1856.] Promotion of Scientific Agriculture. 283 



interest which would be constantly more and more developed to a culti- 

 vated and inquisitive mind ; and by showing that its successful pursuit, 

 either as matter of business or recreation, is not incompatible with the 

 hifhest improvement of taste, and even a vigorous and successful pursuit 

 of learning ; and where so prosecuted under favorable circumstances, it 

 affords as fair a chance of rational cDJoyment and quiet usefulness, as 

 any situation which the most lucrative trade, or the most successful 

 political ambition, or even the highest professional eminence can com- 

 mand. And when science shall have accomplished for agriculture what 

 it has done for other pursuits, no avocation will be more highly appre- 

 ciated and honored. AVhile but few advantages of a physical and 

 material character have yet been realized in our own country, from 

 science applied to agriculture, we may point with assurance to many 

 which have ta,)ien place within a few years in Europe, that are astonish^ 

 ing, and almost stagger credulity itself. And these are uniformly 

 realized fromVintelligence and enlightened skill, which are alone the 

 instruments of succejss in every other pursuit. The product of the soil 

 has in many places been quadrupled. They now regard fifty and sixty 

 bushels of wheat to the acre, where formerly but fifteen were produced, 

 as no uncommon yield ; and thirty tons of carrots have been produced 

 upon a single acre. If such results can ever be realized in single 

 instances, these instances may, by the same means, be greatly multiplied, 

 may indeed become common. 



Did our farmers more fully understand the composition of their soils, 

 the materials on which they are to display their skill, and out of which 

 they are to rear their harvests, what changes might we not expect ; 

 changes both in quantity and quality ; changes beyond their present 

 conceptions ? By thus acquainting themselves with the elements their 

 soils contained in abundance, or its deficiencies, they would know what 

 was necessary to secure a given crop. Now it is all involved in uncer- 

 tainty, and can be known only by oft repeated experiments, whether the 

 soil contains such elements as will produce a remunerative harvest. By 

 analysis, he can tell what ingredients must be supplied, and how this 

 can be done most economically. The farmer who does not know the 

 chemical qualities of his soil should be considered as poorly fitted for his 

 business as the smith who did not comprehend the qualities of the 

 difierent metals, who would mistake copper for iron ; or the carpenter, 

 who could not tell the difierence between buckeye and white oak. The 

 man who would attempt to raise a grain crop on a soil that had lost its 

 potash, or its phosphoric acid, would manifest no*less folly than the 

 mechanic who should give you a pine plow-beam instead of an oak. 



