The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1862-10-08

| uuctiNo capdclLy VIII De Sullllcleut 10 iee
all nations. Already the West furnishe
the greatest market now known, and IL
city Of Chicago is the acknowledged graf
mart of the world. Such rapid pro
gress in the art of cultivation challenge
universal admiration. 1t is the most in
contestable proof of the vast importanc,
Of an occupation which, with its vastness
fastens upon the husbandman the gray,
responsibility of his vocation. The pres
ent age is vital with industrial forces
The arts and sciences are harnessed to tn,
chariot of the 10th century, and man,
duty is no longer discharged by the worl
of manual labor. He is charged with TIE
duty of practicalizing brain and muscle
The land holders of America are not the
tenants Of English feudalism, whose right
was no security 10 the possession of theil
property. When estates were sold by
the landed Barons, tenants were compell
ed to surrender at will, giving up their
standing crops, without compensation, and
more, holden for the debts of their lords
to an amount equal to their whole prop
erty.
The titles to your landed estates nc
Emperor dare question. You, farmers,
are not forced to grind by hand the corn
to feed the nation as did the farmers Of
the Roman Empire. The water wheel,
that did not spring into being until the
second century, has brought its relief
The winds that for decade of centuries
later swept their stormy blasts and gen.
tie breezes uselessly by, have been taught
to turn productivity the upper and neither
stones Of your granite mills, and to you
alone has the last, greatest and most ef-
ficient agency been generated to transform
your ripeped fields into palatable loaves
by the wonderful motor-steam.
The furrows Of your generous soil are
not now laziy turned over the sheeted
mould-board of the ancient dutch plow,"
but are spread before the steel share, and
following in the wake of steam, whole
fields are rs by magic made ready for
easy culture. The most common pro-
ducts, such rs Indian corn, squashes, po-
tatoes, carrots, cabbages and turnips, were
unknown in England until the beginning
Of the sixteenth century. The utility OF
manures, in the stimulation of growth is
but of recent application. In the early
part Of the eighteenth century the wisest
agriculturalists believed that plants de-
rived their nourishment from minute par
ticles of earth, and this belief led TO the
invention Of the drilling machine and
horse hoe, for the purpose of pulyerizing
the soil that vegetation might more read
lily gather nutrition.
Even Tull, the great agricultural dis
coverer of that period, made use Of ma
nures solely for the object of dividing the
soil into particles, simply TO loosen, not to
enrich the earth. Chemistry contributed
no share Of its invaluable light in the de-
velopment of agriculture until the latter
part of this century. Arthur Young,
than whom no person has done SO much
for the world in this department, wrote at
this peroid, "to imagine that we are ever
to see agriculture rest on a scientific ba-
sis, regulated by just and accurately drawn
principles, without the chemical qualities
of soils and manures being well under
stood, is childish aud ignorant supposi-
tion."
Chemistry developed the fact that the
various members of each vegetable group
are capable of any Transformation into
other members; that, in fact, all the in
Vulnerable vegetable forms are but aggre-
cations Of the simple structure-the veg
etable cell-hence, by change of form,
increase of number, elaboration or secre-
ton of other substances, in these cells all
the types of vegetable organism are pro-
duced. None the less important fact did
it bring to light that the atmosphere,
which perpetually bathes and fitrates the
leaves Of plants, supplies them at the
same time with carbon, hydrogen, nitro
gen and oxygen, the Indispensable ele-
ments of every growth. Chemical dis
coveries, therefore, were but tho stepping
stones to the establishment of agricultu-
raj schools.
1t was readily inferred that the culture
of the soil was a field of such extended
scientific research, no better service could
be rendered mankind than to inculcate the
developing knowledge under the formal
instruction of schools. Beginning with
Switzerland, at the opening of the pres
ent century, tilling instruction is not to
end with our own State Agricultural Col
lege.
England bcheld the advantage of in
struction upon this vital branch of na-
tional wealth, and under Sir John Sin.
clair established Board of Agriculture,
before which the celebrated lectures Of
Sir Humphrey Davy were delivered. Our
own revered Washington, midst his mul-
,tifarious cares Of State, found time and
occasion to carry on valuable correspon-
dence on this topic, for the benefit Of his
country, resulting in the establishment Of
societies for the promotion of agriculture,
in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New
York and Massachusetts, and, may add,
oore risa to all the societies which now