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 1 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 
