39 



While on the subject of the specific food of plants, it falls in my way to say, 

 that a large portion of the organic matter of the vegetable kingdom, exists in 

 the atmosphere, in the gaseous form, and is largely soluble in water. It is the 

 office of rain and snow to bring down these elements, and to saturate with them 

 that portion of the soil that has been mellowed by the plough — and the deeper 

 the ploughing, the larger is the fund of these elements, subject to the draft of 

 the root dunng a period of drought. 



I might go on to mention the agricultural bearings of physical Geography, 

 of Geology and Mineralogy, the philosophy of subsoil ploughing, and other con- 

 siderations connected with the character of natural soils, and their permanent 

 improvement. But time fails. 



I close this part of the subject by a single additional allusion to the successful 

 efforts which modern science is making to grapple with the uncertainties of the 

 weather — to subject the hitherto hopeless caprices of the elements to known laws; 

 and if not to hand over to the farmer the winds and the storms, the cloud and 

 the sunshine, sealed up in a bag, at least to forewarn him of their alternations, 

 and to enable him, by a prudent forecast, to press them into his service, and, 

 measurably, to control their results. 



And now, gentlemen, in this hasty summing up of the sciences, comprising 

 what is esssential to the theory of agriculture, I would ask whether anything is 

 included, which the farmer is not interested to know ? — is anything included, 

 which, if known by the farmers generally, would not contribute to elevate prac- 

 tical agriculture to an economical and social position eminently honorable and 

 profitable to itself, and singularly auspicious of good to man ? 



I am uttering not the mere aspiration of hope, but the decision of sober judg- 

 ment, when I say, that the day is not distant, when it shall be shame to the 

 young farmer to commence the practice, without first having acquired the theory, 

 of his profession. 



I say of his profession, because, let it once be understood, that the industrial 

 employments are to be approached through a course of scientific preparation, 

 then the middle wall of partition between the liberal and the useful arts is broken 

 down — let it be understood that Agriculture has its theory and its philosophy, 

 then it rises at once to the dignity of a profession. 



The sneer at the scientific farmer, which once disfigured the countenance of a 

 self-satisfied " practical Agriculture," has already passed away, and given place to 

 an expression of admiration at the taste, the economy, and the thrift of a better, 

 because a scientific cultivation. 



The sneer at the scientific farmer, if it ever meant any thing, when done into 

 plain English, could have meant nothing less, than that a certain amount of ?^7ttO- 



