6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



am not about to declaim at all against its follies, nor utter 

 loud warning against its excesses ; for that which is true shall 

 alone endure, and that which it builds of stubble will surely 

 come to naught. That the verities of science are a benefit to 

 humanity, one must be weak, indeed, to deny; and of these, 

 no oue is better prepared to see the value in practice, than the 

 tiller of the ground. For if it be the province of a true science 

 to investigate and expound the laws of nature, surely the man 

 who, of all, stands most near to her side, will be the best 

 customer in that mart. He talks with botanists, for he needs 

 to know more and more of the structure and style of vegeta- 

 tion. He consorts with geologists, for the' rocks are the 

 original of soils, and to know something of the material is to 

 command a surer result. He can welcome the chemist at all 

 times, for what part of his calling does not need his lessons ? 

 — and whoever can teach him of climate and the atmosphere, 

 is a friend in need, whether for drought or storm. 



We may say that some special lines of study fit better some 

 other pursuit than this. The mariner has greater need of 

 astronomy and the mathematics than the farmer ; nor will the 

 latter be urgent after the finer engineering, nor, perhaps, the 

 profounder optical and electrical studies. But for science in 

 general, and, especially, all that treats of organic and living 

 existences, he is the man of strongest and most abiding 

 appetite. 



Let me be understood. Much has been said of " book- 

 farming," and, if I mistake not as to its present popularity, 

 the nays have it by a plain majority. Yet this term, applied 

 as it usually is to a merely theoretical agriculture, has no 

 connection with science as I speak of it. For agriculture, of 

 all the arts in the world, is, and ever must be, thoroughly 

 empirical. No rules for it can be stated beforehand that shall 

 be general ; no methods contrived that will work well always. 

 The cultivator must experiment and try ; compare and study 

 results, and try again. He will not long believe with Liebig, 

 that the ashes of a plant contain all things needed for its 

 growth ; nor with later chemists, that the analysis of a handful 

 of soil would give a certain indication of the composition of 

 the whole field. He sees, with the plain eye of common- 

 sense, that, in such a pursuit, an infinity of causes must be 



