50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tant. I cannot assent to any claims of this nature. A man may 

 possess the most accurate chemical knowledge, or that of animal 

 and vegetable physiolog-y, or any other single branch in science 

 or art, and not be a good farmer. 



We must commence lower down on the ladder of instruction, 

 and grasp all aids within our reach as we ascend ; must learn the 

 use of tools and machines which divert human labor ; the names 

 and composition of soils, and the plants adapted to each ; the 

 appropriate time for doing certain things, such as seeding grass 

 lands, plowing, pruning, cutting and curing grass and grain 

 crops ; learn the habits of animals, upon which prosperity greatly 

 depends ; how to plant and cultivate fruit trees, replenish forests, 

 and how to fertilize soils so that, Phcenix like, they shall bloom in' 

 perpetual fertility from their own ashes. We must learn to make 

 soils productive by removing cold water from them, so as to admit 

 light, heat, and fertilizing atmospheric agents, and make them 

 porous, rich and active. 



We can do this — not by the aid which any single science affords, 

 but by a combination of them all. 



The farmer ought to understand some of the leading principles 

 of chemistry, because the soil which he cultivates is not a mere 

 inactive mass, but a vast laboratory, full of many and strange ma- 

 terials, always in action, warring, combining, changing perpetu- 

 ally, to-day receiving accessions from the heavens, to-morrow 

 pouring them into the wide sea, to be again supplied to other 

 lands. The earth is all but a living creature ; and the farmer 

 should surely understand the soil's nature, its elements, its likings 

 and its diseases. 



He should read works on the nature and structure of his ani- 

 mals, because he has under his care some of the noblest forms of 

 creation — the horse, the ox, the sheep. If not, can he be a breeder, 

 who has never studied the peculiarities of races ? Can he fatten 

 cattle profitably, if he knows nothing of what kind of food is best 

 adapted for this purpose ? 



He should read, briefly at least, some work treating of the 

 weather, of animals, birds and insects, and freely, works relating 

 to mechanics. Information gained from the latter will be of daily 

 advantage in most operations of the farm. 



He will learn from chemistry the value and sources of manures 

 which he employs, and that man himself " gets his bones from the 

 rocks and his muscles from the atmosphere. The iron in his blood, 



