WORCESTER COUNTY 



HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A. D. 1881. 



Chemistry Something but not Everything in Agriculture. 



By Professor Charles 0. Thompson. 

 Before the Worcester County Horticultural Society, January 13, A. D. 1881. 



[abstract.] 



Chemistry has done great service in the world and has made 

 more valuable contributions to the happiness of man than any 

 other science. The improvements in scientific metallurgy alone 

 give chemistry a very high place. Wiien confining itself to 

 the laws of dead matter, this science works accurately and 

 usefully ; but our knowledge of the processes of life is so limited 

 and inexact that any attempt to guide any of the practical arts 

 that depend upon the vital forces by the dicta of a physical 

 science alone must be vain. 



Whenever science comprehends the principles of any set of 

 phenomena, a trustworthy prediction of results can be given in 

 any case ; as, for instance, the efi'ect of carbon turning iron into 

 a steel is so well known that the quality of the steel can be pre- 

 dicted from the percentage of carbon in it ; a chemist can speak 

 with certainty of many similar phenomena in tlie treatment of 

 metals ; but when he is asked to plant and fertilize corn so as to 

 insure a crop he liesitates, because unknown and unmanageable 

 conditions enter into the problem. 



Farmers have put too much reliance on chemical fertilizers, 

 and liave found out tliat chemistry alone is an uncertain guide in 

 practical agriculture. In the reaction from this conclusion there 

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