1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 71 



theories, as unsettled as they are confident, advanced respect- 

 ing the peculiar nature and composition of soils, and the effects 

 of manures. 



How much science has done is wonderful ; how little she 

 has done, or rather how much remains to be accomplished, is 

 still more wonderful ; it is overwhelming. Mechanical chem- 

 istry has made great progress ; and in all mechanical opera- 

 tions and many of the arts, an immense amount of power 

 has been gained, which is constantly applied to useful purposes. 

 In what may properly be termed vital chemistry, she has ad- 

 vanced no farther than to discover the circulation of the blood, 

 and the ascent and descent of the sap. In respect to all 

 organic matter she is impotent. What demonstrates her igno- 

 rance is, that, while she assumes to be able to resolve every 

 thing into its original elements, she cannot put together what 

 she takes apart. She reduces every thing to a few simple 

 principles ; and yet the composition of things is variously diver- 

 sified, where the original elements exist in almost the same 

 proportions. She can analyze the blood and the flesh ; she can 

 tell the constituents of bones and of leaves. But she cannot 

 make a drop of blood nor an atom of flesh ; nor a bone nor a 

 bud ; nor at her pleasure throw the coloring into a single leaf. 

 These things are not said to undervalue or discourage the 

 eff'orts of science, but in order to direct the attention of far- 

 mers to facts in cultivation and vegetation, which their own 

 observation and experience must supply. The capacity of soils 

 for the production of particular crops can be certainly deter- 

 mined only by experiment. The farmer should be often mak- 

 ing these experiments, assured that the instructions which he 

 gathers from them will be his safest guides. Agricultural 

 chemistry may detect mineral ingredients in soils, which are 

 poisonous to some plants ; but there are facts which confound 

 all her pretensions and assumptions, for she sees different plants 

 extracting from the same soils opposite and entirely different 

 properties, so that on the same spot and their roots interming- 

 ling, shall spring plants which are full of nourishment, and 



