FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 125 



contribute so essentially to the welfare and comfort 

 of the race. Chemistry has never rendered and 

 never will render such aid to agriculture as will 

 direct the farmer how to raise crops without the 

 expenditure of time and labor, and the exercise of 

 a reasonable amount of skill and common sense ; 

 but it does inform him precisely regarding the na- 

 ture of the plant structures he is called upon to 

 rear, and the food they demand, and this knowledge 

 is of immense service. Chemistry, in its practical 

 hints and teachings to agriculturists, leaves a void 

 which must be filled up by inferences and by the 

 exercise of the ingenuity and the judgment, and 

 any farmer who is incapable of exercising these 

 desirable faculties can never be greatly benefited 

 in his labors by science. 



The hinderances to success in the use of special 

 fertilizing agents upon the farm are not numerous, 

 but they are of a nature peculiarly provoking, and 

 perhaps in some degree discouraging. The great- 

 est of these are connected with the sources of sup- 

 ply, and it is in this direction that we must bend 

 all our energies to bring about a salutary reform. 

 I am free to say that in the farm experiments un- 

 dertaken, an advantage has resulted from being able 

 to secure and employ only such agents as were of 

 absolute integrity, and also my professional pursuits 



