CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES. 55 



strength. These are some of the points whicli I intend to dis- 

 cuss to-night, to show the utter unreliableness of three-quarters 

 of the experiments that are made, because we do not know the 

 strength of the vinegar. 



Mr. Goodman. I want to say a few words in behalf of my 

 friend Mr. Salt, who, I think, has been badly treated by my 

 friend Col. Wilder and other distinguished gentlemen here. In 

 the first place you must recollect that these gentlemen who are 

 advocating ashes against salt, (and I have not a word to say 

 against my friend Mr. Ashes) come from the seaboard, which 

 has naturally an atmosphere saturated with salt, and that salt is 

 not so efficacious there as elsewhere ; but I apprehend that no 

 one can deny the great uses of salt in connection with agricul- 

 ture, any more than he can deny the relation of the atmos- 

 phere to the ocean. It may be a matter of inquiry how far 

 those countries which are notorious for their verdancy and 

 greenness, for the richness of their pastures and the quality of 

 their grass, for instance, Ireland and England, are influenced 

 by the saline particles which emanate from the ocean, as it 

 courses by these islands and modifies their atmosphere. There- 

 fore, when you undertake to say that salt has no influences 

 upon certain soils, you must not charge it entirely upon salt, 

 until you analyze that soil, and analyze otlier soils, and see 

 whether there is not a difference in the effect. 



Now, in relation to all these inorganic manures, there is no 

 doubt that it can be laid down as a prime principle, that they 

 are all beneficial, because the soil is made up primarily of in- 

 organic matter. We know that our soil is composed of the 

 rocks that have been ground to pieces by the process of abrasion 

 that has been going on for ages. Therefore, these inorganic 

 matters, when exhausted from the soil, can be practically re- 

 placed. On the other hand, we can go through the process of 

 burning the plant, and undertake to make from the ashes a per- 

 fect manure, so that the plant will grow as strongly and in the 

 same condition as in the natural state. It is just as impossible 

 as it is for those French chemists to succeed, who have under- 

 taken to introduce life by a mechanical process, instead of the 

 old natural way. I apprehend that life can be introduced in 

 only one way, and neither French nor any other philosophers 

 can bring life into the world by mechanical or chemical means. 



