RKBP-485

Greenville, Ill Nov 22, 1855

My greatly respected & dear Sir,

I hope you may be at Springfield during the approaching legislative session, when the State Agl Socy re-organizes.

I have no very especial concern relative to the appointment of officers, presuming all will be right in that respect, but it has occured to me that some action might be taken by the State Society favorable to improvement in Age. by devising some means of teaching us not only to be good farmers, but good mechanics. A very large proportion of the benefit which might be derived from labor saving machines is lost from the want of a little practical knowledge on the part of our farmers in the construction and management of such machines.

Ship loads of mischief and folly are imported from the eastern continent in the shape of printed volumes, if a good idea may be had from the same quarter let us profit by it, if we can. Lord Brougham and others, several

years since, made a successful effort to introduce knowledge among the working class= es, - (Here we should have none other) by establishing libraries, and series of lectures, imparting useful knowledge upon a plan rendering it accessible to all. Intelligent farmers & mechanics, and, my dear friend, in such men no part of the world is more fruitful than our own, should be encouraged to lecture to their neighbors. rev. (I will not again call him Lord) Brougham remarks, that by far the grandest discoveries in Natural Science were made with the most simple apparatus. A pan of water and two thermometers were the tools that detected latent heat - a prism, a lens, and a sheet of paraboard, enabled Newton to unfold the composition of light and the origin of colors: - Franklin shew the nature of lightning with a kite, a wire, a bit of vibana & a key, - to say nothing of later chemists, the most valuable of whose discoveries were made by apparatus equally simple - But the elements of mechanics may be explained by apparatus no less common. The fundamental properties of the lever may be dem onstrated by a foot rule, a knife, and a few leaden

balls of equal size. The other mechanical powers may be explained with almost equal ease - Machinery, even in its complicated form is easily understood by such as are familiar in practice with its operation and terms.

It is only necessary that our young men should have their attention called to this subject, to awaken a desire to obtain that practical knowledge in mechanics which every farmer should possess.

Do reflect upon this Subject, and if the parent Society for the promotion of Agricultural & mechanical improvement throughout the State, can devise and recommend some good, and readily practicable method of inducing our [favours?] & mechanics to engage heartily in the work of mutual improvement, the result can scarcely fail to be most useful & permanently beneficial to us all. -

I shall be at the annual meeting if I can be spared from other duties, & shall, if I do go, calculate much on the pleasure of meeting with you there. Most Sincerely your friend William S. [Ward?]

Dr Kennicott