HINDRANCES AND HELPS 



thereupon, they mount a promising one as a 

 hobby, and go riding to the wall. Chemistry 

 is an exact science, and Agriculture is an ex- 

 perimental art, and always will be, until rains 

 stop, and bread grows full-baked. A chemical 

 truth is a truth for all the world and the ages 

 to come; and if you can use it in the making 

 of shoe-blacking, or to dye your whiskers, — 

 do so ; but don't for that reason call it Whisker- 

 chemistry. 



It is a chemical truth that an alkali will neu- 

 tralize an acid if you furnish enough of it ; and 

 if, with that truth festering in your brain, you 

 can contrive to neutralize your entire fund of 

 oxalic acid, so that no sorrel shall thenceforth 

 grow,— pray do so. But I do not think you 

 can ; and first, because the soil— to which quar- 

 ter you would very naturally direct your alka- 

 line attack — may be utterly free of any oxalic 

 acid whatever; its presence in the plant, is no 

 evidence of its presence in the soil. Pears 

 have a modicum of pectic acid at a certain 

 stage of their ripeness, but I suspect it would 

 puzzle a sharp chemist to detect any in the 

 soil of a pear-orchard. And even if the acid 

 were a mineral acid, and were neutralized — it 

 must be remembered — that to neutralize, is 

 only to establish change of condition, and not 



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