CONTRADICTORY RESULTS. 155 



in the experiments whicli are made, one here and another there, 

 because so many circumstances which are essential to test the 

 validity of an experiment are left out that we can learn nothing 

 from them. Look at the experiments which were made a few 

 years ago all through the Commonwealth, to ascertain the best 

 method of applying manure. They were a bundle of contra- 

 dictions. In one place, manure ploughed in deep gave the best 

 crop ; in another, the best result was produced by spreading the 

 manure on the surface of the land. This was iindoubtedly so, 

 and the difference in the result was owing to the difference in 

 the land or in its situation, or in the atmosphere of the place, 

 which vitiated the experiment, and rendered a comparison use- 

 less. I think we may find here an explanation of what seems 

 to us so marvellous in the experiments detailed by Pr»f. Chad- 

 bourne. 



The speaker is right in the statement that the decomposition 

 of the earth is still going on. It has been going on for ages, 

 not merely by the agency of air and water, but a great grinding 

 machine of ice has passed over our rocks, it has ground them 

 down, and the water has rolled over them and scattered and 

 mixed the soil thus ground to pieces, and thus given us the ele- 

 ments of vegetation. We know that this process has been going 

 on ; we know that the ice has passed over our hills, for it has 

 left its footprints plainly engraven upon our rocks, and there 

 they are visible to-day, to any person who will look for them. 



Sir, when we take principles, and make those principles 

 familiar to all, we can apply them and carry them out. I have 

 alluded to the unsatisfactory character of experiments, where a 

 piece of land, apparently of the same character, divided into a 

 number of lots, gave results entirely dissimilar. What is the 

 reason ? Undoubtedly, this great current of water which has 

 mixed up the soil, has deposited in one place a little more lime, 

 and in another place a little more potash. There is a difference 

 in the soil, so minute, it may be, that no chemist could distin- 

 guish it. There is a reason for all these contradictory results ; 

 the difficulty is, our analyses are not sufficiently minute to show 

 us these reasons ; but if we will take the facts and principles 

 that lie at the root of this whole matter, we shall be able to un- 

 derstand and appreciate the results. 



Mr. Hubbard, of Brimfield. I have listened with a great 



