EAST SOMERSET SOCIETY.

1850.

AN ADDRESS

Delivered before the East Somerset and Kennebec County Agricultural Societies, on the occasion of their Cattle Shows and Fairs, by G. H. DADD, M. D., of Boston.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

There are several subjects to which I am desirous of calling your attention, yet it is impossible for me in the course of a single address to do even a part of them any thing like justice. I shall, however, present a few facts and illustrations for your consideration, through which I am in hopes to show the value and importance of agricultural and veterinary education.

When we look around us, and view the improvements that have taken place in every department of science, it would seem that we are just emerging from ignorance and superstition, to rejoice in the meridian glory of intellectual and moral day. In every department of science, the motto of the intelligent is progression.

Success has crowned the labors of each, and every one of you has drank at the fountain of knoweldge. Through the accumulated facts derived from our progress in knowledge, the intellect steps upon those facts, and, arriving at their summit, beholds the universal law of nature. Yet, at the present day, we are only just commencing our first lesson-the superficial portion of this sublime law; and as we advance, and view the innumerable beauties that present themselves, we are still

tempted onward, and our labor is rewarded by the important discoveries that open around us.

When I speak of "nature," I mean the whole universe; for man or horse is as much a part of nature as a plant, and is governed by the same universal laws. I wish you to bear in mind this fact, because some men oppose the truth that organic bodies are all governed by the same laws; yet I shall attempt to show that the degeneration of your stock and crops results from the violation, or in some cases a want of knowledge of the existence of such laws.

It is a well known fact that plants require for their germina tion and growth different constituents of soil; and that man and animals require different forms of food to build up the waste, and promote the living integrity—the vital powers.

In order to supply the materials necessary for animal and vegetable nutrition, we require alternate changes-the former in the diet, and the latter in the soil. Experience has proved that the cultivation of plants for several successive years on the same soil, renders them imperfect-they degenerate, and the crops are less abundant. On the other hand, if a piece of land be suffered to lie uncultivated for a short time, it will yield, in spite of the loss of time, a greater quantity of grain; for, during the interval of rest, the earth regains its equilibrium. Every fruit-grower knows that a fruit tree cannot be made to grow and bring forth good fruit on the same spot where another of the same species has stood at least, not until a lapse of years. This is a fact worth knowing, and it applies, more or less, to every form of vegetation. Another fact of experience is that some plants thrive on the same soil only after a lapse of years, while others may be cultivated in close succession-provided the soil is kept in a state of equilibrium by artificial means. Some kinds of plants improve the soil, whilst others, and these the most numerous, impoverish or exhaust it. Professor Liebig tells us that "turnips, cabbage, beets, oats and rye are considered to belong to the class which impoverish the soil; while by wheat, hops, madder, hemp and poppies, it is supposed to be entirely exhausted." Many of our farmers expend large sums in the purchase of manure, with a view of improving the soil; and they suppose that their crops

will be abundant in proportion to the amount of manure; yet many have discovered, that, notwithstanding the labor and extra expense, the produce of their soil decreased.

The alternation of crops seems destined to effect a great change in agriculture. A French chemist gives us the modus operandi of the favorable results of changes in crops. He supposes, and subsequent experiments confirm the fact, that the roots of plants imbibe matter of every kind from the soil, and thus necessarily abstract a number of substances, which are not adapted to the purposes of nutrition; and that these substances, not being needed by the organism, must be expelled by the execretory vessels, and return to the soil as excrement. Now as excrement cannot be assimilated by the animal or plant that ejected it, it follows, of course, that the more vegetable excrement the soil contains, the more unfitted must it be for plants of the same species; yet these excrementitious matters may, however, still be capable of assimilation by another kind of plants, which would thus remove them from the soil, and render it again fertile for the first. For the same reasons, the excrement of a horse, which is destitute of nourishment for another of the same kind, will afford nutriment to some of the feathered tribes.

Before new vine-stocks are planted in a vineyard from which the old have been rooted out, other plants are cultivated in the soil for several years. In connection with this, it has been observed that several plants will flourish when growing beside each other; the squash and corn are said to flourish well together; and, on the other hand, some plants mutually prevent each other's development. From these facts, we learn that nature's laws are uniform and uncompromising; and wo be to the man that transgresses them. They are a part of the Divine Law, which cannot be set at naught with impunity. The injurious effects resulting from permitting young children to sleep with aged relatives is well known to many of you; yet some parents see their children sicken and die without knowing the why or wherefore.

Ignorance on these important subjects has existed too long. The people demand more light and they will have it. Already the right sound has gone forth; 'tis sweet music to the ears of

all men; schools are multiplying, and agricultural societies are springing up in every section of the Union. The result will be that succeeding generations will rise higher and shine brighter, till the full-orbed glory of nature's laws shall be well understood, and from which shall flow untold blessings. Now it is a law of nature that in order to perpetuate a plant and preserve the identity of its fruit, we must germinate from the best seed, on soil best adapted to its growth. The practice of grafting scions of delicious fruit trees on inferior stocks, displays as much want of knowledge as the present practice of breeding from old broken down mares. How very ridiculous it would appear to see a part of a horse's leg grafted on to that of an ox! and it is equally absurd to graft good scions in trees of an entirely different class and order.

The seed of the vegetable and the semen of the animal are the links on which their perpetuity depend, at least to preserve their identity. If we observe the seed the moment the germinating principle is put in motion, and trace it to the subsequent development of roots, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit, until it has arrived at maturity, we have, then, opened a leaf of the great book of nature-the volume of volumes-the infallible revelator of the power and wisdom of the Omnipotent. It is from a knowledge of the fundamental principles in which this volume abounds, that we are able to comprehend the ways and means for preventing animal and vegetable deterioration. In perusing this book of nature, we find it written on the face of animate and inanimate creation, we there learn that all animal and vegetable bodies are composed of a vast number of different compounds, which are nearly all produced by the union of the same elementary principles. Vegetables consist of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; and the same substances, with the addition of nitrogen, are the principal constituents of the animal economy. In a word, all the constituents of animal creation have actually been discovered in vegetables; this has led to the general conclusion that "all flesh is grass." As we trace the seed of the vegetable through the process of germination, we observe the similarity between that and the development of the animal in the uterus of the female; for, by the means of heat, moisture and atmospheric air, the vital principle is infused into

the germ. The albumen or food will be converted into a thin milky substance on which the little embryo plant will subsist until it bursts its prison house; it then sends out its little radicles and excretory vessels, which penetrate the earth, from which it derives its food. Hence, by the concurrence of heat and moisture, the seed will give rise to a new vegetable being, endowed with organs of vitality, such as digestion, absorption, circulation and secretion; and, like the animal, subject to life, health, disease and death.

Many of our horticulturists complain that certain fruits have "run out," or degenerated. Has the stately oak, the elm, or cedar degenerated? No. You may plant an acorn on a continent where no oak grows, and you will have nothing but an oak. The cedars of Lebanon have preserved their identity and will continue to do so unless man interferes with the vital process of vegetable organization. Agriculture being based on the equilibrium of the soils, a knowledge of chemistry is indispensable to every one who is desirous of keeping pace with the reforms of the age; for it is through the medium of that science that we are enabled to ascertain with certainty how this equilib rium is disturbed by the growth of vegetation. Then is it not a matter of deep interest to the farmer to know how, and in what manner, and by what means, that equilibrium is restored? Chemistry furnishes the information; it also whispers in the ear of the husbandman, the fact, that to put a plant, composed of certain essential elements, upon a soil destitute of those elements, expecting that it would bring forth fruit, is just as absurd as to expect that a dry sow would nourish a sucking pig, or that a horse would grow fat on shingles!

Does the farmer wish to know what kind of soil is necessary to nourish and mature a plant?-chemistry solves the problem. Does the farmer wish to know how to improve the soil-let him refer to chemistry. Chemistry will teach the farmer how to analyze the soil-by that means he will learn which of the constituent elements of the plants, and the soil, are constant, and which are changeable. He will then arrive at the sum of all the ingredients necessary for the growth of vegetation. Also by making analysis of the soil at different periods through the process of germination, growth and maturity, he will ascer