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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



in the soil. Tiiese discoveries would seem to show 

 that other agencies, than direct transmission, are 

 at work in producing the suhstances found in 

 plants. The violent action of fire may wholly 

 change the matters, and alter the constitution. 

 Mineral suhstances may pass the fire unchanged ; 

 but soluble matters may be altered, wholly banished, 

 or altogether reproduced. The quality of different 

 soils, the matured condition of the plants, and the 

 season, will combine in producing various results 

 in the ashes having been already found in the 

 experiments, even in the mineral substances, 

 which would be supposed the least liable to change. 

 Hence arises the caution necessary in receiving 

 the mode now formed by chemistry, in fixing the 

 exhausting quality of plants. 



The labours of late years have been wholly 

 barren in any practical results, being chemical 

 lectures instead of agricultural lectures that are 

 founded upon the enlightened practice of the art 5 

 and which must be deduced from a long and 

 intimate acquaintance with the practice of the 

 details. Plausible and brilliant, as many of the 

 theories have been, they are all at fault when put 

 to practice. A very general acceptance of them 

 has been gained by reason of the simplicity which 

 Bolved very abstruse problems, and the eagerness 

 of the human mind to have explanations is readily 

 captivated by any logical plausibility. 



Chemistry itself is in too imperfect a condition 

 to give clear and satisfactory answers to its own 

 questions on the subject of agriculture— a fact 

 acknowledged by its warmest advocates ; and even 

 supposing it to be perfect, the science must ever 

 be incompetent to solve the problems of physiology 

 from examining the results, but not reaching the 

 means and modes of construction. The one never 

 can explain the other. To know the component 

 parts of a turnip and potato, gives no intelligence 

 in what way to increase the produce, or how to use 

 the articles in a better application. There is no 

 agricultural light in the light of chemistry; no 

 connection exists, except in the single point of 

 manures ; and in that case, the laboratory of the 

 field differs most widely from the laboratory of the 

 closet ; and the distance that intervenes, prevents 

 any effulgence from the latter reflecting a lustre, 

 dim or bright, on the former, and almost wholly 

 destroys any connection. The chasm between the 

 two processes is deep and wide ; and all attempts 

 to make the passage have foundered midway, being 

 wholly lost among the new states and appearances 

 of materials, arising from the fresh and unexpected 

 combinations that are presented to the view and 

 examination. The very important truth is always 

 overlooked or concealed, that to teach any science 

 simply by itself in its own individual and uncon- 



nected state, is a comparatively easy process ; but 

 to connect it wiih another that is either allied or 

 remote, subjected to other laws, and regulated by a 

 different economy, becomes a matter of the most 

 serious difficulty, which has hitherto baffled all 

 attempts, and may ever remain insurraountaale. 

 The great want that has attended most persons, 

 even the most learned in other sciences, who have 

 tried the application, consists in a total ignorance 

 of agriculture itself; and the bare idea of connect- 

 ing two sciences, or any objects whatever, in order 

 to produce from their union a beneficial result or 

 appUcation to other purposes, must suppose a 

 thorough and most intimate knowledge of the 

 nature and proj)erties of both objects to be pre- 

 viously possessed by the persons who pretend to 

 efl'ect the connection; and when these essential 

 qualifications, or one of them, are wholly wanting, 

 no surprise need be excited that universal failures 

 have happened from the presumption which attends, 

 and the conceit that directs, the performances. 



And these failures will happen, without disparage- 

 ment to the professor of any accessory science ; for 

 an ignorance of agriculture must inevitably lead to 

 such results ; and v/ithout that most essential 

 qualification, the most profound learning that can 

 be attained in other branches of natural science 

 will not qualify any scientific man for such pur- 

 poses of interpretation ; and accordingly when he 

 leaves the beaten track of his own department, and 

 essays his strength and skill in attempting to 

 elucidate the various constituent relations and pos- 

 sible applications of Nature's works, he finds 

 himself roaming without a guide or beacon in a 

 field of unbounded extent, where unknown and 

 untrodden paths bewilder and perplex the road, 

 and from which the veil that Nature has thrown 

 over many of her works may never be withdrawn ; 

 and the full explanation of which is probably very 

 justly and for ever placed beyond the reach of man. 

 It is evident that the man of true science is the 

 person who is engaged in the practice of an ait, if 

 the mind is liberalized, and the ideas enlarged by 

 education; for he enjoys the daily advantages of 

 ojjservation, reflection, and experience, before his 

 eyes, and the best opportunities of proving his 

 own ideas, and of judging the probable success 

 under the circumstances of appUcation. Much of 

 our knowledge is not to be applied to any purposes 

 of life, owing to the influence of the agencies to 

 which the action must be exposed. A very great 

 and general mistake of scientific men, who have 

 tried to reduce into agricultural practice the specu- 

 lations and deductions of analytical research, con- 

 sists in publishing the results of trials made under 

 circumstances wholly removed from the situation 

 of common application; assumptions have been 



