1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARilER. 



33 



all of which, says the editor of the Prairie 

 Farmer, who rode fourteen miles from end to 

 end of this field, while it was growing, prom- 

 ised a yield of fifty bushels per acre. The 

 wheat and rye were in the stack at the time of 

 his visit and the oats nearly ripe. They were 

 putting up 1500 tons of hay, and expected to 

 save 1500 bushels of Timothy seed. The 

 writer says it is hardly to be supposed that all 

 the operations on this farm are carried on with 

 the same neatness and order that can be at- 

 tained where things are on a small scale. A 

 little Yankee ingenuity might save time and 

 labor, and less would be done by mere brute 

 force. As a whole, he doubts if any experi- 

 ment in farming on so large a scale has ever 

 proved so successful as this promises to be. 



For the New EnglarM Farmer. 

 THEORETICAL AJSD PBACTICAL 

 KNOWLEDGE. 



Nothing can be more erroneous than the 

 idea that all book knowledge is theory, and 

 that knowledge obtained outside of books is 

 experience. The fact is, that books are 

 largely the mere compilations of the experi- 

 ence of the best men connected with the de- 

 partment, — be what it may, — about which 

 they were written. Consequently the man 

 who reads the most has the most experience. 

 But when we act on the experience of others, 

 we must ascertain whether the circumstances 

 under which we would apply it, are the same 

 as those under which it was gained. It is just 

 here where so many have failed in attempting 

 to make the exp2rience of others thei;- guide, 

 or, in other words, in applying what is called 

 book knowledge. 



One man for instance, puts his experience 

 with regard to certain fertilizers, or with re- 

 gard to the methovl in which they were applied, 

 in a book. The soil on which he experimented 

 was a stiff clay, on which certain fertilizers and 

 certain methods of culture have been produc- 

 tive of the very best results. Another man 

 having read the result in that case tries the 

 same articles of manure and the same meth- 

 ods of culture, with the very worst success, 

 because they were applied to a light sandy 

 soil, which require a different culture and a 

 different management, and at once book knowl- 

 edge is condemned. The trouble was in dis- 

 rej:>.arJing the difference in the soil, and in 

 other circumstances under which the experi- 

 ments were made. The book or paper was at 

 fault only so far as it fell short of stating the 

 character of the soil and other conditions, 

 which were essential to a proper understand- 

 ing of the result. Rut the logic of the ex- 

 perimenter was at fault in attempting to apply 



the experience of another to a different class 

 of circumstances. 



Then, again, there have been those who 

 claimed for books and science that which they 

 were unable to perform. It was claimed, not 

 long ago, that by an analysis of the soil it 

 could be ascertained precisely what particular 

 element was lacking ; and this fact once as- 

 certained, the farmer could obtain the article 

 in such a concentrated form that if he could 

 not carry a sufEeient quantity of it in his vest 

 pocket to manure an acre, he certainly might 

 in a common-sized pail ! Now the exercise of 

 a little common sense should have satisfied 

 every one that the analysis of soils, suffuiently 

 minute for this purpose, was simply impossi- 

 ble. If we notice the amount of ashes that is 

 left after burning a cord of wood, we shall 

 find that both bulk and weight are very small 

 indeed, compared with the bulk and weight of 

 the wood. What has become of the balance ? 

 It has been converted into gas and watery 

 vapor, and returned to the atmosphere from 

 whence they came. The small bulk of ashes 

 is all that came from the earth. Then, again, 

 examine the sap as it liows from an incision, 

 and notice how clear and transparent it is, — 

 clear and limpid as the bubbling spring, — yet 

 it contains every element necessary for pro- 

 ducing a crop of luscious fruit or a stately 

 growing forest. How infinitely small must be 

 the particles of those minerals which are des- 

 tined to form a part of vegetation thus to float 

 in, and form an undistingui,ihable part of, this 

 clear fluid ! How wonderful the chemistry of 

 nature that prepares the food of the plants, 

 and the paints of the flower ! How far be- 

 yond the tests of our chemists are these mi- 

 nute atoms ! And yet if he would detect the 

 atoms necessary to plant life, he must reduce 

 the elements of the soil that he tests in his 

 crucible, to the condition in which they exist 

 in the sap. In the soil of your field or in the 

 rocks from which that soil originated, he may 

 find vvhat he deems the elements necessary to 

 fertility. But we all know that plants will 

 not grow in stones, although they may contain 

 every requisite element. And why ? Be- 

 cause those elements are not in a condition to 

 be made available to the wants of the plant. 

 And the cause for the barrenness of many 

 of our unproductive soils, is not because 

 they do not contain the requisite elements, but 

 because these elements are not in a condition 

 to be made available. 



Those rocks must be disentegrated, and 

 those finer particles must be made still finer 

 by heat and frost, by rains and air, aided by 

 the plough, the harrow, the cultivator, the 

 hoy, the spade and the rake. 



When you give your soils or your rocks to' 

 the chemist he pounds them in his mortar ; he 

 apphes heat and acids to reduce them as nearly 

 as possible to their primitive elements, before 

 he can ascertain what they consist of; and 

 farmers have to do much the same thing, but 



