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due to the application of inorganic chemistry and 

 iin])rove(l machinery; tlie former science having 

 fittained to extraordinary development and exact- 

 itude during the past fifty years. The aid which 

 chemistry renders the farmer, relates chiefly to 

 the nutrition and growth of vegetable and animal 

 life, termed organic, a department of the science 

 having as yet but a very brief histor3^ and the 

 pursuit of which is beset with many and peculiar 

 difficulties, and is subjected to rapid changes as 

 in the progress of discovery, past errors become 

 corrected and new truths established. The aian- 

 ufacturer, ])y availing himself of the certain aids 

 of a more simple and advanced department of 

 chemistry, and operating exclusively on dead 

 matter, under well-defined physical conditions of 

 temperature, light, moisture, etc., is placed in a 

 position almost absolutely to command whatever 

 results may be desired. How different is it in 

 these respects with the farmer, whose operations 

 are exposed to and influenced by the uncertainty 

 and variations of the weather, the changes in the 

 nature of soils, often within very limited areas, 

 and the complicated workings of that wonderful 

 and mysterious force denominated life ! In view, 

 then, of these simple facts of the case, it would 

 obviously be unreasonable, even under the most 



