The importance of furnishing the students of Yale College and others, with the opportunity to pursue special branches of study, that the course of instruction and present facilities of the institution did not allow, induced the corporation in 1847, to establish a new department, called the Department of Philosophy and the Arts. Among the branches to be taught in this department, one of the most important and generally useful, is science in its application to agriculture and analytical chemistry.

The course of instruction in this department is such as to afford to the intelligent practical farmer, a knowledge of his business, which permits him to carry forward its various details, with a confidence in the result of his calculations, which can only grow from an intelligent deduction of effects from causes. He knows the results that inevitably follow certain combinations, and makes his plans in consonance with his knowledge, instead of pursuing blindly a course of irrational experiments. The institution and the public were fortunate in the selection of the man who first filled the position of lecturer in this school. Prof. John P. Norton, a man thoroughly furnished for the post he filled, in so far as ardent love for its duties, and untiring assiduity in their discharge, with a profound knowledge of the sciences to be applied, and a clear, judicious, practical ability to impart instruction, could furnish a man. In his untimely death, the agricultural interest of the state and the country, suffered a loss that can not easily be estimated, and agricultural science laments an earnest, skillful seeker of her yet undeveloped mysteries. The library and apparatus in use at the laboratory, valued at $2,000, were bequeathed to the institution by Mr. Norton. He filled this chair for five years without compensation.

In September, 1852, on the decease of Mr. Norton, Mr. John A. Porter was appointed his successor, and now fills the chair with eminent ability. The number of students in attendance on this course of lectures has been from ten to twenty each winter, coming from various sections of the country. A number of these students, besides attending lectures, have also devoted themselves to the experimental study of chemistry, in its application to agriculture. Such is the history of this department; and your committee are confident that a short statement of the objects to be accomplished by it, will commend it to the interest and patronage of all who are interested in agricultural improvement. Agricultural science is in its infancy; but few steps, comparatively, have been taken. Theories in abund

ance have come and gone, but few have been tested with the patient and extended experimental investigation that is needed to stamp them as truthful or erroneous. Progression is not made with the certainty and precision that is desirable. Endow this institution sufficiently to make it self-supporting, and it will suggest and superintend experiments, designed to determine more precisely than is yet known, the adaptation of particular crops to particular soils; and of particular fertilizers to particular crops; also, the comparative value of different systems of rotation. These experiments to be carried on with the cooperation of practical farmers throughout the state, or even beyond its limits, each and every experiment being carefully repeated in many different localities, comprising great varieties of soil, exposure, temperature, moisture, &c. Deductions made from such numerous experiments, carefully collated and compared, would have true scientific and practical value, and could be depended on. Such an organized system of experiment if generally pursued, would unquestionably do more for the cause of agriculture in ten years, than has been done in a century. Connected with such a system of field experiment, there would be much purely chemical work to be done in the analysis of soils, products and manures, which it would be the peculiar province of a department of agricultural and analytical chemistry to do.

Large amounts of guano and artificial manure are every year used in the state. Deception is easy, and difficult of detection. One of the most efficient protections against imposition that it is possible to obtain, is to be gained by the frequent inspection and analysis of articles brought to market by different dealers and manufacturers, by a reliable authority and a publication of results. Great benefit may thus be gained to the state through this institution.

It is also important to investigate the causes of diseases in plants and to search for the remedies.

Besides the advantages above enumerated that accrue to the public by the active operation of the institution we have under considertion, there are individual benefits to be obtained by students, that are of incalculable advantage to them, if they purpose to follow any avocation in life that requires for its most advantageous pursuit a knowledge of the principles of chemistry. To the farmer, a thorough knowledge of chemical laws is a "sine qua non.".

In this institution a man may by direct personal experiment, obtain a knowledge of the substances which enter into the composition

of soils, manures and plants, and by attendance upon the lectures, he learns the relations of science to agriculture, and gains a knowledge of the natural laws on which the growth of plants and animals depends, and the results of the best practice, and the latest experiments on all matters connected with agriculture.

Your committee having thus gone over some of the advantages accruing to individuals and the state, from a school of agricultural chemistry, would respectfully submit, that an institution with so much to commend it, should not be suffered to languish for want of pecuniary support. A gentleman interested in the success of this institution, from his interest in agricultural improvement, proffers five thousand dollars toward the endowment of the department, provided twenty thousand more are obtained within two years.

In view of the above facts and considerations, your committee beg leave to offer the following resolutions.

HENRY A. DYER,
E. H. HYDE, 2D.

Resolved, That this society highly appreciates the importance of the Agricultural Department of Yale College, as an institution offering great advantages for the acquisition of chemical knowledge, as applied to agriculture.

Resolved, That we earnestly recommend the patronage of this institution to the farmers of this state, believing that by availing themselves of its advantages, they will elevate their social position as well as secure the ability of applying their labor and capital to the soil, with more certainty of success and with more pecuniary profit.

COMMUNICATIONS.

SEEDS.

SELECTION AND TREATMENT.

WHEN We examine a field of young grain or a row of corn or vegetables, breaking through the soil, we notice a very great difference in the size and luxuriance of the various individuals. Where the seed is sown as in the garden, of a uniform depth, and surrounded by like influences of soil and moisture, this must be attributed to the seed alone, and although other causes may interfere during growth, yet the great difference we note in the produce, is owing not a little to the seed which produced the individual.

The acknowledged importance of more attention to this department of husbandry, warrants the use, here, of a brief space for its consideration. However skillfully the farmers or gardeners may cultivate their crops, unless their seeds are right, they will often fail of remunerating returns.

The principle that "like begets like," must govern us in our selection of plants from which we would gather our seeds. That their vitality may be strong, the soil must be favorable, and the plants cultivated so as to attain their highest perfection. All our grains and vegetables are in an artificial condition which has been attained by cultivation, and there is no reason to suppose that we have reached the limit of perfection in any of them. The different varieties of wheat or of corn, must have sprung from one stock, and what was an accidental variation at first, has now become a fixed variety, capable of becoming more or less different from the