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a branch of agriculture — valuable as it acquaints us with the 

 structure and habits of various plants, and aids in determining 

 what soils to select, and what modes of treatment will be 

 crowned with the most certain success. It has been a study 

 ever since Eve gathered boquets in Eden. Natural history or 

 Zoology which describes the various classes of animals, and 

 tells how they can be made serviceable to man, and how they 

 can be improved, was familiar to Jacob, when he met Rachel 

 by the well of Haran, watering her father's sheep, and before 

 he served Laban for the speckled and spotted cattle. These 

 and other branches of knowledge are the products of agri- 

 culture. 



But geology, mineralogy and chemistry are the trio of sci- 

 ences, which at the present day are so intimately connected with 

 agriculture that the latter may almost be considered a fourth 

 science of the same family. Though it can hardly be claimed 

 that they owe their origin to agriculture, yet it is certainly 

 true that the demands it has made upon them have been the 

 strongest incentives to their own progress. Their professors 

 have been spurred on to further investigations and new dis- 

 coveries in order that they might be fitted to answer the 

 riddles propounded from the farm. The labors of Liebig, 

 Johnston, Miller, Horsford, Hitchcock, and the whole gala-xy 

 of scientific lights in the last quarter of a century, have been 

 directed to the elucidation of the great principles that underlie 

 agriculture, and the results of their investigations are as essen- 

 tial to the farmer who would conduct his business understand- 

 ingly and successfully, as the plough itself. 



The farmer of to-day must not only be able to plough his 

 land, but as he does so he must be able to judge of its charac- 

 ter, its wants, its susceptibilities. Without waiting a half-doz- 

 en years in experimenting, he must be able to decide whether 

 or not it is deficient in some one or more principles which, if 

 added, will adapt it to a given crop. Of the various fertilizers 

 brought to his notice, he must be able to say whether any of 

 them are preferable in cheapness and efiectivencss, to the accu- 



