1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



539 



crop almost without labor, the flirmer is compelled 

 ♦' to eat hia bread in ihc sweat of his brow. " 

 From year to year, whilst the amount of his ne* 

 cessary labor is increased, the return lor those la- 

 bors becomes more and niore scanty ; until at 

 length a point is reached at which thii only alter- 

 native lell him, is to change his system of cultiva- 

 tion, to emjirrate, or to starve. There are por- 

 tions of our southern country which have nearly 

 reached this point-— and the tide of emigration is 

 last sweeping off their old population to the 

 new countries of the west and south-west, those 

 Jands of promise. Accustomed lor n)any years 

 lo a certain routine of larming operations, they 

 either would not, or they knew not how to change 

 it lor a better. The valley of Virginia, possess- 

 ing as it does a soil which it is difficult ii' not im- 

 possible entirely to exhaust, has never become im- 

 poverished to such an extent ; — yet, even from 

 the valley of V^irginia, not a few have sought a 

 home in the distant (breste of the west. Far be 

 it from me to call in question, either the policy of 

 such a movement, or the patriotism of those who 

 have made it; — doubtless they have found a rich- 

 er soil ; and having carried our free institutions 

 with them, wherever they have gone, they still 

 possess all that which most endears his native 

 state to the bosom of a Virginian. But those 

 who remain behind have a work to perform. By 

 long cultivation the soil has become so much ex- 

 hausted, that it is necessary for our systems of 

 cultivation to be improved, if we wish slill to see j 

 *' smiling plenty reign in the home of our child- ' 

 hood. " Instead of making it, the one absorbing | 

 question, how can I get the largest return from j 

 my lands this year 1 our farmers must inquire,! 

 how can I get the largest return in a series of I 

 years? how can I permanently improve my 

 lands ? This I suppose every one is ready to ad- 

 mit; but then the question arises, how is this 

 change for the better to be effected ? in what way 

 are our lands to be improved? in what respects 

 ought our systems of cultivation to be changed ? 

 it IS not difficult to mention some way in which 

 lands may be improved, and some particulars in 

 which our systems of cultivation might be changed 

 lor the better ; — but to give a correct and lull an- 

 swer to these questions, to Btate in what manner 

 lands may be permanently improved to the best 

 advantage, and how our systems of cultivation 

 may be changed, so that a given portion of land 

 •shall yield the largest return, with mo.>t certainty, 

 least labor, least detriment to the soil, is a task 

 which it is impossible to perlJjrm at the present 

 day; and we can hope to do it only afier long- 

 continued and careful study of the subject. 



It is at this point that natural science may be 

 advantageously introduced to assist us in our la- 

 bors. I know that in time past, while men have 

 acknowledged the importance of applying science 

 to the arts, and in tact to almost every-thing else, 

 they have doubted the value of its application to 

 agriculture. Is this a reasonable doubt 1 What 

 do we mean by natural science 1 As I under- 

 stand it, we mean nothing more nor less, than our 

 knowledge of nature arranged and generalized. 

 Our knowledge on all subjects is, in the first m- 

 stance, a knowledge of individual facts. After a 

 stock of facts has accumulated, we perceive that 

 many of them are of the same character ; these 

 we class together, and include them under a geu^ 



eral statement. Again, we observe that some of 

 these facts bear to others the relation of cause to 

 effect, and we arrange them in accordance with 

 this observation. This once accomplished, our 

 knowledge has become science. By this process, 

 the form, and not the nature of our knowledge w 

 changed. Scientific principles are nothing more 

 than human knowledge packed up in a portable 

 lorm. Founded as tliey are upon our observa- 

 tion of nature, their application to the affairs of 

 life, is one of the very best methods of testing 

 their truth. 



To the arts, and to almost every other business of 

 life, natural science has been applied with the 

 happiest result ; and is there any thing which for- 

 bids the hope of its being applied to agriculture 

 with equal success? There are departments of 

 physical science, which apply as naturally and 

 as directly to the business of the farmer, as me- 

 chanical or chemical philosophy do to the busi- 

 ness of the artizan. ^uch are mineralogy, geo- 

 logy and vegetable physiology. One great ob- 

 ject of mineralogy and geology is to enable us to 

 determine the character of soils, to ascertain the 

 elements which enter into their composition, and 

 the proportions in which they severally enter. No 

 one has ever doubted that the difference between 

 a fertile and barren soil, lies in a difference in their 

 composition. There are some combinations oT 

 the elements of soil, which seem particularly 

 adapted to the growth of plants, whilst there are 

 others which will scarcely support a scanty vege- 

 tation. A piece of land may be rendered barren, 

 I either by the absence of some one or more of the 

 j elements of good soil, or by the presence of some 

 I noxious principle. If the former i& the case, it is 

 to the interest of the possessor to supply the de- 

 ficiency ; if the latter, to remove the noxious prin- 

 ciple, But how shall he set about this work, un- 

 less he know whether it is the absence or the pre- 

 sence of an element which renders his larul bar- 

 ren, and also what that element is ? Lime and ve- 

 getable matter are our two most common ma- 

 nures. To make it a general question, as has 

 sometimes been done, whether lime or vegetable 

 matter is the best manure for land, is very much 

 like making it a general question, whether fire or 

 water is ihe best agertt (or doing work.. Unless 

 the nature of the work to be done is specified, it 

 is impossible to answer the question. For smelt- 

 ing iron fire is the best, and water is good for no- 

 thing; for removing a stain from linen water ia 

 the best, and fire is good for nothing. So it is with 

 respect to manuring; it is necessary that we ehouid 

 know the nature ol' the soil, before we can deter- 

 mine the proper method of improving it. It i&(as 

 I have already mentioned) one great object of 

 mineralogy and geology to enable us to ascertain 

 the nature of soils; the former, teaching us to dis- 

 tinguish them by their external characters, the 

 latter by their position. 



Let this suffice for mineralogy and geology, I 

 wish to direct your attention mainly to vegetable 

 physiology ; a department of natural science, 

 whieh has hitlxerto been little valued and little un- 

 derstood ; arul yet one which applies more directly 

 to agriculture than any other. Under the title of 

 vegetable physiology, is comprehended whatever ' 

 is known respecting the structure of plants, and 

 the history of vegetable lifij; embraeing our know- 

 ledge of the nature of the orggjis of plants, the 



