Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1842-01-27

establishment OF an extensive agricultural lbrar
! aud model farm, where new grains, and grasses
and plants, and fruits, sent in from abroad, ma,
be prOpagaed, and, il found valuable and adap
TED to our climate, their roots and seeds may be
! collected and gratuitouSly distributed through
all the States OF the Union. All substances pro.
posed as manures may, under its auspices, be
analysed, tried, and compared, on all the vare-
ties ot soil which may, if necessary, be com
pounded Tor the purposes of experiment, while
us annals VIII record and its memoirs proclaim
the results. great agricultural school will of
course form part Of the plan Of such an ASSOC
cialion. 10 that our young men may come, as
to the great schools of science i'm Paris to he
freely taught and qualified to deliver lectures in
state colleges aud elsewhere on agriculture
chemistry botany, herticulture, mineralogy, nat
ur.l history, and comparative anatomy. Is il I'M
reasonable to hope that such an association coun-
tenanced as 1T will be by men of Just weight of
character IN the several States, will possess an
influence that will ensure to it portion Of that
liberal fund bestowed by the muni6cence Of MIR.
SmilhSon Tor the '.diliusion of useful knowledge
among menW For what knowledge so useful
as that which leads. as il advances, directly to
augment the means of human subsistence and
comfort! Though necessity is the mother of in
vention, the body mus, he fed before the mind
can phiosophize. II animated by that sense of
uu'y ana PRIDE OF understanding which becomes
those whom God hath emphatcally enicined to
"repienish and subdue the EARTH" will they not
naturally desire, by more thorough knowledge of
'heif nature and properties, to extend their ap-
pointed dominion "oyer every living thing that
'hove'n uponthe earth;and every herb bearing seed
Mn,ch IS upon the lace OF the earth and every tree
IN the which is the fruit of tree bearing seed' In
all these you may be instructed by the fields, the
experiments, and the lectures of .the United
States Agricultural Society. No LONGER need
you acknowledge your ignorance of their native
haunts, the principles of their growth, and their
a and boo.
or misrepresented, there will be left a gap for
your ingenuity to nil up, or an error for your
penetration to discover and expose. Take, Tor a
simple and solitary example of the nature of such
lectures, the nut IF any common tree, or the seed
q any 0uigar plant. How interesting would be
with its definition and gerninaho on, and proceed,
Ing to its growth by the rooi, and by the stem,
the action of its kavts and its fo,ceys and SO on
to It's maturation its longevity, and, finally, to
lis death! Ask respectable young farmer,
whose lot is to be that of an agriculturst through
lie, this FIRST question in his catechsm Iyhat is
a seed! and with too many the answer would be
"a seed. Why, seed is seed Whereas in
the books OF In the lecture of our agricultu-
raj society, he would be told that seed is livL
ing body, detached from its parent and capabe,,
under certain circumstances of growing into a
new individual of the same size and svecies-
Yet II does not follow that it will reproduce all
It's parental pecuiiaritles; for that entire depen-
dence can only be had upon the LEAF bud. The
seed oil the green-gage plum, will not produce
me variety called green-gage. The embryo seed,
bursting under particular combination of heat
and moisture, lengthens FIRST in a direction down
wards, and then upwards; and no known power,
II Is said, can reverse the order of this tendency
Tie absorption of water softens and expands all
the parts. Many Of the dry and soluble parts be-
come fluid; sap or vegetable blood is formed, and
sort OF circulation established. ..Heat," SAYS
liInGley, SSoenS the vital nj. in
ton, to expand the air confined in the thousand
microscopic cavities of the seed ard to produce
diStension of all the organic parts, which thus
have their lrntability excited never again to be
destroyed except by death. Termination being
established. by certain absorption of water and
elevation of temperature, all the parts are enar-
ged. and new ones created by mucilagnoms
saccharIne secretion which the terminating seed
possesses"
Through the annals Of this society you may
learn In what temperature various seeds will ger
inmate and rlpen and hence to what attitudes they
are adapted. Among other advantages to Aneri-
can agriculture, through It's corresponding menu
bers or branch societies in all the States, it may
be expected TO obtain information and give month
~ reports as to the state of the crops. Such re-
ports VIII serve as sort OF agricultural thermom-
eter, by which to indicate the points Of demand
and supply, and thus assist in regulating prices.
III VIII DE Tor this society, TOO, to consider how
lar uniformity OF prices for produce would be pro-
NOTED by fostering the domestic and diminishing
our dependence on foreign consumption. Alrea-
dy Is the most valuable pie of American apri-
cultural industry threatened with insupportable
depreciation, under the effect Of manifest deter
mlnatlon, on the part of our best foreign customer.
To look 10 her own and TO other countries for the
cotton heretofore supplied from the Southern
States.
What, let me ask you, is steam doing for ngri-
culture What but the want of associated CAPT.
tai and enterprise has prevented the husbandman
from making this magic power subservient to his
uses, as IL has been made, and is every day made,
more and more obedient TO the purposes of COM
merce, manufactures, and of war! Behold how
clearly the application by different classes of this
greatest of all substitutes for manual labor serves
to illustrate the effect Of combined wealth and
science applied to useful objects. Do you see
steam employed to turn the iurrow, to sow the
seed, To drag the harrow, TO reap the harvest, or
TO thrash the grain! To none of these has it been
applied. But now mark the contrast The mo-
ment the grain passes Jr"m the hand If The farmer
to that of the navigator, the uerchaGt-milier, and
! the mili-wrlght, behold steam becomes the agent
, 10 take 1t from his landing, and bear i, TO the
| wharves of the crowded city. There this won
! deriul agent again takes it from the hold Of the
vessel, and as by some power of necrUmancy, tor
| exercise OF which in times past man would have
! been burned for witch, steam bears il aloft un.
! seen to the hopper and you see it no more unit
| it is packed to be exported by steam again 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 improvement
! is more retarded by the high price OF labor thar
agriculture, and wi ich needs more the benefit o
all laborAsavng contriyances Would these ap
i..,