( 807 = 541 ) 
THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL DISCO YEPJES 
Oy THE 
PROGRESS OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 
INTKODUCTION. 
; reviewing the progress of English Agriculture since 1860, one Influence of 
ust be struck with the powerful influence which the dissemi- scientific re- 
ition of sound scientific principles, the results of numerous 
lemico-agricultural researches, has exerted upon the various 
anclies of practical agriculture. 
The improvements connected with cultivation and farm 
anagement are both numerous and important, but they chiefly 
iring from one source, which in itself is the most characteristic 
ature of the last thirty or thirty-five years, and which, in the 
nguage of the late Sir Harry Stephen Thompson, may be 
■scribed as the substitution of sound reasoning and arithmetical 
Iculation for the empirical knowledge relied upon by our 
icestors. 
Englishmen enjoy the reputation of possessing a keen appre- Discrimination 
ition of those discoveries in science and art, the application of between theo- 
lich is likely to be useful in practice. It is not surprising, Nations and^^" 
erefore, that Chemistry, a branch of science which has rendered scientific focts. 
any valuable services to almost all industrial pursuits, should 
England have exerted a more direct and powerful influence on 
e cultivation of the soil, the rearing and fattening of stock, and 
ion farm management generally, than in most other countries, 
cannot be said that British agriculturists, as a class, are more 
^hly educated, or more intimately acquainted with the results 
d teachings of those scientific investigations which have a 
ire or less direct connection with agricultural practice, than 
)ntinental agriculturists occupying an analogous position in 
:ial life. The reverse, probably, is the case ; and this is 
nerally felt to be so by English farmers themselves, who, if at 
inclined to take credit to themselves, boast of their practical 
ill and experience, and certainly not of their scientific know- 
Ige. Nevertheless, British agriculturists, as a rule, are keen 
