IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. OW 
injurious to the soil; that is to say, he knew these things himself; 
but of what use were his experiments to the Doncaster farmers, 
who never heard of them, nor perhaps of him either ? It is said 
that vaccination was known in a district in Gloucesteishne befoie 
the time of Jenner, but how did that avail those who were 
dyino' of the smallpox in London ? The barrenness of the hills 
in Westmorland will be remedied when, not the chemists and 
the vegetable physiologists of London or Paris, but the tenants 
and occupiers of those very hills shall understand its causes and 
its cure. At present the means of diffusing scientific knowledge 
amongst them are extremely limited, and the geneial establish¬ 
ment of agricultural schools would have for its object the con¬ 
veyance of knowledge to the place where it is wanted, in a 
manner perfectly analogous to the ingenious contiivances by 
which water is conveyed from the reservoir at Islington to the 
houses of the inhabitants of London. 
But, it shall be asked, shall chemists and recluse philosophers 
presume to teach farmers how to farm ? is it not to be supposed, 
that men who have passed their whole lives in that puisuit 
understand it better than any body else? Most unquestionably 
they do. Sir Humphrey Davy would, most likely, have made 
a bad farmer. There are a thousand important considerations 
connected with farming, of which he was probably ignorant } 
but still he ascertained, in a manner clearer than had been 
done before, the principles which regulate the application of 
quick-lime as a manure. And it does so happen, that many of 
our useful discoveries have been owing to men not connected in 
practice with the art to which their discoveries were applicable. 
Arkwright was a barber, Dollond was a silk-weavei. The com¬ 
pass, the chronometer, and the weather-glass, three of the 
greatest helps to navigation, were all discovered by landsmen. 
Gunpowder is supposed to have been first found out by a 
monk. 
Amongst the many helps towards a more perfect knowledge of 
external nature which the mind of man has discovered in these 
latter days, the first place is due, by general consent, to 
Chemistry — The efforts of the farmer are chiefly directed 
towards making land more fertile; and the first step in this 
process is to inquire in what particulars less fertile land may differ 
from that which is more so ; to compare the two together; to 
find out the ingredients of each, and the proportions in which 
they are mixed. The knowledge how to do this is Chemistry. 
Arguments upon particular cases are commonly more intelligible 
than abstract reasoning; and it may therefore be advisable to 
select an instance. The following is from Sir Humphrey Davy s 
Agricultural Chemistry. 
