No. 144.] 543 



bottom, a little raised above the brick work, they carry off their 

 contents perfectly. That the bad smells occasionally issuing 

 from the mouths of the drains, are owing to the collection of 

 filth in side pipes. But that the mains were generally clear, and 

 would bear to be flushed with the Croton water, properly applied. 



Mr. Bowman thought, however, that great care was required 

 in flushing them, not to allow them to be filled with the head of 

 the water on them, for that would inevitably burst them. 



1 he Secretary thought it would do good to recall the evidence 

 of the Atto ney General of the United States, the Hon. Reveidy 

 Johnson, as to the great benefit of applying chemical science to 

 agriculture; communicated to him by Mr, Johnson in August, 

 1851. Mr. Johnson purchased about 300 acres of land impover- 

 ished by long continued bad husbandry, about 2| miles west of 

 Baltimore. Its soil contains a very large proportion of iron. So 

 complete was the exhaustion that 200 acres of it, carefully cleared 

 up of briars, sassefras, and other bushes, did not furnish one load 

 of materials for manure. Mr. Johnson cultivated ten acres of it 

 in the usual manner, and with ordinary care and an average good 

 season. The ten acres did not produce one peck of corn to the 

 acre! 



He applied to Dr. David Stewart, of Baltimore, distinguished 

 as a scieutific man, and engaged him to examine this land and find 

 some remedy. Dr. Stewatt went to the farm, selected parcels of 

 the soil in various parts of the field; he carefully analysed them 

 and found nothing wanting in them except phosphoric acid, of 

 which there was not a trace in this soil ! Dr. Stewart then pre- 

 scribed a chemical composition which was evenly scattered over 

 the ten acres, it cost ten dollars an acre !— one hundred dollars. 

 Wheat was planted in November, and harrowed in; no barnyard 

 or other manure of any kind being used. The crop was twenty 

 nine bushels an acre, although badly harvested, nor the field 

 afterwards raked. Here was a Waterloo victory of science ! 



Dr. Stewart aaid that the prejudi,ce against scientific farming is 

 so power! al, that those who suggest it are liable to personal 

 abuse. 



