6 A Restrospective View of the Progress of 



been put to the test of practice. In the closing number of 

 our last volume we discussed the subject of the mineral ma- 

 nure theory, and deem it unnecessary now to enter at much 

 length upon the subject, though we shall do so hereafter ; but 

 as our article was the first we have seen, in our periodical 

 journals, opposing the theory, we deem it not inappropriate 

 to allude to an article which we have since read in the Cul- 

 tivator, from Prof. Norton, in which he adopts all or a greater 

 part of our views, and supports them even with a better ar- 

 gument than we used, viz., by a detail of the accurate ex- 

 periments of some celebrated French chemists. Prof. Nor- 

 ton states also that the experiments of Mr. Lawes " seem to 

 him perfectly conclusive in this matter, so far as wheat is con- 

 cerned ; they prove that ammoniacal manures increase its 

 growth far more than mineral manures, where both are al- 

 ready'' present in moderate supply, and that the addition of 

 any amount of the latter will do little or no good, unless the 

 former be present." Without going back to see hoAv far the 

 present views of the Professor agree with those expressed in 

 his Elements of Scientific Agriculture, we would inquire, could 

 we have better support than this ? Notwithstanding our 

 friend Prof. Mapes can raise seventy-five bushels of shelled 

 corn, from land which " refused corn the previous year," by 

 the application of one dollar and thirty-one cents'' worth of 

 special majiure, and notwithstanding the declaration of our 

 Hudson contemporary, who was " born in a garden," that 

 our disbelief in the efficacy of special manures reminded him 

 of his early and laborious study of the classics, when he 

 read of the " Solelm Sphinx that once told how high the 

 tide rose in Egypt, but has long ago been left high and dry 

 by the progress of the age," we are not yet jeady to adopt 

 the views of these writers, preferring rather that their readers, 

 who believe them, should experiment upon their theories to 

 their hearts' content, as they have with gas tar, salt, cop- 

 peras, and similar nostrums, until they have destroyed all 

 their trees, when they will be more likely to listen to the dic- 

 tates of reason and common sense. But we have digressed 



