14 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



deed, it is more difficult of complete acquirement and mastery 

 than either of the others. Immutable laws, it is true, he will 

 find in the great book of nature, which the Almighty has spread 

 before him ; but he plainly sees it is full of mysteries, and the 

 laws applicable to ever-varying circumstances and combinations 

 difficult to reconcile or adjust suitably, and requiring sharp 

 apprehension and perpetual study and effort. 



MORE EXPERIMENTS WANTED — EDUCATION OF FARMERS. 



We want more exact methods. We want more of such ex- 

 periments as those at Rothamsted, in which all the circumstances 

 are minutely and scientifically detailed. We want more and 

 better education in the exact and technical sciences. The agri- 

 cultural colleges which have been lately established in several 

 parts of the country, may be the means of affording a suitable 

 education to the sons of farmers if they should be properly con- 

 ducted. But if they should not be, then it is a fortunate 

 circumstance that nearly all the colleges of the country have 

 placed a scientific course of study at the option of their students. 

 At the several schools of mines and technological and polytech- 

 nic institutes of comparatively recent establishment, the desired 

 education may be obtained. Then, when our farmers' sons have 

 acquired a knowledge of the general principles of nature, and 

 learnt how to conduct scientific investigations, and sensible and 

 persistent experiments in the field, as well as how to manage 

 the general machinery of farming, we may expect to see them 

 achieve a greater success than their fathers, enforce a higher 

 respect to themselves, and endow their pursuit with a nobler 

 dignity. 



" Dispel these clouds, the light of heaven restore, 

 Give nie to see, and Ajax asks no more." 



PUZZLING QUESTIONS — MINERAL MANURES. 



If you will pardon me, and not adjudge my words to be the 

 foolishness of books, I will take the liberty to mention one or 

 two things which will serve to indicate a little of the interest 

 there is in science as applied to agriculture. Did you ever ob- 

 serve that vegetation was most flourishing during a season noted 

 for thunder storms ? One chemist (Liebig) attributes the effect 

 to a fall of nitric acid in the rain (nitric acid means aqua-for- 



