NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 3 



profoundly mysterious. Calling this force life, without at 

 tempting to tell what it is, we know that it controls all the 

 results effected in and by the vegetable tissues. An organ, 

 as a whole, possesses no force : the leaf has no force, neither 

 have the stems, bark or kernel. The force alluded to resides 

 in the cell ; and hence it is sometimes called a cell force, and 

 the sum or aggregate force of all the cells of an organ secures 

 all the results in their proper season. The matured fruit is 

 the result then of the combined force of all the cells which 

 compose it, acting under the influence of outward forces, as 

 air, light and heat. 



The sum or aggregate of these changes, however, from 

 germination to the consumation of the mature fruit, is con 

 cealed from view. We know only the simple fact, that of 

 change from day to day. Of the effective agency residing 

 in the cell we know nothing. But fortunately the questions 

 which belong to scientific agriculture have only a slight re 

 lation to these ; they are not questions relating to cell force, 

 or to life in the abstract. These are one step farther back 

 than it is necessary to carry them. We need make no in 

 terrogatories respecting cell force, or life, in order to till the 

 soil in the best modes, or to grow large crops of wheat. But 

 still these obscure questions bear a relation, sufficiently close 

 to darken or cioud those which must be answered, and we 

 almost instinctively pass from those investigations which lie 

 in the field of research to those which are a step farther back, 

 and lie beyond the limits of legitimate enquiry. 



2. The field of investigation is really much nearer to us 

 and more within the scope of legitimate inquiry. If we 

 wish to know what is the appropriate food of the wheat plant, 

 we have only to analyze it, or to determine the elements 

 which compose the kernel. It is not how it is made, how the 

 cell power operates, but simply what the constituents of the 

 wheat or corn plant are. 



In practice, then, the farmer is merely required to sow his 

 wheat upon grounds which contain enough of the elements 

 it wants. It is true, certain collateral questions of great im 

 portance have to be answered, such as those which relate to 



