460 ^^ Terra Culture" — Prof. Comsfock. [October, 



principles, and especially wliere practice is so diverse, we are not pre- 

 pared to condemn wholesale, and treat liim who lays claim to a great 

 discovery as a culprit rather than a gentleman, though alike fallible 

 with ourselves. 



Mr, Comstock has been before the country tor over twenty years, 

 and a host testifiy to the merits of his discovery as we shall in a fu- 

 ture number show. And not a man, so far as I can learn, has ever 

 pretended to maintain that he is a dishonest man, or an impostor. 

 If so, the knowledge of the facts has not reached us, and since the 

 lecture, we are in receipt of numerous letters all of which fully es- 

 tablish his claims. If such facts exist, let them be made public. — • 

 Mr. Comstock may be self deceived; many zealous inquirers after 

 truth have lived, and died, under a delusion, and many in a more 

 barbarous age have paid the penalty of their rashness, in daring to 

 think for themselves, with their lives, and that too for adherence to 

 a mere opinion. But what are the claims of this new discovery, which, 

 from the unfolding of the germ in the seed, to its expansion in the 

 tree or vegetable, must be kept constantly in view, if you would se- 

 cure the most successful result? By " Terra Culture," Mr. Comstock 

 claims not only to be able to increase greatly our staple products in 

 amount and quality, but to relieve from the depredations of diseases 

 and of insects, and secure such vigor as will greatly lessen the effects 

 of drought and frost; and all this at a less expenditure of labor and 

 money than by ordinary culture. He further claims that on his sys- 

 tem of culture, we may proceed with as much accuracy and exactness 

 as the mathematician in his calculations in accordance with his rules 

 of algebra and geometry ; and that, too, by fixed laws, so perfectly sim- 

 ple, that they require no scholastic education, no expensive outlay 

 of books or implements to understand or reduce to practice. 



Certainly these are high claims, and such as are worthy our regard, 

 and such as demand our careful consideration and research. One 

 thing is certain, whether his claims are well founded or not, they will 

 set all who will put his theory to the test upon a most interesting 

 field of experiment which can not possibly result otherwise than ben- 

 eficially. A fine opportunity will be presented, from the multiplied 

 phenomena around us, to learn more perfectly the modus operandi of 

 nature's laws, and the tendency will be to make every student, every 

 investigator, a philosopher. Being called upon at every step to 

 reason and compare, to discriminate between the natural and ad- 

 ventitious, extensive scope is given to all the powers of the mind, 

 not excepting even the imagination. 



