THE CHEMISTRY OF SOILS AND MANURES. 233 KiY 
c) influence the mutual relation of substances to one another. A study so intimately connected with " 
all other sciences necessarily must be of the greatest importance in relation to the arts of civilized 
life, which are all more or less founded on chemical principles. 
It is a curious fact that such knowledge should have been so long neglected by the cultivator 
of the soil, whose occupations so eminently and constantly lead him to become an observer of nature's 
mysteries ; and to whom chemistry is capable of rendering material assistance. It not only procures 
him the possibility of deriving from it innumerable immediate advantages, which without it would 
have been lost to him ; but chemistry likewise teaches him the important art of making successful 
experiments, 2. e., to addi'ess definite q^uestions to natiu'e, upon which the decisive answer, "yes" or 
" no," and not " it is possible," or " it is probable" will be retm'ued by nature, who is ever ready to 
satisfy the inquiring mind, provided the question has been distinctly put ; and lastly, it secm-es him 
the intellectual enjoyment and satisfaction of having conducted the manifold cultural operations 
rationally, and to have become a witness of the wonderful, apparently compKcated, but nevertheless 
most simple means, natm-e makes use of to accomplish her purposes. 
However strange it may appear that agricidtiuists and gardeners should not have sooner become 
awakened to the important and manifold useful applications, to which the studj'' of chemistry must 
lead, this fact will be less surprising if we recollect that the period since chemistry has ceased to be 
nothing more tha.n a confused collection of mysterious and curious facts, comparatively speaking, is 
very short. More ui particular organic chemistry, the rapid progress of which has given such an 
impetus to agricultural improvements, has been shaped into a somewhat scientific form only very 
recently; and it is chiefly through the labours of Berzehus, Liebig, and Mulder, chemists of our 
own age, to whom we are indebted for many important discoveries, that organic chemistry has 
received the character of a science, which it did not possess before ; though we must confess, at the 
same time, that it is still in its infancy, and various facts remam to be discovered by natural 
philosophers, who have of late so successfully trod this path of inqniiy, before organic chemistry can 
be properly caUed a methodical science. 
Now, it may be laid down as an established rule, that no kind of knowledge can be accompanied 
by any extensive, useful ajiphcations, before the number of solitary, accumidated observations, and 
various facts admit of generalization, of being shaped into a definite, methodical science ; and thus we 
can easily discern the reason why chemistry only lately has been so successfully applied to the pur- 
poses of cidtm'e, and, comparatively speaking, been neglected by the practical men of past times. 
In early times, when chemistry was unknown as a science, it i-etui'ned no answer to questions of a 
practical kind ; but at present how different is its position ? — how many approved practices of cultm-e 
find their explanation in the discoveries of modern chemistry ? — how many improvements in cultivation 
have taken place, which owe their origin to the suggestions of chemists ? — how many contradictory 
statements, by which practical men were puzzled and left in uncertainty on points affecting du'cctly 
their own well-bemg, have been reconciled with each other by the help of chemistry ? We would only 
dii-ect attention to the works of Liebig in general : the ingenious and important theories concerning 
the growth and nutrition of plants, propounded in so clear a manner by Liebig, to his studies of the 
changes which organic substances undergo under different cii'cumstances ; and we will not leave 
uimoticed the researches of Professor Mulder, of Utrecht, on animal and vegetable phj-siology, and 
the writings of Professors Johnston in England, and Boussingault in France, who, happily in a 
position to test the residts of the laboratory by practical experiments in the field, has likewise fur- 
nished us with a series of well-conducted, premeditated, agricultural experiments of the greatest 
value. How much have the laboars of the above and other distinguished chemists contributed to a 
sound knowledge of the chemical composition of soils, without which the doctrine of maniu'ing cannot 
be comprehended ? — to a knowledge of the natm-e and composition of the various substances used as 
manur-es ? — of the mode in which the latter act in producing changes in the soU, and in the plants 
which grow upon it ? — of the best and most economical manner of compounding artificial, or improving 
natural manures, and skUfuUy applying them to the land ? — and lastly, to a knowledge of the efiects 
of cUmate, situation, and other influences upon the fertility of the land ? We could easily point out 
many more instances, showing how our knowledge of a rational culture of the soil has been advanced 
dming the last decenium by the researches of the analytical chemist ; but this would be needless, as 
tlus subject has been discussed by different writers in so able and convincing a mamier, that no 
intelligent and thinking mind will dispute any longer the usefulness of chemistry to the cultivator 
of the soil. 
When we look back on what has been achieved by the aid of chemistry in this respect dm-ing the 
last ten years, we cannot but be struck with the mighty changes, which daily practices, where cultirre 
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