor, as well as in profit.

Farmers of Wisconsin! If, throughout this argument, I have been so fortunate as to express your convictions, and if your judgment is with me on the topic of the scientific preparation of the young farmer for his great vocation, it is pertinent to enquire, in conclusion, whether it is not in your power, so to mould and to fashion the system of public instruction, as to embody and to realize the idea, so vitally important to the Agriculture of the State.

The educational organism for Wisconsin, as I understand it, comprises—1. The District School, carrying elementary instruction into every neighborhood in the State.-2. One Academic, or Union School for each township.-And 3. The University. The organic law of the University of Wisconsin, provides for the establishment of the several Departments-1. of "Science, Literature and Arts' -2. of "Medicine"-3. of "Law"-and 4. of the "Theory and Practice of Elementary Instruction,"

The Regents of the University propose to add a Department of the "Applications of Science to Agriculture and the Useful Arts;" to go into effect whenever the means shall be provided for the support of the Professor, the purchase of Apparatus, and the Ground necessary for a model farm.

Such a Department, suitably endowed by the State, would offer to the young men of Wisconsin, the future cultivators of the soil, without charge, a full course of instruction in the theory and practice of Agriculture; and the working of the model farm would defray, in part, the expenses of residence.

The pupils in this Department of the Philosophy of Agriculture and the Useful Arts, would have free access to the library of the University, to the collections of the various branches of Natural Science, and, in connexion with the regular classes, to the lecture rooms of the Professors of the other Departments, whether collegiate or professional.

From such conditions of culture the young farmer will go forth to his work, with juster views of the relations of the sciences to the arts, and of the arts to each other-he will find all remains of the middle wall between Agriculture and the Professions removed, his social position more fairly adjusted, his industrial agency more effective, better appreciated, and more amply rewarded.

But this is not all. The instructors of the Academic or Union Schools, should go from the University to their task, not only with the learning of the Normal Department, but well versed in the instructions of the Department of applied science.

Such an educational system is now offered to the farmers of Wisconsin.

Are you, then, prepared to endow in your University, for your own benefit, a Department of the "Applications of Science to Agriculture and the Useful Arts?" If so, your bounty will prove to be good seed, falling on good ground, springing up and bearing fruit, thirty, sixty, an hundred fold.

It is a fact of world wide celebrity, that Wisconsin presents to the settler the physical elements of prosperity, in rich profusion, and in beautiful combination.

With its soil and climate unsurpassed-with its capacity for rapid settlement and early maturity-with its continued alternations, in just proportion, of woodland and opening, of prairie, natural meadow, and lake-and with the command of both the Eastern and Southern markets, it needs but the means of professional culture, thus carried to the door of the farmer, through the system of Public Instruction, to finish what nature has so tastefully and so bounteously begun.

Bring, then, the educational agencies of the State into harmony with the great objects of your Association; follow up the auspicious beginnings of this day with ample provision for general professional culture, and you will leave an inheritance to your children, transcending all that you have felt or fancied of the destiny of Wisconsin.

Education, Gentlemen, is no mendicant. It begs nothing from your charity. Its proclamation to you is, "Give, and it shall be given to you again; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall be returned into your bosom."

ARTICLE IV.

The Cities of Missouri.

By WM. GILPIN, Esq.

THE CITY OF INDEPENDENCE.-Next in rank to "Metropolitan St. Louis," and second in size, population and commercial repute, among all the flourishing young cities that dot our State, is beautiful Independence. Long ago, in 1824 and 1825, two counties sundered by the Missouri river, and flanked by the Western border line, sought at the same time their incorporation by the Legislature. On the North, the inhabitants, mostly emigrants from Kentucky, and advocating that gentleman's elevation to the presidency, called their county Clay, and its seat of Justice Liberty. On the South, as if in rivalry, emigrants from Virginia, Carolina and Tennessee, selected the name of Jackson for their county, and Independence for their city. As in the political contests of our country, so in progressive vigor of growth, Jackson and Independence, favored by a marvellous fertility of soil, robust industry and paramount strength of position, have grasped and kept the palm, advancing beyond all rivalry in population, production and wealth.

Jackson county, indeed, envelopes the outside of the great elbow of the Missouri river as it enters our State, and opens with uninterrupted ease upon the great prairie ocean that sweeps out South and West to the remote extremities of the continent. It is thus the avenue of mankind into those vast regions of superlative interest, as the flood of population disembarks from the river channel to flow into them. This county, like the five neighboring counties south of the great river, is a protrusion into our State of the gently rolling plain of the Kanzas basin, unparalleled in the world for the depth and fertility of its mulatto soil and of exquisite romantic beauty.

In the current course of human society round the world, geographical novelties flash up, and arrest the attention of mankind. Thus four hundred years ago America arose out of the ocean to the knowledge of wonder stricken Europe, never again to be lost.

Of a similar world-wide interest is the approaching construction of a "CONTINENTAL RAILROAD," from the Western terminus of Atlantic navigation, at Kanzas, in this county, straight out to the great ocean which washes Oriental Asia. Thus is reversed a standing inconvenience in the pathway of mankind: thus is knitted over a chasm in the universal comity of all the nations of all the continents; and thus America, heretofore the distracting barrier, comes to fill out and complete the circle in which three continents and a hundred nations bind the hemisphere of the North in one endless and graceful zodiac.

The area of the city of Independence is one thousand acres; its population four thousand, and the official assessment of property

two millions of dollars. Besides the public square, flanked on every side with substantial brick edifices, well graded and macadamized streets, relieved with the shade of the locust, an excellent taste is everywhere shown in the style and excellence of the shops and dwellings.

A commercial emporium upon our Western boundary, and our own bank South of the Missouri river, is a great want and desideratum to commerce. Such as Buffalo is to New York-Pittsburgh is to Pennsylvania. All the States have, for the convenience of commerce, created those commercial portals, where the central channels of business enter their territories. This city, the seat of Justice of Jackson county, and only nine miles from the frontier, has, up to this time, occupied this position, and seems to possess the commanding geographical locality to retain it.

Like all the county seats located in an early day, when the settling of the wild lands exclusively occupied the industry of the citizens, its site has heretofore been detached from the river, to enable it to approach the geographical centre of the county. The interval is two miles. A railroad has been constructed and finished to the river, to make the connection easy and rapid. This has not been sufficient to accommodate the increased business. Accordingly, streets have been opened and macadamized, grades over the river bluff have been constructed, so as to make the connection with the great steamboat traffic on the river front direct, unobstructed and abundant. It is also contemplated by the proprietors of the lands embraced in this interval, to offer for sale during the coming spring, in building form and lots, some six or seven hundred acres, through which these streets run.

Apart from other considerations, the geographical site of Independence, is singularly fine and attractive, having health, a high surface both level and well drained, and great beauty of position to recommend it. Besides the attention given to the Missouri river front, excellent roads have been opened and cleared to the frontier line, the streams bridged, in all directions, and good roads are everywhere under construction to give facility of access from the surrounding counties. The strongest wish also exists to attract to this commercial emporium, the trade of Clay, Clinton and Platte counties, across the river containing an aggregate of thirty thousand inhabitants.

The

The counties of Cass, Johnson, Vernon and Bates, contiguous on the South, contain eighteen thousand six hundred inhabitants. The county of Jackson has fourteen thousand inhabitants. city of Independence is the geographical and commercial centre of these seven prosperous counties, containing fifty-thousand inhabitants.

But it is well here to insert the following exact statistical information, furnished by the Superintendent, De Bow, of the Na

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