HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 279 



germ of the plants. The chemist is seeking to unrid- 

 dle it in his way ; while we farmers, by grosser 

 methods, are unriddling it, in ours. Checks and hin- 

 drances meet us both ; both need an intimate com- 

 parison of results for progress. If we sneer at the 

 chemist for his shifting theories in regard to the ni- 

 trogenized manures no one of which is sufficiently 

 established for the direction of a fixed practice the 

 chemist may return the sneer with interest, when he 

 sees us making such application of a valuable salt, as 

 shall lock up its solubility and utterly annul its effi- 

 cacy. It is a pretty little duel for our intelligent ob- 

 server to watch : the chemist fulminating his doc- 

 trines, based on formulas and an infinity of retorts ; 

 and we, replying only with the retort courteous and 

 practical. But always the unfathomable mystery of 

 growth vegetable and animal remains ; the chem- 

 ist seeking to explain it, and we only to promote it. 

 If the chemist could explain by promoting it, he 

 would turn farmer ; and if farmers could promote it 

 by trying to explain it, they would all turn chemists. 

 Many good people, of a short range of inquiry, 

 and a shorter range of reflection, imagine that when 

 the agriculturist has, by the chemist's aid, deter- 

 mined the elements of his crops, and by the same aid, 

 determined the mei'its of different bags of phosphates 

 or guanos, that nothing remains but to match these 



