38 The Advantages of Chemical Science. 



with ils application in certain districts, may not be compen- 

 sated for by the advantages produced. Moist climates are 

 best fitted for raising the artificial grasses, oats, and broad - 

 leaved crops; stiff* aluminous soils, in general, are most adapt- 

 ed for wheat crops ; and calcareous soils produce excellent 

 clover. Nothing is more wanting in Agriculture than experi- 

 ments, in which all the circumstances arc minutely and scien- 

 tifically detailed. This art will advance with rapidity in pro- 

 portion as it becomes exact in its methods. As in physical 

 researches, all the causes should be considered; a difference in 

 the results may be produced even by the fall of half an inch of 

 rain, more or less, in the course of a season, or a few degrees 

 of temperature, or even.by a slight difference in the sub-soil, 

 or in the inclination of the land. Information collected after 

 views of distinct inquiry, would necessarily be more accurate 

 and more capable of being connected with the general prin- 

 ciples of science; and a few histories of the results of truly 

 philosophical experiments in agricultural chemistry would be 

 of more value in enlightening and benefiting the farmer than 

 the greatest possible accumulation of imperfect trials con- 

 ducted merely in the empirical spirit. It is no unusual occur- 

 rence for persons who argue in favor of practice and experi- 

 ence, to condemn generally all attempts to improve agriculture 

 by philosophical inquiries and chemical methods. That much 

 vague speculation may be found in the works of those who 

 have lightly taken up agricultural chemistry it is impossible to 

 deny. It is not uncommon to find a number of changes rung 

 upon a string of technical terms, such as oxygene, hydrogene, 

 carbon, and azote, as if the science depended upon words 

 rather than upon things. But this is in fact an argument for 

 the necessity of the establishment of just principles of che- 

 mistry on the subject ; whoever reasons upon agriculture is 

 obliged to recur to this science. He feels that it is scarcely 

 possible to advance a step without it; and if he is satisfied 

 with insufficient views, it is not because he prefers them to ac- 

 curate knowledge, but, generally, because they are more cur- 

 rent. It has been said, and undoubtedly with great truth, that 

 a philosophical chemist would most probably make a very un- 

 profitable business of farming, and this certainly would be the 

 case if he were a mere philosophical chemist, and unless he 

 had served his apprenticeship to the practice of the art as well 

 as to theory. But there is reason to believe, that he would be 

 a more successful agriculturist than a person equally uni- 

 tiated in farming, but ignorant of chemistry altogether ; his 

 science as far as it went would be useful to him. But che- 

 mistry is not the only kind of knowledge required, it forms a 

 small part of the philosophical basis of a^ricullurc, but it is 



