No. 105.] 221 



mist, and remove his doubts, in relation to such matters ? The an- 

 swer cannot be avoided, To repeated, varying and actual experiments 

 in practical cultivation. Such experiments have long since estab- 

 lished the value of gypsum, lime, and other manures ; while emi- 

 nent chemists are still disputing, not only on their theory of action, 

 but whether they are really of any value whatever. 



The distinction must be drawn between The Application of Science 

 to Agriculture, and The Science of Agriculture. The former has 

 been already explained ; the latter consists of the facts which prac- 

 tice has established, and the truths it has developed, reduced to a 

 system, and in some degree arranged under fixed principles. The 

 Science of Agriculture explains the theory and operations of drain- 

 ing, plowing, subsoiling, and manuring, of rotation of crops, of cul- 

 tivating the soil, of adapting culture to crops, and many other prac- 

 tices which distinguished the best modern specimens of farming. It 

 is a systematic arrangement of knowledge, which the experience of 

 centuries has accumulated. Many of its principles, it is true, are 

 those of other sciences ; but they were usually discovered in the 

 course of cultivation, before those sciences had a distinct existence. 

 A professor of one of our colleges has cited the practices of draining, 

 subsoil plowing, trenching, and clovering and plastering, as specimens 

 of the application of science to agriculture. But these have all re- 

 sulted entirely from experience ; they are indeed specimens of sci- 

 entific farming, but they originated from the science of agriculture, 

 as just explained, and not from science to agriculture in its common 

 acceptation. 



The best modern practices of agriculture, are in nearly all cases 

 much in advance of the theory. It is for this reason, that the 

 cause of agricultural improvement would be much better served by 

 holding up for imitation the experience and management of the best 

 farmers of the day, rather than a too frequent reference to chemical 

 authority. How many of our citizens might have avoided shipwreck 

 of their property, and made handsome profits, if they had followed 

 the best established courses of cultivation. But, have any failed 

 from a want of knowing the sciences 1 Some of our farmers make 

 money rapidly, — that is, they farm well. Others make a scanty liv- 

 ing ; and others are reduced to insolvency. What is the reason of 

 the success of the farmer — what the cause of the failure of the latter 1 



