KEID AGRICULTURE ALLIED TO CHEMISTRY. 409 



which dictate and the occasions which demand rotation are precisely 

 the same. The composition of our soils may vary from those of 

 Great Britain, hut good tillage and judgment in the selection of 

 appropriate manures for plant food are as necessary for the one as 

 the other. 



To assert that Nova Scotian farms want the same manures and 

 crop rotation as Rothamsted would be haphazard, but to say that 

 our farms want as good tillage and as careful experimenting is 

 simply a statement of fact. 



The soils of Nova Scotia are extremely varied, and their chemi- 

 cal analyses are not alone sufficient upon which to build a perfect 

 system of agriculture. Because though chemistry may give all the 

 constituents in their natural state of aggregation, it cannot positively 

 state the iniluence on each of tillage and exposure to the air with 

 the acquired solubility of its minerals. However it can suggest the 

 most likely experiments to be tried in the way of manures and 

 crops. 



A rotation of crops applicable to most soils is the alternating of 

 cereals with roots, vetches and clover, as these possess marked 

 superiority in absorbing ammonia from the atmosphere, and as well 

 of assimilatinix the nitro2:en, and thus enrich the soil for a o-rain crop 

 by the products of their decay, while their accompanying tillage 

 has increased the soluble minerals from the vast insoluble reserve 

 that makes up the mass of clay and sand and loam to which w^e 

 give the general name of soil. Careful and intelligent agricultural 

 experiments by the agricultural societies on the granitic, plaster, 

 and alluvial soils of our province, would before many years bring 

 unwonted fertility to our farms, and the demand for manures, 

 vrhether phosphatic or ammoniacal could be freely supplied by the 

 resources of our own province. 



There is an old and very erroneous saying that ' ' any kind of a 

 man is good enough to make a farmer of," but even limited experi- 

 ence will convince that there is no human calling that can give as 

 good and continuous return for the capital and intelligence invested, 

 as the fiirm. I could not say to Nova Scotian farmers buy a book 

 and immediately set to work on what is wrongly styled scientific 

 farming, for failure would be the probability. But rather study up 



