12 How THE FARM PAYS. 



" There is awful humbug about many parts of the so-called Science 

 of Agriculture. The ' Agricultural Chemist ' analyzes the soil and 

 finds that it contains, or does not contain, certain elements which 

 must be withheld, or put in, in fertilizing. He analyzes cabbage, 

 corn, potatoes, wheat, turnips, oranges, lettuce, strawberries, roses 

 and a score of other genera of plants, and makes a special formula of 

 a fertilizer for each. Every intelligent, practical farmer, with ten 

 years' experience, knows that this is utter nonsense; and yet, in not a 

 few of our agricultural colleges, these special fertilizers, for special 

 purposes, are religiously adopted. If, in the schools for instruction 

 in agriculture, the lessons were given in the field, instead of, as now, 

 in the college, we might then look for different results. 



" "When a boy, I was a pupil in a country school in Scotland. It was 

 the time when Captain Berkley, and other sprigs of the English aris- 

 tocracy, made the science of pugilism fashionable, and many of the 

 sons of the better class of British yeomen took lessons in the 

 * science.' One of thess, one day, landed at Edinburgh as a pupil at 

 our country school. He was an aggressive fellow and a great blower, 

 and in a few days he succeeded in making most of us stand in fear 

 and awe of his wonderful ' science.' But one day another new boy 

 came, a blacksmith's son, who had occasionally taken a hand with the 

 sledge-hammer, a quiet, retiring lad, whom the bully thought a good 

 subject to force a quarrel upon. It was accepted quicker than he 

 anticipated. In a few minutes the young blacksmith had given him 

 a thorough thrashing. He blubbered and admitted he was whipped, 

 but said the fight had not been a fair one, for ' that boy had not fought 

 according to science' Maybe he had not, but he came out victor, 

 nevertheless. It is true that the graduates of West Point proved some 

 of the best generals during the late war, but it must not be forgotten 

 that the training there is but the rehearsing of actual war, except the 

 bloodshed practical work, all of it call it science, if you please. 

 ' The tree is known by its fruits,' and if ever the day comes that the 

 graduates of our agricultural colleges become the leaders the gen- 

 erals in agriculture and horticulture then the advocates of these in- 

 stitutions will be justified in glorifying themselves; but while the rep- 

 resentative farmers come (as they almost exclusively now do) from the 

 ranks of the hard-handed workers in old mother earth, the agricul- 

 tural community will look with doubtful approval on the agricultural 

 colleges, as now conducted, as a means of instruction." 



Q. From your business as a breeder of fancy stock, Mr. Crozier, 

 you must have had many opportunities of judging whether the hun- 

 dreds of gentlemen farmers, as they are called, make their ventures 

 pay in money in the long run? 



