Proceedinos of the Fahmees'' Club. 353 



eliemists who reaped the first harvests of fame. Yet he will know that 

 it is through his efforts that the labors of those who went before are 

 made really valuable to mankind, and agriculture is raised to the con- 

 dition of an art resting upon and guided by a correct appreciation of 

 natural laws and forces. It will be his task to make chemistry and 

 common sense go hand and hand in the advancement of farming for 

 profit and produce, for plenty and comfort; and, surely, in this there 

 is enough to satisfy the most worthy ambition and opportunities for 

 usefulness which no man need disregard. The writer has spoken con- 

 fidently of what chemistry has done for agriculture in the past, and 

 hopefully of what it will do for it in the future, yet we must not expect 

 too much. We know how, twenty years ago or more, the theories of 

 Baron Liebig were accepted and stretched in their applications to 

 cuch an extent that many believed it only necessai-y to analyze the 

 soil to fit a field for producing a crop with as much ease and certainty 

 as a post hole is fitted for the reception of a fence post. We know 

 how all this proved futile ; how a chemical examination can only be 

 a negative proof of the relative fertility of a soil, affording at the 

 best presumptive but not positive evidence of the precise nature of 

 the manures required. We know there are many problems in 

 husbandry that have perplexed the ablest investigators, and many 

 questions upon which chemists themselves disagree ; as, for instance, 

 in the case of gypsum, some saying that its value is due to its pro- 

 perty of fixing ammonia, others that it should be credited to its lime, 

 and others still that its sulphuric acid, by dissolving silica, has much 

 to do with its efficiency, while none of them can tell why it is that 

 gypsum succeeds well on some soils, and in some cases, and not in 

 others. All this proves only that in the present state of our know- 

 ledge the practical applications of chemistry have their limits. It does 

 not show that chemistry is useless in agriculture, and it ought not to 

 prevent the community from making universal application of the 

 general principles that chemists have demonstrated. It should not 

 deter the practical farmer from giving a fair trial to the theories of 

 the scientific man, and it will not deter the truly progressive tiller 

 of the soil from trying on a large scale tliose experiments 

 which, in the hands of others, and on a small scale, have 

 met with any measure of success. The ()])inion has already been 

 advanced that the true progress of agricultural chemistry will be 

 found, not in a few great discoveries, but in many minor ones bear- 

 ing directly upon the operations of the farm and the functions of 

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