NOTHING LOST IN NATURE. 185 



culture. We discover that nothing is lost : if we burn 

 a piece of wood, it disappears, but has merely been 

 converted into carbonic acid and water, both of which 

 are at once ready to enter into new combinations. 

 The animal or the plant dies, and also after a time 

 disappears; but in its decay, every particle furnishes 

 food for a new series of living things. The farmer 

 can annihilate nothing, he can only change the form 

 of his materials: every study which will enable him 

 to do this according to his wish, should be pursued 

 eagerly and perseveringly. 



The farmer must remember that all of the substances 

 with which he has to do, all of the agents that are at 

 his command, are connected in their composition and 

 action with the fourteen elementary bodies, organic 

 and inorganic, that have been described in this little 

 work. If he preserves them, or if he adds them as 

 manures in an improper form, his utmost exertions 

 are of little avail; if in a proper form, his land 

 becomes fertile, and his returns all that heart 

 could wish. If one is absent, the others may all 

 be useless; if one is present too largely, the same 

 effect upon the action of the others may ensue. How 

 immensely important then, and how directly practical 

 is the knowledge of these elements, and of the im 

 mense variety of combinations in which they present 

 themselves ! 



In this connection, I wish to add two chapters as 

 an appendix, upon particular subjects, for which there 

 has seemed before to be no appropriate place; and 

 which I have therefore omitted till now, rather than 

 interrupt the continuity of the preceding chapters. 



The. first of these subjects, is that of chemical ana 

 lysis. So many erroneous views are published, and 

 otherwise disseminated, on this important branch of 

 study, that it seems necessary to present here some 

 plain statements and facts, which may in a degree 

 16* 



