The Neglect of Chcinidry hy Practical Farmers. 415 



Part II. — The Remedies. 



In treating of the means whereby the cause of agricultural che- 

 mistry may be materially advanced, I intend adhering to the same 

 order as in the preceding part, discussing each head separately. 



Remedy for Cause 1. — With respect to the improvement of the 

 education of the farmer, this must, of necessity, be a work of time, 

 although I think that there is good reason for believing that the 

 desire for information is extending itself daily among this class, 

 as is evidenced by the firm hold that the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety of England, and other kindred Societies, have taken on their 

 sympathies ; the appointment of a consulting chemist to each of 

 the principal Societies of the United Kingdom, particularly show- 

 ing the advance that must have been made by farmers generally, 

 so far as expressing a wish to be better informed on this interest- 

 ing subject. The number of lecturers, too, who are daily disse- 

 minating the first principles of this interesting science, in terms 

 adapted to the comprehension of their hearers, must also have 

 an important effect in awakening a desire on their part to follow 

 up the study of it, and test for themselves the truth of what they 

 have been told ; to assist all such in their inquiries I have added 

 simple explanations of the chemical terms, and the method of 

 using the tables appended to this Essay. The increasing num- 

 ber of schools wherein instruction is now given in agricultural 

 chemistry, shows that even those who may at the present time be 

 too far advanced in age to apply themselves to a new study, are 

 seeing the necessity of having their sons instructed in the prin- 

 ciples of this science ; so that with respect to the rising genera- 

 tion of farmers, I trust that the preceding remarks will cease to 

 be applicable. For those, however, who may have already turned 

 their attention to the study of the science of farming, it becomes 

 the more necessary that we should do all in our power to make 

 the way as easy as possible, and I confidently hope that these 

 tables wdll be found, in some degree, to have accomplished that 

 object. 



Remedy for Cause 2. — The remedy for the evils arising from 

 the rash assertions and dogmatic manner of chemists, must depend 

 upon the chemists themselves, for the science of agriculture will 

 never advance as it ought until the chemists, as a class, remember 

 that their duties consist not so much in instructing the farmer 

 as in prosecuting and extending our present knowledge of the 

 science " by the aid of the intelligent farmer," as Liebig has Avell 

 expressed it, for which purpose our agricultural institutions are 

 so admirably adapted. 



The following extract from an able essay by Dr. Anderson, suc- 

 cessor to Professor Johnston, as chemist to the Agricultural 



