A SCIENTIFIC HOME MISSIONARY. 167 



The storm raged about the rector, who persevered without losino- 

 either his patience or his temper. He denounced the selfish action 

 of the farmers, and gave them to understand that he would submit 

 to no dictation, and was determined to carry out his intentions. For- 

 tunately, his salary and position did not depend upon them, as they 

 would quickly have dismissed him ; but, finding that the rector's pur- 

 pose was not to be shaken, their opposition at length abated. The 

 measure was extended, and the most salutary consequences followed 

 in the general conduct of the people. Many instances were known in 

 which " an allotment has been the means of reclaiming the criminal, 

 reforming the dissolute, and of changing the whole moral character 

 and conduct." At the time of Prof. Henslow's death the allotments 

 in his parish amounted to nearly 150 in number, and their advantages 

 were no longer denied. 



Nor did Prof. Henslow encounter much less difficulty in his efforts 

 to improve the condition of the farmers themselves. A good chemist, 

 botanist, and geologist, and a close student of scientific agriculture, he 

 was prepared to help the agriculturists with applied and available 

 knowledge, yet they strenuously resisted his efforts to teach them. 

 But he was not to be baffled in his exertions. He took up the practical 

 subject of the economy of fertilizers, in a series of popular letters to a 

 country newspaper, and treated it with such familiarity and skill as 

 to arrest the attention of the farmers. He spoke to them in the farm- 

 ers' club upon the same subject, and the address, together with the 

 letters, was printed and widely distributed. Having at length 

 aroused their attention, he pressed them into the work of testing the 

 proposed views, by observations and experiments of their own. The 

 relative value of different kinds of organic and inorganic manures, their 

 adaptation to special crops, how they should be applied, and the ex- 

 tent to which manure-heaps should be allowed to ferment and decom- 

 pose, were open questions, and he showed the farmers that they were 

 the parties to settle them. Liebig had suggested the addition of gyp- 

 sum to the manure-heap, to fix the ammonia, and Henslow suggested 

 that the farmers of Suffolk should try the experiment ; and, to get as 

 many enlisted as possible, he circulated printed forms to be filled up 

 by the experimenters with the results to which they might arrive. 

 But few at first responded to the call, and all kinds of objections were 

 urged; but at length 69 farmers sent in applications for the printed 

 forms, and consented to undertake the experiments. The result of 

 these efforts was the stirring up of the farmers to a more methodical 

 and scientific way of conducting their agricultural operations. Prof. 

 Henslow did not expect to make them philosophers, but to make them 

 think, and to do something toward converting the art of husbandry 

 into the science of agriculture ; and he received many communications 

 which showed that his letters and lectures had exerted a wide and 

 wholesome influence. 



