14 



acquaintance with particulars, on which much of 

 success or loss in practice may depend, we are 

 compelled to invoke the aid of the chemist and 

 the geologist. The soil is a very complex thing, 

 susceptible at the hands of man of great improve- 

 ment, or, as is unhappily sometimes the case, of 

 great deterioration ; and no cultivator, however 

 advanced his practice, or minute and extensive 

 his observation, can obtain the maximum of profit 

 and sustain the fertility of his land, without an 

 acquaintance with those facts and laws, in rela- 

 tion thereto, which science has investigated and 

 can alone explain. 



Again : The soil, air, and water contain all the 

 constituents which the farmer by means of culti' 

 vation elaborates into crops, and it is from the 

 former alone that they obtain their mineral or 

 inorganic portion. Now mark what is implied 

 by this single word, cultivation. It involves, of 

 course, the use of tools, implements and ma- 

 chines, the efficiency of'which mainly depends 

 on tlieir mechanical adaptation to the various 

 kinds of soils, as regards texture, density, and 

 relation to warmth and moisture, and also to 

 the habits and special requirements of different 

 crops. In addressing an American audience, a 

 people so distinguished for fertility of invention, 



