718 



FARMERS* REGISTER. 



[No. 13 



annual produce was doubled. — From Lalande's 

 Life of Lavoisier. 



Thus far the pretentions of the chemist are 

 made out; his objects are defined, and it must be 

 admitted that with the exception of one or two 

 points, which, not to be hypercritical, we may 

 safely pass by, science has laid no claim that she 

 cannot establish. Chemists can analyze soils, can 

 determine the quality and quantity of their com- 

 ponent parts, can detect acids if such exist, and 

 point out antagonist principles by which they may 

 be rendered neutral, and, to a certain extent, in- 

 noxious: thus far, then, the chemist and his sci- 

 ence must be useful to the agriculturist; nothing 

 but the most dense prejudice can oppose this ad- 

 mission; and were every farmer to become an 

 analytic, chemist, to the extent above referred to, 

 and be able to delect the components of his soils 

 and manures, his mind would be enlarged, his 

 sources of rational pleasure and amusements in- 

 creased, and his practice removed further from 

 that of the empiric, in proportion as it became 

 based upon philosophic truth. 



In a former paper (No. xxxiv., p. 537,) I have 

 endeavored to elucidate the science and operations 

 of analysis: I now find a powerful coadjutor in 

 Mr. Rurfin; and am satisfied that, his remarks 

 and observations under that head of his essay, en- 

 titled "Results of the chemical examination of va- 

 rious soils,'''' and the processes therein described, 

 are some of the most luminous which I have ever 

 met with. The perspicuity of his description 

 clearly demonstrates that he was familiar with his 

 subject, and the young agricultural chemist may 

 safely follow his steps, and rely upon the general 

 accuracy of his deductions. 



Having thus upheld the cause of chemistry I 

 must advert to those points wherein I consider it 

 has less claim to confidence; and these may be 

 shortly exhibited, so as not to burden the subject 

 unnecessarily. 



The operations of chemistry have a legitimate 

 object when they are performed upon what is con- 

 sidered dead or inert matter; thus, there is no ma- 

 terial substance throughout the range of created 

 things, which, provided it be not endowed with 

 the vital principle, may not justly be submitted to 

 the test of chemical agents. It is now admitted 

 by our best philosophers, that chemical action is 

 entirely dependent upon, and identical with, elec- 

 trical energy; that, in fact, the combination of all 

 substances, and their decomposition, are main- 

 tained and effected by electrical affinities. As 

 electricity is the most influential of the great natu- 

 ral agents; being an immediate emanation (I use 

 this word for want of a better term,) from the 

 source of light, the sun, whose rays have been 

 poured upon the world from the commencement 

 of time; and as chemical action is but a manifesta- 

 tion of electric energy, it follows, that every indi- 

 vidual thing which can be dissolved, decomposed, 

 or in any way disturbed, so as to cause a change 

 in the arrangement of its constituents, is imbued 

 with with the essence of light. Chemistry, there- 

 fore — to say the least of it — is one of the grandest 

 and most comprehensive sciences which the hu- 

 man mind can employ in its researches after 

 truth. 



But the vital principle, though it may be, and 

 probably is, connected with electrical action, is not. 

 a legitimate subject of chemical experiment; and 



those chemists have erred who have attempted to 

 discover its nature by chemical agency. That 

 which destroys life, or interferes with the vital 

 functions, can neither tend to elucidate the nature 

 of the one, nor discover the causes of the other. 

 The principle of life, whether it be that of animals 

 or of vegetables, appears to be directly antagonist 

 to chemical energy; no one, therefore, can be jus- 

 tified in attempting to interpret any of the phe- 

 nomena of vegetable life, by the application of 

 chemical principles. Chemists, then, it appears to 

 me, have weakened their own cause by endeavor- 

 ing to prove too much: we know nothing of life, 

 we consequently cannot interpret its phenomena, 

 or refer them to those agencies which are called 

 into action by its extinction. 



Scientific men have also laid themselves open 

 to reproolj or even reproach, by their speculative 

 reasonings upon the practical operations of" the 

 farmer. In the laboratory the chemist moves in 

 his own appropriate sphere; there he can, and 

 ought to, investigate the substances which nature 

 has rendered the matrix of her vegetable produc- 

 tions; and thence, he may diffuse, in every direc- 

 tion, a knowledge of the facts which his genius 

 and experimental acumen have enabled him to 

 elicit; but he has no right to criticise the practice 

 of the agriculturist in respect to the management 

 of his crops. Abstract reasoning, from deduc- 

 tions drawn from the most refined experiments 

 upon dead matter, can never authorize any inter- 

 ference with the well-grounded practice of the cul- 

 tivator — of an organized being endowed with the 

 mysterious principle of life. Even in that modern 

 and comprehensive doctrine of the radical exuda- 

 tion by plants, which bears directly upon the rota- 

 tion of crops, and interprets its philosophy, the 

 experiments which have detected exuded matters 

 by the test of re-agents, ought to be regarded 

 with suspicious caution, inasmuch as they have, 

 one and all, been performed upon plants placed in 

 unnatural situations, and acted upon by some me- 

 dium altogether different from that of the soil, in 

 which alone they could flourish, and perfectly de- 

 velope their foliage and fruit. 



It is the duty of the chemist to lay down clear 

 and definite rules, by which soils and manures 

 may be correctly analysed; and if, with an inti- 

 mate knowledge of practical and theoretic science, 

 he can combine a knowledge also of farming, at- 

 tained by actual experience — as was in fact ex- 

 emplified in the person by the renowned Lavoisier, 

 and now by the writings of Mr. Ruffin — he is pre- 

 eminently qualified to instruct, and to recommend 

 his principles by the force of example. But in or- 

 dinary cases, men of the highest attainments in 

 experimental science cannot command time, or 

 the means, to become extensive cultivators: hence 

 it would always be wise to point out those facts 

 which cannot be controverted, and to let the prac- 

 tical man avail himself of the aids thus furnished^ 

 in any way which his good sense may direct. If 

 the farmer be so unconcerned or prejudiced, as to 

 overlook or reject those important instruments of 

 research which are offered to his notice, the blame 

 must rest with himself. Farming is, at the pre- 

 sent moment, in a state that demands all the re- 

 sources which science can furnish. The prices of 

 every product of the farm are reduced to a very 

 alarming extent: but the reduction, though great, 

 bears no comparison with that of almost all the 



