634 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



thousand hills themselves, for over five thousand years ; but 

 are now unable to tell how many pounds of hay go to a pound 

 of beef. And in this assemblage we could not agree with 

 unanimity upon such questions as these ; — whether is it better^ 

 to plant large potatoes or small ? — to top corn or to cut it up 

 at the but? — to strip off suckers or not? — to cut gi-ass in the 

 flower or in the seed ? 



These are plain questions, which one would suppose might 

 be answered by a thirteen-year old boy of ordinary observa- 

 tion ; but five thousand years of feeding and killing and cutting 

 up ; and of planting and reaping and gathering into garners, 

 have not enabled the farmer to decide these and other mooted 

 points. Is it, then, an exaction on the part of science, to de- 

 mand " a clear field and no favor " for ten or twenty years at 

 least ? Is it unreasonable ? 



Scientific agriculture is common sense and system applied 

 to the cultivation of the soil. It would be interesting, in this 

 connection, to inquire what foot-hold scientific agriculture has 

 in your county of Norfolk. 



How many farms, gentlemen, within the reach of your ob- 

 servation, are scientifically cultivated ? On how many is the 

 depth of the ploughing guaged by the depth of the soil, the 

 character of the subsoil, and a wise intention to render the 

 fertile loam deeper year after year, inch by inch? How many 

 farmers of your acquaintance, who enter on a farm with a soil 

 three inches deep, undertake, as they well and easily might, to 

 render it in ten years, twelve inches deep ? I would tell you 

 here, that the experiments of thousands of farmers have proved 

 that, by thrusting the point of your plough one inch, or three- 

 quarters of an inch deeper at each ploughing and bringing to 

 .the surface so much subsoil, to be operated on by the atmo- 

 sphere and to be benefited by the manure, year after year, you 

 will to this extent increase your active fertile soil, and gradual- 

 ly create another farm, as it were, under your old one. But 

 this would be scientific farming ; and our American farmer 

 who fears no foe, shies at the sound of the word science.* 



On how many farms in this State, or in any State, is the 

 manure applied with sufficient knowledge of the component 

 parts, and consequently of the wants of the soil ? On how 

 many is the manure itself prepared and preserved, so that it 



