Hartshorne.] idu [Oct, 11 



in science or in art, but always refuses to accept it sim- 

 ply because it is new; which believes everything which 

 is proven by sufficient evidence, but nothing without 

 evidence, whatever its attraction .to the fancy, the intel- 

 lect, or even the moral sense. 



Dr. Wood's other papers, published in the Proceed- 

 ings of this Society, were upon the subject of his obser- 

 vations and experiments, carried on through several 

 years, upon his farm at Greenwich, in regard to the 

 fertilizing and renewing action of the alkali potassa on 

 the growth of fruit-trees, potatoes, wheat and other 

 plants. The addition of wood ashes empirically to 

 certain soils under cultivation, has long been a com- 

 mon practice in many places. By the chemical analysis 

 of plants and of the earth in which they grow, as Dr. 

 Wood mentions, their mutual physiological relations 

 have, especially since the investigations of Liebig, been 

 generally understood. But the merit of Dr. Wood's 

 observations is, that they have furnished means of defi- 

 nite experimental demonstration, upon a considerable 

 scale, of the practical application of this part of the 

 chemical physiology of plants, in a manner productive 

 of direct agricultural and horticultural profit. 



Every inquiry of such a kind is, of course, of a com- 

 plex nature, and the inferences derived from it must 

 be properly collated and correlated with other facts 

 and laws, which may qualify both their interpretation 

 and their application. But the scientific and practical 

 value of such investigations is beyond doubt ; espe- 



