TO THE FARMER. 19 



rious, all are at present more exposed than formerly. 

 Pure merchandise ! genuine merchandise ! solid mer- 

 chandise I real merchandise ! what manufacturer or 

 merchant does not now-a-days deem himself justified 

 in stamping one of these commendatory appellations 

 upon his articles of trade ! And yet his real linen 

 contains, it may be, cotton ; his choicest soap, water, 

 gluten, or clay ; his genuine syrup, starch-sugar ; his 

 guano or bone-powder, sand, earth, lime, and stone. 

 Against such adulterations and losses, chemistry 

 constitutes the most certain and secure defence, 

 since it possesses the power of bringing to light ad- 

 mixtures and adulterations, however cunningly con- 

 trived, which our eyes and other means of proof are 

 unable to discover. Many such chemical tests have 

 been already so simplified, that any one, with little 

 trouble or expense, may use them for himself. 



If after this statement of the different directions in 

 which chemistry is capable of exercising a salutary 

 influence upon agricultural practice, more special 

 proofs should be required of its ability to realize the 

 promises it makes, these could be readily supplied. 

 Let us inquire only of English agriculturists; let us 

 merely bring together the facts relating to this sub- 

 ject which have been communicated by English ag- 

 ricultural journals within the last five years, or sim- 

 ply calculate the sums which have been expended in 

 that country by agriculturists themselves, with the 

 view of extending and deriving larger returns from 

 chemistry ; and we shall not only arrive at a knowl- 



