50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



methods of husbandry, or enhirged the boundaries of knowl- 

 edge so wonderfully in rural industries : the other collateral 

 branches of science have come in to aid in the important 

 work. 



To vegetable physiology we are indebted for much that 

 is of the highest importance to agriculture, and this depart- 

 ment of study has kept pace with the progress of chemistry. 

 The two branches are, in fact, to a great degree correlated, 

 and the one must almost necessarily depend upon the other. 

 It is quite impossible for us to understand the changes going 

 on in the organs of plants, if we are wholly ignorant of the 

 forms and structure of those organs ; and, on the other hand, 

 the most complete knowledge of the anatomy of vegetables 

 could never lead any one to sound and correct conclusions 

 respecting the nutrition of plants. The student who wishes 

 to understand the new agriculture, and to become an intelli- 

 gent and successful husbandman, must confine his studies 

 within no narrow limits ; but his researches must be broad, 

 i comprehensive, and accurate. 



I have said that the new agriculture rests upon science 

 and positive knowledge, but this, remark must not be under- 

 stood to mean that all the various departments of modern 

 husbandry rest upon pure knowledge or demonstrated facts, 

 for this position would plainly be indefensible ; but I do say 

 that the great fundamental principles are understood and 

 established as clearly as those of most other branches of 

 human knowledge. I do not claim that agriculture is a 

 science in itself considered : it may more properly be desig- 

 nated as an industry dependent for its highest success upon 

 science, and closely correlated with all the sciences. So far 

 as the chemistry of plant structures and the forms of food 

 they require are involved, our knowledge is positive ; and 

 :also it is true that most of the details of practical farm 

 industry are now so well understood they may be said to be 

 almost or quite removed from the regions of doubt. This 

 may sound strangely to those gentlemen who persist in re- 

 garding every thing in rural pursuits as unsettled, or as still 

 within the field of controversy. There is something ludi- 

 crous in the attitude of a large number of farmers who seem 

 to regard every movement or operation on the farm as in- 

 volved in a cloud of uncertainty, and every step they .ake as 



