GEOLOGY CONNECTED WITH AGRICULTURE. 17 



diversities which even in the same farm, it may be in the same field, 

 they not unfrequently exhibit;* the nature and differences among your 

 subsoils, and the advantages you may expect from breaking them up or 

 bringing tliem to the surface. 



Geology is essentially a popular science, and the talents of its emi- 

 nent English cultivators are admirably fitted to make it still more so. 

 Hence, a certain amount of knowledge of this science has been of late 

 years very generally diffused, and its relations to agriculture are be- 

 coming every day better understood. The Highland Society of Scot- 

 land, among its many other useful exertions, has done very much to 

 connect agriculture and geology with the sphere of its own labours, 

 while the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England mani- 

 fests a similar desire on the part of that numerous and talented body, to 

 illustrate the connection of agriculture with geology and chemistry, in 

 the southern division of the island. That Dr. Buckland, Mr. Murchi- 

 son, and Mr. De la Beche have each engaged to make a gratuitous sur- 

 vey of the subsoils in several extensive agricultural districts, at the re- 

 quest of the Council of this Society,f shows that, where their services are 

 estimated, our most eminent scientific men will not hesitate to devote them 

 to the development of the most important branches of national industry. 



The time, therefore, is peculiarly favourable for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of agricultural knowledge. The growth of our population re- 

 quires it — practical men are anxious to receive instruction — scientific 

 men are eager to impart what they know, and to make new researches 

 for the purpose of clearing up what is unknown — are we not justified, 

 therefore, in anticipating hereafter a constant and general diffusion of 

 light, a steady progress of agricultural improvement ? 



Having thus glanced at the state and prospects of scientific agricul- 

 ture in general, and especially of the art of culture in England, permit 

 me to advert to a few of those questions of daily occurrence among you, 

 to which chemistry alone can give a satisfactory answer. I shall not in 

 this place allude to the subject of manures — which form alone an entire 

 chapter of most recondite chemistry, and which I shall take up in its 

 proper place, but I shall select a few isolated topics, the bearing of 

 chemical knowledge upon which is sufficiently striking. 



Some soils are naturally barren, but how few of our agriculturists are 

 able, in regard to such soils generally, to say why ; how few who pos- 

 sess the knowledge requisite for discovering the cause ! Of these bar- 

 ren lands some may be improved so as ^mply to repay the outlay ; some, 

 from their locality or from other causes, are in the present state of our 

 knowledge irreclaimable. How important to be able to distinguish be- 

 tween these two cases ! 



* I cannot refer to a plainer, more simple, or more beautiful illustration of this fact than 

 that which is presented in a short paper by Sir John Johnstone, Bart., inserted in the Jour- 

 nal of the English Agricultural Society, I. p. 271, entitled "On the Application of Geology to 

 Agriculture." See also an able paper by the Rev. Mr. Thorpe, of which a valuable report is 

 contained in the Doncaster Chronicle of December 5th, and which will be published in the 

 proceedings of the Geological and Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire. 



t Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, Report of their Council, I. p. 188. 



To form a just idea of the value and importance of such surveys, it ia only necessary to 

 read chap, xv., pp. 463 to 480, of Mr. De la Beche's " Geological Report on Cornwall and De- 

 von," or Professor Hitchcock's "Rep-rtrt on a re-examination of the Economic Geology ot 

 Massachusetts." 



