42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the eye of the chemist, becomes something more than a mere 

 inert mass, about which the conjectures of practical farmers 

 constitute the whole fund of information. The fermenting heap 

 of manure which the experienced eye surveys with satisfaction, 

 and the experienced hand manipulates at just the proper 

 moment, has been subjected to scientific investigations, which 

 would explore the liidden treasures of mountains of minerals, 

 and is a topic upon which the most intricate and elaborate dis- 

 quisitions may be written. The uses of all artificial manures 

 have been presented by the scientific for the experiment of the 

 practical farmer. And the ingenuity of man is exhausting 

 itself in its endeavors to bring the labor of the farm within the 

 grasp of accurately constructed machinery. In this way, farm- 

 ing has become a lesson which the most careful student can 

 hardly master, and for the thorough comprehension of which 

 the doors of schools and colleges are now thrown open. It is 

 under the effect of this new light that the farm l>ecomes so 

 much a matter of renewed interest. And when we find 

 included in one grand whole, the best selection «nd manage- 

 ment of lands, the best mode of stocking, the best construction 

 of buildings, the best use of manures, the best collection of 

 machinery, the best methods of tillage, the most careful and 

 successful application of the most approved forces to the work 

 of a farm, the best exercise of modern intelligence and culture 

 in this work, we have before us an example worthyof imita- 

 tion, and a chapter on farming which we cannot study with too 

 much care. It is especially important that the agricultural 

 societies should use every exertion to collect and diffuse this 

 information. Premiums on farms, premiums on the best man- 

 aged manure heap, the economy of its construction, and the 

 greatest amount made with a given number of animals ; pre- 

 miums on the best collection of agricultural implements actually 

 used one season on a farm; premiums on the most systematic, 

 intelligible and accurate statement of the business of a farm, 

 should be offered, and farmers should be encouraged to 

 compete for them. 



I am aware that some of the information gained in this way 

 may be somewhat crude and inaccurate. But the true value of 

 such information cannot long remain concealed, and it serves 

 as a proof by contrast, much more often than as a means of 



