THE KAW MATERIAL. 



A THOROUGH aequaintanee with tlie materials with which he works, 

 is of as much importance to the Farmer and Grardener, as to an artist 

 or manufacturer. It is admitted on all hands, that no industrial 

 pursuit excels in usefulness and dignity, that of the agriculturist; 

 and our farmers need only intelligence and refinement, to become the 

 true aristocracy of the land. Their field of labor is no narrow fac- 

 tory or workshop, but the open world, with all its wondrous scenes 

 and changes and astonishing transformations, and demands of them 

 minds to appreciate, as well as hands to gather its fruits. 



It is also admitted that the farmer's calling is best calculated to 

 cherish health of body, and we claim that it is also, if rightly viewed, 

 pre-eminent for producing soundness of mind ; and did the farmer 

 make a proper use of his opportunities, we may confidently assert, 

 that there is no calling at all comparable with it, in developing 

 healthfully and proportionately all the faculties of mind and body. 

 He has to witness, and in some measure direct, the most wonderful 

 operations. The growth of each plant on his land, is a perpetual 

 miracle. He may never fully understand it, but he should know of 

 what the seed he buries, consists, and what it will require for food 

 when the morn of its resurrection comes, and it rises to clothe the 

 earth in beauty, and become fit sustenance for man. 



Hoping to induce some of our young farmers, at least, to study 

 more thoroughly, their noble calling, we have determined to give, in 

 a series of articles, an outline of our knowledge concerning the ma- 

 terials with which the agriculturist has to deal. 



The most obvious inquiry, in commencing our study, is, of what 

 is the world about us composed? The ancient philosophers answer- 

 ed, of four elements : fire, air, earth and water. But the chemists 

 of a later period have pursued their investigations in a manner 

 quite different from that of the wild speculators of ancient Greece. 

 Taking a hint from the inquisition, they put unknown substances 

 to the torture, either of corroding acids, or the blazing furnace — the 

 forked lightning of the battery, or some such ' devilish enginery,' 

 and compelled them to tell in their own language what they are, and 

 of what they are composed. If the substance endure the bite of 

 the sharp-tootlied acid, and the rush of the electric thunderbolt — 



(62) 



