L. V. BELL'S ADDRESS. 595 



application of science to agriculture, which I have found scat- 

 tered through foreign and our own journals and reports. Cer- 

 tain experiments were directed by the Prussian government to 

 determine how far certain lands were reclaimable by the use 

 of the sewerage of Berlin and Dresden. The territory was of 

 given and uniform sterility, and the experiments were carried 

 through a series of years with the following results : — A crop, 

 which in the natural soil, produced, without manure, three to 

 one from the seed sown, yielded seven to one v^^ith cow ma- 

 nure, ten to one with horse dung, and fourteen to one with the 

 city sewerage. Chemical analysis demonstrated that the want- 

 ing elements had precisely this ratio to the fertilizers employed. 



I am now ready to be met with the question, " Admit all 

 that modern science claims as to the relations of agriculture, 

 how can it benefit us ? Would you advise us to purchase 

 guano, or crushed bones, or make shipments from Mr. Alger's 

 phosphate of lime ledge in New Jersey ?" My reply would be 

 simply this, " I advise nothing." It would be presumption and 

 folly for any man, in the present state of science and agricul- 

 ture, to go into large experiments, or to arrange his affairs in 

 conformity to what seems an entire prospective revolution in 

 his art. All that I think any one could feel warranted in say- 

 ing to the practical farmer, whose livelihood depends oii the 

 results of his avocation, would be this : — The greatest develop- 

 ments are now in progress in your business, that, perhaps, the 

 world has ever witnessed in any of the leading pursuits of 

 men. It is not extravagant to predict that the changes in the 

 manufacturing arts, or the arts of locomotion and the like, 

 which have burst upon us with such extraordinary suddenness, 

 had no precursors more indicative of great things, than the 

 last fifteen years have shown in your avocation. Watch and 

 be ready for the adoption and taking advantage of the gift, 

 when it is ready to be distributed. The farmers of the old 

 world have akeady began to reap the blessed fruits of increased 

 crops and easily repaired exhaustion. You now stand in a 

 somewhat different position, but not one in which the prospect 

 is dark or discouraging. 



In a prospective look into the effects to result from the ap- 

 plication of special manures, there are many circumstances in 



