430 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



But as we are now situated, one farmer takes one method, 

 and another, another; and it is difficult to ascertain what is best, 

 what is correct. And that is one of the advantages of these 

 societies ; that they serve to collect these scattered rays, to 

 bring them together to a focus, and to make out what is the 

 best result of this experience. But, after all, we must have the 

 sciences tauglit in such a school, and we may hope to get a 

 great deal of advantage from it. For no man will deny that 

 the plants which are raised upon a farm, grow according to the 

 principles of botany and physiology, so far as those principles 

 are understood. 



Now botanists and physiologists have learned some things 

 about how plants grow, what they require for food, what is the 

 best mode for them to thrive. There is a great deal more to 

 learn, and we want these schools to find it out. The chemist, 

 too, can tell us something about the composition of the soil. 

 He tells us that often a crop fails, because there is not a half per 

 cent, of a certain ingredient. There are a great many other 

 things which may be told in future. We may hope a great 

 deal from the application of a great variety of the principles of 

 science. 



But, sir, I say that this business of raising plants, as men 

 who conduct a farm do it, is a very complicated affair, and a 

 very delicate one. I have been a lecturer on chemistry for 

 twenty years. I do not now lecture on it. I have tried a great 

 many experiments during that time. But I do not know of 

 any experiments so delicate as the farmer is trying every week. 

 I do not know any so difficult. The experiments of the lab- 

 oratory are not to be compared with them. Will not a knowl- 

 edge of the principles of chemistry help a man in his agricul- 

 tural pursuit ? Knowledge is not perfect yet. Will not such 

 an acquaintance guide him somewhat ? You have half a dozen 

 sciences which are concerned in the operations of a farm. 

 There is the science of meteorology, the condition of the at- 

 mosphere, the state of the weather, storms, sunshine, tempera- 

 ture ; all these things have to be taken into the account. 

 There is to be a delicate balancing of all these, as every farmer 

 knows. A man who would understand the delicate operations 



