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failure, abanJoas the enterprise a3 an unprofitable speculation. The 

 fact is that abstract knowledge is well nigh useless, except as a means 

 of mental discipline, unless it can be applied in the actual manipulations 

 of the farm. Of the mere book-worm and the cut-worm, the former is 

 the greater nuisance to the field. But the case is widely different 

 when scientific knowledge comes as an aid to practical observation and 

 experience. Of course, the practiced judgment and manual skill to be 

 gained as an operative is indispensable to success, but an intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the facts of science which lie at the basis of every op- 

 eration, will surely enhance that success and make it doubly secure. 

 The surveyor, for instance, who knows how to handle lis compass, may 

 do much with a practiced eye, even if he be deficient in trigonometry, 

 but he will hardly become a great and accurate engineer, in the highest 

 sense of the term, until, in addition to manual practice, ho has grasped 

 all the mathematical science which is applicable to it. Would it not 

 pay well to the stock raiser, if in addition to tho valuable items of in- 

 formation which he has gleaned from personal observation, he should 

 learn the anatomy and physiology of animals, the chemical composition 

 of their food, the various diseases to which they are liable, together 

 with their causes and cures ? 



Would it not be a valuable acquisition to the agriculturist who desires 

 the highest profits from the land he cultivates, to be so far familiar with 

 the experiments of chemistry that ho can analyze accurately the various 

 soils, and thus determino, with precision, what ingredients are present, 

 and whether any must be added in the form of manures, in order to 

 sustain the crop intended to be raised ? Chemistry traces all the changes 

 and re-combinations of matter in every period of vegetable growth — 

 reveals minutely the various elements which compose the structure of 

 the plant, and the plant will flourish and thrive only in the soil where 

 a full supply of such elements is found — the root is constantly thrusting 

 out, in every direction, its tender fibres and delicate bulbs, in search of 

 the atoms which constitute its natural food. Should analysis find such 

 atoms are wanting, they must then be supplied from the various means 

 of fertilization which tho farmer can command. Those facts may be 

 determined by a few simple experiments made with apparatus w hich all 

 can obtain; and they are the facts on which rests the whole system of 



