POSITION OF AGRICULTURE. 455 



of productions and the increase in the value thereof. The pro- 

 found researches of the geologist have thus been made useful 

 and productive of great pecuniary value, fully appreciable in 

 dollars and cents, by indicating the origin and nature of soils, 

 the component materials beneath the surface, and the sources 

 from which deposits may be drawn to improve the character 

 of land and render it better adapted to the use of the farmer. 

 In this manner, also, have the great attainments of the chem- 

 ist been made to subserve the interests of the farmer, by point- 

 ing out to him the cause and manner of those operations of 

 Nature which result to his benefit or injury, and teaching him 

 by what processes to promote the former and prevent the lat- 

 ter. So, too, has the learned lore of the meteorologist brought 

 light out of darkness for the farmer, by giving him the fixed 

 laws of Nature as his guide for seedtime and harvest instead 

 of the charlatan predictions of almanacs or the wise saws of 

 village oracles. And thus has the physiologist been made the 

 willing and useful schoolmaster of the farmer, to teach him 

 " the why and the wherefore," and the proper indicatives of 

 good and of bad stock, and the sure modes of securing the one 

 and of improving the other. The botanist, too, has contribut- 

 ed the results of his observations and minute researches into 

 .the hidden mysteries of Nature, and taught him the mode of 

 the formation and growth of the plants which he rears, the ma- 

 terials which compose their structure, and the food which they 

 require for their proper development. The entomologist has 

 investigated for him the nature and habits of the insects which 

 infest his grounds and destroy his crops, and instructed him in 

 the way to render them innocuous, or to exterminate them. 

 The ornithologist has studied into the habits and means of sup- 

 port of the birds which visit his fields, and, by pointing out those 

 species that are a benefit to him and those which work him in- 

 jury, corrected many a vulgar and injurious error respecting 

 the operations of the winged inhabitants of the air, and taught 

 him how to protect his crops and preserve them from depreda- 

 tion. Not the least among the votaries of science who have 

 thus been enlisted as helpers to the farmer is the philosophical 

 mechanic, who has displaced the rude and inefficient implements 

 of agricultural labor by the admirable inventions which his pro- 



