1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEH. 



419 



into the belief that when proper institutions are 

 established, they themselves, or at least their chil- 

 dren, mav in a few weeks' time do all of their own 

 anaWtieal work, just as well as the most accom- 

 pUshed chemist can do it. That such ideas as 

 S esc are totally at variance with the truth none 

 who have ever studied the subject thoroughly can 

 for a moment doubt. It is a perfectly safe con- 

 clusion, when any man asserts, for instance, the 

 entire simplicity and ease of analyzing a soil that 

 his anayses would not be of a very accurate de- 

 scription. Chemistry is a science that must be 

 studied earnestly and perseveringly, just like any 

 other branch of knowledge which has a wide 

 ranse In order to know what is in a soil, and to 

 determine what are the quantities of its constitu- 

 ents an intimate acquaintance is necessary n()t 

 only with the substances themselves in their al- 

 most endless relations and changes, but with great 

 numbers of other substances from which they 

 must be distinguished, and with which they are 

 likely to be confounded by an inexperienced per- 

 son We can determine quantities by means ot 

 certain chemical processes ; most of these depend 

 on the addition of other bodies to a solution in 

 which are dissolved those that we wish to sepa- 

 rate. Suppose now these bodies which are thus 

 added to be impure ; obviously the whole result 

 will be erroneous. The chemist then must know 

 how to distinguish with certainty between pure 

 and impure substances, and to tell what the im- 

 purities are. When he knows all of these things, 

 there are still a great number of minor but very 

 important points, that require attention. He must 

 use absolutely purer water, must filter his liquids 

 through paper that has very little ash, and must 

 wei«-h every thing upon a balance that is sensitive 

 to a" least the tenth of a grain. I might go on 

 and mention other requisites necessary to a good 

 analysis ; but those already noted are sufficient to 

 show that greater care, skill and experience are 

 absolutely essential in this business, that unm- 

 Btructed persons must constantly be making mis- 

 takes of the most flagrant description. The worst 

 difficulty ofcall is, that in many cases not having 

 even knowledge enough to know when ihey have 

 gone astray, they actually rely upon their work as 

 trustworthy, and lead others to do so too. Results 

 produced by such deficients are unhappily too com- 

 mon and are always productive of harm wherever 

 they go. The farmer who knows little or nothing 

 of even chemical names, perhaps is not competent 

 to iud<Te of a good analysis ; he cannot tell the dif- 

 ference between a pretender to scientific know- 

 ledire and one who really knows something that is 

 true and valuable. He takes these erroneous an- 

 alyses as his guide, and probably falls at once in- 

 to some serious mistake by attempting to alter the 

 supposed constitution of his soil. After he has 

 been disappointed in this way a few times, he is 

 very apt to condemn all scientific agriculture as 

 ridiculous and of no avail for any practical purpose. 

 There is truth in science, but it is not every one 

 who can draw it out, and the proper course in ca- 

 ses of an unsatisfactory nature is to distrust the 

 man and not the general principles." 



After reading language of this kind, from such 

 authority, who can doubt the truth of such state 

 ments^ And how mucli mure difficult it is to 

 have a 'J-ood analysis of soils made than most of us 

 would be willing to believe. After all, practical 



scientific farming does not depend on how many 

 analyses of soils a farmer can have made on his 

 farm, though this may be all very well in its way, 

 if they are well done. But a great deal more de- 

 pends on the practical knowledge which the think- 

 ing farmer brings into his business by testing the- 

 orfes and trying experiments of all kinds on his 

 farm. It is the every-day practical working far- 

 mer who should study and learn this science by ac- 

 tual heart and hand labor joine'ti together. 



Ao-ricultural institutes, when they are founded 

 on the right grounds, will be great helps in this 

 business, and we think a few years hence wijl see 

 them established. Still we are satisfied that it the 

 great mass of working farmers are ever made sci- 

 entific, improving farmers at all, it must be some- 

 thing after the plan we have named above. 



Yours truly, L- Durand. 



Derby, Conn., 1853. 



• For the New England Farmer. 



THE MARROW SQUASH. 



Friend Brown :— I am desirous of obtaining 

 some information of you or some of your corres- 

 pondents for removing a difficulty in the cultiva- 

 tion of the marrow squash. Some years 1 have 

 planted them and they have done well, but tor a 

 few seasons past there has been with me almost an 

 entire failure. This season I again planted them, 

 and they came up well and grew finely; then came 

 the bugs, and quite a labor I had of exterminating 

 them ; then I expected there would be nothing to 

 check their growth, and accordingly looked tor- 

 ward to a plentiful harvest. But herein I wis dis- 

 appointed ; for about the time they put forth their 

 runners they began to turn yellow, wither and 

 die. So at present, from quite a large patch, 1 

 have very few vines remaining, and am daily ex- 

 pecting the rest Avill go the same way. 



1 pulled up some of the withered vin* and ex- 

 amined the roots closely, but found them_ not in- 

 iured by worms, but changed to a yellowish, wa- 

 tery hue, which seemed the disease must originate 

 there If a remedy can be found that will obvi- 

 ate the difficulty, quite a favor will be conferred. 

 Yours truly, M. Ienny. 



South Groton, 1853. 



THE CROPS. 



Mr. Reed, Editor of the Cultivator and Gazette, 

 Pittsfield, says : — 



We spent the last week among the fields of 

 wheot, rye, barley and oats in the south part ot the 

 county. The expression often meets us, "we nev- 

 er raised so large a crop before ;" and we can tru- 

 ly say that if such crops can be produced in old 

 Berkshire, there is but little use, or certainly but 

 little neces sity for her sons to leave the homes ot 

 their fathers to seek a more productive land, ihe 

 winter grain, both wheat and rye, is very heavy. 

 Most of the rye and some of the wheat south ot 

 Stockbridge was cut during the last week, and 

 some of it put in the barn . The grass crop is not 

 as good as the grain, but it appears to us about an 

 average with a series of years, -better by far than 

 last year, not as good as in some other Fi^'-s— 

 Corn now looks well, very unusually well foi the 

 sea8.m. For fruit, the prospect appears rather 

 dark, especially for the fruit of fruits,-the apple. 



