She tells us how the beautiful Oriole, so often regarded and destroyed by the market gardener, as an enemy of his peas, is only devouring the larvae of the pea-bug, which is already full grown in the green pea fit for the table, and would otherwise make part of some favorite customer's dinner, who, as likely as not, might fancy himself to be living on a strictly vegetable diet!

Science collects and arranges the statistics of agriculture, collects and compares the various results of occasional or systematic experiments, so essential to right conclusions. She warns us how the resources of the earth are exhausted by the constant conveyance of its fruits to great cities, without adequate provision for the return of their fertilizing products to the soil; how, in the language of a reliable writer, " there has been enough of the elements of bread and meet, and wool and cotton, drawn from the surface of the earth, sent to London, and buried in the ground or washed in the Thames, to feed and clothe the entire population of the world for a century, under a wise system of agriculture and horticulture".

She shows us how the virgin soil of the New World has been already rifled of its treasures; how the American idea of developing the resources of the country has led to the construction of railroads and canals, on which, in the form of wheat and corn, the elements of fertility - the very life blood of the earth, have been freighted away and sold for money, and no return has been made to the landt till the fertile soil of some counties in New-York, which once produced an average crop of thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, now produce but seven or eight; how the continued cropping of lands in parts of Virgiuia and other more southern states, with tobacco, has literally laid the land desolate, and compelled its inhabitants to seek new homes, on a soil fresh from the hands of the Creator, And so we are made to perceive, that a system leading to results so disastrous, can be but temporary, and false, and ruinous; that in the New World we have heretofore but gathered the almost spontaneous fruits of the soil, and now must gird up our loins for .severe and intelligent labor.

In these, and in a thousand other modes, does science aid and direct, and warn, and instruct us. In every form, in every department, is she destined, even more and more, to render us assistance. They who sneer at her name as connected with agricultural progress, do but show their own ignorance.

But, while we would gratefully avail ourselves of every branch of science, it is important that we remember that we labor in a boundless field, and that, although we may con-stantly advance in the study of the operations of nature, we are at all times liable to error, and often groping blindly in the dark, in our endeavors to solve her mysteries.

The agricultural chemist is subject to peculiar embarrassments in his investigations. Although the operations of chemical affinity, and the results of chemical combinations, are doubtless governed by laws as uniform as those of gravitation, and the revolutions of the heavenly bodies, so that the chemist in his laboratory, may pursue his experiments with almost the certainty and clearness with which a mathematician pursues his premises to a demonstration; yet it is quite otherwise when he attempts to apply his principles to the growth of plants. In the one case, he deals with two or three elements of known and certain qualities; in the other, his expected results may be influenced by the unsuspected presence or action of various substances or agencies. The elements, which in his vessels of glass, will combine but in uniform proportions, and form but one single compound, in the earth may be affected by other agents, in such a manner as to prevent the combination expected., and produce results entirely different.

And this is by no means all. In every question affecting tbe growth of plants or animals, we are involved in a mystery far more perplexing than even the abstruse doctrines of chemical science. I refer to the life principle.

We know that the seed has power, under certain circumstances, to germinate, to strive upwards for light, to put forth leaves, and flowers, and fruits, and that it finally dies. We know, that on the same soil, watered by the same rain and dew, breathed upon by the same air, gladdened by the same sunshine, spring up the rose and the lily, the crocus and the violet, plants of various leaf, and flower, and seed - spring up and flourish side by side together, each retaining its peculiar nature, each selecting from the air, the earth, the water, its appropriate nourishment. We know that plants seem endowed with certain instincts; that flowers turn towards the light; that certain of our trailing vines will turn from their direct course in a single night, to seek a vessel of water placed near them, and be found next morning with a leaf floating on its surface.

We learn that climbers will seek a prop or pole placed near them in any direction, and that having reached it, some of them, as the top, will invariably twine about it, only in one direction - from east to west, with the sun, and as if to confound all human reason-ing, and silence inquiry even as to the cause; other species, as the bean, twine around the support in the contrary direction, and this with such uniformity, that among a million of such plant*, no single exception can be found!

The mysteries attendant on animal life, are still more startling and complex than those connected with vegetable growth. The influence of the mental and physical qualities of the parent upon the offspring, the circulation of the blood, assimilation of the food for the formation of the various bodily organs, are all mysteries passing our present knowledge.

Bodies, under the incomprehensible laws of this life principle, seem released from chemical rules, and are converted into other bodies, having properties, apparently, entirely distinct and new. The egg, by the application of heat merely, is converted into the flesh, and blood, and bones, and feathers of a young bird, and milk, the sole food of many young animals, is changed into the diverse constituents of their breathing bodies.

The chemist and philosopher can offer no explanation of these and a thousand other familiar facts, and this consideration should teach us, while we ardently pursue to their utmost limits, the investigations of true science, not to expect from her aid a sudden and transforming change in our whole system of agriculture, and not to give heed to the crude speculations of every plausible theoriser. Science may do much, but she cannot do every-thing, and some men are disposed to refuse her aid altogether, because she will not pretend to solve all mysteries.

The story of the good woman who went to a place where she had heard chickens were hatched by steam, illustrates the temper of such persons. She was shown the eggs deposited upon cotton in drawers, subjected to the proper degree of heat. " What," she exclaimed indignantly, " hatch chickens out of eggs, and that's all - who couldn't hatch chickens out of egg?"

Our farmers must bear in mind, that the progress of scientific investigations must be slow and cautious. They must not expect, though theorists suggest it, to manure their fields by electricity alone, or to raise fine crops upon flowing sands, by merely steeping their teed in some fertilizing compound. The old clergyman's answer to his servant, who asked him to pray for a good crop on a very barren field, was judicious - " No, Sam, I think praying alone will hardly do for that piece; we had better give it a little more manure first".

Theorizing and talking about science, are not forming, nor, on the other hand, are a dogged perseverance in old modes of husbandry, and contempt for the aid of the thinking men of our day, very sura indications of wisdom. HENRY F. FRENCH.

Exeter, N. H:, Jan. 5,1852.

Our Improving Agriculture #1

There is a freshness and a raciness in Mr. French, which always makes him a most welcome visitant to your pages. There is, too, a vein of sound practical sense running through his remarks, most edifying to his readers.

The very soul of a periodical like the Horticulturist, next to the labors of an energetic, discriminating editor, is the thoughts of intelligent, practical correspondents upon the legitimate subjects connected with it. There is no better way - none so good, even - to build up a paper and give it character, influence, and usefulness. This correspondence, too, should be wide-spread; it should come from every state and territory in our broad Union.

What a fund of valuable information would it thus throw together - what a fend of instruction would be thus combined, making it a thoroughly national work of reference for all time, in many most interesting subjects! The circle of your correspondence should be greatly enlarged. Distant territories, now scarcely heard of in your pages, should contribute their share of information, and a circle of intelligence would grow out of it, most profitable to your readers in the information it would convey, and delightful in the interest it would impart to those who read simply for pleasure.