OF AGRICULTURE. 3 



observation, and give a direction to the reflections, of 

 those who hear me, and to enable, and it may be to 

 stimulate them, to study further for themselves, as 

 problems requiring it may come before them. 



What then is Agriculture — the scientific principles 

 of which we have to investigate 1 Discarding the 

 mere etymological meaning of the term, and giving it 

 the 'wider signification accorded to it by long usage, it 

 is the art by which animal as well as vegetable pro- 

 ducts are obtained from the land. 



Natural vegetation, as in the case of prairie-lands, 

 for example, does indeed contribute food to the lower 

 animals, and through them food and other products 

 for the use of man ; but the result is attained with 

 little of his aid which can come under the definition 

 of Agriculture. 



But the practices by which vegetable and animal 

 products are obtained from the land in settled coun- 

 tries differ essentially from those above alluded to, 

 and it is these to which our attention must mainly be 

 directed. Such Agriculture implies the growth of 

 other plants than would be obtained under conditions 

 of natural vegetation, and the growth of more pro- 

 duce over a given area than would be so obtained. 

 It implies, in fact, what may be called concentrated 

 production. 



Agriculture, the oldest of the arts, was in methods 

 at first purely mechanical ; though, as we now know, 

 the results to be attained were largely chemical. 

 When manure was first applied to the soil, that is 

 when the refuse of previous crops, or the excrements 

 of animals, were first returned to the land as a means 

 of increasing the growth of succeeding crops, directly 

 chemical means — the supply of material — were first 

 adopted. 



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