SCIENCE AND SKILL AND JUDGMENT. 193 



powder, that it is a waste to sow upon fields bones which are 

 simply crushed into fragments, so as to be seen readily l)y the 

 eye. In 18G4, 1 sowed upon a field a bushel of bone fragments, 

 none of them larger than a pea or bean, and the past summer 

 upon turning over the field with the plough, tlicy were brought to 

 the surface entirely unchanged. Ordinary soil and atmospheric 

 influences will not disintegrate and render available, as plant 

 food, bones in the Avhole or crushed condition during the life- 

 time of any farmer, though he may live far beyond the common 

 age of man. This important truth should be understood by all 

 who desire to use bones in connection with their crops. 



In the renovation of my farm by the employment of special 

 fertilizers, I have kept a few prominent well established facts 

 and principles in view, and have never allowed myself to be 

 diverted, turned aside or confused, by any apparently conflict- 

 ing statements or alleged results on the part of others. 



A truth is a truth, a fact is a fact, no matter how difficult it 

 may sometimes be to compel all ngencies and influences to con- 

 tribute to the establishment of verities. I believe we have some 

 truths, some facts in agriculture, although the contrary view 

 ought to prevail, if the contradictory opinions and statements of 

 many of its professed friends are entitled to regard. Chemistry 

 is an exact science ; it is based on the retort, the balance and 

 mathematics ; and when its aid is called in to inform us regard- 

 ing the constitution of plant structures, its teachings are 

 infallible. 



We can no more escape from its demonstrated facts in this 

 department, than we can from a belief in those applied principles, 

 which enable us to produce, in our industrial laboratories, the 

 wonderful and complex bodies which contribute so essentially 

 to the welfare and comfort of the race. Chemistry has never 

 rendered and never will render such aid to agriculture as will 

 direct the farmer how to raise crops without the expenditure of 

 time and labor, and the exercise of a reasonable amount of skill 

 and common sense ; but it does inform him precisely regarding 

 the nature of the plant structures he is called upon to rear and 

 the food they demand, and this knowledge is of immense ser- 

 vice. Chemistry, in its practical hints and teachings to agricul- 

 turists, leaves a void which must be filled up by inferences and by 

 the exercise of the ingenuity and the judgment, and any farmer 



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