284 Promotion of Scientific Agriculture. [June, 



You would have the form and the semblance of strength in the one case, 

 and you would have the stalks and even heads of wheat, hut no grain, 

 in the other. The poor man does not suspect himself of the vain 

 attempt to rival the Almighty — to create something out of nothing — 

 to gather a crop wheie the elements are not in his soil to mature that 

 crop. Does he attempt to supply them, not knowing what they are, he 

 s just as likely to go wrong as right ; to use lime where lime is in 

 abundance already, or to supply potash where some other ingredient is 

 needed. Science places in his hand the key tnat unlocks the mystery, 

 that reveals the proper restoratives in the proper quantities, and at the 

 least possible expense. But farther, by a proper education he would 

 know how to profit by what may be termed the mechanical preparation 

 of his soils. The second farm, which most men own hencath the first, 

 which has never been disturbed by the plow, would be brought to the 

 surface, and its various elements difi'used through the entire mass, 

 instead, as now, of being imperviously hardened and consolidated. The 

 roots of crops could then penetrate farther down and draw up moisture 

 from this hitherto terra incognita. Besides, there are more or less of the 

 elements of crops in this subsoil, some of the salts of the manures with 

 which the surface has been supplied for ages, and which are now entirely 

 useless. We venture to assert, that there is more undeveloped wealth of 

 this kind in the subsoil of our farms than in all the gold mines of Cali- 

 fornia. Education will put the subsoil plow into this mine of wealth, 

 and afford the roots of plants opportunity to draw forth its treasures 

 and wave them aloft in golden harvests. 



But again, physically : Science will acquaint the farmer not only with 

 the laws of the vegetable kingdom, but those which govern the animal, 

 with the laws of reproduction among plants and animals. He will thereby 

 be enabled to procure the best stock, and best know how to perpetuate 

 and improve it ; their treatment in sickness and in health, the feed most 

 economical, and how supplied. And we may say, in short, a correct and 

 intelligent system of agriculture lies at the very foundation of our indi- 

 vidual, social, and national prosperity, in so much that he has been 

 called a national benefactor who makes two spears of grass grow where 

 but one grew before. Hence, to the political economist who would unfold 

 to us the laws of wealth, the laws governing production in its varied 

 forms, there can be no more fruitful theme than that of science in its 

 application to agriculture. Indeed, it is a matter of universal interest 

 how the human family may be fed, and clothed, and sheltered upon the 

 best and most economical terms. And as we are to look primarily to 

 the soil, to agriculture for all this, how does its improvement gather 



