No. 144.] 447 



see how the convulsions of nature have mixed the soils of diifer- 

 ent localities; he will see, also, that the earliest vegetable growths 

 were necessarily grosser sorts than those now produced, and that 

 they by receiving carbon from the atmosphere, for the carbon ori- 

 ginally must have existed there in immense quantities, in the form 

 of carbonic acid, by their decay deposited it in the soil, thus im- 

 proving its quality and rendering it fit for the development of a 

 more advanced class of vegetation. He W'ill also see where and 

 from what causes animal life progressed, and can trace its pro- 

 gress. He will clearly understand that such vegetable matters 

 as were consumed by animals merely change the arrangement of 

 their particles by such process, and that no one particle was put 

 out of existence, but that by the decay of this animal, and the 

 change of the arrangement of the ultimate particles, both of them- 

 selves and their food, that they re-enter nature's great storehouse, 

 the atmosphere and the soil, in a progressed condition; that thus 

 both plants and animals have progressed to their present state. 



He will next be able to observe why deeply disintegrated soils 

 can never suffer from drouth, because he will know that when 

 ■water is absent from the soil it is present in the atmosphere, and 

 will be deposited on the surface of colder particles, at greater 

 depths than can be reached by atmosphere when attempting to 

 percolate shallow plowed land. He can trace the action of this 

 moisture and its office in the soil; he can know what amend- 

 ments are required to replace those which he may find to be de- 

 ficient; and, indeed, he can render himself doubly happy and a 

 better servant of his Creator, and his vocation ameliorating to his 

 fellow man. All this must occur if he knows so much of na- 

 ture's laws as will give his mind the first ability for closer obser- 

 vance, and his progression as an individual will be the natural 

 consequence of its exercise. All this does nut call for the tedious 

 exertions of thought as practised by the mathematician and the 

 merchant, but merely for the culture of the power of observation 

 to see truths as they exist and apply them rightly; and this, and 

 nothing else, he will find to constitute the science of agriculture. 



The Secretary read the following letter from Mr. B. V. IversoUj 

 of Columbus, Georgia: 



