216 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



infinite their varieties of combination; what scope 

 for judgment, or for error, in their admixture, or that 

 of their Secondaries ; what ample room for blunder, 

 what diversity of apparent ( accident ' and mischance, 

 what damage of unlooked-for incident, and unallowed- 

 for circumstance ! What open pathless wastes for the 

 blunderer and the empiric, what narrow and difficult 

 steeps for the student who has the heart to climb. 



Oh Agriculture ! thou science of sciences without 

 a School, thou Philosophy without a 'Porch' (even 

 for shelter !) thou University of unexamined gradu- 

 ates; all ' Masters' and no 'Students' when will 

 thy ' degrees ' be better recognized, thy principles be 

 more truly studied, thy 'privileges' be better appre- 

 ciated, for being the better understood. When will 

 men consent condescend to LEARN an Art that 

 claims a share of light, and illustration, and practical 

 advancement, from every physical science that has 

 sprung into being, since Bacon traced out knowledge 

 to its source, and Chemistry, THE PHILOSOPHY OF 

 MATTER, gave the best of posthumous illustration to 

 that great inductive theory that rests all knowledge 

 on the one sole basis of Experiment. 



When that day comes when the living chemistry 

 of the Soil is accepted and understood, not as an 



