94 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



"It appears to be expected that at each of your anniversary 

 meetings, a discourse on agriculture should be delivered. The 

 trustees of the society have requested me to address you at this 

 time. But though vv^illing to be laid under contribution to the 

 great object of your institution, it has occasioned a degree of 

 solicitude to present something meriting your attention. From 

 the multitude of books written on the subject of agriculture — 

 embracing in that word whatever should employ the thoughts 

 and labors of the skillful husbandman — the field would appear 

 almost boundless ; yet to select topics particularly interesting to 

 the farmers of Massachusetts, and here to discuss them so as to 

 communicate useful and acceptable information, was not un- 

 attended with difficulty. My address must necessarily be mis- 

 cellaneous. 



Philosophers and practical husbandmen have for ages employed 

 their thoughts and their pens on the various operations in agri- 

 culture; yet diversities of opinion still exist, and the reasons of 

 many of those operations have been little more than conjectural. 

 What constitutes the food of plants has long been a subject of 

 diligent inquiry. It was natural to suppose that if this food could 

 be discovered, it could more easily be provided, or at least more 

 efficaciously administered. The palpable differences which dis- 

 tinguish the immense variety of plants in their forms, textures, 

 colors and tastes, naturally suggested the idea that each variety 

 required its specific nourishment. Yet, it being a matter of 

 common observation that the same soil would nourish and bring 

 to maturity multitudes of different plants, of very opposite quali- 

 ties — some yielding wholesome food and others a deadly poison — 

 at the same time all growing together and robbing one another, a 

 nobler and more simple idea presented itself — that the food of 

 all plants was the same, but that each species was endued with 

 the power of converting that food to its own peculiar substance ; 

 as, among animals, the same grain, produced all the varieties of 

 flesh which go to sustain the life of man." 



Having thus stated the problem, the speaker proceeded to his 

 solution, which may be given in his own words, omitting a few 

 connecting clauses: 



"By the modern discoveries in chemistry, these mysterious 

 effects seem to be accounted for. For it appears that all kinds of 

 plants are composed of a small number of elements, whose differ- 

 ent arrangements and combinations produce all the varieties in 

 question. The three principal ingredients in the food of plants, 

 and which, by them elaborated, constitute the food of man and 



