f)16 AGRICULTURE. 



sound to some of our readers, we do not hesitate to oppose 

 experience to philosophy and reason, and to declare our 

 belief, that in no way is manure applied more effectually 

 than in the manner last stated ; by which we mean, that 

 if the same quantity of manure which would increase a 

 crop of wheat 50 per cent, be bestowed on the surface of 

 a piece of upland meadow, it will increase the crop of hay 

 in more than the same ratio. Well, then, and wisely, has 

 Mr. Pusey summed up this part of his subject in the fol- 

 lowing sentence : 



" The mineral theory hastily adopted by Liebig has 

 broken down ; no other has taken place. Our best autho- 

 rity, Mr. Lawes, has established certainly so much, that, of 

 the two active principles in manure, ammonia is specially 

 suited to corn, phosphorus to turnips, and that turnips are 

 probably benefited by the woody matter of straw. But 

 vegetable chemistry, having no fixed truths of her own as 

 to the sources from which plants derive their food, or the 

 mode in which they appropriate it, is not advanced enough 

 to lay down laws for farming, or sit in judgment on its 

 established practices. Except Liebig's suggestion for dis- 

 solving bones, and Sir Robert Kane's for using flax- water 

 as manure, I know no agricultural process arising out of 

 chemical discovery. The more we value the labours of 

 agricultural chemists, the more warmly we look forward, 

 as I do, to their future progress, through the patient exa- 

 mination of existing practice, which is itself the accumu- 

 lated and varied science of ages, the more we should dis- 

 courage undue expectations of immediate advantage. It 

 is a great mistake to suppose that men can be made far- 

 mers by teaching them doubtful chemistry. But are we, 

 therefore, to abandon agricultural chemistry because it is 

 yet doubtful, and has not yet brought forth more fruit ? 

 Rather let those who are able cultivate it the more dili- 

 gently by careful experiments, that, step by step, we may 

 reach more certain knowledge hereafter. No one, mean- 



