Agricultural Chemistry. 311 



fallacious or erroneous, it was not worth while to support them ; 

 and if there were truth in them, they would maintain their place ; 

 of that I was thoroughly assured. Tiiey are now recognised in 

 science in their fundamental points, after it had been believed 

 that many of them had been exterminated, even to their very 

 names, and buried in oblivion ; and all this without my having 

 ever entered into a controversy about them. 



When I last jear, for the first time during ten years, took up 

 the controversy with Mr. Lawes, which I did not begin, it will 

 be, I trust, believed, that it was not for the sake of the vain ad- 

 vantage of proving myself to be right, but because I saw that the 

 most important interests of mankind and of the state were con- 

 cerned in the question ; because the problem must be solved, 

 which is the best way of supplying the wants of our constantly- 

 growing population ; because the income and property of the 

 most important section of the inhabitants of the country, namely, 

 of the landed proprietors, must be improved by the application 

 of the true principles of cultivation, and must be endangered by 

 the prevalence of false principles. 



Millions of men have believed, during centuries, and many 

 still believe, that the sun revolves round the earth, because to 

 the eye it seems to do so. In like manner, thousands of farmers 

 have believed, and thousands still believe, because to the outward 

 eye it seems so, that all the interests of practical agriculture 

 revolve round " nitrogen^ Yet this opinion has never been scien- 

 tifically established ; nor can it ever be scientifically established, 

 because all progress and all improAcment in agriculture revolve 

 round " the soil.'^ 



This is the essential distinction between my doctrine and the 

 earlier one, which Mr. Lawes and his followers have revived, 

 and now support. With reference to practical agriculture, the 

 judgment to be formed of the advantage of the use of ammonia 

 and ammoniacal salts, and of the nitrates, rests on the two fol- 

 lowing considerations: — 



The farmer, who cultivates land which is not permanently his 

 property, has the greatest interest in obtaining from the land, 

 during his occupancy, the highest possible produce. The con- 

 dition in which he leaves the land to his successor is no object 

 of his care. I^or this farmer ammoniacal salts and manures very 

 rich in nitrogen, ivhich lie supplies from jcifhouf, are the best and 

 most profitable manures. 



On the other hand, the proprietor of the land has the greatest 

 interest that his land should continue in the same state of fertility 

 in which he has handed it over to the fanner. 



The us(! of manure rich in nitrogen bv the farmer prepares for 

 the proprietor the ruin of his land. The greater the quantity of 



