THE FARMER'S WANTS. 337 



swamps and other wet lands by drainage, and of the utility of 

 this most farmers are well convinced. So far as the experience 

 of the speaker goes, this is the most feasible and profitable of 

 all the improvements suggested. He has his mind's eye upon 

 a piece of land, which has, this season, paid the interest upon 

 $500 per acre, which a few years ago did not yield an income 

 equal to the interest on 110 per acre, while the expense of the 

 drainage and improvements bears but a small proportion to the 

 increased value of the land. 



Deep ploughing or subsoiling, too, has been strongly recom- 

 mended, and begins to be considerably practised. It is doubt- 

 less very beneficial. 



All these improvements come very naturally into the present 

 period of our agriculture, and deserve the attention of all friends 

 of progress ; but when all has been done, it is still true, that two- 

 thirds of our land is miserably unproductive for the want of the 

 means of fertiUzation in possession of the farmer, and the ques- 

 tion still comes to us, what shall be done ? The only answer 

 seems to be, that if we have exhausted our farm resources, we 

 must look abroad for a supply, if such can be had. 



And here we come to a point when we feel the need of science, 

 of such a knowledge of the nature of our soils, and the charac- 

 ter of the foreign fertilizers that are offered us, that we may 

 judge for ourselves, understandingly, in relation to the use of 

 them. Farmers do not like to take a leap in the dark. Con- 

 scious of their ignorance of chemical compounds, etc., they 

 don't like to meddle with them. The fact is, men must know 

 things, or have an intelligent conviction that they are true, or 

 they cannot believe them. They may assent to them ; but there 

 is a wide difference between assent and belief. We assent to 

 many propositions, and assent to them so often and so long that 

 we fancy we believe them, when in truth we do not. Now dog- 

 mas in agriculture, like any other dogmas, never influence our 

 minds like clearly demonstrated truths. 



If the farmer has no science whatever, he is compelled to re- 

 ceive all the teachings of agricultural chemistry on the mere 

 * say-so of somebody else, and of course will not be likely to feel 

 that confidence essential to the practical, successful use of them. 



This shows that the time has come when farmers should be 

 educated in some degree to their profession. This has been 



43* 



