JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 OF ENGLAND. 



I, — The use, to the Farmer, of a Magnify ing-glass or Simple 

 Microscope. By W. Kencely Bkidgman, L.D.S.,E.C.S., 

 Eng. 



Prize Essay. 



UpwaEDS of five-and-thirty years' experience in the almost 

 daily use of the microscope for investigating subjects of 

 natural history leads me to speak with some degree of confidence 

 as to the benefit that this instrument may confer upon the farmer, 

 by enabling him first to enter into the minutiae of the wondrous 

 contrivances ordained by the Creator to maintain life, health, 

 and succession in organised beings, and next to turn that know- 

 ledge to account, by seconding the more recondite operations of 

 nature in those processes wherein his interests are most con- 

 cerned. 



Through neglect of such a resource, bad or defective 

 seed may cause the loss of a season's growth ; crops may be 

 wasted by the ravages of disease, which might have been 

 stayed had it been sooner detected ; while by its adoption 

 adulteration in feeding-stuffs, manures, and various other sub- 

 stances, may be brought to light, so that the farmer may be no 

 longer at the mercy of the manufacturer or the dealer. He 

 may also gain much insight into the mode and principles of 

 vegetable growth, of inflorescence and fructification, upon which 

 the quantity and quality of grain depends, and by watching 

 the influence of manures and other substances upon plants, he 

 may learn the right time and manner of applying them, as 

 well as the appearances of disease in its incipient stage and 

 subsequent development, together with the action of all such 

 preparations as either check or eradicate it. All these observa- 

 tions come within the province of the microscope, and they are 

 essential to the full development of agriculture as a science. 



The magnifying-glass or microscope must not, however, be 

 mistaken for other than it really is — that is only "a means to 

 an end ; " for it teaches us nothing, it only affords us the power 

 of examining objects too small for the naked eye, and thus 



VOL. III.— S. S. B 



