228 MY FARM. 



&quot;mystery of husbandry.&quot; For these reasons it is, 

 that I say, let no man rashly hope to revolutionize 

 farming, upon the strength of clean copies of Liebig 

 and Boussingault. 



A Gypseous Illustration. 



THE farming community has a great respect for 

 men of science ; it never thinks of distrusting 

 any of their dicta, so long as they are conveyed in 

 scientific and only half-intelligible language. The 

 working-farmer is altogether too busy and shrewd 

 a man to controvert a statement of which he has 

 only vague and muddy comprehension. His dignity 

 is saved, by bowing acquiescence, and passing it un 

 challenged. Thus, if the Professor, talking in the 

 interests of agriculture, says : &quot; Gypsum is very ser 

 viceable in fixing the ammonia which is brought 

 down from the atmosphere by showers,&quot; the com 

 mon-sense farm-listener is disposed to admit so airy 

 a truth. But if the Professor, meeting him over the 

 fence, says : &quot; Plaster is an excellent manure,&quot; the 

 common-sense man retorts : 



&quot; Waal d n know ; depends a leetle upon the 

 sile, in my opinion.&quot; 



But as the scientific man confines himself mostly 

 to the language of the desk, and meets with an ad 

 miring assent he is apt, I think, to generalize some- 



