The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-10-22
TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.
THE BORDER STATE FAIR.
SECOND DAY.
ADDRESS OF DIR. MALLETT.
Special telegram to the Dispatch.

opcSi1 tcieSiahl w tiIc blopatCh'
DANyILLE, VA, October 81, 1868.
The rain has fallen necessarily here to
day, and proceedings at the Fair Grounds
have been suspended. DR.. Mallett's adj
dress was fixed for to-day at the Fair
Grounds, but owing to the rain it was
adjourned to the Masonic Hall tonight,
where it was delivered to large audience
of ladies, farmers, and citizens. 1t gave
much interest to the audience, and the Doc
tor was warmly applauded.
DR.. Mallett, after q graceful Introductory,
proceeded to discuss 90 The Relations Of Ayri-
culture to the Natural Sciences"
The speaker commenced by a presentation
of the Importance and multiform character of
the occupation OF the tiller of the soil. We
may be Inconvenience by any temporary in
corruption in the labor of other men but we
suffer-often terribly suffer-when the labor
Of the husbandman fails. The terrible mean
ing of the word "famine" had 4 vivid illus
tration in the scenes of Central India year
or two ago, when, from the f tilure of the crops
of single season, the teeming population Of
vast district lay down TO die.
Farmers grumble sometimes at the measure
of success with which they are rewarded, yet
there was more risk in almost every other
the farmer.
The objects Of the industry of the farmer
were few in number. The seeds, roots, leaves,
and stems Of some eight or ten species of
plant is, and tie flesh of some four or five species
Of domestic animals, are the materials upon
which the vast majority of mankind depend
for food And from still smaller number Of
vegetable and animal species we obtain al
most all our supplies of clothing. Such null
ltudes of men being employed in this limited
range of tillage and production, it might be
expected that the history of the art of agri
culture should be one Of continuous and rapid
Improvement, and its principles at the present
day should be universally agreed upon, the
manner of applying them being only varied
by climate and soil.
This was far from the case. Other arts have
grown and improved with tnbre fapidity, and
are better understood and practiced.
In the earlier ages all arts were empirical
men consulted their individual experience,
and the results of such efforts rs were found
TO be useful were repeated. These efforts were
wi thout the guide of principle, and soon
found a limit to their attainments. All of art
in this way transmitted from one generation
to another consisted of a set OF arbitrary rules,
for which no satisfactory reason can be as
signed. Yet that these rules contained often
much that was valuable as we'll AS false, was
true; but even truth was so distorted or i'm
perfectly stated rs to be often positively mis-
chieyous. Thus the Romans taught that
slaked lime was useful us u manure TO fruit
trees while on the other hand it was taught,
little more than 4 hundred years ago, that
ammonia was absolutely injurious TO plants.
The one statement was rlght-the other
wrong. For neither was there an intelligent
reason assigned nor did either lead, BY we'll
founded inference, to amy Interior knowledge.
Principles, however, were gradually taking
the place of arbitrary rules, and by their APP
plication to any branch OF industry II ceases
to be Empirical, and is elevated TO the rank OF
n scientific art. That agriculture had rested
longer than most other arts upon unreasona-
BILE rules rather than clearly ascer tanned and
sensbly- applied principles, is L TACT. The
speaker referred to the elaborate system OF
hand cultivation in China, carried on habtu.
ally without improvement for the support OF
millions to the Hindoo, tending his field OF
rice as it had been for untold generations; to
the husbandman, raising with his scoop and
balance pole the water OF the mill Tor irriga,
ton to The precepts of Virgil, still illustrated
by the farming in Italy, Us they were nine
teen hundred years ago.
Even in western Europe and in this coun-
try we find that though agriculture had not
for century been unprogressiye, the ad-
yances that had been made may be referred
almost wholly to the class of improvements in
the Mechanical tools and appliances of agri-
culture-not to that Of improved methods OF
agriculture itself. .- .s...r ......
The effort to remove the stigma of empiri-
cism and place this grand and ancient art
upon q scientific basis was of an extremely
modern date. 1t could not be dated back
more than Il hundred years. chemistry mad
for some time been we'll recognized among the
sciences before its powerful aid began to be
extended to the investigation of the princi-
pies on which rational agriculture should be
based.
The speaker referred to the discovery of the
chemical functions Of leaves by Priestly near
the close of the last century, and of Saussern
about the beginning of the present century,
as a step of great mpor lance towards know:
ledge of the chemistry. OF vegetable life, and
therefore indirectly OF agriculture; ne re-
ferred 10 the able attempt of Sir Humphrey
Dayy to collect all the chemical knowledge OF
that day QS02) bearing on vegetable physl,
ology and agriculture. But no individual nao
of research as Lebeg in his work ON the Ap.
plications of Chemistry TO Agriculture and
Physiology" the first edition OF whose work
was published in 1910. Bousingaults " Eco
nonic Rurale," which appeared ABOUT the
same time, gave further impetus to inyesti-
cations of this kind, and since they then have
Continued to occupy the attention of large
number of able thinkers and eXperlmenters
throughout the whole world.
The Doctor went on to speak Of the industry
with which the problems 10 Dc solFea haa
been attacked the analysis of soils-of rocks
from whose disintegration they were pro-
duced, the ashes of plants, manures of natu-
raj and artificial origin, rain water ana drain
age-water, &c, sc. The eHects OF lnahures
on crops growing in natural soils nave been
observed, and their effects varied by the ap-
plication of different quantities OF 1ertiilZng
materials, &c. He referred TO the numerous
agricultural schools that had sprung up IN
Europe and this country, TO the many publ
cations on agriculture, the unite transactions
of societies, to the assemblages like tnat OF
TO- day rs tending to stimulute zeal and bright
en- intelligence of the people. He referred 70
the atten ton given TO the subject by. Govern
ments, especially France, VINO mas ner Nlnls-
ter of Agriculture.
What progress, then, has been made in this
branch of science? If we were to listen In,
Discriminatory TO the answers of agricultural
chemists of various schools, and from the
practical farmers of various countries, IL
might seem impossible from conflicting views
to adopt any settled opinion. But the truth,
as In so many other cases, was IN agriculture
represented by no extreme opinion. Inc ell.
forts of the last forty years had mastered
somes highly important principles, which we
are ready TO no inconsiderable extent 10 en-
nloy as guides in agricultural practice sun
me road to further knowledge stretches out
far and untrodden before us.
DR. Mallet went on to speak or the variety
of views presented by essayists, Their dogma
tisms, sweeping generalfties, with no KNOW
ledge Of the recorded results OF others, lnYes.
LEGATIONS, etc. Agricultural problems are OF
n Complex character, and require Inc copside-
ration of many conditions at the same time.
So long as the chemist had toedeal with dead
nnorpan ized matter, he finds but little tEoaoie
IN STRIVING at certain and equally accurate
conclusions, Hand him Q specimen OF me.