THE KEY-NOTE OF GOOD FARMING. 23 



To guess at the cause of any effect, and to imagine that certain 

 laws may be made to act in a way in which it is not proved that 

 they can act, is by no means theory, — it is a mere fancy, and it is 

 this fancy that has been decried under the name of "theory." 

 A knowledge of theory is necessary to real practice, and I desire, 

 so far as my limits and my ability will allow, to justify good practice 

 with theory, and to prove theories by practice, stating the whole 

 case so far as possible, in the plain English of common life, avoid- 

 ing, wherever practicable, such purely technical terms as are not 

 familiar to farmers. 



The first great aim of all farming is to raise the largest possible 

 crops at the least possible cost, and good farming considers any 

 mjury to the soil as a part of the cost. The use that is to be 

 made of crops after they are raised, is an important but a secondary 

 consideration. How to raise the crops is the first question, and 

 in answering it we should know what plants are made of, whence 

 their constituent parts come, and how they are put together. The 

 farmer should recognize the fact that he is a manufacturer, whose 

 object it is to make roots, or stems, or leaves, by putting together 

 the raw materials in his store-house, in the most complete, most 

 satisfactory, most workmanlike manner. To do this he should 

 understand his machinery and his material, at least so far as the 

 present state of agricultural knowledge enables him to do so. 



In a certain sense the requirements of all cultivated plants are 

 the same. They all need the assistance of the soil, the air, the 

 light and heat of the sun, and water to attain their growth, and 

 they will be more or less perfect in their development according 

 to the completeness with which all of these different agencies are 

 allowed to act. 



I have not the space to give such a complete statement of the 

 teachings of chemistry as applied to agriculture as is necessary 

 to a profitable understanding of the more intricate laws of vege- 

 table growth, but there are certain leading principles which chem- 

 istry has unfolded, that should be familiar to every farmer, and 

 which, fortunately, may be plainly stated and easily understood. 



If a hundred pounds of grass is laid upon a shelf, in a warm 



