APPENDIX. 189 



space forbid. "Wc may suggest, however, before leaving this 

 point, that competition will contribute no mean or inefficient 

 agency in securing the highest and most enduring success. 



We now call attention to some of the principal reasons which 

 have induced your committee to recommend this scheme, in 

 preference to any other that has been suggested, so far as 

 educational agencies are concerned. ■* 



1. It secures all we need and can expect from science, both 

 for the present and the future, and effects it in the most eco- 

 nomical manner. 



We hardly need suggest to any person who has any knowl- 

 edge of the subject and the present state of things, that ex- 

 pectations arc excited in the minds of a large share of those 

 most interested in agricultural improvement, in relation to what 

 science is to do for this great interest, which can, by no possi- 

 bility be realized. Hence we beg in the outset, to offer a few 

 su2o:cstions calculated to set this matter right. 



In the first place, the chemistry of agriculture is so unlike 

 general chemistry, that it is a distinct science, known by an- 

 other name. It is called by a specific name — " Organic Chem- 

 istry." Why ? Because it is affected in its results, by a set 

 of laws unknown to general chemistry. The one deals with 

 dead, inert matter — the other with such matter in connection 

 with living organisms. In the one, the laws of analysis and 

 reconstruction are uniform and unvarying. Analysis shows 

 every element which composes particles of matter, and that 

 these unite in definite proportions, so that we can tell just what 

 will be the result of bringing two substances together under 

 certain given circumstances. If we bring sulphuric acid and 

 lime together under the proper conditions, they will unite and 

 form a sulphate of lime, or plaster of paris, or gypsum ; ammo- 

 nia and sulphuric acid, and the result is, sulphate of ammonia; 

 and so on. In the other, you may analyze and determine the 

 elements of which a seed, a plant or a tree is composed, and 

 their precise proportions, and put these elements together again, 

 but by no known law of synthesis can they be made to unite 

 and form a seed, a plant or a tree. Why ? Because they are 

 formed by the intervention of another law, the interference of 

 a new agency, entirely unlike anything known to general chem- 



