1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



453 



fidently adopting them as the basis of his reason- 

 ings. A new race, however, of more careful ob- 

 servers, and more accurate experimenters, is now 

 springing up. By their aid, the advance of sound 

 agricultural knowledge cannot fail to be greatly 

 promoted. 



3. To suggest improved, and, perhaps, previ- 

 ously unthought-of methods of fertihzing the soil. 

 — A true explanation of twenty known facts or 

 results, or useful practices, should suggest nearly 

 as many more. Thus the explanation of old errors 

 will not only guard the practical man from falling 

 into new ones, but will suggest direct improve- 

 ments he would not otherwise have thought of. 

 So, also, the true explanation of one useful prac- 

 tice will point out other new practices, which may 

 safely and with advantage be adopted. 



4. To analyze soils, manures, and vegetable 

 products. — This is a most laborious department of 

 the duties which agriculture expects cnemistry to 

 undertake in her behalf. 



a. Soils. — The kind and amount of benefit to be 

 derived from the analyses of soils, are becoming 

 every day more apparent. We cannot, indeed, 

 from the results of an analysis, prescribe in every 

 case the kind of treatment by which a soil may at 

 once be rendered most productive. In many cases, 

 however, certain wants of the soil are directly 

 pointed out by analysis ; in many others, modes 

 of treatment are suggested, by which a greater 

 fertility is likely to be produced, — and, as our 

 knowledge of the subject extends, we may hope 

 to obtain, in every case, some useful directions for 

 the improvement or more profitable culture of the 

 land. 



h. Manures. — Of the manures we employ, too 

 much cannot be known. An accurate knowledge 

 of these will guard the practical man against an 

 improvident waste of any of those natural manures 

 which are produced upon his farm — thus lessening 

 the necessity for foreign manures, by introducing 

 a greater economy of those he already possesses. 

 It will also protect him from the ignorance or 

 knavery of the manure manufacturer. The estab 

 lishment of such manufactories, conducted by skil- 

 ful and honorable men, is one of the most impor- 

 tant practical results to which the progress of 

 scientific agriculture is likely to lead. And if it 

 cannot prevent unccrupulous adulterators from en 

 gaging in this new traffic, chemistry can at least 

 detect and expose their frauds. 



c. Vegetable Products. — In regard, again, to 

 the products of the soil, few things are now more 

 necessary than a "rigorous analysis of all their 

 parts. If we know what a plant contains, we 

 know what elementary bodies it takes from the 

 soils, and, consequently, what the soil must con 

 ■ tain, if the plant is to grow upon it in a healthy 

 manner, — that is, we shall know,^o a certain ex 

 tent, how to manure it. 



On the other hand, in applying vegetable sub- 

 stances to the feeding of "stock, it is of equal 

 importance to know what they severally contain, 

 in order tliat a skilful selection may be made of 

 such kinds of food as may best suit the purposes 

 we intend them to serve. 



5. To explain how plants grow and are nour- 

 ished, and how animals are supported and most 

 cheaply fed. — What food plants require, and at 

 diflerent periods of their growth, whence they ob- 

 tain it, how they take it in, and in what form^of 



chemical combination 1 Also, what kind and 

 quantity of food the animal requires, what purpose 

 difierent kinds of food serve in the animal economy, 

 and how a given quantity of any variety of food 

 may be turned to the best account? What ques- 

 tions ought more to interest the practical farmer 

 than these \ 



Then there are certain peculiarities of soil, both 

 physical and chemical, which are best fitted to 

 promote the growth of each of our most valuable 

 crops. There are also certain ways of cultivating 

 and manuring, and certain kinds of manure which 

 are specially favorable to each, and these again 

 vary with every important modification of climate. 

 Thus chemical physiology has much both to learn 

 and to teach in regard to the raising of crops. 



So, diiferent kinds and breeds of domestic ani- 

 mals thrive best upon different kinds of food, or 

 require diiferent proportions of each , or to have it 

 prepared in different ways, or given at different 

 times. Among animals of the same species, also, 

 the growing, the full-grown, the fattening, and 

 the milking animal, respectively require a peculiar 

 adjustment of food in kind, quantity, or form. All 

 such adjustments the researches of chemistry and 

 physiology alone enable us accurately to make. 



G. To test the opinions of theoretical men. — 

 Erroneous opinions lead to grave errors in practice. 

 Such incorrect opinions are not KB frequently en- 

 tertained and promulgated even by eminent scien- 

 tific men. They are in this case most dangerous 

 and most difficult to overturn ; so that against 

 these unfounded theories the farmer requires pro- 

 tection, no less than against the quackery of man- 

 ufactured manures. It is only on the basis of 

 often repeated, skilfully conducted, and faithfully 

 recorded experiments, made by instructed persons, 

 that true theories can ever successfully be built up. 

 Hence the importance of experiments in practical 

 agriculture. 



Such are the principal objects which chemistry, 

 aided by geology and physiology, either promises 

 or hopes to attain. In no district, however, will 

 the benefits she is capable of conferring upon agri- 

 culture be fully realized, unless her aid be really 

 sought for, her ability rightly estimated, and her 

 interference earnestly requested. In other words, 

 what we already know, as well as what we are 

 every day learning, must be adequately difiused 

 among the agricultural body, and in every district 

 means must be adopted for promoting this diffii- 

 sion. It is in vain for chemistry and the other 

 sciences to discover or suggest, unless her discov- 

 eries and suggestions be fully made known to 

 those whose benefit they are most likely to pro- 

 mote." 



DESTROY THE APPLE WORM. 



The present season will be a good time, to di- 

 minish the numbers of the apple worm. 



As there will not be so many apples as usual, of 

 course, there cannot be so many of these insects 

 propagated, and an opportunity thus offers to thin 

 ofi"the numbers of the remainder, so that the ap- 

 ples which may grow another year, will not be so 

 much infested with them. 



There are several ways by which this may be 

 done. One way, is to let hogs or sheep run into 

 the orchard, which will be likely to eat the ap 

 pies which these worms cause to fall and thus de- 

 stroy them. Another mode is to gather up the 



