"Agriculture, to which we owe our means of subsistence, is an art intimately connected with chemical science; for although the common soil of the earth will produce vegetable food, yet it can only be made to produce it in the greatest quantity, and of the best quality, by methods of cultivation dependent upon scientific principles. "The knowledge of the composition of soils, of the food of vegetables, of the modes in which their products must be treated, so as to become fit for the nourishment of animals, is essential to the cultivator of land; and his exertions are profitable and useful to society, in proportion as he is more of a chemical professor. Since indeed the truth has been understood, and since the importance of agriculture has been generally felt, the character of the agriculturist has become more dignified, and more refined;--no longer a mere machine of labour, he has learned to think, and to reason. He is aware of his usefulness to his fellow-men, and he is become, at once, the friend of nature, and the friend of society." His appointment, as chemical professor to the Board of Agriculture, was accompanied with the obligation of reading lectures before its members; which he continued to deliver every successive season for ten years, modifying and extending their views, from time to time, in such a manner as the progress of chemical discovery might render necessary. These discourses were collated, and published in the year 1813, at the request of the President and members of the Board, and they form the only systematic work we, at present, possess on the subject. Its views, however, are too generally interesting to be briefly dismissed; I shall therefore enter more fully into their merits in a more advanced part of these memoirs. His connexion with the Board necessarily brought him in contact with the practical agriculturists and capitalists of the day, with many of whom he formed friendships which lasted through life. With Mr. Coke of Holkham he became well acquainted, and generally formed one of the party at his annual sheep-shearing.[45] He was also a frequent visitor at Woburn, and received from the Duke the means by which he was enabled to submit to the test of practice various theories which his science had suggested.