PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 149 



A treatise by Prof. Johnson of the ShefBeld Scientific School, 

 on Vegetable Physiology and the Chemistry of Plants, should be 

 carefully studied by every farmer in New England. The work is 

 entitled "How crops grow," and is the first of a series by this 

 careful and thorough student of agricultural chemistry. You will 

 learn from his work the exact relations which a plant bears to 

 other forms of organized matter, and to the inorganic world. By 

 a study of his treatise you will be less likely to overfeed, under- 

 feed, or improperly feed your crops, and you can thus guard 

 against a prolific cause of plant-disease. 



As I said at the commencement of this paper, the cells need 

 for their growth, inorganic matter in requisite amount. Liebig has 

 lately* examined again these amounts, and his views will soon be 

 placed in your hands through the Secretary of the Board. It is 

 enough to say at this time, that the great German chemist shows 

 conclusively that plant diseases arising from a lack of food must 

 be met in a common sense way, by giving just the right amount of 

 food and at the proper season. At some future time it may be my 

 privilege to place before some of you the results of studies in this 

 department of vegetable pathology. 



In bringing to a close these remarks in regard to plant diseases, 

 I must be allowed to say that chemists and botanists in America 

 can do little in the line of original agricultural study unless they 

 have the hearty co-operation of farmers in furnishing materials for 

 study. Bearing this in mind, Professor Brackett and myself 

 respectfully ask you to place in our hands material for the careful 

 investigation of entozoa and the plant diseases of Maine. If you 

 will transmit to us any specimens of parasites or of diseased 

 vegetation which may come under your observation, it will give 

 us much pleasure to examine them with care, and suggest such 

 rational means of cure as may be known. 



Hon. Simon Brown of Concord, Mass., (Editor New England 

 Parmer,) delivered the following lecture on 



Progressive Agriculture. 



Agriculture is the necessary calling of perhaps four-fifths of the 

 population of every civilized age and country. Food is the first 

 want of man, the first object of wise and laborious pursuit. * * 

 An agricultural population is the main source whence principally 



* Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, 1868. 



