The Scientific Agricullurc of the Period. 295 



or discovery unless effected under liis very eyes. Such cir- 

 cumstances induced liim to publish in book form, as Weston 

 had done before him, a concise view of all those objects that 

 ought to demand the farmer's attention. Under three general 

 heads he reduced the requirements of the agricultural world 

 as follows : — 



{a) " The knowledge of the different properties of all the 

 plants that can be raised by the farmer, the different uses to 

 which these can be in any case applied, and the most econo- 

 mical method of consuming or otherwise disposing of them. 



(6) " The knowledge of the nature and distinguishing quali- 

 ties of the different animals that may be kept for carrying on 

 the various operations of agriculture, and of those that are 

 reared for the purpose of consuming these plants ; and the 

 proper method of treating the varieties of these, so as to make 

 any one kind of food on all occasions produce the greatest 

 possible effect. 



(c) " The knowledge of soils, the way of manuring and 

 cultivating them so as best to fit them for rearing such valu- 

 able plants as it may be most beneficial for the farmer to 

 rear." 



No agricultural author could have placed his Avants in a 

 more concise form. Here in a nutshell were contained the 

 requirements of the entire farming world. After thus publicly 

 advertising for scientific assistance, the next step rested with 

 the chemist. Swift's sentiment, " that whoever could make 

 two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot 

 of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of 

 mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the 

 Avhole race of politicians put together," was known, quoted 

 and applauded. 



Another writer of this period was calling on the physician 

 to use the leisure spared from raising wholesome food for the 

 preservation of health, and from cultivating herbs necessary 

 to cure disease, in improving manures and adapting plants to 

 proper soils. " For," he adds, " though a dunghill cannot just 

 be weighed out in scruples and grains, and a plough cannot 

 be yoked in an earth pot, yet experiments with these, though 



