IN THE UNITED STATES. 195 



of these and other sciences. We think that blame 

 may be attributed, in a greater or less degree, to most 

 of the agricultural publications and periodicals of the 

 day, in not devoting more of their pages to the discus- 

 sion and elucidation of these topics. It may, perhaps, 

 be said, that but little is yet known with certainty on 

 these subjects ; that chemical analysis, vegetable physi- 

 ology, and the developement of the laws that govern 

 the nutrition of plants and animals, are all as yet in 

 their infancy ; still, it cannot but be useful to have 

 what is known spread before the public mind, and if 

 much that is supposed to be certain should hereafter 

 prove merel]' theoretical, useful observations will be 

 prompted, and truth eventually established. Agricul- 

 ture is strictly a science, and should be considered as 

 such. The principles that govern and control matter 

 are, many of them, already understood, and no one 

 has any pretensions to the title of a thorough farmer 

 who is not able to apply such as are known to his 

 course of practice in the field. We have many men 

 who express suryirise at the well-known fact, that the 

 most skilful and successful farmers we have in this 

 country are men who have been bred to other pursuits, 

 and never had the management of a farm till they pur- 

 chased for themselves, and assumed the farmer at once. 

 We think there is nothing surprising in this result. 

 These men brought to the business of agriculture that 

 fund of knowledge they had already acquired, and 

 which^ unfettered by previous long-established modes 

 and habits, they were at liberty to apply directly to 

 their new pursuit. They had no long-cherished 

 prejudices in favor of unscientific methods of farm- 

 ing to shake olf — methods which too many farmers 

 venerate simply because they were followed by their 

 fathers — and hence they were prepared to adopt the 

 best courses, and follow the paths that scientific re- 

 search have demonstrated to lead to success. 



Another and we are inclined to think more active 



