W. C. GOLDTHWAIT'S ADDRESS. 377 



smoke from a field of battle, or a hm-ning forest? What shall 

 we say then of that wasteful and profligate farming that ex- 

 poses these decaying substances in the open air, at such an im- 

 mense loss ? What shall we say of rotten manures, as they are 

 called, from which one half, and it may be three fourths of the 

 vitality has gone, gone to the thankless winds ? Let every 

 particle of these fresh manures and decaying products be gath- 

 ered up, and laid away in some secure place out of the sun and 

 rain ; let them be sprinkled with copperas water, or plaster of 

 Paris and charcoal, and above all let them be mixed with a 

 large quantity of fresh earth or peat, so that the vagrant air 

 may no longer steal from you those elements, for which every 

 blade of grass sends in a most respectful petition. Do you say 

 you cannot afford to be at all this trouble ? Then you cannot 

 afford to darn a hole in your money purse, or drive an ox away 

 from your corn crib ! 



I have thus, briefly and all imperfectly, suggested some of 

 the ways in which science may be applied to agriculture. 

 These, it is true, are not all the suggestions of science, strictly 

 so called ; but they are the teachings, as I understand it, of en- 

 lightened husbandry, guided by science. Nothing will supply 

 the place of sound judgment and close application, in these 

 matters ; but, if I mistake not, science and intelligent enter- 

 prise are to work a reformation in this business, and make it a 

 more regular, as well as honorable pursuit. From visionary 

 farming, ever deliver us ! But the teachings of sound science 

 are not visionary ; and in the midst of the vagueness, and 

 guess-work, and profligate waste, that now characterize this 

 business, we need her almost infallible guidance. She has al- 

 ready outstretched the railroad, and conquered space ; she has 

 outhung the telegraphic wires, and almost annihilated time ; 

 she has recently uplifted her eye to the starry heavens, and, 

 almost with an impiety that would dictate to the creator, told 

 where a new planet should be, and then turned the optic tube 

 of the astronomer to the very spot, and proved that it was right 

 there ! And now, who does not invoke her aid in the most 

 necessary and noblest of all works, the cultivation of the earth. 



But to avail ourselves of the revelations of science, we must 



