192 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL HUSBANDRY. 



has been supplied to a greater extent in the constructive elements of the seeds or grain ; 

 and hence, too, it is no doubt possible so to cultivate them that in time they would revert 

 back to their original condition. However this may be, it is evident that the soil must be 

 supplied with the proper food by the hand of man, if successive crops are expected. A 

 rational system of agriculture is founded upon principles contained in the foregoing re- 

 marks, or to be more definite, we must know what the soil contains ; we must know what 

 the products of growth, and also what our manures contain, else we work in the dark, 

 without system and without understanding ; and we certainly should not realize the ad- 

 vantages of our position as rational farmers ; we could not produce in the most advanta- 

 geous manner, crops of vegetables at the least expense of money vested in labor and ma- 

 terial. The highest attainment in the art of husbandry is to give to each plant that which it 

 specially requires for a perfect development at the least cost. 



OF FORCE. 



The idea of force is a deduction from the phenomena of vegetables, or living bodies, in 

 process of development. It might, perhaps, be worded differently, and then we should 

 probably say, that it is an assumption made necessary by phenomena. It should not be 

 regarded as a fiction ; it is something which we are obliged to admit, though we know 

 nothing of it, except from its effects. We speak familiarly of a vital force ; we thereby 

 give it a virtual quality. This mode of speech, this assignment of quality is not objectiona- 

 ble, inasmuch as we speak directly and without circumlocution : still many of the physiolo- 

 gists of the day regard this mode of expression as scientifically incorrect; they deny that 

 force has the virtual quality which is implied in the expressions vital force, living force, or 

 vitality. But force has quality ; it is formative and directive ; simple chemical force is 

 confined to decomposition and combination; it can not build up, except geometrically; it 

 can cluster molecules, perhaps, in the solids, but even here probably another force must 

 be admitted, a force electrical, by which symmetry is secured. But the force of polarity 

 and formative force, which is deduced from growing bodies, has no relationship to chemical 

 or electrical forces. It is impossible, almost, to speak of the phenomena of organized beings 

 without at the same time admitting their vitality. This, possibly, may have arisen from 

 habit, from recognizing decided and unquestionable properties in all beings which are 

 called living. Why is it that these beings grow up in definite forms? Why is it that a 

 maple separates itself from the elm or beech ? If each cell possesses merely a growing 

 force which chemical action supplies, we might expect indefinite and irregular forms ; 

 but the cell force never fails in the maple or oak to produce its specific form, hence we 

 may at least say that force has quality in itself; it has virtue also in it which forms and 

 directs, in each individual kind : we call it life in vegetables and animals. What is to be 

 guarded against is, endowing this force with intelligence ; it is no more nor less intelligent 

 than chemical force, and its attribute is no higher. We may have erred in tacitly giving 



