12 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ture at Washington, showing the entire plant, straw and head, 

 as it matured on the different plots of ground, under a memo- 

 randum of the course pursued for each specimen. 



The other case to which I refer is that of a gentleman near 

 London, who formerly lived in Canada, who is completely up- 

 setting the old idea that we can't farm without animals. " No 

 corn, no cattle, — no cattle, no manure," &c. This gentleman 

 bought a tract of clay land, which seemed to be virtually aban- 

 doned for any agricultural purpose. He then employed a 

 chemist, and analyzed the soil, discovered its qualities and its 

 deficiencies — analyzed the plants he designed to grow — saw what 

 they required, determined on his crops, and went to work. He 

 procured Fowler's machinery for ploughing by steam, and with 

 that he ploughed the land deeply and thoroughly, and t harrowed 

 it also by steam. His chemist then prepared such fertilizers or 

 solvents, or plant-food if you choose, in London, as were suited 

 to his wants, and he put in his crops. His success is reported 

 to be remarkable. When his crops were ripe, instead of gather- 

 ing them and putting them in barns, and feeding them to cattle, 

 he simply sold them at auction as they were standing on the 

 ground. The purchasers harvested them and took them away. 

 Thus this proprietor goes on ploughing and planting and applying 

 his artificial fertilizers and selling the standing crop ; his two 

 principal workers being an engineer and a chemist. No animals 

 to work and none to feed. This farm being near a good mar- 

 ket, where the crops bring good prices, the method, it is said, is 

 proving very profitable. 



A FRENCH METHOD. 



A scientific gentleman in France, Professor Ville, has, for 

 over ten years, been pursuing a course of experiments nearly 

 the reverse of that taken by the chemists generally. It is some- 

 what like the natural method of farmers. He studies the appe- 

 tites of plants, but more especially the three great families of 

 plants upon which agriculture mainly depends, viz. : the cereals, 

 the leguminous plants, and roots, and he has deduced from his 

 study the formula of a normal manure. His method is syn- 

 thetic. He seeks to build up a plant, and he maintains that he 

 can do it in any soil. His process was to take clean sand, cal- 

 cined, and, by the aid of fertilizers chemically prepared, make 



