194 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



but believes in the saying of Poor Richard, " Plow deep, while sluggards sleepj.- 

 if you would have corn to sell or keep," and is backed in his opinion by his 

 scientific pliysician, who, as most of you remember, at your last institute 

 strongly advocated plowing from 12 to 14 inches deep for corn. One sows a 

 bushel of wheat to an acre and believes more to be injurious. Tlie man on the 

 adjoining farm sows two bushels to the acre, and ihinks by sowing less he 

 ■would lose part of his crop. Many believe and strongly contend that wheat 

 will turn to chess; others believe and say tliat they know it will not. One 

 believes in a system founded almost wholly upon a rotation of crops, while 

 another bases his system upon a judicious application of fertilizers. 



Hence we see a striking need of understanding the principles of science 

 governing all branches of agriculture. Could a uniform system be laid down 

 that every farmer coukl foUow with equal success there would, perhaps, be no 

 need of this extended scientific research now advocated ; but it is impossible for 

 the wisest to establish any system of tillage which shall be applicable to all 

 climates, seasons, soils, and situations. '"Bat," queries one, "would you have 

 us all be practical geologists, chemists, botanists, pomologists, physiologists^ 

 etc.?" Certainly I would, and why not ? We have only to consider that all 

 true science is but an exposition of the laws of God in nature, and that all 

 these laws which govern the motions, affinities, and developments of mind and 

 matter, are immutable. They are subject to no change. A law of nature is 

 the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. The identical conditions that were 

 essential to the development of organic life, vegetable or animal, ages past, are 

 essential stilL The same conditions that are necessary to the action of 

 chemical affinities and compounds to-day will be necessary a thousand ages 

 hence. Indeed, harmony, uniformity, and perpetuity characterize all the laws of 

 nature, and these laws governing the development of vegetable and animal life, 

 and tlie relations which these latter sustain to the soil, the atmosphere, and 

 surrounding influences of whatever kind, constitute the facts of science bearing 

 upon the pursuit of husbandry. Is it not demonstrable that he who jDOssesses 

 the profoundest views of the principles and philosophy of his operations is best 

 prepared to prosecute them to a successful issue? Can ignorance be bliss or 

 gain in such a case as this? 



Now it would scarcely seem necessary to use argument to convince a thinking 

 man that a knowledge of that science which treats of the formation of the earth 

 can be useful to him who draws his sustenance from her bosom. We know that 

 to drain is to intercept natural springs. This can never be done upon good 

 principles unless the geological structure of the district be known. Again, 

 the soil is in a measure formed by the gradual decay or crumbling of rocks. 

 If, then, in addition to geology, we have a knowledge of mineralogy, we can 

 tell from the rocks that uuderly any district what the nature of tlie soil may 

 be, and for what crops it is best adapted. Botany, the science which compre- 

 hends all that relates to the vegetable kingdom, teaches the nature of plants, 

 their mode of growth, their uses to man, or their dangers. Without some 

 knowledge of this science w'e should neither know when to sow or when to reap, 

 when to cut hay, or how to preserve it. We see plainly how advantageous such 

 knowledge is to us, and how very valuable would be a more thorough knowledge 

 than the farmer now possesses. Again, it would undoubtedly be considered 

 very small business for a boy who hopes, in the bright future, to manage a large 

 farm, if he were compelled to pass weeks and months poring over pages which 

 treat of no larger subjects than bugs and flies, worms and insects, but these 

 diminutive creatures are among the most powerful enemies with which the 



