CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION 15 



neither — Respects to all the folks, while I remain, Affec- 

 tionately, the same old sixpence, S. W. Johnson. 



In ' 'Analyses of Limestone," published April 1849, 

 Mr. Johnson makes for the first time his plea, after- 

 wards often reiterated, that scientific workers should 

 "reason and labor without prejudice" rather than 

 allow their results and methods to be controlled by 

 the ''reputation of some prominent individuals." He 

 states : { 



It becomes, therefore, the interest as well as the duty of 

 him who would bring science to the aid of agriculture, to 

 make every labor as complete as possible, and especially to 

 avoid the dogmatic introduction or support of untested 

 theories and that narrowminded ignorance which entertains 

 the possibility of making any one discovery which shall 

 remedy the failings of the present practice. 



He then continues : 



Much is to be hoped from the labors of scientific men, con- 

 ducive to the interests of agriculture. The farmer has to deal 

 with nature; to follow intelligently his business supposes a 

 knowledge of her laws. These laws are the professed object 

 of the chemist's inquiry, and hence follows, — what experience 

 has a thousand times established, — the ability of the chemist 

 to fashion his practice so as best to assist and imitate nature, 

 and consequently to gain from her the greatest amount of 

 benefit. 



Farmers' sons must be instructed in Natural Science. The 

 mind is the great instrument and this mind must be culti- 

 vated. All are familiar with the difference between the crab- 

 apple and the beautiful, grateful fruit that yearly adorns 

 our orchards; no less difference is there between the mind 

 native and cultivated. There is no better means of a speedy 



