18 



points out the means to remedy the defect. Chemistry can 

 authoritatirely decide upon the relative value of different articles, 

 as agents of fertility — what soils will be most benefited by 

 particular manures — as well as upon the course of treatment 

 that will probably tend to their most profitable cultivation. 



Chemistry then not only investigates the phenomena of 

 vegetable life, but points out the means to nourish and sustain it, 

 and analyzing soils into their component parts, detects any 

 element of fertiHty that may be wanting, and teaches how such 

 may be supplied. 



From this it would seem that chemistry, directing its investiga- 

 tions into the constituent elements of both soil and plants, detecting 

 the absence of any particular element that ma}^ be wanting in the 

 soil, and at the same time making known those substances that 

 most tend to produce a healthy and vigorous vegetation, should 

 furnish a perfectly reliable guide, to the best and most profitable 

 cultivation of the soil. And that this result will be in a measure 

 at least attained, if not at present, certainly under a more 

 advanced state of the science, may confidently be expected, and 

 if such has not been produced, there are causes to which present 

 failure may be attributed, without imputing such as a reproach to 

 the science. A correct chemical analysis of the soil is a delicate 

 operation, calling for great care as well as scientific attainment, 

 and is one whose accuracy should be tested by repeated experi- 

 ments, and it should also be certain, that a correct average of the 

 soil of the whole farm or field", has been submitted to the test. 

 Now it may be that in some cases, failures have arisen from an 

 incorrect or imperfect analysis, others from an insufficient 

 quantity on that which was not a correct average of the soil 

 intended to be improved, having been submitted to the operation, 

 while perhaps in all cases the very recent origin of the science, is 

 of itself sufficient to account for any want of success, that has as 

 yet attended its application to the purposes of agriculture. It 

 may be too, that where no error in the analysis has been commit- 

 ted, that the proper mode of applying the substances intended to 



