CULTURE AND SOCIAL POSITION. 47 



agriculture calls into exercise solely or mainly the muscles and 

 will. It is mind that governs matter, and no art demands for 

 its perfect development so wide a range of science as the art of 

 tilling the soil. This is not merely my assertion. It is backed 

 up by the highest juflicial authority of the State, for Chief 

 Justice Bigelow says : " In order to be a good farmer a man 

 must possess the best natural ability, and should have more 

 information on a greater variety of subjects than a person in 

 any other profession." If I remember rightly, I learned the 

 art of navigation in one short college term, and thought I 

 understood the theory as well as Captain Cook, or any other 

 navigator who had sailed around the world, but agriculture 

 has been my favorite study for years, and I still feel that I am 

 a mere novice. The chemical laboratory of nature is a perfect 

 mystery to me. The growth of a blade of grass is a miracle. 

 How does it derive from the dead soil its wonderful life ? 

 Whence comes its perfect mechanical structure, its delicate 

 coloring, exquisite perfume ? How do the roots and leaves of 

 barley and wheat imbibe from tlie same soil and air different 

 properties, and produce such different grains ? How does the 

 tree convert the vile, decayed matter in the soil, into the 

 fragrant, delicious, health-giving peach ? These are processes 

 beyond the ken of the chemist. Science has labored for years 

 on the more practical questions. What does each crop take 

 from the soil ? What are the most economical means of restor- 

 ing to the soil the elements which each crop must take away ? 

 And how can an original deficiency for the production o.f any 

 specific crop be most easily remedied ? Much progress has 

 been made in elucidating these points. Liebig in Germany, 

 Johnston in England, and Johnson in our own country, have 

 devoted the energies of their lives to the development of the 

 theory of agriculture, and their works are worthy of most 

 careful study. Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry should be a 

 text-book in every farmer's family. It is full of instruction on 

 every point connected with our noble occupation, and I cannot 

 too highly commend it for your perusal. None are so poor 

 that they cannot afford three books in their library, and the 

 first of course should be the Bible, the second Webster's 

 Unabridged, and the third Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry. 

 The library will not be complete without a fourth volume, and 



