Position of Chemistry as a Factor in Agricultural Advancement. 949 



lines of expansion and new provinces of activity. They led to a 

 systematic analysis of all vegetable and animal products ; and tlie 

 acquired knowledge of crop characteristics following this, with the 

 added knowledge of the relations of soils and crops, opened up the 

 great possibilities in the modification of crops, in specific directions, 

 leading to the elimination of undesirable and the strengthening of 

 desirable qualities. From the purely investigational, chemistry passed 

 then to the regulative or protective, in which the products of the farm, 

 and the products sold to the farmer were subjected to analytical control. 

 It inquired into the purity of foods, stock foods, manures and agricul- 

 tural products generally, with the view, on one side, of preventing 

 fraud being practised on the farmer in his direct purchases ; and on 

 the other, with the object of preventing an indirect injury, by excludincr 

 sophisticated articles from competition with the genuine produced by 

 himself, both on foreign and local markets. 



Side by side with this protective work and investigational 

 activity in laboratory, field and stall, the chemist directed his atten- 

 tion also to the processes of the factory ; and by new developments in 

 chemical technology, opened up new and unexpected avenues for the 

 profitable utilization of a wider range of products from the farm. 

 By the solution and explanation of the various processes underlying 

 the preparation of certain products, and suggestions in economy of 

 working, large and important industries were assured an extended 

 existence, and the by-products of manufacture utilized with profit. 

 Wine making, tanning, brewing, the manufacture of glucose and 

 starch, sugar and fertilizers, are instances in which chemistry has, 

 either directly or indirectly, profoundly influenced the activity of a 

 whole district and sometimes of a whole country. The wonderful 

 conquests of this science will be more fviUy realised, when we reflect 

 that the whole of the work and discoveries, just enumerated, are the 

 result of the labors of a little more than 100 years. 



The general review of what has been accomplished will give some 

 idea of the prominent part chemistry has played in agricultural 

 development ; but the true magnitude of its influence can only be 

 brought out by a consideration, in detail, of a few of the industries 

 which have grown up and amplified under its discoveries. 



The Fertilizer Industry. 



The discussion of the fertilizer industry is one which, perhaps 

 more than any other, might interest you. The use of artificial ferti- 

 lizers in Victoria is sufficiently recent to attach a general interest to 

 the matter. The industry is one which owes its origin and continued 

 existence entirely to chemical discovery. At the commencement of the 

 nineteenth century, little was understood of either the composition or 

 the functions of a manure ; and even late in the first half of the 

 century, opinion appeared general that the organic matter of plant life 

 was derived solely from the decaying vegetable matter of the soil, 

 and not in the main from the atmosphere and water. Generations of 

 farming experience had shown the value of certain refuse of barn 



