THE PHILOSOPHY OF FARMING. ay i 
vated, by means of such an advancement in 
agriculture, as has taken place in the arts, from 
the wild heaths of our moorlands, and the rushes 
and sedges of our undrained swamps and fens— 
and even from the present crops in grain and 
grass of our semi-cultivated country. 
From these prefatory remarks, we must admit 
that man stands nearly in the same relation to 
plants, as the supplier of material does to the 
builder and the building; and that he can modify 
plants almost to as great an extent as material, 
and the builder can do the building. All culti- 
vation consists in bringing to the plant, or placing 
within its range of action sucha supply of material 
as natural means cannot furnish it with in the 
situation where it grows. In order to cultivate 
well, it is therefore as necessary to know what 
plants want, as for the builder and contractor of 
material to know what is required for the building. 
This known, the course to be pursued in farming 
will be clear and easy ; and the necessity of aiding 
nature in the fundamentals of vegetable economy 
become as paramount as apparent. 
The material, out of which the vegetable struc- 
ture is reared, consists nearly of aerial and fluid 
