arc capable of supplying all the desiderata I have alluded to, 

 but they can many of them. Besides, these Sciences have not 

 reached their present state in a day. They are the structures 

 of ages and daily improving-. Neither have they been the cre- 

 ations of single minds, but have been gradually raised by many 

 intellectual labourers, from the the time of the Greek Philoso- 

 phers and Arab Alchemists until now. Let it not be argued 

 that the cultivator of the Soil should wait for others to make 

 discoveries, and that he need only take advantage of them. 

 Who is so well calculated for making discoveries in a a Art, as 

 he who is constantly practising it? Should the Physician be 

 ignorant of Pharmacy, and confining himself merely to detect 

 diseases, leave to the Pharmaceutist to prescribe appropriate 

 remedies? As absurd is it to assert that, though Botany and 

 Chemistry are the best aids of Horticulture, the Gardener 

 should leave their application to others. 



If it was true, which the preceding parts of this work will 

 demonstrate it is not, that the cultivation of the Soil has not 

 improved during the last two-thousand years, such an argument 

 ex ignoraiitia would avail nothing against the possibiHty of im- 

 provement. 



No one can argue that Botany has done nothing for the Gar- 

 dener; the immense and continual increase of the species of 

 Plants cultivated by him — the improved varieties of Mr. Knight 

 and others alone may prevent such an assertion. I am per- 

 fectly willing to grant, and lament that facts justify the ad- 

 mission, that Chemistry has not been brought to the illustration 

 and improvement of the agricultural arts so successfully as to 

 the Arts of manufacture. This is chiefly owing to the insensi- 

 bility of Cultivators, but not entirely so. It partly arises from the 

 great difficulty and intricacy of Vegetable Chemistry. " If the 

 exact connection of effects with their causes, says Kirvvan, has 

 not been so fully and extensively traced in tkis as in other sub- 



