SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE. 443 



every part of the world, are able to furnisli manufactured pro- 

 ducts at so low a price that they can array their families in a 

 glory beyond that of Solomon, though, like " the lillies of the 

 field, they toil not, neither do they spin." 



To what are all these and other improvements which adorn 

 and bless life, owing ? They are owing to the application of 

 science, in conformity with the laws of nature, to the produc- 

 tions of art. 



And is agriculture doomed to be stationary, while the other 

 arts, with exulting step, are marching in triumph towards per- 

 fection? Is agriculture, the eldest child of nature, and in 

 closest connection with her mother, having fed her sister arts, 

 to be dismissed dowerless, while they are enriched with the 

 gifts of science ? 



But if we look at this subject a little more in detail, we can 

 more distinctly see the connection there is between the science 

 of agriculture and the art of agriculture, and the dependence 

 of the latter on the former. 



Science informs us that a plant can take from the soil only 

 the constituents which are in the soil. Now what constituents 

 are in the soil in any given case science informs us, either from 

 a consideration of the rocks, by the crumbling and decompo- 

 sition of which it was originally formed, or by a chemical analy- 

 sis, or by an analytical examination of the plants or trees which 

 are spontaneously produced on it. Thus, a soil formed by the 

 crumbling of a rock of quartz, does not contain much potash, 

 because it is not in the rock. An analysis of the soil leads us to 

 the same conclusion. So does the natural growth of vegetation 

 on its surface; as for instance, that of pines, which when ana- 

 lyzed, is found to contain but little potash. The celebrated 

 Liebig informed me, that he attaches great practical impor- 

 tance to the last of these three modes. 



It likewise happens that by taking off a certain kind of crop 

 for a succession of years, the potash which naturally exists in 

 the soil becomes exhausted. Some fields in Virginia were cul- 

 tivated a hundred years, it is said, in raising tobacco and wheat. 

 In that time, it is asserted that twelve hundred pounds of pot- 

 ash, to the acre, were removed in leaves and stalks in the case 

 of tobacco, and grain and straw in the case of wheat. The 



