106 



On Promoting Vegetation. 



Vol. IV. 



quent and sudden changes tliat take place in 

 the price of grain and other commodities, 

 which sometimes are nearly double the price 

 one year they were the foregoing, must be 

 owing to some other cause than that above- 

 mentioned, which operates sloM^ly, if at all, 

 and is not perceivable in less time than a 

 century.* 



If the quantity of gram and provisions at 

 market always bore the same proportion to 

 the demand there is for them, the price would 

 be always invariably and unchangeably the 

 same. The variation of prices, therefore, is 

 governed by the variation of the said propor- 

 tion. [As a general rule this is correct — but 

 we should bear in mind that there are excep- 

 tions to all general rules.] If the demand be 

 greater, and the quantity the same, or the de- 

 mand the same, and the quantity less, the 

 price must necessarily advance : and vice 

 versa, if the quantity should increase, and 

 the demand continue the same, the price must 

 as necessarily fall ; and it is not in the power 

 of man to make it otherwise. But though 

 this immutable relation is beyond our power 

 to alter, we can by art and industry increase 

 the quantity, and thereby lower the price ; 

 cheapness being the infallible consequence of 

 plenty, which is the direct object and effect 

 of an improving cultivation. This is a mat- 

 ter of great con.sequence to the laborer, the 

 manufacturer and merchant; and no disad- 

 vantage to the grower; because what he 

 would lose by the fall of price, he would gain 

 with interest by an increase of quantity.f 



It is not easy to conceive how many and 

 how great the improvements are, which have 

 been made in this most important of all arts, 

 within the last sixty years. A patriotic spirit 

 of uncommon ardor hath gone forth, and our 

 best men, like the Senators of Rome, have 

 set, as it were, their hands to the plough, and 

 excited their neighbors to practices of which 

 they had no idea before. Yea, they have 

 done more ; they have instituted societies, and 

 made them the receptacles and distributors 

 of useful knowledge ; they have raised sub- 

 scriptions, and added marks of honor, and pe- 



* Sppciilation — the bane of our country — has unfor- 

 tunately vory frequoiitly raised tlie price of the neces- 

 saries of life, to the direct and manifest injury of the 

 laborins classes of the people — and the ultiina'e disad- I 

 vantajje of the fanner. Speculators, we know, have [ 

 hten in the practice, in some parts of the country, of 

 ccntractiii^ with farmers for all iheir produce of grain 

 at a fair price — a niimher operatini; in tliis manner nio- 1 

 liopolize the grain market, and when the grain is con- 

 verted into flour, they demand l\w.\r ci-wn extortionate 

 price, and hold on to it until it is obtained, or the pros- 

 pi.ct of a bountiful harvest, like the mildew, blights 

 their expectations, and brings down the stafl'of life to 

 its regular grade in the scale of prices. 



t Thif" is not always the ca.ie. Of two profits nowi- 

 jifl/Z// t'./wffi, that is to be priferred which is obtained 

 with the least expense of ta/wr. That which arises from 

 an increase of Quantity, is clogged with the greatest, 

 and much more care and trouble. 



cuniary advantages, to the rewards which 

 naturally result from the attention and indus- 

 try of the ingenious artist Surely the great- 

 est respect is due to the members of all those 

 institutions, whose motives are — public good 

 and universal usefulness. 



But it must be allowed, that, although much 

 has been done, there still r<smains much more 

 to do. Experimenters have not always (per- 

 haps but seldom) entered into the views, and 

 ably seconded the intentions of those valuable 

 institutions. Animated with the hope of ob- 

 taining the premiums held out, by dint of ex- 

 traordinary exertions, expensive manures, and 

 a concurrence of fortunate circumstances, 

 more the effect of chance than of design, they 

 often have been the successful adventurer?, 

 though at the same time entirely ignonint to 

 u hat causes they owed their success. We too 

 often indeed ascribe effects to causes which 

 are no way connected with them. The prac- 

 tice of such men is more like the nostrums of 

 quacks, than the receipts of a regular physi- 

 cian. The medicine may be good, but being 

 ignorant of principles, they know not how to 

 accommodate it as different circumstances 

 may require. 



How vegetation may be carried to the 

 greatest degree of perfection, by means easily 

 practicable, and at the same time the most 

 advantageous to the husbandman, is one of 

 the most important inquiries that the human 

 understanding can be employed in the pursuit 

 of. Some ingenious men, however, have 

 made the following the previous question, — 

 " What is that substance, matter, or thing, 

 which is the true and only proper food of 

 plants; which enters into the vessels appoint- 

 ed by nature to receive it, is assimilated by, 

 and becomes constituent parts of them, aug- 

 menting their magnitude, extension and 

 weight, from an almost imperceptible atom to 

 the weight of many tons, and to a body of in- 

 conceivable dimensions'!" 



This seems, tome, much more curious than 

 useful, and is perhaps of very little conse- 

 quence to the husbandman. The philosopher 

 may amuse himself by inquiring after fir.st 

 principles, and the elementary parts of bo- 

 dies, but the farmer should n^vpr be diverted 

 from a profitable practice, until one more so 

 is recommended by the success of repeated 

 experiments. 



Various are the opinions of the learned 

 concerning this matter. Some suppose the 

 food of plants to be water ; some earth ; others 

 air, nitrons salts, oil, &c. &c., perhaps all of 

 them wide enough of the mark. It must be 

 confessed, we know nothing of the essence 

 of things. We are not endued with faculties 

 equal to tlie curious research. Ihings are 

 known to us by their properties only. But 

 what are their properties, by which they are 



