The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1842-02-05

| The embryo seed, bursting under partl
cular combination of heat and moisture
lengthens first in direction downwards
and then upwards; and no known power
it is said, can reverse the order of this
tendency. The absorption of water sol
tens and expands all the parts. Many o
the dry and soluble parts become fluid
SIP or vegetable blood is formed, and {
sort of circulation established. 'lleat,
says Lindley, 'seems to set the vita
principle in action, to expand the air con-
fined in the thousand microscopic cavl.
ties of the seed, and to produce dislen.
sion Of all the organic parts, which thu;
have their irrtabillty excited, never again
to be destroyed except by death. Germ
nation being established, by a certain alb
sorplion of water and elevation of temper
allure, all the parts are enlarged, and new
ones created by mucilaginous saccha-
rine secretion which the terminating seed
possesses
Through the annals of this society you
may learn in what temperature various
seeds will terminate and ripen, and hence
to what lalltudes they are adapted. A
mong other advantages to American agri-
culture, through Its corresponding men,
bcrs or branch societies in ALI the States,
it may be expected to obtain information
and give monthly reports as to the state
of the crops. Such reports will serve as
a sort of agricultural thermometer, ty
which to indicate the points OF demand
and supply, and thus assist in regulating
prices. 1t will be for This society, too, to
consider how far uniformity of prices for
produce would be promoted by fostering
the domestic and diminishing our Deepen
dence on foreign consumption. Already
is the most valuable staple of American
agricultural industry threatened with in
supportabe depreciation, under the effect
! ola manifest determination, on the part of
our best foreign customer, to look to her
own and to other countries for the cotton
heretofore supplied from the Southern
States.
What, let me ask you, is steam doing
for agriculture What but but the want
of associated capital and enterprise has
prevented the husbandman from making
this magic power subservient to his uses,
as it has been made, and is every day
made, more and more obedient to the
purpose of commerce, of manufactures,
and of war2 Behold how clearly the ap-
plication by different asses of this great
est off all substitutes for manuel laborserves
to illustrate the effect of combined wealth
and science applied to useful objects. Do
you see steam employed to turn the fur
row, to SOW the seed, to drag the harrow,
TO reap the harvest, or to thrash the grain2
To none of these has it been applied.
But now mark the contrast! The mo-
mcnt the grain passes from the ha d of
the tarmer to that of the navigator, the
merchant miller, and the miIl-wright, be-
hold steam becomes the agent to take i.
from his landing, and bear it to the wharves
of the crowded city There this won
derlu agent again takes it from the hold
of the vessel, and, as by some power OF
necroman cy, for exercise of which in
times past man would have been burned
| for a witch. steam bears it aloit unst en- to
the hopper, and you see itno more until
it is packed to be exported by steam "a
gain to all parts of the world! Is there
any branch in the whole circle of human
industry which suffers more for want OF
capital, or in which improvements is more
retarded by the high price Of labor, than
agriculture, and which needs more the
benefit of all lahor-saving contrivances?
Would these applicatonsof steam to the
agricultural purposes have indicated be
more in advance of what it has already
achieved than that which has been &C
complished since Darwin was deemed an
enthusiast for predicting the time when 1t
it would ''drire the rapid carr" That in
vapor there is tremendous power, which
science can make subservient to human
wants, is no longer problem; but scar
hath not heard nor eye seen, neither hath
it entered into the heart of man to con-
celve," the variety Of uses, grcai and small
10 phich ii miU get be applied! Why
not, then, | repeat, have it telling our tim
Der and digging our bitches, and sowing
and reaping and thrashng, as well as
grinding our grain and transporting our
flour?
Look, again, at orr magnificent explor-
ing expeditions to extend the boundaries
of nautical discovery and astronomical
science! Who pays for these? The hus,
bandman! But who asks the Govern
ment to send out corps of mineralogsts
and botahlsts into our own fields and
mountains and valleys, to explore for new
substances to ferlilize the earth, and new
vegetables and plants to furnish more
elements of subsistence TO the poor, or
greater varieties to the luxures of the
rich mans table, Who shall gainsay
that, as American forests abound beyond
all comparison in the richness and varie-
ty OF their growth, so may our valleys
and fields contain various vegetables, YET
uncultivated, which may prove equal tc