SECRETARY'S REPORT. 45 



tliat he may know where he should plough deep, and whore 

 refrain. 



A still more important consideration is, that no analysis can 

 be of any value to the farmer who is not himself a chemist, 

 unless it be accompanied by a discussion of the indications it 

 affords, and a recommendation of suitable means of improve- 

 ment. Our agricultural journals and reports abound in analyses 

 which are about as intelligible to the unscientific farmer as the 

 inscriptions on the pyramids, or a chapter from La Place's 

 Mechanique Celeste. Most of our intelligent farmers know, 

 that lime, phosphoric acid, and the alkalies, play important parts 

 in the economy of vegetation, but few of them have any idea 

 how much of these valuable ingredients is requisite to fertility, 

 or what are the best means of supplying their deficiency. Until 

 every farmer is also a chemist, an analysis of a soil or manure 

 which is not followed by a commentary on its defects or vir- 

 tues, leaves him just where the diagnosis of a disease, without 

 a prescription for its relief, leaves the patient. He is no vriser 

 nor better off than before. It will not do to presume that when 

 the chemist pronounces what a soil contains, the agricultuiist 

 will know what it ought to contain, and how to supply its wants. 

 Every farmer should insist upon an interpretation of the analy- 

 sis furnished him by the chemist. 



In conclusion, I would draw your attention to the duty of the 

 intelligent agriculturist to acquire a theoretical knowledge of 

 so much of chemistry as relates to his profession, that he may 

 be enabled to judge for himself of the value of a substance from 

 the chemical analysis of it, and also of the probable value of the 

 analysis itself, for at least one half of the analyses which farm- 

 ers daily pay for are totally unreliable and worthless. The 

 agriculturist should also be able to judge for himself of the 

 texture, moisture and color of the soil, and the means within 

 his reach for modifying them. At the same time, I would by no 

 means advise that he should attempt to become a practical 

 chemist and do his own chemical analysis, as some persons of 

 more zeal than judgment insist he may. I have pointed out the 

 necessity for thoroughness in chemical examinations of the soil, 

 and every one who has had only a few months' experience in a 

 laboratory knows that a thorough analysis of a soil requires 



