110 SCIENCE OF AGHICULTURE. 



apply it, will, we trust, be favorably received by the 

 readers of these Transactions. AVithout study, no 

 man has attained so much knowledge of arithmetic, 

 as the every-day business of life requires. By as 

 much study as is required to gain so much knowledge 

 of arithmetic, a like competent knowledge of what is 

 known of the science of agriculture may be attained. 

 The elements of the science of agriculture are to be 

 sought in treatises on Geology, Mineralogy, Chemis- 

 try, Vegetable Physiology, and Galvanic Electricity. 

 Many, for whose information I write, are presum- 

 ed to know nothing of these sciences. Hence it 

 becomes necessary to dwell a little on elementary 

 principles, and endeavor to explain everything as we 

 proceed. 



Matter. 



Matter exists in three forms, viz: as solids, fluids, 

 and gases, or airs. The particles of matter are sup- 

 posed to be minute solid balls, that attract each other, 

 although surrounded by what chemists call caloric, 

 or the cause of heat, which keeps them at a greater 

 or less distance from each other, without adding to 

 or diminishing their w^eight. In solids these parti- 

 cles are surrounded by so little caloric that power of 

 attraction is so great as to prevent their being easily 

 moved over each other; hence their fixed solid form. 

 Add to this quantity of caloric by heating these sol- 

 ids until the particles are thereby farther separated 

 from each other, and their attraction for each other 

 lessened in the same proportion, until they assume 

 the form of fluids, and roll freely over one another. 

 Increase the caloric still more and they become gas- 

 es, or airs perfectly transparent and of course invisi- 

 ble, as the particles of matter are too small to be seen 

 by any aids to vision which we possess, and they are 

 now^ so far separated from each other that light fi-eely 

 passes between them. But these particles remain 

 unchanged, and by reducing the caloric, return to 

 the same form and assume the same qualities as be- 



