16 



if any reliance can be placed on human testimony and on 

 exact science — if Dana* and Liebig can be believed, you 

 have, already, in your little cultivator, — yes, even in your 

 hoe — an irrigating machine, quite as powerful and almost as 

 magical, as would be my hypothetical watering pot. 



I must not forget to say in this connection, that the carbonic 

 acid which is formed at the same time, and as the direct re- 

 sult of this ground-stirring, is no less valuable than the 

 water — since it supplies the plant with an essential portion 

 of its food, and in a form which is readily received and 

 assimilated. t 



Assuming that these statements are substantially" correct, 

 am I not justified in ascribing the all but universal neglect 

 of a remedial measure so simple and so easy to lack of 

 faith ? And can this indolent scepticism be assigned to any 

 other cause than needless ignorance ? This is only one of 

 many and even more important examples that might be ad- 

 duced to show how useful to the farmer, would be some 

 knowledge of those chemical principles and agencies, which 

 have so much to do with all the processes of groAvth and of 

 decay. Let him learn, as he may easily learn, and let him 

 ever remember what mighty forces stand all around him, 

 waiting, like unseen angels, to speed him on his way, the 

 moment he puts his own shoulder to the wheel.+ 



Is it not, for instance, worth his while, and would it not 

 be well for us all, to become, in some degree, familiar with 

 the nature and capacities of that wonderful substance, which 

 makes up half the solid crust of the globe — which consti- 

 tutes eight -ninths of all its water — four -fifths of all its 

 plants — one-fifth of the whole atmosphere — and three quar- 

 ters of our own bodies ? That universal agent, so innocent 



*Dr. Samuel L. Dana of Lowell, to -whose accurate science and profound 

 research, the chemistry of agriculture is largely indebted. 



fLook at the statements of Dr. Andrew Nichols, pp. 98, 99 of the Essex 

 Agr. Trans, for 1841, and especially at his account of Mr. J. C. Curran's ex- 

 periments, as given in the note. See also Appendix. 



:j:See Appendix C. 



