ADDRESS. 37 



Again, of the application of lime, the preconceptions of 

 chemical theory would seem to promise that it belongs only 

 to non-calcareous soils ; yet does not experience show 

 instances where a calcareous soil has been specially fer- 

 tilized by carbonate of lime 1 And if so, what are the con- 

 ditions that generate the anomalous result '? 



Again, within two months, I have seen in a single number 

 of a popular agricultural periodical, tAVO communications, 

 both in a very positive tone, taking precisely opposite 

 grounds on the question whether, in salting hay, the salt 

 may be thrown on the top of the mow and left to inter- 

 penetrate the mass, or must be cast into each separate 

 forkful, or layer, as the hay is pitched from the cart. 



Again, the Deerfield farmers, in this State, close by the 

 celebrated residence of Henry Colman too, dispute one 

 another to this day as to the value of the " old tore " to a 

 grass crop, some of them insisting that it helps the next 

 yield, and others that it is better to keep the sward close. 



Or, once more, what is the right law of producing fer- 

 tilizing agents "? Must we continue the old fashion of 

 spending the winter in feeding out all that we spend the 

 summer in gathering in, copying the circle of the snake 

 that swallows his tail, or is there some better way 1 And 

 will more be gained by following the famous aphorism of 

 the Earl of Leicester, " The more meat a ploughing ftirmer 

 sends to Smithfield, the more corn he may sell at Mark 

 Lane," or by raising young cattle ? 



Now what may be asserted of each of these mooted 

 points is, not that every one of you may not have an opinion 

 upon it, and be very sure he is right ; but that his next 

 door neighbor is likely to have an opposite opinion ; 

 whereas, both being reducible by experiment to fact, there 

 ought to be, not opinions, but knowledge. The condi- 

 tions of a given result ought to be as clearly determined 

 as the oxidation in electro-magnetic machinery, combus- 

 tion under a steam engine, or the proportions of chlorine 

 and hydrogen in thirty-seven pounds of muriatic acid. In 

 looking over the several reports of the county societies 

 for the last year, I see complaints on half the pages of 



