814 = 545 Influence of Chemical Discoveries on 
containing a large proportion of acid soluble phosphate 
lime. 
Closer ap- A characteristic feature of the last ten or fifteen years 
tkTand''^ ^^l^tioh to scientific agriculture is the closer approach of t 
science, practical agriculturist and the man of science. Both appear 
understand each other better. The mutual interchange of ide 
and the better acquaintance of the former with the leadi 
principles of chemistry, and that of the latter with the ra 
ments of practical agriculture, have materially promoted ag 
cultural progress, and given a more decided and more widi 
extended direction to a rational plan of farming, success 
which so much depends upon the economical and correct i 
of a great variety of artificial manures and purchased feedir; 
stuffs. 
in consequence In consequence of the wider diffusion of the elements 
fusTo'n"/'^' chemistry amongst the rising English farmer, and the clo: 
chemical contact of the agricultural chemist with the work and wai 
knowledge. of the practical agriculturist, the investigations of the chem 
have taken a more decidedly practical direction than in forn 
years, and there is, perhaps, no country in which, at the pres( 
time, the assistance of the chemist is so frequently called 
requisition by farmers as it is in England. My Annual Repo: 
in my capacity of Consulting Chemist to the Royal Agricultu 
Society, show that, previous to 1860, but few soils were s( . 
to me for examination, and that of late years the chcmL 
inquiries respecting the rational cultivation of various soils ha : 
become very numerous ; no doubt because practical men ; • 
becoming more and more conscious that, rightly interpreti, 
the results of soil-analyses supply reliable and useful inforn • 
Questions often tion on many points of interest. Thus they give frequen 
answered by Jecided and satisfactory answers to the following: questions:— 
3nJllV56S 01 • o 1 
joils. 1- Whether or not barrenness is caused by the presence of / 
injurious substance, such as sulphate of iron or sulphide of in , 
occasionally occurring in peaty and clayey soils ? 
2. W hether soils contain common salt (land flooded by & • 
water), nitrates, or other soluble salts, that are useful to vege • 
tion in a highly diluted state, but injurious whert they occur f 
land too abundantly ? 
3. Whether barrenness is caused by the absence or deficier ' 
of lime, phosphoric acid, or other important elements of pla r 
food? i 
4. Whether clays are absolutely barren, and not likely to ; 
materially improved by cultivation, or whether they contain 1 ! 
necessary elements of fertility in an unavailable state, and ;p 
capable of being rendered fertile by subsoiling, deep cultivatii^ 
steam-ploughing, and similar mechanical means ? 
