8 



The temptation to illustrate the intimate connexion between science and art 

 in many more of the operations of the farm is great; but, then, a volume might 

 be written upon the subject, and usefully too, but a few pages is the necessary 

 limit to me at this time. I must, therefore, content myself with but one more 

 illustration the utility of deep ploughing. 



Many farmers, especially in the west, adhere to shallow ploughing, because 

 they have produced many good crops from it. They know that fact, but, for 

 want of chemical and meteorological knowledge, they do not perceive the reason 

 that it is applicable to new lands only; and, therefore, when the lands have 

 become worn, their failures are charged to that Avhich is not a fact, the alleged 

 change in the seasons since their more youthful clays. 



But let the farmer, when burning his log-piles, follow the carbonic gas, which 

 contains the wood and oxygen, united by the combustion, to its absorption by 

 the blades of grass, but especially by the soil, more particularly when it is rich 

 in humus, by which the absorbent power of the soil for the gases is so largely 

 increased, and he will then perceive the vast amount of this element of vegeta- 

 ble growth which is taken into the soil through the atmosphere. Now in pro- 

 portion as the air can circulate in contact with the particles of the soil, so will 

 be its deposit of carbonic acid. Deep ploughing and a well-pulverized soil 

 act as a manuring, and hence the principle of the naked follow. But when 

 lands are new the lower soil is loose, and carbon exists in it largely from de- 

 caying roots. Good crops are made at the expense of this carbon, and not 

 because of shallow ploughing. And then, too, the air can reach a greater depth 

 than when the under-soil, by pressure of the plough and the weight of stock, 

 becomes more compact. Is it not obvious that we must know the causes of 

 things'? and to have this knowledge the sciences must be studied. 



Again, to the farmer is given dominion over the animals of the farm, as well 

 as its soil and atmosphere. Animals are so made as to be his dependents, and he 

 theirs. To subserve the purposes of this relation, the Creator has endowed 

 them with mental properties in unison with it, and to man has been given the 

 power to discover these properties, and so use them as to receive the full benefit 

 of this relation. - Does the Creator require the lash as the instrument of in- 

 struction to the horse ? Has the All-wise made the exercise of brute force on man's 

 part an element of his dominion over it? Far from this is the truth. He has 

 implanted within it strong attachments and an implicit obedience to superior 

 power. Rarey was not less strongly attached to the horse, and this led to an 

 association with it so kindly, that this attachment, more than abstract reason- 

 ing, revealed to him the true management of the horse. The use of a thing, 

 whether animate or inanimate, according to the inherent laws of its organiza- 

 tion, is the only rule upon which a correct art can be founded. It is the object 

 of every science to unfold these inherent laws. Psychology, therefore, is a 

 study necessary to the farmer, as also comparative anatomy. 



It must be remembered that the donation of Congress is not limited to the in- 

 struction of agriculturists alone, but embraces all industrial pursuits; hence 

 the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the merchant should be taught such branches 

 as will best aid their respective pursuits. Some like references to these studies, 

 therefore, is necessary. 



Manufactures embrace so large a field of industrial activity and enterprise 

 that they demand business qualities and attainments of the highest order. The 

 purchase of the raw material and the sale of the commodities manufactured re- 

 quire a mercantile education ; and in the management of machinery, and of the 

 daily processes of its production, a knowledge of physics, which treats of the laws 

 of forces. Economy must be strictly observed, for such is the competition of 

 manufacture, that an establishment operating by machinery that is less econom- 

 ical than another soon results in loss. The history of manufactures abounds in 

 incidents accomplishing great economy, as the hot-blast superseding the cold- 



